March was my 6th month living in Moishe House, and my relationship to the house and our community members has only grown and been strengthened. I got to take a greater role in programming over the course of these past 6 months, and with two new residents moving in since then, it has been great to become a "senior" resident of our house.
The new energy in our house has been - and I am sure will be - great. We are breaking out of an old mold and putting together new programs that combine the best of our interests. And on top of that, our longest resident, Rachael, has just put together a monthly coffee house program, where people come and hang out and also share their talents. It was wonderful to hang out in my living room last week while so many talented people played music and performed right in my own home!
The Capital Boogie has also only continued to grow. We are getting 50-60 people at each boogie, and more and more people are hearing about it. It has been very special to see this event - an inter-generational dance party for people of all ages - grow and grow.
Friday, April 2, 2010
MoHoLo Version 3.0 (Joel personal blog, MHLondon)
We're about to enter our final Shabbat in this incarnation of Moishe House London. It's been two and a half years since we began, and one and a half in this particular house, but on Sunday we move into a gorgeous new place at the bottom of the road. Bigger, warmer, nicer, even cheaper, with an extra large basement reception room that's perfect for events. We're all very excited about it and, to be honest, it feels like a totally new stage of the project. Natalia's just moved in as a resident and Aviad's only been here a couple months. Joseph, who started the house with me, Rachel, Gideon and Daniel, is also leaving, so it's just me and Rachel from the original 5. But MoHoLo is evolving. We now do more programmes that we really want to see in the house, with more personal invites. Natalia has just started a women's Rosh Chodesh group and Aviad is putting on monthly jam sessions. I'll also be using the new space to rehearse for my play in June - 'The Engineer of Chelm,' a new Jewish environmental play based on the book of Jonah and showing at the new Jewish Museum. More here.
Personal: Anna from Warsaw
It's been very busy month for me. First I was re-elected for the President of Polish Jewish Youth Organization, so I am veru happy. Secodn we organized huge Passover Seder out of Warsaw. A lot of work, but totally worth our efforts. Over 40 people came! We got guest from Israel and United States. Traditional food and a lot of Matzo of course.
The othet thing I am going to Budapest next week for European Union of Jewish Students meeting and I am very excited.
Now I am in the middle of preparation for our summer camp, and it's ain't easy because of travel costs, destination(I am not really sure Bucarest or Odessa) and so on. Hoping that everyting will turn great I wish you all joyful Passover!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Q2 Personal Blog - Kayda Prodgers - MHJHB
I have thoroughly enjoyed my Moishe House experience so far. Coming up with ideas for cool and interesting events has been the best part for me. It is very exciting to be able to provide these social and learning opportunities to Jewish youth in our community who would not have been exposed to these kinds of experiences otherwise. We are lucky to have such a great house and in such a great area too, and this allows us to run cool events. The guests we have had so far have really enjoyed and appreciated the things we have run for them, and it has been a privilege to be a part of the wider Moishe House family. I find the process of uploading photos and receipts so quick and simple and this makes this logistical side of things a pleasure too. Thanks for all the help and we look forward to future months of exciting events.
Moishe House JHB - March Blog - Inter-House Collaberation
Up to this point our Moishe House has unfortunately not collaborated with any other houses, although it is definitely something we would like to do. We know the people who live in the house in Cape Town and we think it will be a brilliant opportunity and experience for us to collaborate with them. We could run an event simultaneously and Skype with each other to see how things are going during the event. We could even share event ideas and thoughts about fun things to do and run for both our communities.
We feel we should commit to finding out more about other Moishe Houses and meeting with them to discuss ideas and compare communities, as it can be a very valuable experience and fun way to learn from each other. We think it is important to expose ourselves to other Moishe Houses in order to understand the work they do in other Diaspora communities. It can only be a beneficial experience for us to learn about and from other communities around the world.Props to Alix and the gang for an amazing seder
Hey Moishe House Team,
For my blog, I wanted to give a shout out to Alix, for her awesome work planning the Moishe House Boston seder. Not only was the seder engaging and meaningful in its own right, but it involved all the participants in preparing for, planning, and leading it, which helped the event live up to our house's larger goals of leadership development and empowerment.
Alix worked with the Shabbat and holidays team to split up all that had to be done into roles, tasks, and eventually shifts, and then included in our invitation that anyone who wanted to join had to help out. Everyone was invited to work one-two four hour shifts cleaning and kashering the house, shopping, cooking, decorating, setting up, or cleaning up. On top of that, Alix invited people to choose a part of the seder - like "kadesh,"the wine, or "urchatz," the hand washing, and to find a way to share it with the group that was meaningful and fun. Everything, from the RSVPs to the shopping lists and recipes was organized on a google doc so that people could take ownership of what was going on. Then, Alix worked with our board member Julie Aronowitz to collect everyone's ideas along with seder readings from some creative hagadot, to make our very own Hagadah.
