Being where we need to be

After being Providence Moishe House host and hostess together for a year and a half (and after having been host with Jesse Stout for another for another year and a half prior), Nathaniel and I are preparing to hand the baton off to the next Moisheniks at the end of this summer. We adore Moishe, of course, but Nathaniel is starting medical school this fall, and we're ready to transition out. So as one of our programs for this month, we decided to host an information session, with dinner included, to teach prospective Moisheniks about the priveleges and responsibilities that accompany Moishe House. We promoted the information session both nationally through the Moishe list, and locally through local synagogues, Jewish student groups like Hillel and J Street U, Jewish organizations like the JCC and J Street U and JFed, a new awesome online resource for 'all things Jewish' in Rhode Island called ShalomRI.org, and our ever-expanding email list and Facebook community. But when the evening came - last night, on June 3rd - no one showed. My first reaction was, understandably, disappointment. But as I thought about it further, I considered the situation meaningful. At the East Coast Moishe Retreat last November, David Cygielman showed us some absolutely amazing videos sent in by people wanting to create Moishe houses in their home city (I distinctly remember ones from Kiev and Jerusalem). I remember being awed by how much people in cities worldwide want to start Moishe Houses, and feeling incredibly lucky that we have a Moishe House in Providence (ok, there was a lil Jewish guilt there too). There are many, many more cities that want Moishe than there are resources to fund them. We're in touch with a few people who are interested taking the baton and were unable to make it last night, but it may be meaningful that no one showed up. And although I feel sad, I also feel comfortable surrendering to the possibility that it may be time for Moishe to dissolve in Providence and re-emerge in another city.

MH Providence - Version 3.0?

Last September MHPVD set the following three goals: 1) to expand our programming to include Jewish and Tikkun Olam events, and 2) to grow our community, which currently includes primarily students and alumni of Brown University. By all measures, both goals have been achieved. Our house made progress towards both goals by seeking external partnerships and collaborations. Many of our partnerships were conducted with other Jewish organizations in the community, which helped increase the percentage of Jewish and Tikkun Olam events in our portfolio. Additionally, by seeking new partnerships, we were able to expand the Moishe community to include new people.

In the next three months we have three specific goals. Firstly, we will identify community members to take on the privileges and responsibilities of being MHPVD residents. We will also facilitate the transition of residents to ensure that MHPVD programming is not interrupted. Secondly, we will make extra efforts to increase attendance at mid-week programs by 100%, effectively doubling participation. Thirdly, we will solicit more co-planners and partners in our regular program offerings. The events lined up for May, June and July will require an extra level of community participation which will enrich the diversity and appeal of MHPVD programs.

Evolving a global superorganism

To date, Moishe House Providence hasn't engaged in much inter-house collaboration, but this blog prompt certainly got our wheels turning. Our most explicit inter-house collaboration thus far was the earth-shattering blindingly-brilliant 'tele-shabbat' we orchestrated with the houses in Philly, DC, and Hoboken. The wiki also presents itself as a venue for inter-house collaboration on program ideas and other resources. And I appreciate the Moishe staff’s encouragement of programs that 'tour' the houses, such as screenings of relevant independent films and inviting relevant bands like Girls in Trouble, which in a way act as inter-house collaborations – in this case, to bring the same program to multiple houses. But of course, like the Moishe staff, I'd Love to see more and greater inter-house collaboration, for example a global (or at least national) designation of April as environmental month, with at least one environment-related program plus a celebration of Earth Day, and a multi-house collaboration with national and international organizations, e.g. if all the U.S. houses attended their local J Street launches, and a big-sibling little-sibling system, where houses with more knowledge and experience act as mentors for houses that are just getting started.

Inter-house collaboration benefits both us Moisheniks and our community members by very tangibly reminding us that we are part of something much bigger than our local community. It cultivates a more global self-awareness of the superorganism that is the Moishe House network, enabling us to better engage in collectively intelligent behavior. It also enables us to capitalize on the global network that we are, rather than relying only on local resources. Let me better articulate this with a story.

