When someone new shows up at Moishe House St. Louis we always try to make them as comfortable as possible and as included in what is happening as possible.
Newcomers come in different ways, they heard about it from someone, the found it on the web and e-mailed or they came with a friend. Especially for those who didn't come with anyone. The first thing is to make sure they are talking to someone, find out their interests, where they are from, what they are doing in StL. Then, introduce them to other people they might find interesting. All and all it's pretty simple, make people feel involved, show them a good time and they'll be back.
Our staple event have been Shabbat dinners which offer a a single place for people to come and hang out. Lately, we've been branching out into other activities that are not ongoing or at the house. It will be interesting to see how we work in new people to those. We'll keep you posted...
Monday, January 4, 2010
Moving In: New Community and Opportunities
This New Years marks roughly three months since I moved into Moishe House Silver Spring. Moving to a new city, starting a new job, and entering a group home and Jewish community has been wonderful and difficult.
However, Moishe House has provided me a soft landing. It has tapped me in to a network of incredible individuals. And it also provides a wonderful platform for sharing many of my own interests and passions.
This past Shabbat, one of our community members hosted and arranged a Shabbat dinner at house featuring (Kosher!) Ethiopian food and learning about the Ethiopian Jewish Community. It was wonderful to have someone from our community step up and take such a leadership role.
In addition to this, my housemates have all done incredible work. We have started a monthly dance event called the Capital Boogie, which draws people of all ages together for a no alcohol, no drugs, no shoes dance party. All of the proceeds of these events have gone to local charities. It has been wonderful to see so many people come out – young and old alike, moishe house community members and new comers.
Additionally, I had a very special experience co-leading a workshop about immigration issues in American with my housemate Lindsay. We co-sponsored this event with Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. In the process of putting together the program, I learned a lot about immigration issues and then got to share what I had learned with my community.
These experiences have all been very special and have made a new city seem more familiar and given me a way to contribute to my new community. I have appreciated this platform that Moishe House has given me and have enjoyed reaping the benefits of the warm community that it provides!
Personal Blog - Paul Feldman - MH Mexico City
My first three months of Moishe House
I can easily say that the past three months have been an accelerated
learning experience for me. Although it is not the first time I have
lived alone, it was the first time I moved out of my parents house.
When I started the Moishe House experience, I can now say, I had no
idea of what I was getting into. I initially thought things would be
much smoother and simpler; however, I cannot complain since it has
been a very rewarding experience.
Although I knew my fellow roommates and had actually shared living
quarters with one of them, things were quite distinct this time.
Sharing Moishe House responsibilities is quite an ordeal. I think
things are finally settling and each of us knows exactly what he has
to do. It is sometimes hard to work and live with the same people, but
in the end it just seems its a matter of being organized, dividing
responsibilities equally and allowing each member to concentrate on
their strengths.
I think the biggest learning experience for me has been dealing with
unrealized expectations. I consider the turn up for most of our events
has been bellow my expectations. I know it takes time to build a
following and that my initial expectations might have been unrealistic
in retrospect. It is still a little frustrating but I trust that it is
only a matter of time before we are able to achieve the goal I had in
mind.
In general its been a very rewarding experience. I have been able to
meet lots of new and interesting people. It has also allowed me to
delve deeper into my judaism which is something I have always enjoyed.
I also think Moishe House has helped me tune my planning skills which
are good but were lacking in several respects.
I am looking forward to things to many new and fun filled experiences
with Moishe House. I am extremely excited to find out what this new
year will bring. I think the whole house experience has been tough and
rewarding. I also think it has moved at a much slower pace that I had
anticipated but it has been lots of fun nonetheless.
Sincerely,
Paul J. Feldman
I can easily say that the past three months have been an accelerated
learning experience for me. Although it is not the first time I have
lived alone, it was the first time I moved out of my parents house.
When I started the Moishe House experience, I can now say, I had no
idea of what I was getting into. I initially thought things would be
much smoother and simpler; however, I cannot complain since it has
been a very rewarding experience.
Although I knew my fellow roommates and had actually shared living
quarters with one of them, things were quite distinct this time.
Sharing Moishe House responsibilities is quite an ordeal. I think
things are finally settling and each of us knows exactly what he has
to do. It is sometimes hard to work and live with the same people, but
in the end it just seems its a matter of being organized, dividing
responsibilities equally and allowing each member to concentrate on
their strengths.
I think the biggest learning experience for me has been dealing with
unrealized expectations. I consider the turn up for most of our events
has been bellow my expectations. I know it takes time to build a
following and that my initial expectations might have been unrealistic
in retrospect. It is still a little frustrating but I trust that it is
only a matter of time before we are able to achieve the goal I had in
mind.
In general its been a very rewarding experience. I have been able to
meet lots of new and interesting people. It has also allowed me to
delve deeper into my judaism which is something I have always enjoyed.
I also think Moishe House has helped me tune my planning skills which
are good but were lacking in several respects.
I am looking forward to things to many new and fun filled experiences
with Moishe House. I am extremely excited to find out what this new
year will bring. I think the whole house experience has been tough and
rewarding. I also think it has moved at a much slower pace that I had
anticipated but it has been lots of fun nonetheless.
