JHTee tours 2011 Invitation

Hi,

 

I wish you all a fantastic 2011, and am thrilled to announce JHTee plans for next year. Starting with a truly wonderful sold out trip to Morocco in February and new exciting trips planned for Romania/Moldova, now fixed for 15^th September. Trips to Rome and Vilnius are currently in the planning stages.

The final trip for the year is truly awesome - 8 days on an exclusive luxury river cruise boat [kosher] down the Danube from Budapest visiting Bratislava, Vienna, Salzburg, Krems and Linz in Germany. A once in a lifetime opportunity to cruise the Danube on a Jewish Heritage tour at a price you can afford - so please express an interest !

Marrakesh, Meknes & FEZ Morocco 22nd to 27^th February 2011 – Now full

Due to huge demand, JHTee plans to run this trip either in November 2011 or February again 2012 with some additions. If you are interested please express your preference. We also intend increasing the trip to a full 10 days, covering the desert & mountain areas plus Casablanca , Rabat & Tangiers in 3 stages.

The 3 stages proposed allow you to choose either a short visit, arriving in Fez and returning to the UK via Fez [3 day trip], Marrakesh [6 day trip], or Agadir [10 day trip] with a final 2 days relaxing in a 5 star luxurious spa hotel.

Krakow – 3 Chazons & choir week-end opening of Jewish heritage festival 24^th June 2011

This will be the 21^st Jewish music festival recognized the world over as the best for the quality of the invited performers. See the website for a film of last year's 20^th anniversary and schedule of events, which include films and lectures www.jewishfestival.pl (...think Edinburgh festival with a wholly Jewish interest). The ruach in Krakow pours out of its cobbled streets and lends itself to make the experience of this week-end one that you will never forget.

The Bobover Chazan Ben Zion-Miller is a mainstay of the week-end, and our group spend their shabbos eating with him, plus Israel Rand, Alberto Mizrachi, and Sephardi Chazan, Payton Lior Elmalich, and accompany them to the Melavaeh Malka in the Temple shul.

See Tour 8 on our website with a full programme for the weekend which includes an Auschwitz-Birkenau trip on Sunday and shtetl tour on Monday.

KRAKOW Klezmer climax conclusion of festival 1^st July 2011

A lot of fun culminating with the world famous Jewish music extravaganza, starting  on Saturday in the main Jewish square at 6 p.m. and ending in the early hours of Sunday morning. This will be enjoyed by some 15,000 people...a site to behold. We also visit Auschwitz-Birkenau on the Sunday – See tour 9 on our website for the full programme and cost – all you need to do with JHTee tours is to book your flights (EasyJet or RyanAir), and e-mail us with confirmation so we can reserve your room (payment will be requested 1 month prior to trip).

Romania, Moldova & Bessarabia trip for 7 days leaving on 15^th September 2011

This is in the planning stages, so we are asking you if you have heritage in this area or you know anyone who has ? Please pass on this e-mail to them as we are planning a trip that covers the North East and North West of Romania including the picturesque Transylvanian region. Then across the border into Moldova, and Kishinev its capital.

The plan is to fly using a low cost airline to Cluz airport in the North West of Romania and returning from Bacau in the North East. We will have the use of a minibus and guide at all times, staying in 3+ star hotels in interesting towns and areas of natural beauty.

If you are interested please indicate ASAP which towns or areas you wish to visit in order that we may plan and cost what promises to be a great trip.

If you definitely wish to come, I will be taking bookings for flights before the end of this year (currently £70 return), so I can book yours [thus saving additional booking fees], then bill you for that cost, plus a £75 deposit per person.

Week-end Trip staying in Oswiecien 8th October for YOM-KIPPUR

2 nights - Friday visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Yom Kippur davening in the shul, staying in Galicia Hotel, with kosher food. On Sunday visiting Krakow. We will need people to take the services, so please express an interest !

DANUBE Luxury 8 day river cruise from Budapest from £999 per person in November 2011

JHTee is proud to announce that we have negotiated with a leading cruise Company a truly exciting trip on an exceptional boat, and at an affordable price. This amazing offer will navigate 4 countries and the 3 capital cities of Budapest, Bratislava, and Vienna before concluding in Germany, and flying home from Munich.

An option to spend Shabbos in Budapest, before the boat leaves on Sunday, is available and as always on a luxury cruise, the price includes all food and wine, and all trips, plus entertainment,...absolutely no extras. The full programme is available on request, but for this trip to proceed, we will need to sell all 70 cabins, so it is vital that you ask your family and friends to join us.

Rome week-end will on our site by Mid February after our visit plus agenda for Vilnius trip.

Please indicate any other Towns or areas you wish JHTee to organise on future trips ?