I'm part of another global network: Pecha Kucha. (For those of you who've never heard of this global and unpronounceable phenomenon, it's basically a monthly show & tell night that happens in 300+ cities worldwide where people give presentations consisting of 20 slides x 20 seconds per slide = 6 minutes and 40 seconds of what I cheekily refer to as PowerPoint performance art.) When the earthquake struck Haiti on January 12th, Pecha Kucha organizers around the world flooded HQ, asking what we as a global community could do to help. And what emerged was a collaboration between Pecha Kucha and Architecture for Humanity to help rebuild Haiti 20 seconds at a time. The idea was to have cities worldwide host their Pecha Kucha nights on February 20th, and to have PK HQ videoskype into each city over a 24-hour period and live-stream the skype content to the web, i.e. to create a 24-hour PK presentation "WAVEcast" circumnavigating the globe by city. (Yowza.) The intentions of this global WAVEcast were to raise awareness, raise money, and generate content, and sure enough, Providence participated. It was a dramatic success, and PK has already built its first school in Haiti. I tell this story because the way PK cities worldwide collaborated to help Haiti is an inspiration to me, and something for Moishe Houses worldwide to strive for. And no need to start with a global WAVEcast; a big-sibling little-sibling system is certainly an exciting-enough proposition.

How to find new Moisheniks to pass the baton to?

That's the question Nathaniel and I have been mulling over in Moishe House Providence. We are painfully aware that our Moishe experience will be coming to a close at the end of this summer (because Nathaniel will be starting medical school, but I guess I'll also – oy ve – be migrating out of the age range) and are in the process of figuring out the process for transitioning. Yes, in the process of figuring out the process, because we haven't developed our process yet. We'd ideally like to find Moisheniks who aren't already members of our community so that our community can grow, but this means reaching out beyond our community. I fortuitously met a young Jew yesterday who was very intrigued by Moishe, but besides those lucky encounters, how to find new potential Moisheniks? How have other Moishe houses done this in the past? Might this be a good opportunity for institutional collaboration, i.e. to put the word out through other local Jewish-oriented organizations? We're very (very) sad to no longer be Moishe hosts, but we’d like to find potential hosts sooner rather than later, so we can choreograph a smooth transition. Comments from other houses and staff are much appreciated!

Le Programming Nouveau

Exploring new areas of programming is a favorite topic of Nathaniel's and mine. In terms of Moishe's categories, we'd like to venture more actively into Jewish Learning and Tikun Olam. With regards to Jewish Learning, we recognize that as young hip (at least, in our not-so-humble opinions) Jews, we can play a special role in making Jewish Learning exciting, accessible, and relevant to our fellow young hip Jews. Which is why we invited Adam Lavitt, a rabbinical student and member of our burning man community Sukkat Shalom to come do a program with us exploring the Torah through expressive movement, and why we've dedicated ourselves to (as we wrote about right here on the Moishe blog) preparing teachings, discussion, and other activities for our Shabbats. With regards to Tikun Olam, we’re well-aware that we have a major resource at our disposal: young, motivated, talented individuals who come together at least three times per month for purposes of, well, coming together. So we'd like to more regularly and systematically apply this major resource to community service. We've only dabbled with this so far, such as with our Sukkot at City Farm, but we know volunteer opportunities abound, like those at our local Temple Emanu-el and we understand that applying our Moishe community to the service of our broader community would both extend our programming into Tikun Olam and fulfill Moishe's recent intention to create organizational partnerships.

In more abstract terms, we'd like to infuse our programming with a sense of growth, progress, coherence, e.g. by building something as a community (like an art car or hot tub) or having a regularly-occurring event, like a book or movie series. The intention is to feel that we are cultivating something through time, rather than hosting one-off programs. And finally, as we discussed at our Open Source Programming event, we'd Love to open our programming to our community members, and enable them to create the programs they’d like to see in our community!

