MH Cleveland- Naima

A successful Moishe House event can happen in a few different ways. There are a variety of components involved, not all of which need be present at a successful event. The first is attendance. I would break this into to categories: amount of people at the event, and attendance of new timers. Some events can be considered successful by measuring attendance alone. We had a Memorial Day Barbecue at the end of May with between 40 and 60 participants. Attendance alone made this an incredibly successful event for our house.  Not all successful events need to have new people, however, it is important that at least some of them do. If a number of events consecutively do not have any new participants than those events are less successful. 

Yet, smaller, more intimate events can be just a successful. A large crowd is not always necessary, however, I like to have at least fifteen people at an event. Here at the Cleveland House, we sometimes have many more, or a few less than 15. Often, more important than attendance is the level of engagement of the attendees. Are people enjoying themselves while participating in the activity? Are your guests having intimate, deep, meaningful, fun, entertaining, philosophical, or light hearted conversations? Do the attendees who met at your events ever connect out side of events, become friends, or date?

I think that our most successful event is having Shabbat dinner. We have a large dinner once or twice a month and normally have between 14 and 25 guests. Sometimes the dinners are themed and planed in advanced extensively, yet at other times, they end up being a bit more last minute. Our last shabbat dinner, in June, was very successful. I purchased all fresh ingredients at the West Side Market, a large open air farmers market here in Cleveland, and Sam and Ti cooked most of the faboulous food on the grill. The night culminated with everyone gathered in a circle drinking and talking around our giant hookah on the porch, under the stars. I think that the most important aspect of having a successful event is remembering to be the social lubricant between the guests. An experience for a person can be made or broken based on whether or not they feel some sort of social connection with someone else there.

Summer in Chicago

The month of June officially brought summer to the streets of Chicago and we here at the Moishe house Chicago have really taken advantage of the warm weather and the happy people. With longer evenings and mild weather on our side we always find it is a little bit easier to gather a crowd. We also make sure to take advantage of the free outdoor events going on in city everyday, such as a St. Vincent concert in Millenium Park we took in early in the month and a number of other festivals that we are planning to attend in July.

Our most successful events always seem to involve food and the outdoors. Be it BBQs or music in the park, summer really allows us to work on these great factors that lead to success. We find that success is not only measured in numbers, but of course the amount of conversation and time that people stay. Our Shabbat dinners are always the most enjoyable because our home is open to the multitudes and we put in a lot of effort to make delicious meals - a good meal will always bring people back.

As we enjoy these warm days, we have also been thinking a lot about our coming departure from the Moishe House world. It has been an incredible experience that we have shared together for the past 2 years, but life continues and new paths are calling and waiting to be discovered by each of us.

We are happy to report though that we have been talking with some members of the Chicago Moishe House community about taking over the House in the fall. Discussing our experiences with these possible future moishe house members has really allowed us to reflect on how much we have grown and learned over these past years. It was also very inspiring to hear their thoughts and hopes for what the next generation of Chicago Moishe House may be in the future. We hope to be as much help to them as possible, and are planning on making the most of the summer we have left.

Take it easy - MH Chicago

Busy as a Bee...:)

When thinking about my first two months living in Moishe House Philly, "Whew!" would have to be the first thing that comes to mind. Don't get me wrong-- I truly love living in MHP and I am already just about bursting with Moishe House pride. That being said, I feel as though I have been "busy as a bee" ever since I moved in.

Although my stuff is finally fully unpacked, I still feel as though I have some more settling in to do. For example, even though I love the fact that MHP's calendar is almost always packed with events, I am struggling somewhat to find time to make it to all of the events that I would like to attend. Once again, I'm not complaining at all-- after all, this week I get to practice yoga, go to a Matisyahu concert, and have a home-cooked Shabbat dinner in our house. To be honest, I really couldn't imagine a more exciting week. It's just that when you add on top of that all of the meetings we have and all of the emails, house chores, and picture-posting that must get done, things can become a bit hectic. 

For that reason, I am going to cut this first post a bit short. However, since I think that my feelings of being crazy-busy are just symptoms of being a newbie in a rather happening house, I am hoping to have more time to blog next quarter. Until then though, happy summer!  

Success...MHP Style

When it comes to putting on a successful Moishe House event, we at Moishe House Philly can’t help but get excited when a lot of people show up for one of our programs. For instance, we had a great Beach Bash recently, and there’s no denying that having so many eager-to-party guests made the night a blast. Yet, just as good things often come in small packages, sometimes even low-turnout events can be great success stories.  

The Relay for Life event that MHP participated in on June 26th is an excellent example of just that.  Although there were only eight of us at the event, we had some quality bonding time during the 12 hours we were there and we united as a team in our hand-decorated Moishe House t-shirts and hawaiian print bandanas. In fact, small but mighty would be the best way to describe our team. True, it would have been great if we had had more people on our team joining us in the fight against cancer, however our enthusiasm for the cause definitely made up for our small size. Plus, we even had two newbies on our team! 