Sincerely,
Paul J. Feldman
December: Improving House Dynamics
Well, it's official- it's been 6 months since I started at MH Oakland. It's been a long road, full of exciting new experiences and trials-by-fire. As of today, my bond with my partners in crime here at the house has never been stronger. Coming up with ideas for events and planning them has never been easier. I feel that this combination of people working towards creating our own little microcosm in the East Bay is working incredibly well together, and it's showing in the quality of events. Even if we're not on the same page at the beginning of a meeting, by the end of it, we're always singing the same tune. I attribute this to the fact that we all love each others company. The "Us Times" have become a pleasure, but it's always hard to avoid the subject of Moishe "work". Maybe thats cause we usually end up cooking in the house! Maybe next time, we'll go on a hike!
Coming into the new year, my mantra has become say yes!! Try it, you'll find yourself having new experiences you didn't expect. Take care of yourself and know when it is appropriate to step outside of your comfort zone. When you find that the risks involved with excepting a new experience are safe for you emotionally and physically, just say yes. And don't think too hard, trust your intuition.
Margie's blog - Arts Retreat, here we come!
This month, what I am most looking forward to at MH Boston is our first ever Arts Retreat on MLK weekend. From our past two membership retreats, and from Moishe House national gatherings, we have learned that there is nothing like getting a bunch of Jews together with some songs, a fire, and marshmallows to get a group connected.
Why an arts retreat?
This past year has seen an explosion of our arts programming, including workshops on poetry writing, photography, dance, quilting, and knitting, as well as movie nights and our generally artsy women's Rosh Chodesh (new moon) group. And, coming soon are group sing-alongs/music jams and a few different bands that have asked to play at our house. A lot of this growth is due to our fabulous arts team, run by MH Boston participants for participants, under the wise leadership of Riana Good, our volunteer team leader. It is also due to our partnership with the Workmen's Circle young adults group, with whom we are cosponsoring our skills-share series.
Now, our next steps are to develop leaders to support all this work, and to better integrate arts into all we do. The arts retreat is set to kick it up a notch on both these goals, bringing our key arts leaders to bond with each other and get excited about all we can do together. It will include a co-ed, arts oriented Rosh Chodesh/new month celebration in order to give people creative outlets to connect with their Judaism, and a session where we make an artistic banner for our affordable housing campaign, that we hope will help protect low-income tenants from losing their homes and help get media attention for this important issue.
All this, plus singing around the fire at the MA Peace Abbey - what could be better?! Well, that volunteer leaders are planning it, and I just have to support everyone. And take a cooking shift. Yay!
Why an arts retreat?
This past year has seen an explosion of our arts programming, including workshops on poetry writing, photography, dance, quilting, and knitting, as well as movie nights and our generally artsy women's Rosh Chodesh (new moon) group. And, coming soon are group sing-alongs/music jams and a few different bands that have asked to play at our house. A lot of this growth is due to our fabulous arts team, run by MH Boston participants for participants, under the wise leadership of Riana Good, our volunteer team leader. It is also due to our partnership with the Workmen's Circle young adults group, with whom we are cosponsoring our skills-share series.
Now, our next steps are to develop leaders to support all this work, and to better integrate arts into all we do. The arts retreat is set to kick it up a notch on both these goals, bringing our key arts leaders to bond with each other and get excited about all we can do together. It will include a co-ed, arts oriented Rosh Chodesh/new month celebration in order to give people creative outlets to connect with their Judaism, and a session where we make an artistic banner for our affordable housing campaign, that we hope will help protect low-income tenants from losing their homes and help get media attention for this important issue.
All this, plus singing around the fire at the MA Peace Abbey - what could be better?! Well, that volunteer leaders are planning it, and I just have to support everyone. And take a cooking shift. Yay!
Lawson Gets Personal
As many of you know, I am a poet. A slam poet. My poetry life is very different from my Jewish life. I go to weekly poetry events throughout DC and there is such a community and culture; it is almost a religion. But I continue to be one of the only practicing Jews on the scene here in DC and my poetry often does not discuss my own religious and ethnic upbringing.
In an effort to defragment the many facets of my life, I decided to hold a writing workshop at the good ole’ MHDC. The first event was attended by 6 writers (including our own JMo and DCygielman) and was really well received. I led another one last month that was even more intimate and began to incorporate some Jewish concepts and ideas into the writing. I also held an open mic in December that was attended by 25 individuals, both from my poetry life and my MH life. It was an amazing meshing of worlds and incredible to see how open our MH community is to a new and diverse art form that they may not have experienced in the past.
At our regional retreat, Rabbi Scott Perlo, with the help of the talented Stephanie Gerson, conveyed the idea of knowing the talents of your community and using them to create programming. By opening up my own world of talent, I am hoping that the coming year will be one where our constituents can fuse their many worlds as well and bring their hobbies to Moishe House.
In an effort to defragment the many facets of my life, I decided to hold a writing workshop at the good ole’ MHDC. The first event was attended by 6 writers (including our own JMo and DCygielman) and was really well received. I led another one last month that was even more intimate and began to incorporate some Jewish concepts and ideas into the writing. I also held an open mic in December that was attended by 25 individuals, both from my poetry life and my MH life. It was an amazing meshing of worlds and incredible to see how open our MH community is to a new and diverse art form that they may not have experienced in the past.
At our regional retreat, Rabbi Scott Perlo, with the help of the talented Stephanie Gerson, conveyed the idea of knowing the talents of your community and using them to create programming. By opening up my own world of talent, I am hoping that the coming year will be one where our constituents can fuse their many worlds as well and bring their hobbies to Moishe House.
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