a Moishe resolution

One of my favorite things about New Year's is making resolutions. Every year for the past several, I've taken some quiet time on the morning of the 1st to think about changes I'd like to make from the previous year to the new one, and record my resolutions in a journal. (The fact that I take resolutions seriously doesn't necessarily make me more adept at fulfilling them; after making the same resolution for numerous years in a row, I made a resolution to not make the same resolutions over and over again. It didn't work. Flossing is a hard habit to start.) Anyways. Moishe House Providence recently had an awesome program called "Open Source Moishe Programming." The idea was simple: we create programming to serve our community, so why not include our community in the process of creating our programming, which not only teaches us more about what our community members want, but gets them more invested in Moishe? (Duh, right?) So of course we talked over bagels and lots of fabulousness came out of the conversation, but there was one thing in particular that's going to make it into my New Year's resolutions. I've noticed that our Shabbat guests enjoy when we take time before eating to do more than prayers – sing other songs, talk about the meaning of Shabbat, introduce a discussion or activity. Besides helping to further distinguish Shabbat from regular dinner parties, this 'more than prayers' enables young Jews connect to Judaism through other young Jews, rendering Judaism more accessible and exciting, to the point of cool. But as it turns out, the facilitator of 'more than prayers' is usually Nathaniel. So, one of my New Year's resolutions for 2010 is to prepare more for our Shabbats – e.g. read about the Torah portion for that week, or the meaning of a particular ritual – so I can also facilitate Shabbat activities beyond prayer. And in the spirit of crowdsourcing, we'll also be opening this space of facilitation up to our community members.

Dear Moisheniks: may you also make meaningful (and possibly Moishe-oriented) resolutions, and have a glorious New Year!

Reach out! (Le freak, c’est chic.)

Ah yes, the question of outreach. At this early juncture in Moishe's existence, we find ourselves in an awkward transitional moment: many of the people in our communities are on Facebook, and fewer are on Twitter, while some relegate all of their digital communications to email. Meanwhile, many – if not all – are Facebook-fatigued and ever-weary of the monstrous abyss known as their "inbox." So, at Moishe House Providence, we leverage a diverse portfolio of outreach mechanisms, including an email list, Facebook profile, Google calendar, and text message reminders on the day of the events. This diversity allows us to reach people where they're at, and allows them to connect with Moishe House PVD via their preferred medium. Peeps can opt out of our email list and connect via Facebook, or opt out of both and simply get Google cal reminders. That said, not all media are created equal. Facebook has the advantages of 1) facilitating social advertising so that, for example, when someone clicks "Attending" to one of our events, that action shows up on their friends' feeds, which of course entices them to come to the event, and 2) enabling media aggregation, so that people can post photos and videos from our events in one pool (which we can then happily cull from when posting the event to the Mintranet). But alas, at the end of the day, what works best is a direct phone call or in-person invitation. Despite/due to the explosive emergence of new information and communication technologies, a personal touch matters that much more.

Jewish education, astrology, and Love

Three days ago, Nathaniel – my boyfriend and co-host of the Providence Moishe House – surprised me with an early birthday present: a 2-hour session with a fabulous astrologer. While discussing my chart, naturally we landed on the topic of Nathaniel and my relationship. Although our overlapping charts make 5 trines (three planets within the same element together forming an equilateral triangle), which indicates incredible romantic compatibility, we both have Mars in Scorpio, which makes us very competitive, manifesting itself as a difficulty engaging in intellectual discussions together. (Don't worry, this is gonna relate back to Moishe in a sec.) The astrologer suggested something Nathaniel and I had already been considering, namely reading a book, watching a movie series, taking a class, or doing some other intellectual activity together about a topic that is not too asymmetrically situated on either of our 'intellectual turf.' Meanwhile, as mentioned in my house post for this month, Nathaniel and I are recently looking to expand our programming into more Jewish learning. So when the astrologer gave his advice, of course I thought of Moishe, and of doing an intellectual activity oriented towards Judaism. As a Moishe House hosted by only two people in a romantic relationship, Nathaniel and I are well aware of our sensitive situation and the fact that it's the last of its kind. But in this case, our Moishe House goals and our relationship are beautifully aligned. So.....yo Moishe community, do you have any books, online classes, or other activities to recommend? We're thinking Kabbalah, but open to other possibilities.