In addition, by participating in the walk, we raised (and are still continuing to raise) a considerable amount of money for the American Cancer Society. This we accomplished through a number of different advertising methods. For example, we created a team page on the American Cancer Society's website, and then sent out emails and Facebook invites that linked people to our site so that they could either join our team or donate money on our behalf. To check out our team page, click here . . . and feel free to make a donation while you're at it!

 

As you can tell, there are many different ways of measuring success at MHP - while many people walk through our door for events, we also try to make sure those who come have a meaningful experience, especially in the more intimate events. We look forward to continuing our involvement in this way and working to better our community!

Moishe House St. Louis Asks, "What makes a successful event?"

For us, Moishe House St. Louis, a successful event is created by a combination of several factors.

First, who showed up? Did anyone new stop by? Did they make some good connections and potentially start to form some relationships? Did the regulars enjoy themselves?

We want to make sure that we are continually reaching out to new people so as not to become clique-y and so as to not become stagnant.

Second, did we create another bond towards strengthening the post-college Jewish community in St. Louis? Did people have a good time, and are they more likely to bring a friend?

A really successful event is one in which someone comes up to us and tell us how meaningful it was for them to find the Jewish community they had been missing in St. Louis, or that they really felt reconnected to their Jewish heritage through an event.

Moishe House isn't really rocket science. Create a welcoming environment, invite people to share it, and then encourage them to invite a few more people as well.

Moishe House Oakland---more than just free food

Joshua Walters from Moishe House Oakland Checks in...

Before Moishe House I used to think all you needed for a good party was lots of delicious food, but after throwing a couple events I've realized that while full bellies are important, for me, a successful event also incorporates laughter, silliness and sharing.

Just a regular BBQ where folks who I don't know or don't care for come to the house and eat up all the chicken and corn seems kind of hallow to me. I could just feed people, but privileged jews don't need a hand out, and in the end what was accomplished. We had an event a couple weeks ago that was just food and schmooze, and it felt OK, but it didn't feel great, because it didn't feel like people walked away with a better sense of where they lived.

Coming from a performing arts background, the events I host at the house are not just free food, but a chance for people to get to know one another by sharing there experience, weather it be hilarious or deeply personal. The Last event we had, Shabbat House Concert, was a complete success with comedians, singer/songwriters, storytellers and even a mime. The force of people's laughter completely shattered any social stiffness that a group of strangers might have. People who attended got to know a different side of the performers who shared, weather it be a sweet lullaby sung on the guitar or a story filled with love about about one's mom. This was an event that had a lot of sharing, and in turn a feeling of community.

Joel, Moishe House London

Of course what makes a successful Moishe House event, at least for those of us in Moishe House London, comes down to more than simply the number of attendees. That said, all our most successful events - the ones when we've looked back at the end of the night and said, "Wow, that was great, that's what we exist for" - have been when something's caught the imagination of the people out there and they've turned up in numbers. Maybe that's just the starting point...

It's hard to choose just one, but one which was certainly noteworthy was a special 'listening event' during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza, in January. The reason I'm picking this one is that people said Moishe House London was the only place they knew that could have held such an event, and it was so needed.

The conflict had been going for weeks now and most people's engagement with it was filtered through the news (TV and print) and expressed via Facebook, where the polemic raged. We felt we should do something but also that it should be different, some kind of counterbalance to all this rage and thunder. Yet it also had to be real and useful, not just full of platitudes and good wishes. What we advertised was an event where people could come and say how they truly felt about what was going on, no matter what their opinion or politics, without fear of it escalating into an argument or shouting match. The question was, how to create a strong enough container to hold different views and how to stop people from shutting down when something is expressed that they find hard to hear?

That was key to the event - asking those questions in advance and planning our approach very carefully. We met and decided, I would run the event and explain from the outset that each participant is to speak for four or five minutes (depending on numbers in attendance) from the heart and for themselves only. It is everyone else's role simply to listen, without comment or reaction. Even when it is your turn to speak, refrain from picking up on previous speakers' points and stick to your honest and heartfelt take, in the moment, unplanned, secure that you too are being heard.

And the event really worked. There were about 25 people - not the biggest but a perfect number really for such an event - and a diversity of opinions. We like the fact that different kinds of people come to us and that night we hosted two Muslims as well as our usual Jewish contingent. Some spoke out in Israel's support. Others said they felt guilt and wanted to galvanise the Jewish community to do more for the Palestinians. Many felt torn. But after everyone had said their piece we held hands and sat in silence for a further five minutes, until I rang a bell to signal the end of the session. Afterwards people stuck around, mingled, chatted and came up to us to
say how much they'd appreciated the evening.

So yes, it was a certain depth of experience that made this event what it was, and a sense that what we were doing was necessary and uniquely Moishe House. We enjoy a freedom to be different, to keep dreaming up our ideal Jewish community events and making them a reality. How lucky we are.