    Marcel Manson
 

Jewish Heritage Tours

6, Golf Close

Stanmore

Middlesex

England    HA7 2PP

Tel No   0044 0 208 9545074

Fax No 0044 0 208 954 5074

Mobile N0 0771 2290520

e-mail:     marcel@jewishheritagetours.co.uk

Web site: www.jewishheritagetours.co.uk

 

Eszter from Moishe House Budapest

Three reasons for a happy goodbye

I moved out of Moishe House Budapest yesterday…but some of my stuff is still there, dozens of books, my plants – and things I could not fit into my suitcases, objects that piled up in the last 15 months…. The fact that they are still there has for me a symbolic significance: its actually not possible to move out from the Moishe house totally, and not only because I cannot put my memories of laughter, joy, lights and shadows in my suitcases for they being immaterial, but because I take them away with me. While part of me remains there forever – or at least I wish it would, I wish my dreams and my energies I have invested, my work and efforts by now have become part of the edifice, the walls and air, the ambient – and I know that I can trust Anna, Zsófi and Lackó to really preserve remember it – the good moments we had together, and the difficulties we defeated together.

Two years ago it was a dream only – and it’s still hard to perceive what we have achieved and created together. A vibrant, diverse community with all of its realities – the creation of something that has never existed before in this form – experimenting while always also trying to connect with the tradition of Judaism – get inspired – first and foremost to experience Community – with a big C – an entity that has always interested me so much, something that I essentially need for existing and something that I still need to explore more, even if I have learned soo much about it (and myself) in the past months.

I would like to thank to everyone who enabled me to be part of this unique endeavor – the team and supporters of the Moishe House, my flat-mates, and people who belong to our community – Marom, Dor Hadash the Social Acion group, our landlord and those I cannot list here.

Leaving is always a bit sad and sentimental, and of course when the time of moving out was approaching, two months ago I started to feel odd about it. I was walking around in the apartment and whenever I looked at furniture or stuff, I immediately started to make thoughts about it - if it was mine and if I wanted to leave it or take it… it felt strange…a bit like in the movie “My life without me”. But there were three things that eventually diverted me from falling into some kind of sentimental and sad farewell-mood:

1. we had a crazy amount of programs in the past months – as usual – so I did not have time for lamenting about such things so much

2. during this many programs I observed how the Budapest Moishe House community -with my flatmates in the center - are more and more committed, and how things start to evolve “on their own”

3. I have the lucky situation when I am not only moving out of the Moishe house, but I’m actually moving to Jerusalem where I will encounter new challenges, and thinking about this is both inspiring and exciting. I also hope to experience a different, intense –spiritual - aspect of Judaism, and last but not least love

Josh from Denver

This is the first blog of the new chapter of MoHo Denver. My name is Josh and with the help of my roomies Zack and Gil we have had the pleasure of participating in an awesome experience that has been tons of fun from the beginning. It definitely helps that we all love to cook and host people, but this has been the most hosting that I have done back to back in a number of years and I can honestly say that I couldn't be happier. All three of us are relatively new to Denver, me having been here the longest at a whopping year and a half, and since I started doing the Moho thing in August I have expanded my network of Jewish friends in this city tremendously. There is no doubt in my mind that without Moishe House I would be in a much smaller Jewish environment here. With that in mind I just want to give a huge shout out to Dave Cygielman who is the MAN. Not a day goes by that I don't appreciate living in the Moishe House and what opportunities have arisen in my life due to being a part of such an awesome idea.

We love to have fun in many ways by throwing sick dinners, playing and watching different kinds of sports, and partnering with other cool Jewish organizations in the city with some sweet activities and crazy fun parties amongst many other things. We plan on making MoHoDen even bigger and better than it is now. So as this year winds down and another begins I want to express our intentions of making this Moishe House a place that more and more Young Jewish adults can come to comfortably and feel as well as know that they are a part of this ever growing family.

Josh Benporat

Hello everyone! Its Kiki here at MH San Francisco. While I am not a huge fan of the freezing SF weather, early sundown and propensity for rain (its actually pouring outside as I write this) that comes with this time of year, I really and truly love all the big holidays that come so close together- its like six weeks (or more!) of holiday goodness! Thinking about how much I love Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and New Years made me realize just how much I like living in MHSF. Beyond the opportunity to host events, meet new people and cultivate my Jewish identity, in the last few months I’ve really begun to feel at home in our moishe house. I love coming home to my roommates after work, cooking dinner with them and hearing about their days. I love that MHSF can be such an active part of the larger Jewish community, but the sense of family that being a part of my moishe house is what I have really grown to appreciate. At 26, I have lived in many different houses, different cities and with different roommates but that sense of personal community and comfort that I feel here is one which I know to be rare and I am so grateful for it.