Moishe House PVD: dreaming out loud

The goal of the Providence Moishe House is to build and maintain the young adult Jewish community in Providence, and to act as ambassadors of Judaism for the local young adult community in general. Within this overarching goal, Nathaniel and I have recently elaborated two sub-goals: 1) to expand our programming more into Jewish and Tikkun Olam events, and 2) to grow our community, which currently includes primarily students and alumni of Brown University. With regards to #1, we'd like to take advantage of Moishe's new Rabbi in Residence, Rabbi Scott Perlo, to better educate ourselves and our community about Judaism, and take advantage of our community to more actively contribute to the broader Providence community. Our programming for the month of October manifests our commitment to this goal: we're building a sukkah and celebrating Sukkot at a local organic farm, at which we'll teach participants about the holiday of Sukkot and the importance of sustainable food systems, and support the mission of the farm. We're also hosting a singing shabbatluck chez Moishe, i.e. with the explicit intention of teaching and singing songs, and we’ll be sending out song sheets in advance. With regards to #2, we'd like to grow our community beyond its current scope. This involves reaching out to other local pillars of the Jewish community, including Gesher City RI, the young adult social committees of the local synagogues, and the Jewish Federation of Rhode Island. As a starting point, we've already gotten our October events posted to the Jewish Federation’s calendar. By next year, we'd Love to see more of our community members able to explain the meanings of Jewish rituals and traditions to new guests, and hear much louder singing at our Shabbats! We'd also Love to see a more diverse Jewish community – both geographically, beyond Providence, and demographically, e.g. including more folks in their late 20's and early 30's. We hope that these trends continue for the next 3 and 5 years, and ultimately support our overarching goal of local Jewish community organizing and ambassadorship.

Sunday was SO. GOOD.

In thinking about what makes a Moishe House event successful, there are two questions to consider: what makes an event in general successful, and – embedded within that – what makes a Moishe House event in particular successful. What makes an event in general successful naturally depends on the goal of the event; but as a self-proclaimed experience designer, I gravitate towards a metric based on the quality of experience. In other words, if without solicitation, attendees express having had a new, spectacular, comforting, delightful, or otherwise enjoyable experience, I’d consider the event successful. And all of the above we’ve proudly heard in response to events at the Moishe House in Providence! I think my favorite feedback has been from our blind events – the blind feast and dancers in the dark – in response to which I heard, “Wow, I’ve never experienced anything like this before” (blind feast) and got the above message written on my Facebook wall (dancers in the dark).

As for a Moishe House event, besides being a successful event in general which gives its attendees a high-quality experience, it should somehow further Moishe’s mission as I understand it, to cultivate and maintain the young adult Jewish community, and act as somewhat of an ambassador of the young adult Jewish community to the young adult community in general. During the month of June, as Nathaniel (my co-host) and many other members of our community have been traveling, I thought we’d get higher attendance if I hosted events out in the community, rather than invite the community into our home. So I hosted a climbing night at the Rhode Island rock gym, Kabbalasana (yoga with a Jewish spirituality twist – pun intended) at the Motion Center, and salsa dancing at Olives. As a result, attendees ended up being mostly new and mostly non-Jewish, and as a further result, I gave them an introduction to what Moishe is all about. Attendees were intrigued with this model of cultivating and maintaining community, and at each event, my monolog evolved into more of a dialogue. So, besides the high quality of the events themselves, I’d consider our June events successful in the sense of furthering the Moishe mission, by introducing newbies and non-Jews to Moishe in an engaging way, and ending up with a few new friend requests! Oh and this definitely makes me wanna do a little Moishe sphiel at the beginning of all our events in the future…

Shabbat - Family Style

Well, it's been another exciting month at Moishe House Providence. Last month marked our most glamorous dichromatic shabbatluck to date: black and white. As you would expect, most of us wore white -- it's a shabbas color after all. Those adorned in black really formed a delightful contrast with the white garbs. Not only did everyone dress the part, but everyone participated in the color theme -- AGAIN! Our table was full of beautiful white flowers, rice pudding, and the most fluffy delicious homemade macaroons that have ever been made. Once again, I'm impressed with the Providence community.

