Masha's personal blog, MHSeattle

For the last 1.5 I've had a repetitive stress injury on my hands, shoulders and arms, which has prevented me from being fully functional. It has prevented me from working with my hands and made it difficult to work in a lab, on the computer, or to cook and do stuff around the house as much as I want/need to. Acupuncture, as always, came to rescue at first and was effective to a large degree, but not enough to do as much as a normal healthy person. I should say my housemates have been extremely supportive and understanding about housework and hosting duties.

Recently, I was interpreting for an old Russian woman who was a reiki practitioner, and I thought I've got nothing to lose if I try this. She waived her hands around me during our first session and explained to me that the human energy system is something that was left out of medical textbooks, but is just as important the cardiovascular, resporatory, nervous or any other system. I'm a believer in alternative medicine, so I kept coming. During out subsequent visits she kept working in redistributing my bioenergy and also did some manual chiropractic adjustments. I only saw her 3 times and I was feeling so much better! I could actually do dishes and work on the computer for periods of time. I even went bowling, and even though may arm was sore afterwards, I fully recovered by the next day. I was recently doing some temp office work, and by the 4th day, my wrists and arms were killing me. I went back to her, and I felt better immediately, and I'm still going to see her. She says I need to keep going a little longer to make a full recovery, and this is just fine with me.

This physical handicap has been preventing me from doing the kind of work I was trained to do, which is to work in a lab, or anything else other than medical interpreting, which is what I resorted to for scraping a living for the last 1.5years. Now that this is slowly being lifted and interpreting work is becoming more and more scarce, I'm faced with needing to look for real work. I'm still not used to not having to think about my limitations, and while I'm still not sure I should work in a lab again, but I need to figure what I want to do "when I grow up." I would love to be able to heal people the way she does, but this requires some abilities that one is born with, meaning being able to sense other people's energies, as well actual training in reiki. Acupuncture is something that has interested me since my first injury 4 years ago, as it helped me when nothing else did. It's amazing what reiki and acupuncture can do when Western medicine can't! I meet so many people that I think she could help if she had her own practice, the options for older people really suck these days, with harsh drugs that often make them worse.

This requires some prereqs on my part and 2-3 years for a Master's Degree in Acupuncture at an expensive private university in Seattle. And afterwards, the ability to pull off a private practice. And a whole lot of courage and belief in myself, which I'm still working up to.

Really all of us here at Moishe House Seattle are at a similar crossroads professionally and personally. The future is in our hands, and we'll see what we make of it...

MH - A worldwide community

This past summer, I had the oppotunity to spend 8 weeks in beautiful southern california working at Camp Ramah in Ojai. After having spent 13 years at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires, I figured I would be spending a lot of time talking about my experience there. While that was the case a lot of the time, it was surprising to find that I also spent a lot of time talking about Moishe House. Perhaps this was for a bunch of reasons; its part of my life, it's part of my social circle, it allows me to show off my cooking skill. But one reason I didnt count on was because there were people at camp who also knew people in other moishe houses, mostly in california. While at camp i met a couple of people who had visited a moishe house before. so, discussions then ensue talking about the similarities, and differences, between houses on opposite coasts. Discussions also come up about people who i met loving the idea and concept behind moishe house and wanting to know how they could apply to start one up. It was nice that I could talk to people about moishe house who knew about it and had the experience, instead of having to first explain the program to them.

The bottom line to all this is, is that as moishe house continues to grow and get bigger, we also continue to grow tighter. Because of all the exposure that comes with opening up a moishe house, that means that as more people get to experience it and the more you travel around, the more you are bound to meet people who have had the moishe house experience. And when you can travel 3,000 miles across the country and meet people who have had the same experiences as you, it helps to bring people together quicker as they both share a common bond. I did not expect it, but having some respond to you, "Oh, you're in a Moishe House? I've been to one!", it feels you with a sense of pride that you are part of something special. And if there's one word I have to use to describe the worldwide community that it Moishe House, it would be special.

