A Year? Wow!

I started Moishe about a year ago, and I feel like I have learned so much, it’s almost impossible to process it all. I have made a ton of new friends, discovered so much more of Chicago, and reconnected with and explored my Judaism. It has been an awesome, difficult, and breathtaking last year. And I am really excited to continue it all again!

I graduated from college a year ago, and I knew I was coming back to Chicago. Even though it’s my hometown, I was definitely nervous. Trying to bridge the gap between old and new friends felt a little overwhelming – old friends who hadn’t been in my life for years and new friends who I had yet to meet. Moishe House turned out to be the perfect solution to what I was facing. I was able to make Moishe House my home base and build (or rebuild) my relationships from there. I felt so safe in the space my roommates and I created, and I met tons of great community members, so my friendships just fell in place. I was able to bring my old friends from high school and my new friends from work into the community as well. One of my favorite things to see is all the people I care about most getting along and spending time together.

Being from Chicago, I have certainly seen my fair share of the city. But in a huge place like this, with a million things to do, you never feel like you’ve seen enough. Or you feel like you’ve seen everything and forget how much is out there. With Moishe House, I am constantly exploring new places and introducing newcomers to my favorite spots. Other people told me that they have returned home after college and felt like they didn’t belong. I, on the other hand, am rediscovering how much there is going on in this amazing city of mine.

I also wanted Moishe House as a chance to open myself up to reevaluating my identity as a Jew. I was never raised particularly religiously, and I didn’t get involved with Jewish activities on campus. However, when I graduated, I wanted to start exploring again. This year, I have gone to services, studied texts, learned about new holidays and met so many different kinds of Jews. Everyday I learn a new Hebrew word, and every month I learn a new tradition. A whole world has been opened up to me, and I can’t wait to see what else I learn this year.

I am thrilled that I get the chance to live here another year, so I can keep making friends, seeing new parts of the city, and finding out more about who I am as a Jew.

Michelle's Quarterly Blog from Moishe House Boston

As the New Year approaches, it is always a great time to reflect a bit on what the past year has been like. By far, one of the most memorable and, in some ways, pivotal, moments has been moving into the Moishe House in September. In my last quarterly blog, I wrote about my trepidation with this move--questions about how I would navigate between my work and personal life, or maintain friendships with my housemates independent of our house. Now, 3 months later, it is striking to think about how comfortable I feel in the home. It has become a community, a family of housemates nested within a family of Moishe House members, and that has given me unexpected joy and nourishment. Perhaps the most grateful aspect of my living in the Moishe House is the closeness I feel with my housemates. Unlike any living situation I have been in previously, I feel no sense of resentment about the mundane aspects of living situations (i.e. taking out the garbage, eating food, cleaning the kitchen) or the more challenging aspects of running a community. We are able to speak honestly and directly to each other, bring up issues that bother us, and remarkably, move past them. Because we are all committed to open communication and take our jobs seriously, we have been able to build a home that generates positive energy, enthusiasm, and laughter--all while we are doing things that are terribly important to us (i.e. social justice campaigns). And so, we have become friends-- people to come home to and complain about our day to or celebrate with or go out to an amazing play with, or dance with.

As I begin 2010, I feel a tremendous sense of gratitude that I can start a new year with these friends and housemates, and continue to grow with them as we work to grow the Moishe House Boston community.

MHSeattle, 9/5/09: Lesson Learned

Lesson Learned - Please describe an instance where your house has had an issue (e.g. trouble with events, house dynamics, logistics etc.) and discuss how the house resolved the issue, and what was learned.

An issue we've struggled with since the beginning of the year is keeping the fourth room of our house filled. Rebecca, who moved in just before spring, and Nicole Guidry, who arrived at the start of summer, both ended up leaving the house, and we didn't want the turnover to happen a third time.

While both Rebecca and Nicole were and are bright, energetic people with great ideas and a lot to offer a project such as Moishe House Seattle, we may not have done enough to determine how good of a fit they'd be with our house. Rebecca was very busy with her job at a local nonprofit, about which she was passionate, and rightly so. She found herself having to balance the demands of her challenging work life with the not insignificant demands of a committed romantic relationship. A person only has so much energy, and at the end of the day, while Rebecca always contributed what she could to our programming, living here was beginning to burn her out. Nicole, also a busy person and also committed to a relationship, was similarly at a place in her life where she might be better as an event attendee than as a resident-organizer.

Zara, like the other residents of that fourth room, has a lot going on in her life, but she seems to be at a place, emotionally and otherwise, where living at Moishe House Seattle makes sense. Though Masha, Steven, and I don't have crystal balls, we think the third time will be the charm. Zara is excited to join MHS the way we were when we first applied and were accepted, and she seems very committed to finding the right balance in her life between non-Moishe personal activities and Moishe programming and community-building. Her recent return from Israel also makes her an excellent resource on matters Israeli, which our house had to some extent in Steven but obviously has even more of now.

All in all, the lesson learned was to take a little more time in choosing a new resident-organizer, and to really think about whether the person we choose is likely to be in it for at least the semi-long haul. And we think Zara is going to be an excellent fit.