Then this past weekend, we held a BBQ in the park across the street from Moishe House Providence. We had our doubts about attendance for two reasons: 1) the weather was grey, cold, and depressing given that it was May 4th! and 2) there was a marathon running through the city, blocking off some of the major roads. Yet, lo and behold, Providence came through, with the lead off guest none other than MHPVD alumni, Jesse Stout. We grilled, laughed, and huddled under blankets -- yes it was that cold. But it was a BBQ to remember. Thanks Moishe House for giving us continuous motivation and support to gather the sparks within our midst.

tele-tech run for the tele-meeting for the tele-shabbat

Oy. That’s a lotta tele! What the title refers to is today's tech run between Brian (MH Philly) and Nathaniel and I (MH Providence) for the tele-meeting tomorrow night between all the MH folks in Philly, Providence, DC, and Hoboken for the tele-shabbat we're hosting on May 15th. Whoa, lemme try that again. Today, Brian, Nathaniel, and I tested out multi-channel videochat (vchat between more than two people), to make sure it works for tomorrow, when we’re gonna have a four-house tele-meeting about our upcoming four-house tele-shabbat. Nathaniel and I got to see Brian's room, he got to see our home (where Nathaniel was) and my office (where I was), Brian learned a little about my job, we got to see him on a roller-coaster (those visual effects iChat offers are awesome)....all this to say: planning a joint event is already bringing Moishe houses together meta-moishe style, before the official meeting for the event, and before the event itself. Even the email Jeremy sent out describing what different houses were up to this month and including the tele-shabbat inspired Rachael from MH Silver Spring to get in touch. (And for the record: I profusely apologize if any east coast houses felt left out! The intention was to go for houses that would allow for videochatting on the Sabbath, but all houses are more than welcome to ‘tune in,’ of course.) So, because of an email about a joint event that hasn't even happened yet, I had a mini-exchange with Rachael and Alan of MH Silver Spring. It's like the adage about the process versus the product. You know, the journey instead of the destination. Anyways. Check these visual souvenirs from today, a mere aperitif of what's to come...

Meta-Moishe

As residents, every month we lead, follow, and support the whims of a local Jewish community at event after event. There we get to know each other, share our visions and dreams of life, love, and Judaism. More than twenty groups around the world experience a steady flow of community, creativity, and cash affectionately known as "Moishe".

Then, once or twice a year, the appointed Moisheniks gather at national and regional retreats, where two things happen: 1) We connect as representatives of local Moishe Houses. In this capacity, we tell stories of events, ideas, and experiences. But these are second-hand, used experiences. They sound nice, but lack the inspiration and power of a direct experience. 2) Friendship are made between various Moisheniks -- new relationships and exchanges spark spontaneously. The latter category is simply way more fun.

But what if members of one Moishe House community could have direct experiences with members of another? This month, at MHPVD2.0 we hosted an organizational meeting of Sukkat Shalom -- a collaborative project of three Moishe House -- where the Moisheness flows freely between MH residents and community members from multiple locations.

Next month (May 15th) Moishe House will have its very experiment with tele-shabbat. Where a video chat portal will remain open between multiple shabbats taking place simultaneously between Moishe Houses across the country. Guests at each location will be able to interaction with guests at other locations. Direct experience. If you haven't already -- be in touch with us!

-Nathaniel (MHPVD2.0)

gefilte fish with guajillo-chipotle sauce

When people ask me about being a Mexican Jew, I joke that we eat spicy gefilte fish. Which is actually not such a joke – the title of this post is a recipe my cousin Fany contributed to an article on Latin-Jewish cuisine that just came out in Jewish Woman Magazine. The article is timely as we approach Pesach, noting that the story of exile and exodus repeats itself throughout Diaspora history, and wondering how customs and tastes inspired by new locales enrich ancient Jewish traditions and create new traditions to pass on; in this case, the new locales being countries in Latin America. And indeed, the author writes, “local cuisine definitely makes its voice heard at the Passover table of several Mexican families. Some Latinas I spoke to have suggested that this may reflect a special relationship the long-standing, stable Mexican-Jewish community enjoys with its host country. Fany Gerson, a Mexico City–born pastry chef [and my cousin!] deeply proud of the culinary traditions of her native country, explains it differently: ‘Maybe Mexican food is simply so tasty that they needed to translate that into traditional dishes…[it’s] probably the most rich and varied within Latin America.’” I Love this answer, as it suggests a metric for comparing the tastiness of different foods (the fact that Americans adhere pretty strictly to ancient Jewish recipes: oy ve). But more broadly, I Love this perpetual imprint of new places on our customs and tastes – when I eat my mom's spicy gefilte fish in California, I'm tasting both her family’s exodus from Poland and Austria, and her exodus from Mexico. And of course, I Love the possibility of seasoning brisket with tamarind and garnishing Matzo Ball Soup with cilantro, chile, lime, and avocado.