The result was a seder where everyone was both a participant and a leader. My favorite part was the maggid/story-telling section, organized by Rakia, a single mom in our community, who is an amazing educator and musician. She led a full on improv drama of the exodus story. Partipants played a variety of roles, including Moses's mom Yocheved, Moses' sister Miriam, Pharaoh's daughter, the Egyptians, the Israelite slaves, Aaron, Moses, God, and each of the ten plagues. The star was Rafael, Rakia's four-year-old son, who played Moses, and shouted with more and more enthusiasm "Let us go!" each time Pharoah refused the Israelites and ignored the plagues.
We also did a cool thing for Elijah's cup where we started with an empty cup, and everyone went around adding wine to the cup saying how we would help contribute to redemption through our own actions to make the world better. When the cup was filled, I had the honor of taking Rafael, the four year old, to open the door for Elijah. On the way down, he said to me, "Is Elijah real?" "I said, I don't know. But I hope so. Because he's supposed to come and tell us that the Messiah is coming and that the world is going to be how we wish it were."
When we got to the door and opened it, Rafael was almost bowled over by the windy air, or perhaps with the entrance of Eliahu hanavi. "Elijah!" Rafael pleaded. "Please come and make the world better. But don't worry, you have us to help you."
For my blog, I wanted to give a shout out to Alix, for her awesome work planning the Moishe House Boston seder. Not only was the seder engaging and meaningful in its own right, but it involved all the participants in preparing for, planning, and leading it, which helped the event live up to our house's larger goals of leadership development and empowerment.
Alix worked with the Shabbat and holidays team to split up all that had to be done into roles, tasks, and eventually shifts, and then included in our invitation that anyone who wanted to join had to help out. Everyone was invited to work one-two four hour shifts cleaning and kashering the house, shopping, cooking, decorating, setting up, or cleaning up. On top of that, Alix invited people to choose a part of the seder - like "kadesh,"the wine, or "urchatz," the hand washing, and to find a way to share it with the group that was meaningful and fun. Everything, from the RSVPs to the shopping lists and recipes was organized on a google doc so that people could take ownership of what was going on. Then, Alix worked with our board member Julie Aronowitz to collect everyone's ideas along with seder readings from some creative hagadot, to make our very own Hagadah.
The result was a seder where everyone was both a participant and a leader. My favorite part was the maggid/story-telling section, organized by Rakia, a single mom in our community, who is an amazing educator and musician. She led a full on improv drama of the exodus story. Partipants played a variety of roles, including Moses's mom Yocheved, Moses' sister Miriam, Pharaoh's daughter, the Egyptians, the Israelite slaves, Aaron, Moses, God, and each of the ten plagues. The star was Rafael, Rakia's four-year-old son, who played Moses, and shouted with more and more enthusiasm "Let us go!" each time Pharoah refused the Israelites and ignored the plagues.
We also did a cool thing for Elijah's cup where we started with an empty cup, and everyone went around adding wine to the cup saying how we would help contribute to redemption through our own actions to make the world better. When the cup was filled, I had the honor of taking Rafael, the four year old, to open the door for Elijah. On the way down, he said to me, "Is Elijah real?" "I said, I don't know. But I hope so. Because he's supposed to come and tell us that the Messiah is coming and that the world is going to be how we wish it were."
When we got to the door and opened it, Rafael was almost bowled over by the windy air, or perhaps with the entrance of Eliahu hanavi. "Elijah!" Rafael pleaded. "Please come and make the world better. But don't worry, you have us to help you."
Steven kleinman personal Blog
Hi All,
I wanted to share with everyone an exciting event I ran in March. We do two shabbat dinners most months. One large come as you are type shabbat, and one smaller invite only shabbat (usually 20-30 folks). On an off shabbat, I decided to do blessings only. I had folks over for grape juice, challah, and candles. It was a bit odd, but it'll get better once folks know to look for it. It's a nice way to mark the sabbath for me, and it's an event that is helping me to search for ways that my own spirituality will continue after I leave moishe house some time in the future.
I wanted to share with everyone an exciting event I ran in March. We do two shabbat dinners most months. One large come as you are type shabbat, and one smaller invite only shabbat (usually 20-30 folks). On an off shabbat, I decided to do blessings only. I had folks over for grape juice, challah, and candles. It was a bit odd, but it'll get better once folks know to look for it. It's a nice way to mark the sabbath for me, and it's an event that is helping me to search for ways that my own spirituality will continue after I leave moishe house some time in the future.
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