MHDC: "The weaponry, the secret recipe"

According to those intimately familiar with the genesis of Moishe House DC—a house fashioned by a motley crew of childhood friends—programming has always been characterized by a very organic, natural, uncontrived feel, with responsibilities rarely directly assigned. In the three years since, a number of Moisheniks have moved on and others moved in, myself included. In that time, there has been a tacit understanding that everyone is responsible for an equal share, both programmatically, and in terms of maintaining a livable environment. We all understand that if you’re not doing your share, then someone else is.

Program development tends to be up to each individual housemate. This works well at MHDC, as we all have rather different strengths and areas of interest, knowledge, and passion. As a child of a Labor Zionist movement, this resonates with me; I was raised on—and continue to believe in—the principle: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” For instance, I’ll be the first to admit my lack of interest in active, sports-related programs (yes, I was that kid, with the rock and stamp collections) though fortunately, another housemate is, and we’ve had successful cycling and boating programs recently. Likewise, while not everyone in the house is hard-wired with a love of Jewish expressive programming, it’s an area that I am interested in exploring, both on my own, and with Moishe House community members. In short, our success is often the result of the fact that we all bring very different things to the table, and are thus able to appeal to a diverse array of young Jews in DC.

While we tend to work solo (with the definite exception of Shabbat, which requires all hands on deck,) a housemate will often team up with non-housemate community members. An emphasis is often placed on working with community members to conceive and build programs, exemplified recently by our jam session and sock monkey-making. By actively engaging others in the process of our house, we cultivate community members as equal partners, and grow a healthy community.

MHDC meets in-person once a month to outline a tentative monthly schedule, to bounce program idea off one another, and to discuss general “business”— house cleanliness, whether or not it’s time to repurpose our rotting furniture, etc. As we are all inordinately busy day-to-day, and our schedules are usually out-of-sync, most of the rest of our planning and business takes place electronically. This seems to work quite well, and while we do email frequently, the minimal time spent discussing programs seems to prevent the frustrations that certain houses experience through overthinking, or spending too much time on process.

On a bittersweet note, Adam Cramer—a founding father of MHDC—moved out today. We’ll miss Adam, and we welcome the newest DC Moishenik, Sarah Lawson, to our humble home.