Hey Guys,
I hope everyone is doing well. At Moishe House Great Neck we have found that its best to have each one of the members focus on a specific part of each event. Some of us will handle the marketing, and others will work behind the scenes. Even though our responsibilities are divided, in the end everything seems to work out smoothly.
Interestingly, when we chose to divide the responsibilities, everyone seemed to naturally choose based on there strengths. For example some of our members are great cooks, and they handle the cooking for Shabbat programs, while others have the talent to promote the events. We try to have a house meeting once a month, and during the meetings we mainly discuss our calender, and what type events we should have.
Finally, I believe our greatest success has been the involvement of our community members in our programs. At Moishe House Great Neck we have really established a deep connection with the Rabbis in our community. Whether its a discussion over Shabbat lunch or a full Shabbaton weekend, working with the Rabbis in our community has truly strengthened our programs and the impact it has on our guests. One example is Rabbi Asher Vaknin, we are truly blessed to have such a great Rabbi who really knows how to connect with the post college Jew.
Wishing you Happy Tu B'Av (Jewish Valentine's Day),
Moishe House Great Neck
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Moishe House London - House Dynamics
"Moishe House London normally has one big Monthly meeting towards the end of each month to plan and decide on the next month's programmes.
We definitely rely on the proactive attitude of each housemate. When a housemate comes up with an idea, it is generally them that drive that programme. They will then enlist the help of another housemate or someone within our Moishe community to make the idea a reality.
The suggestions generally come from a housemates interests and abilities. If someone was to suggest a programme that they themselves were not capable of running, it would most likely to be suggested with another housemate in mind and to be discussed.
We will often have community members offer up ideas for events and come in and run them along with a housemate.
At each event we have 2 housemates to be there. The 1st will be the person driving the idea, the 2nd there to assist in any necessary activity to ensure the smooth running of the programme.
We also try and have bi-weekly breakfast meetings or weekly if an event is coming up that needs to be discussed.
I have lived here for 5 months and think that the dynamic and systems employed by Moishe House London are great and ensure a harmonies house that get things done.
It is at this point that I must apologise to our American counterparts, as you may have noticed that we do spell 'Programme' rather differently!
Best wishes and Moishe Love,
Brett and the Moholo crew,
We definitely rely on the proactive attitude of each housemate. When a housemate comes up with an idea, it is generally them that drive that programme. They will then enlist the help of another housemate or someone within our Moishe community to make the idea a reality.
The suggestions generally come from a housemates interests and abilities. If someone was to suggest a programme that they themselves were not capable of running, it would most likely to be suggested with another housemate in mind and to be discussed.
We will often have community members offer up ideas for events and come in and run them along with a housemate.
At each event we have 2 housemates to be there. The 1st will be the person driving the idea, the 2nd there to assist in any necessary activity to ensure the smooth running of the programme.
We also try and have bi-weekly breakfast meetings or weekly if an event is coming up that needs to be discussed.
I have lived here for 5 months and think that the dynamic and systems employed by Moishe House London are great and ensure a harmonies house that get things done.
It is at this point that I must apologise to our American counterparts, as you may have noticed that we do spell 'Programme' rather differently!
Best wishes and Moishe Love,
Brett and the Moholo crew,
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
MHDC: "The weaponry, the secret recipe"
According to those intimately familiar with the genesis of Moishe House DC—a house fashioned by a motley crew of childhood friends—programming has always been characterized by a very organic, natural, uncontrived feel, with responsibilities rarely directly assigned. In the three years since, a number of Moisheniks have moved on and others moved in, myself included. In that time, there has been a tacit understanding that everyone is responsible for an equal share, both programmatically, and in terms of maintaining a livable environment. We all understand that if you’re not doing your share, then someone else is.
Program development tends to be up to each individual housemate. This works well at MHDC, as we all have rather different strengths and areas of interest, knowledge, and passion. As a child of a Labor Zionist movement, this resonates with me; I was raised on—and continue to believe in—the principle: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” For instance, I’ll be the first to admit my lack of interest in active, sports-related programs (yes, I was that kid, with the rock and stamp collections) though fortunately, another housemate is, and we’ve had successful cycling and boating programs recently. Likewise, while not everyone in the house is hard-wired with a love of Jewish expressive programming, it’s an area that I am interested in exploring, both on my own, and with Moishe House community members. In short, our success is often the result of the fact that we all bring very different things to the table, and are thus able to appeal to a diverse array of young Jews in DC.
