SkillSummit in NYC

I just got back last night from a whirlwind weekend in New York, capped off by Sunday's SkillSummit sponsored by the Professional Leaders Project. First off, whoa. 30 hours in New York is just not enough. Saturday was a great chance to catch up with old friends, including spending 3 hours wandering from 90th to 42nd with someone I had not spoken to since freshman year of college.

At the SkillSummit on Sunday, I got ot meet Rebecca from MH Philly and learn a lot from her about what their house has been doing and the challenges they have faced over the last 2 years. One important idea that came out of the conversation is to increase communication between houses. As a house that is just getting started, it would be great to know events that have worked for others, ways people have dealt with problems, etc. etc. We are going to work on a way to make this idea-sharing happen ASAP.

Also, I am looking forward to an exciting rest of the month here in STL. We have a Channukah celebration coming up on Friday, and we are hosting a Jewish band called Zeda's Beat Box at Cicero's (a great bar with over 50 beers on tap) the Friday after. Other than that, I am off on an East Coast roadtrip through North Carolina, DC and New York the week between Christmas and New Years. Man it will be good to get away. An early happy hanukkah to one and all!

Dave
MH STL

Sam - MH:CLE

Happy December to everyone, a little late, but whatever. Holidays are fast approaching, and with Thanksgiving right behind us, Christmas music has already started blasting from the speakers of stores and shops everywhere. I worked most of the Thanksgiving weekend and the restaurant I work at was very busy. I am just glad that this past week was slow (2-4 inches of snow Saturday night makes for a dead night on the cook line) because it will undoubtedly speed up again with colleges letting out for winter break in the coming week. So I can take solace in the fact that while there are 16 shopping days until Christmas, Hanukkah is only 2 weeks away, and our Moishe House Cleveland trip to the Matisyahu concert is but 6 days away. I am so excited.

MHSeattle, Joel: Come Out, Come Out

This month, I have a little rant/musings thing for you.

The lovers and the haters of the Jews have one thing in common: we believe passionately in conspiracy theories. Last night I went on a field trip to watch Milk with a lovely crowd from the Ravenna Kibbutz. Before going, I happened to learn two things through the Internet. The first is that Sean Penn is an agent of the Jewish Marxist-homosexulist conspiracy. The second is that the photojournalism world is in a froth over a woman named, Jewily enough, Jill Greenberg. By night's end, I had a conspiracy theory of my own.

First, Jill Greenberg. She was hired by The Atlantic to photograph John McCain for the magazine's October cover. She delivered and it went to press. The flap is over unflattering photos from the shoot that Greenberg posted independently to her web site, and an interview in which she described using lighting to make the Republican's eyes and skin look bad because -- well, because Jill Greenberg thinks John McCain is bad.

Right-wing pundits were predictably angry, but so was The Atlantic -- accusing Greenberg of no less than betrayal and derangement -- backed by a chorus of photojournalists all in fits over the shame this brings upon their profession.

This sounded nutty to me. I can see calling Greenberg's stunt sophomoric, or deceptive. (I would call it both.) But deranged?

It seems her "betrayal" -- as with Jewish photographers Arnold Newman and Annie Leibovitz before her -- is that Greenberg injected her personal life into her photography. She has been loudly anti-Republican for long enough that The Atlantic could have found out in five seconds on Google (or just by asking), before hiring her to photograph the Republican candidate for President. But evidently the expectation is that personal politics shouldn't matter to a photographer. Why, that would make photography subjective!

I think it's goofy that this is a big, shocking deal. So, it seems, does Jill Greenberg. We don't get it, I realized at the theater, because we are part of the same conspiracy. A conspiracy of identity politics, and of pride. The Jewish Coming-Out Conspiracy.

Which brings me to the movie. What impressed me most about Milk was how Gus Van Sant, no Jew, could direct a Mormon-written screenplay with a Catholic star and still hit all of the Jewish themes pretty much on the head. As the film tells it, Harvey Milk's story begins the moment he comes out -- of the closet, to California -- to embrace rather than conceal his difference (read: chosenness). It is campaign manager Anne Kronenberg who gives Milk's inner circle the model of coming out to loved ones. And it is with investment banker-publisher David B. Goodstein that Milk pursues a visibility-versus-assimilation debate as old as the Hellenists and the Maccabees.

Harvey Milk's message is that politics must be made personal. His killer, Irish-Catholic Dan White, is enraged that politics cannot be kept pure. White probably wouldn't have cared for Jill Greenberg's photography either.

One skeptical of conspiracy theories might ask, what does LGBT identity politics (Milk) or Leftist identity politics (Greenberg) really have to do with the Jews? I would ask why, from Moses to Marx to Milk, do the Jews pop out so many of the rabble-rousing iconoclasts who keep shoving identity into politics to start with?