So if you wanna spice up this year’s Passover (hey, some extra spiciness – especially for the unsuspecting – can certainly satisfy the same function as bitterness, Mexican-style), go for my cousin's Gefile fish with Guajillo-Chipotle Sauce. And, spelling it the way Mexicans do, Hag Sameaj!

fill 'er up!

This month of Moishe-ing has been especially rewarding. The newly cristened Moishe House Providence, version 2.0 (symbolically represented as MHPVD2.0) has welcomed a new resident: the lovely Ms. Stephanie Gerson. With both a formal and not-so-formal background in experience design, Stephanie has injected a shot of creative energy into Providence goings-on.

This month has been a colorful month, with a red and pink themed Valentine's Brunch and crafting and with a second dichromatic shabbatluck featuring purple and yellow.

Two comments from MHPVD2.0 guests really stood out to make this month's work worth it all: 1. from a guest at the blind feast: "I will remember this for the rest of my life." Wow. It's not everyday that one receives that kind of feedback. In fact, I'm fairly certain that I've never received that kind of feedback. 2. from a regular at MHPVD2.0: "I think you guys are bringing a lot of loving energy into the new space." Fantastic!

I'm looking forward to continuing to represent Moishe House in Providence as the winter thaws. Hey, it will officially become Spring this month on March 21st and we'll be there as Providence blooms once again!

-Nathaniel

challah!

I Love designing experiences. Throughout college, I curated blind feasts for friends, in which they wore blindfolds and marinated themselves in whatever bite they were eating right now. I once took my favorite storybook, split a group of friends into pairs, and had one partner illustrate the story on the body of the other, who was blindfolded, while I read it aloud. Instead of experiencing the story as illustrated by pictures, the blindfolded partner experienced it as illustrated by touch. (Friends have generally born the brunt of my so-called experience designing, which has generally involved blindfoldedness.) Last year on Valentine's Day, I choreographed a tele-dining experience for long-distance Lovers. There were tables for two: people sitting across from their laptops, sharing romantic desserts with their significant others, who were sitting elsewhere in the country, or elsewhere in the world. The event was small, but it ended up getting picked up by WIRED.

Still, it's always a mild struggle. Soliciting people to participate, securing any necessary funds, finding an appropriate venue... So you can see where this story is going: I was overjoyed to accept the position of Moishe House Providence hostess. Not only would I have a community, budget, and venue with which to design experiences, but I’d have a mandate. And after precisely 60 days at my post, I have to give a shout out (...ok, a "challah!") to the folks in our Providence community for being such willing co-conspirators. Dear Providence peeps, thank you for participating in our dichromatic shabbatlucks with such gusto, looking fabulous in your color of choice, and surprising our palates with the likes of bright green rice crispie treats and bright purple cabbage salad. Thank you for trusting Nathaniel and I to take care of you at our blind feast, while you cuddled, ate, and fed each other for over three hours while blindfolded. (Oh yea, and for being sports about staying blindfolded in the bathroom.) Thank you for giving me the courage to wanna try a tele-shabbat with a sister Moishe House (who's down – Hoboken? DC? Phillie?), and in general, to experiment with experience design.

Moishe House Providence is blessed to have such an engaged community to grow with.

Moishe Move-In!

Hi all, this is my first post from our brand-new Moishe House in Providence, Rhode Island! For those of you who have never traveled to our fun little state -- you really should, by the way, this place is cute-as-a-button -- some people including myself call Providence "pee-vee-dee" or "THE pvd" because that's the name of our state's only moderately-sized airport. Other people call it "the 401" because that's our only area code.

So our first Moishe House event of this month, and ever, was a day during our first week when we tried to paint the apartment but realized the two of us could definitely use some help. Upon complaining to a half-dozen friends, they came over to help! We were so grateful we used some Moishe funds to order up some Japanese food, and the event was born. Very successfully, too: people actually enjoyed painting once it became more of a group project without a tight schedule. This resulted in some new connections and some fun photos. Plus, now, when these folks come to Moishe House events, they'll be in a space in which they've physically invested. Can whoever's reading this see the pics here?

Also, I love apple juice. I drink a gallon or more weekly. Thought everyone should know.

-Jesse