In other fun news: we recently went to our regional retreat, and as someone who has been in Moishe House for a while now, I have to say that it was really great to meet up with all our fellow moishe houses and just get inspired to be a part of moishe house all over again. Even though the retreat was short, being there was like going to a family reunion- we are all connected by this awesome experience that is moishe house and while we all come from different places that connection is important to all of us. Because the retreat was actually in San Francisco this year, our house had the extra bonus of having some post-retreat visitors from Denver. It never ceases to pleasantly surprise me just how great Moishe House is at building relationships and bringing people together. I have met some amazing people through Moishe House- at events we have hosted and at retreats- and am just so excited to continue to be a part of the organization.

I hope has been enjoying a wonderful Hanukkah!

Becca November Blog

Hi, it's Becca here from Moishe House Portland. I've been unable to make it to the last couple retreats due to poorly-timed health problems. I guess I'll write about the last couple months at our house and what's been goin on!

I find it funny that I feel that I've reached a comfort with Moishe House programming right around the time our house's elders, Jodi and Jeremy, are moving on. Coming up with unique and exciting programming was daunting at first, and honestly, it still is. Over the last several months, I've noticed that we've got it down. It helps to remember our community's needs and the importance of diversifying events. Now we try to have 2 Torah learning events, 2 Shabbat dinners, a couple sports-like events, and fill in the rest with whatever else seems needed in that month. We usually split up the events among the 4 of us, but over the last several months, despite massive obstacles in my own personal life, I'm kind of proud of myself that I've been doing more like 3 events a month for the house instead of 1 or 2. It also helps that other organizations or groups in Portland reach out to us and want to co-sponsor. For example, a group of us went to Chabad's Chanuka celebration night at the Portland Blazer's game. In November, we did a really cool event with the Federation--2 teenagers from a coexistence-themed charter school in Israel flew out to speak to communities along the West Coast. It was important to the Portland Federation that the teens speak to young adults, in hopes to inspire them (slash "us") to get involved in this whole budding peace idea. What a concept, right? :)

So I suppose I'm excited about a few things. 1) Moishe House Portland is doing well. 2) I never thought I'd reach this kind of comfort level with being a Moishe House resident, but I have. And I love it so, so much. :) 3) Even though we have elders leaving soon, and it's sad, things are ok. And we're still finding time to get together and enjoy our last few weeks together. We had a "family movie night" this week, it was cute. And Julia, our new roomie, is already active in planning programs in Portland, which is way awesome. She pretty much single-handedly kick-started a Portland chapter of Challah for Hunger!

I love Moishe House! :)

Moishe Family

Happy Chanukah! The opportunity for me to blog about my experiences as a resident of a Moishe House couldn't come at more appropriate time, as we celebrate one of the 2 Jewish holidays that has been a constant throughout my life. I did not grow up in a particularly observant house as a child. In fact, until I neared the age of Bar Mitzvah, Chanukah and Passover were the only aspects of Judaism I honored regularly. Fast forward to the start of law school and we find me, for the first time, in a community where Judaism is prevalent. Professors cancelled class for the Rosh as well as Yom Kippur. At this same time, I met a resident of Moishe House Philadelphia and started attending an event or two every couple months. The more I visited the house, the more I learned about cultural Judaism and the more comfortable I became with Judaism playing a role in my daily, non-holiday life.

Skip another couple years forward and we find me a regular attendee of events at/organized by MHP. I'm also about to turn 27 and realize, that even with all I've become accustomed, there's a lot more. A lot more for me to learn, but a lot more for me to contribute. So I applied to be a resident of MHP, and the rest is היסטוריה.

Let's get to the good stuff.. my life as a resident. Moishe House has presented me with the opportunity, resources and vehicle to live an active Jewish life. My roommates are family. I had never known Havdalah before MHP. I had certainly never lived in a house honoring rules of Kashrut. Every day I feel Judaism coursing through my veins and heart. But it's not just grabbing a dairy dish for my bagel and cream cheese in the morning, or a meat bowl for the side of veggies I just boiled (in the appropriate pot, of course) for my kosher-chicken dinner. It's hearing something almost every day from a roommate (in the idea of family, they're all sisters - it's me and three girls, but that's another blog for another time!) about an experience she had in Israel, or a Yiddish word used so casually in conversation I barely notice it. It's sharing Shabbat. It's a conversation about Gilad Shalit or the Israeli forest fire near Haifa (one roommate has close friends local to the area) in our living room in the evening. It's being able to visit, 9 blocks away, the National Museum for American Jewish History with an Employee's Friends & Family pass from a roommate.