While we tend to work solo (with the definite exception of Shabbat, which requires all hands on deck,) a housemate will often team up with non-housemate community members. An emphasis is often placed on working with community members to conceive and build programs, exemplified recently by our jam session and sock monkey-making. By actively engaging others in the process of our house, we cultivate community members as equal partners, and grow a healthy community.
MHDC meets in-person once a month to outline a tentative monthly schedule, to bounce program idea off one another, and to discuss general “business”— house cleanliness, whether or not it’s time to repurpose our rotting furniture, etc. As we are all inordinately busy day-to-day, and our schedules are usually out-of-sync, most of the rest of our planning and business takes place electronically. This seems to work quite well, and while we do email frequently, the minimal time spent discussing programs seems to prevent the frustrations that certain houses experience through overthinking, or spending too much time on process.
On a bittersweet note, Adam Cramer—a founding father of MHDC—moved out today. We’ll miss Adam, and we welcome the newest DC Moishenik, Sarah Lawson, to our humble home.
Program development tends to be up to each individual housemate. This works well at MHDC, as we all have rather different strengths and areas of interest, knowledge, and passion. As a child of a Labor Zionist movement, this resonates with me; I was raised on—and continue to believe in—the principle: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” For instance, I’ll be the first to admit my lack of interest in active, sports-related programs (yes, I was that kid, with the rock and stamp collections) though fortunately, another housemate is, and we’ve had successful cycling and boating programs recently. Likewise, while not everyone in the house is hard-wired with a love of Jewish expressive programming, it’s an area that I am interested in exploring, both on my own, and with Moishe House community members. In short, our success is often the result of the fact that we all bring very different things to the table, and are thus able to appeal to a diverse array of young Jews in DC.
While we tend to work solo (with the definite exception of Shabbat, which requires all hands on deck,) a housemate will often team up with non-housemate community members. An emphasis is often placed on working with community members to conceive and build programs, exemplified recently by our jam session and sock monkey-making. By actively engaging others in the process of our house, we cultivate community members as equal partners, and grow a healthy community.
MHDC meets in-person once a month to outline a tentative monthly schedule, to bounce program idea off one another, and to discuss general “business”— house cleanliness, whether or not it’s time to repurpose our rotting furniture, etc. As we are all inordinately busy day-to-day, and our schedules are usually out-of-sync, most of the rest of our planning and business takes place electronically. This seems to work quite well, and while we do email frequently, the minimal time spent discussing programs seems to prevent the frustrations that certain houses experience through overthinking, or spending too much time on process.
On a bittersweet note, Adam Cramer—a founding father of MHDC—moved out today. We’ll miss Adam, and we welcome the newest DC Moishenik, Sarah Lawson, to our humble home.
Moishe House Cleveland - August 2009
So in Moishe House Cleveland, we have four residents. Myself, Naima, Shiah, and Ti. It can sometimes be challenging to get all of us together in the same place to work things out. Me, Shiah, and Ti all work at the same place which can make it even more challenging. But when we all do get together, we make decisions lickety-split and end up with quality programming. Generally speaking, each of us performs one of the tasks online that is required for documentation. With four of us living here, it makes that division very easy. As far as tasks within the house and involved in the leading of events, we each have our own strengths. Ti is a performance artist by background and tends to lead events that involve the arts in our community. Naima leads arts events as well and also often cooks Shabbat dinners. Shiah is a cook by background and his events are more along the lines of culinary Judaism and also movies. I have a fairly good Jewish background (Jewish day school K-12) so I end up leading most of the religious/spiritual events or anything that requires any knowledge of Hebrew. We also have events that involve video games, hanging out, or just having a good time that any/all of us can be at. I feel like we work together pretty well to play to each others' strengths in order to make our programming as diverse as our community requires.
