Beebs.

So we bust our first Moishe House DC Summer BBQ. All excited. Saturday trip to Costco. Zipcar is reserved. NO!!!! Greedy bastard doesnt return the car on time. Its hot and we cant wait so we complain and complain to Canadian customer service and get one free hour if zipcar. YES!!! But no costco. NO!!!

Next day, salvage supplies from el safeway, no, is a sprinkler on, we feel drops. Rain. NO!!! again. Rain, rain, go away. BBQ + rain = bad idea. So tons of food, no outside space, we expect a mass exodus from MHDCBBQ. NO!!!

Trickles of people at first. Suddenly close to forty. All is salvaged on a rainy Sunday. yes.

Adam in DC

travels and blogging

hey all! David Weinberg in MHDC here. I've been in Israel over the last week, so please excuse the late blog posting.

here's what I think: moishe house let's us all be grownups, despite serving the needs of a young community.

why do I say that? well first off, we get to play host. that's key. it's like being parents and having roughly 100 children a month come over for playdates at your place. also, instead of forcing creative judaism on others, we get to create a nurturing space in which for others to find their comfortable means of self-expression. but really, what it comes down to for me is the notion of tikkun olam in the Americanized sense of it. What do we all want to be when we grow up? No matter what the specific, individual answers may be for each one of us, the general answer is always to change the world. Now, the particular answers usually vary based on how each of us views meaningful avenues for change in the world and other factors, but the goal is strikingly, uniformly the same. very few corporate raiders say "i just wanna get rich." very few politicians claim they're in it for the power, even if they end up embezzling or doing greasy things thusly.

I digress.

Point is, by doing what we all to in our respective Moishe Houses, we're ALREADY making the world a better place.

So what do you want to be when you grow up? My answer for today is "a good person and a facilitator of Jewish education". I think yours is already, too!

the end.

Another month....

So another month at hoboken moishe house has gone by. This has been a month of apartment growth and change as we got new furniture and are interviewing potential new roomates as JR is leaving us for law school soon. My favourite moment of the month was when we had a tea party and it was tearrific. I taught people how a little basil, cardomon, fennel, anise, and cloves (all spices) can make some really fine tasting tea's. It was alot of fun, I also begun discussing with some of our regulars ways to attract even more people and what they would like to do for events so I'm thinking we will attract even more and new people this month. On the funny note I wanted to recruite this girl i knew in college for moishe house...she lives in hoboken andi bumped into here on my walk home from the train. One problem though was that I couldnt remember her name, it made it a bisle awkward but I got her email when I told her it was so I could tell her about moishe hizouse. - Josh (Hoboken)

Niagara Falls...and such

This past month I finally took the USMLE Step 1, a 7 hour test that I've been studying for over the past 3 months. I never really studied so much in my entire life. I never drank so much coffee or ate so much chocolate. My roommates took over some of my responsibilities for the month, so here at the Moishe house it was business (and parties) as usual. Right after I took the test I went to Niagara Falls and Canada for 2 days with my wonderful girlfriend, so that was a nice break.
One remarkable thing happened at our Moishe House this month that's worth mentioning. Two 'grown-ups' met at one of our events and sort of hit it off. If something like this would happen at a college party, it would be nothing to brag about, however, considering that most of our guests are in their late 20s, something like this only happens once in a while. I could not get any details on what happened afterwards, but the word on the street is that there were some heated and passionate moments. Hopefully with time, I'll be able to obtain some juicy gossip regarding that situation.
-Eugene (Hoboken)

MUSTACHES R MHSF

Friday night we hosted one of my favorite events thus
far: MUSTACHE-SHABBAT! The party celebrated our one
year anniversary at 1250 Fell Street. The menfolk of
MHSF grew mustaches that would have made our
great-great-grandfathers in the shtetl proud, and I
drew mustaches on all the lovely ladies who graced our
abode. And oh, did they grace our abode! We had about
65 people come through over the course of the night,
most notably two guys attending a goodbye party taking
place in a house in the next yard over who heard our
song session around the firepit and ditched their
party for ours. After regaling us with a few
delightful songs themselves, they left, depressed at
having to return to their inferior party... only to
return about an hour later, WITH MUSTACHES!!! They
ended up bringing their whole party over to our place,
and our folks and the new folks all ended up dancing
our staches off til after 3 am... It was epic. Love
the staches. Love the dancing Jews.

-Maia for MHSF

Gardening and BBQing

Things are going well at MHDC. We recently planted a garden in our backyard and celebrated with a little bbq for us and also for our regular attendees who have really gone above and beyond in their support for what we are doing. It was good fun. Last Sunday we wanted to have a really big bbq and for whatever reason checking the weather escaped us and we planned a bbq for what turned out to be the rainiest day we have had in months. We sent out an email to our list saying, "F the rain, game on" and had an amazing turn out. A couple of us sat out there bbqing in the rain and we had about 30 people come, eat and be merry. It was bomb. In general, I'm feeling good about the summer and happy that the weather is so nice.

peace in the ME,
C$

Exchanging of the Guards

May has come and gone all too soon and this summer I'll be out on the road quite a bit - opening houses this week in Maryland and Philadelphia, attending counseling workshops and events in Deleware, Seattle and back in the good ol' "Yay Area" as well. Then off to Guatemala and Israel only to return to an August full of Jew-camp in Yosemite (7 summers running). Anywho - this month I've asked elementary school friend and general MHSF superstar Jon Steimnitz to help out the house in June. Jon is seen here in full lifeguard form while you may find me in the suit that makes me look fat. Jon is clearly very excited about the opportunity to come in and do Moishe and he's the perfect man for the job.

Before I left and Jon arrived - we were both able to celebrate one of my favorite Moishe gatherings in recent memory - Mustache Shabbat! This was yet another great idea for a gathering from our very own Maia Ipp - and boy was it a doozy!! It was awesome to see everyone in costume but the real highlight was when Bill (left) and Chris (not as left) hopped several fences to get to our campfire singalong in the backyard. They had us in stitches before having to bail and return to the "going away" party they were attending for a friend. About 45 minutes later, as the mustache shabbat gave way for an all out dance party, the ambiguously gay duo (I say this after having seen one of them stick a finger in the other's butt and then smell it) returned to the party with genuine mustaches on their faces. They had actually found a disposable razor at the other party they were at and shaved. Incredible!! If that's not inspiration I don't know what is. Can't wait to return in September!!
- Isaac