MH Oakland, October Update

In Oakland the Moishe House residents stay in a house that has been referred to as a castle covered with melted marshmellows, the spooky house on the block and the "Synagogue." We embrace the unique beauty which is our home and the community we are building inside. MH Oakland has a legacy, something that has ben put down by past residents of this specific house and and multiple others in our area. We were left with gifts like a basketball hoop, bumper pool and a collection of baseball trophies. Fun is fun and we can't help but embrace this, however the new MHO residents are bringing something completely new to the table. We are a really creative/artistic group and our programing thus far is a reflection of that. Some exciting events we have held so far include monthly Shabbat House Concerts, backyard barbecue movie nights (with videos projected on the wall) and even a Bat-Mitzvah re-enactment. Moishe House's foundation is strong in Oakland and we are working to have cohesive teamwork and general good energy in our home. We are still a hidden treat in our area and will be doing more outreach to bring in new people to our community. There is a serious need for positive social, cultural and spiritual outlets for our peers in Oakland. One, two, ten years down the road, Moishe House's foundation in Oakland will grow stronger and broader exponentially.

MH Beijing - The Future....

Because of our unique location, it is difficult to say what the future will bring for Moishe House Beijing. The only certainty is change. The young adult Jewish population is drastically different than it was a 10 or even 2 years ago. Such changes reflect the ever-changing face of Beijing itself. One of the most impacting changes we foresee is a greater number of young Jews staying in the city with greater permanency. The growing number of opportunities for recent university graduates from abroad does not seem to be slowing as the global economy has faltered. While we enjoy the transient population filling our events with stories, friends, and souvenirs from their travels, an established community provides a feeling of home that a temporary one cannot. As many can attest to, it is a small Jewish world. These years are Moishe House Beijing's formative years; as more Jews build the community more Jews will hear of the community and want to become part of it themselves. The lasting impact of the current Moishe House residents will be the foundation that attracts and binds the future community members for years to come.

MH Buenos Aires looks into a crystal ball…

In 1 year…

MHBA has been very successful at drawing in young Jews for social, fun events like parties and dinners. Getting people to come to charitable and Jewish learning events has been more of a challenge. So in a year’s time we would like to see MHBA having experimented with a variety of tzedaka and Jewish learning activities to find out what works and what doesn’t and to fix the workable events / activities into a regular spot in our calendar.

Currently we celebrate / commemorate most of the Jewish festivals at MHBA, but to make MHBA more of a focal point in the Jewish life of our community, in a year’s time we would like the Moishe House to be a space where every Jewish festival is celebrated and commemorated at least once, ie a seder on Pesach, a meal in the succah on Succot, a party on Purim, Chanukiah lighting on Chanukah, etc.

Within the next year we would like to have a Shabbat / weekend away out of Buenos Aires in the beautiful Argentinian countryside. This would help to bring together our community, for regulars and new people to get to know each other better and for all to have a positive, enjoyable and inspiring Jewish experience. If it works well, we would like to make this an annual event.

In 3 years…

Currently most of our events are one-off events. This has allowed us to be creative, flexible and try out different types of activities, attracting different people to the different types of events. However, without repeated events of a particular type, those people may not come back. So we would like to have events that take place regularly so that we can develop and deepen a certain aspect of our lives. Whether the regular event is tzedaka / Shabbat / Tango or cookery lessons, it does not matter, but having the events regularly would serve to strengthen connections to each other, to the cause of that event and in developing a community. But as well as having a set of core fixed events that people come to regularly, we would also like to have some events every month that are new, interesting and innovative.

In three years’ time, we would like to have regular Friday night services in our House. Many Moishe House participants did not grow up in synagogues or Jewish youth groups and do not know traditional tunes or how to read Hebrew. In three years time hopefully many Moishe House participants will have experienced Shabbat songs enough to be able to be participate in Friday night services and Shabbat niggunim (tunes).