My friend, and former MHSeattle resident Tamar's sister, Vancouver-based artist Miriam Libicki, who spoke at UW Hillel on Thursday, explores a related question in her comix-essay "Jewish Memoir Goes Pow! Zap! Oy!" published this month in The Jewish Graphic Novel from Rutgers University Press (with cover design featuring a Libicki watercolor). The essay seeks to explain why the genre of autobiographical comix is so dominated by Jewish stories and language, not to mention authors. Why, Libicki asks, have Jewish writers and artists been quicker than most to air publicly all the disturbing, titillating, inspiring stuff in their closets? (Think Philip Roth, Art Spiegelman.)

She posits an explanation, that Jewish culture is highly tolerant of imperfect heroes. Moses was aloof, Jacob was scheming, Abraham was deceptive, and Noah was a drunk. We (and G-d) love them anyway, so maybe a Harvey Pekar, or Milk, can put himself into public view, warts and all, and gain acceptance too.

I think we can take it even one step further: In Jewish culture, as in Jewish mythology, the only heroes we believe in are warty, imperfect ones. Christian culture idealizes a world with no more rough edges, and seeks transcendent heroes to match. Jewish culture idealizes a world where the rough edges just don't kill anyone, and maybe even are kind of awesome if you're in on the joke.

Any leader, then, who makes it safe to come out, strange rough edges and all, is the prototypical Jewish hero, and you can bet that his (or her) movement will be full of Jews in on the conspiracy. Why? Because it is the lot of every Jew to feel acutely strange. And it is the dream of everyone strange to one day come out, be strange, and thrive.

Happy Kislev. :)

MH Chicago, Caren M.

Last night we had a rockin Shabbat dinner- we have an abundance of food left over! It's gonna last us till next Shabbat. It's cold here and the days are short... winter is a comin and Moishe programs are starting to move indoors... I'm looking forward to our December programs with a BIG Hanukkah party already in the works. We have a reunion planned with our former Moishe resident Karen who left us in August... Holiday breaks are in sight and this means visiting friends and family. Always fun to have guests! Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the holiday season.

Reflections on Moishe House

Reflecting on the past year of being a Moishe House resident, I must say that Moishe House works in achieving it's goal. From the Shabbat dinners to my most favorite event "Up High with the Rabbi," I have seen many of our guests connect with Judaism in ways they have never imagined. This is why I am proud and blessed to be a part of this great organization.

Shabbat Shalom,
Joey Yadgar
Moishe House Great Neck

Moishe House in the Big D

Hello all Moisheniks of the world!! My name is Shana, and this is my first blog as my roommate, Sima, and I have just opened the first Moishe House in Dallas. There is a stir around the city as we are trying to promote Moishe House as a great place for Jewish people in their twenties to come hang out with new people and not feel obligated to do anything stricktly "Jewish". With that in mind, we are trying to get feedback from people in our community about what programs they would like us to plan.

Between our crazy schedules, Sima and I have tried to move in to our fab pad, work like crazy, keep up with old friends, and meet as many new ones as we can. We have already had a couple new people come to our events, so that is definitely a good sign. As Sima mentioned, we have rescheduled our housewarming party/opening of the Moishe House to combine with a Hanukkah party at the end of December. We have sent out our evite early in hopes that even more poeple can mark their calendars and get excited for it.

So far, I couldn't be more excited about my new adventure living in a Moishe House. I think it is such a wonderful and much needed idea. It is also quite impressive that when I mentioned it to my friends in other states, they tell me that they have heard of it before and have even gone to some events in cities such as Washington D.C. and Los Angeles.

In other exciting news, The Texas Jewish Post decided to write an article about the Moishe House in Dallas. We have already interviewed with them, so we are looking forward to the article. I am sure it will get passed around to all of you, and hopefully it will bring even more attention to our house in hopes that even more people can become a part of this amazing organization.

I guess that's all for now. Until next month....see ya'll later :)

~Shana Knubowitz

MH Cleveland goes punk rawk!!!!

ok so I know its a bit cliche to have the word rock, spelled rawk, but none the less cleveland moishe went punk rock, it was awesome. There was a little confusion in times and I know that my band had to play first but either way it was a hell of a good time. Knowing that moishe house cleveland people are well willing to go to a persons house they have never been too or know, and willing to mingle with all the punk rock kids home from college, luckily moishe house is going punk rock again, this time at a real venue in january with real tickets and a real stage and more room for MH cleveland to rock around. Other then that we at MHCLE are all doing well with our daily lives responsibilities, and we all look forward to what the next round of holidays bring.

take care Mates,
SHiah