Usually, towards the end of a month, we begin talking to our community about what they would like to see in programming for the next month and beyond. We try to take as many suggestions as we can and make them happen. Sometimes, it's hard to make things happen within the scope of our monthly programming. We had some difficulties in getting away from the house for events (especially in the cold of the winter) but summer has been better and has made events and being in other places easier.
We try to meet up together at least once a month, in addition to our monthly conference call with Moishe House HQ. Generally speaking, we have a very good relationship between us due to our close friendships.
Usually, towards the end of a month, we begin talking to our community about what they would like to see in programming for the next month and beyond. We try to take as many suggestions as we can and make them happen. Sometimes, it's hard to make things happen within the scope of our monthly programming. We had some difficulties in getting away from the house for events (especially in the cold of the winter) but summer has been better and has made events and being in other places easier.
We try to meet up together at least once a month, in addition to our monthly conference call with Moishe House HQ. Generally speaking, we have a very good relationship between us due to our close friendships.
MH Hoboken-July Blog
Our house works well together when it comes to the planning and executing of events as well as completing the technical aspects (mintranet). At the beginning of each month we sit down for a meeting to plan our calendar for the upcoming month. We also try to meet at after each event to discuss how it went, its ups and downs, and how we can improve upon it. Since our schedules are all so different it can be hard to find time to sit down for an official meeting more than once or twice a month; so we constantly email to plan events that are approaching and remind each other of what has to be done for that particular event. We make both short and long term goals for our house and with the planning of events we keep in mind our goals and how the event can help us attain our goal. For example a few months ago we realized that we weren't doing tikkun olam programs and it was something that we wanted to add to our repertoire of events. We now make a conscious effort to have different types of events each month and this way we know that we have a tikkun olam event at least once every other month.
Shira is generally in charge of the technical aspect of things (uploading pictures, receipts, email list, etc. and by default the blog), David is an avid cooker and always cooks up a storm for our shabbat dinners and Josh often initiates the planning of events with other moishe houses. We always like to get input from our community members about what types of programming they would like to see us have, and while they usually don;t get involved with the actual logistics and execution of the events we believe it is important to listen and implement their ideas so that they become more involved. Overall we are a house that communicates well with each other and in turn we are able to successfully run our events.
How Hope Lives on Parade Street
As the world's smallest Moishe House, Providence has only one dynamic duo to accomplish the myriad Moishe responsibilities each month. At the risk of collapsing complex personalities into narrow archtypes, I will explain how Stephanie and Nathaniel manifest Moishe House programming each month in Providence. Generally, Nathaniel came into the Moishe game to kindle the ancient flames of jewish practices -- and keep them alive. He was lucky to receive a thorough training in things like hebrew and shabbat rituals, which he attemps to share with the local jewish scene. Nathaniel has been happy to regularize shabbas dinner, which happens EVERY week in traditional judaism. Stephanie was inspired by Moishe's model because of the creative possibilities evoked by a few young people with a budget and a mission to engage the community-wide events. Stephanie brings artistic flair to Providence -- seeking to bring new experiences to thorough movement, taste, and sound. Together, the pair designs experiences to expand each participants' experience of their community and of the jewish tradition. Moishe House Providence is looking to further integrate creative social engagements with jewish content, questioning, singing, and baking. The house is also hoping to create a series that will include jewish events and secular events under the same banner. Stay tuned for the details...
Broadmoor Night Out Against Crime
Tonight Moishe Nola joined the Broadmoor Improvement Association in the citywide New Orleans Night Out Against Crime. An annual tradition, embraced by neighborhoods throughout the city, residents take to the streets and make a stand against crime. Broadmoor marks this tradition with a an all community block party, complete with a moon bounce for the kids, local dj Wayne on the PA system, and a buffet of local flavors complete with red beans and rice and gumbo. Residents of the Moishe House were in attendance serving ice cream to Broadmoor community members. We took the opportunity to catch up with our neighbors and spread the word to new friends about the array of monthly programming put on by Moishe Nola. Emails were added to the list serve and we expect many new faces at our monthly outdoor movie night this coming Tuesday. Mayoral candidate, and Moishe House supporter James Perry stopped by the event as he continues his march to city hall – upcoming elections February 2010. All and all the evening was a great success as proud residents of Broadmoor and New Orleans came together to build community and support the common goal of a safe crime free New Orleans.
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