Moishe House Beijing

Moishe House Beijing 欢迎你/welcomes you!

Beijing has a population of 18 million people, but only around 1500 Jews live here. The Jewish community here consists of a Chabad and Kehillat, an egalitarian minyan. I’ve met quite a few 20-something Jews here, but it seems like I’m always meeting more- many times I’ll meet them out and about, and not at services.

To me, that means that 20-something Jews need a place to get together. Some people are comfortable going to services, but others aren’t. I wanted to help create a space where Jewish people could get together, but without feeling like the purpose of getting together was to practice their religion. And eat free food. In a way, that is kind of similar to what the Hillel in my college was like, but we’re going to have a lot more Chinese food. I’m already excited for Christmas (who thought a Jew would ever say that?), because I know that we’re going to do Chinese food and a movie. Or maybe we could mix it up and do American food and a movie.

This first month was a whirlwind of events – break fast, sukkah building and decorating. If you haven’t seen our photos, you can check them out here. Making everything come together took a lot of work (and a lot of riding around on our bikes to pick stuff up), but it was worth it. I was so pleased with the sukkah on our roof, although I can’t really imagine what our neighbors thought of it. We’re on the 15th floor, and our sukkah had a great view of the city- I had never been in a rooftop sukkah before. Our break fast, featuring bagels and lox, made me feel right at home in a place that sometimes could not be any more foreign.

I’m excited about planning future events. We want to have a wide range of events, ranging from a Mel Brooks/Woody Allen night, to outings in Beijing to study/discussion events. We’re hoping that we can take advantage of being Jewish in Beijing, instead of trying to trying to separate ourselves from the culture here.

Plug: three of the people who came to our sukkah (including Ali), made a podcast. It’s like listening to a slice of Beijing. Check it out.