As a member of the Moishe House community, one can attend the holiday meals (and participate further by contributing a dish cooked in their own kitchen), hear the speech from the Editor of GRID magazine, bless the start of Shabbat, pick apples at Linvilla Orchards, shake the tuchas for the annual Apples & Hunnies party, learn about relationships and Judaism while drinking a beer (or glass of wine, or water, whatever the fancy) during a session of Topics on Tap and enjoy a roaring fire while sipping cocktails (coming up!!). We're talking about further engagement by gauging interest in community-led/hosted activities. But for many of those post-college members of the MH community, they don't have a local Jewish family to call their own. As a resident of Moishe House Philadelphia, I do.

~Cody

The Beginning of My Moishe House Story

In June, at the age of 23, I moved from Los Angeles to New Orleans. After four years of living on-campus at Pomona College, arriving in New Orleans truly marked the beginning of adulthood. Looking back now, I would describe the period stretching from my bar mitzvah (age 13) until New Orleans (age 23), as an awkward and ambiguous decade; a decade of transition from boyhood to adulthood. New Orleans signified the end of that liminal existence, and the beginning of something new and unequivocal.

I felt my adulthood every day as I grapple with a million big and small decisions. I took a job as the assistant director of a youth development non-profit organization in New Orleans’ Vietnamese American community. I found a place to live two blocks from the Mississippi River. I discovered a JCC and decided to become a member. I began to meditate and go on walks each day. As I put the pieces of my new life together, I realized there were few restraints. There was no discernible path. There was no one evaluating my success, and no definition of success to which I was subjected. I could assemble the life I found most compelling and authentic—a prospect both liberating and terrifying.

It was within this context that I began thinking about my Jewish identity for the first time in years. Here I was in a new city creating a life for myself from the ground up. I felt no obligations to be Jewish in any way. The barrage of emails from Hillel, imploring me to attend this event or that event, was gone.  Even the not-so-subtle comments from my concerned mother about my level of Jewish engagement had petered out over time.

At first my thinking about being Jewish was fleeting and superficial: Should I go meet people at the Avodah house for Shabbat? Should I figure out a plan for the high holidays? These were short-term questions, practical in their nature. Soon they gave way to a deeper, more existential inquiry into myself as I realized that college had all but annihilated the Jewish aspect of my identity. I began to think: where is my Jewish self right now? How deeply has it been buried? How can it be embraced, nurtured, reintegrated?

College was the nadir of my Jewish self—a four-year hiatus. I had been uprooted from my family and home; from the sound of my father’s voice singing his ancestors’ hymns; from my temple; from the rabbi who lead my bar mitzvah ceremony; from the melodies and prayers that touched me. In college I found Shabbat services that bored me, melodies that I found entirely foreign, and Jewish programming that was alienating and often offensive. I was not interested in becoming a partisan in the Israeli-Palestinian on-campus propaganda war, nor was I interested in programming that I felt stifled my moral and intellectual maturation. In the beginning I engaged with, and attempted to alter, an on-campus Jewish culture that I principally disagreed with; eventually I got tired and stopped caring altogether.

In college the self-alienation I experienced happened gradually, almost without notice. In New Orleans I discovered the absence of my Jewish self as revelation, and it became piercing. Completely on my own, in this new city, I felt a sense of potential and longing. I wanted to feel my Jewish self again.  I wanted to marry my Jewish self with the rest of who I was—the rest of who I had become over the course of college—and continue down the river of my life.

This project felt urgent, though I had no idea how to start. I knew the window of opportunity would be open for only so long before I became entrenched in a new regime of habits, practices and thinking. If I were to build this new life without integrating my Jewish self, I knew something essential would be lost. Yet where was I to begin?

In July one of my new friends in the city approached me about Moishe House. Her timing was uncanny. She was about to join and mentioned that there was another opening. Taking it as a sign, I responded without hesitation, and moved into the house a month later.

No doubt I am still in the beginning phase of this new journey. My Jewish self is buried quite deep, I have realized, from years of decay and neglect. At times I am so used to being spiritually numb that it is hard stay the course. Yet through Moishe House there is something shifting within me—a sense of returning, even if it is gradual. I feel my Jewish self in the relationships I have formed here with others who are invested in a similar journey. I feel my Jewish self in the Shabbats that we create for the community.

I am now, more than ever, part of a truly constitutive Jewish space—I am a creator, a producer, as much as I am a participant of Jewish programming. I get to help choose the prayers we will sing on Shabbat; the speakers we host to spark our conversations; the values we live by within the house. I have no more excuses for feeling alienated or estranged from my Jewish identity. I have been empowered to create the culture that surrounds my nascent Jewish self. I am empowered to create the house that shelters my precarious Jewish self, as it grows stronger. My relationship to the house is therefore simultaneously a commitment to my community, and myself, for the two are surely bound. It is an honor and a blessing.

Jacob Cohen
Moishe House New Orleans