In 5 years…

In five year’s time we would like MHBA to be a focal point of the Buenos Aires young Jewish community, a place where young Jews can enjoy a party together, but where they also come to be Jewish in the way that they want to be.

We would hope that the MH residents in five year’s time would learn from the successes and failures of the previous five years and to provide successful events, which enrich the lives of our community, deepening their connection to Judaism and to other Jews of their age and the wider community.

In five year’s time we would like MHBA participants to feel so comfortable here that they use the space to put on their own events, a space where they can express their own Judaism, creativity and ideas. We want participants to be part of creating their own community here rather than passively receiving it.

We would also like to go on retreats on some of the Jewish festivals – having our version of holidays on the Jewish holidays!

We also predict that in 5 year’s time, Elana Rosenbaum will have opened a Moishe House in Sydney, Barcelona and Kazakhstan.

MH Cape Town - House Blog

Since its inception in 2006 Moishe House Cape Town on the slopes of Table Mountain has been a thriving social hub for young Jewish adults in the Mothercity. Despite the Cape Town Jewish community’s smaller size compared to its Johannesburg compatriot, it remains a thriving one full of potential.

Moishe House has always been an open one for the Jewish twenty-something’s in Cape Town.

Socially the house is always buzzing. A Friday and Saturday night hardly go by without a pizza, and a couple of beers before going out or enjoying each others company in the house. The house is not just host to social events but educational ones too. With a strong focus on Jewish learning and Israeli current affairs.

I’m certain that Moiushe house will continue to be a social hub for the Jewish community.

MH Budapest - House Goals

It is hard to have a clear vision, as we have just started our Moishe house a month ago in Budapest, but it is clear from the reaction of people that it is something everyone has been waiting for, without knowing what it is they were lacking! A positive thing about the first month is to see that people understand the idea of COMMUNITY space and they do not expect everything to be done by us, but they actively contribute to the programs – with bringing food from home, preparing food in our kitchen, helping to clean up the apartment, giving lectures, leading prayers, giving ideas for new programs and so on. This may be not so peculiar in other countries and cultures – such as the US – but it is a genuine development in the attitude of people, prepared by several years of similar events at Sirály and Marom.

I don’t want to say that our parents’ generation did not care for each other and did not have the feeling of community. In some respect they had much more of an experience about it, there were less “differences” and more uniting ideologies and events for them. It is exactly after 1989 that this “community feeling” suddenly disappeared, became even looked down on, and the younger generations including myself fall in some kind of a vacuum, ruled by individualism and freedom of choice. Of course, we need to add that under the socialism the community ideal was more just to belong to the group and be similar, and it was not so much about what is more needed now in the Jewish and in the Hungarian (civic) society in general today: voluntarism and own contribution let it be material or immaterial, so that people understand that a community is a huge building built from stones, and each stone has its place. And if now we have started to build the basis of the “western wall” in one year I hope to have built the equivalent of the existing one in Jerusalem, and in five years being close to reconstruct the Temple. I know it is very ambitious, and its sounds pathetic, but we are young, crazy and committed! Hashana haba b’Yerushalaim - Next year in Jerusalem!

Budapest Moishe house impacts:

*the Budapest Jewish community becomes more international (having international guests, connection with other Moishe houses) that enables it to be inspired by other young Jewish communities, to learn from them and show them our world

*we contribute to the establishment of a responsible and conscious young Jewry in Hungary

*our programs raise factual knowledge about Judaism among young adults

*we provide community experiences for young adults, celebrating Jewish holidays on alternative ways being their second homes

*other young people would like to join our example and they establish similar houses on their own and / or the number of people living in the Moishe House Budapest will be raised to 5-7

*Budapest Moishe house’s life will be documented and included in literary, theatrical, academic and journalistic writings

* Budapest Moishe house will be the symbol and melting pot of young, creative, responsible Jews in Budapest