MHSeattle, Tamar Libicki, 09-31-08

Moishe House Seattle events have been very fun lately. We've been having a lot of singers, and dancers, and musicians. We've had good games of charades, and of course great conversations. Last week we had a blackberry themed dinner, and Joel, Neal, and I picked blackberries in an adventurous fashion first and then Masha and I, and a guest Dan turned them into blackberry muffins, blackberry icecream, and blackberry pie. Of 24 blackberry muffins none were left the next day. Sorry Masha!

Oh, Moishe House!

August has been an interesting month. With one of our roommates moving out, we decided to spend some time together rebuilding as a new house, to invest in our space and vision for the coming year - our second year as Moishe House Chicago!

Just one example, after spending time picking out colors, we spent a lovely Saturday morning repainting our kitchen a warm "nacho cheese" yellow and rearranged our furniture to create a more homey space for the coming year.

The year is starting off well, with each of us finding comfort in full-time jobs and busy with our lives in Chicago, it's great to come home to our "family" and plan events for our larger community. I can tell that this year will be a good one for Moishe House Chicago.

-Elana

MHSeattle, Neal Schindler, 8/29/2008

I'm all moved in, and even in the few days I've been here I've been struck by how nice it is to come home to a place where people are likely to be watching The Daily Show on someone's laptop, listening to an NPR analysis of the Democratic National Convention, or cooking something lusciously aromatic in the kitchen. Or building an IKEA table. Or playing Brazilian music for no reason other than that the house has a record player and it's a fine day for Brazilian music (and isn't every day?). In other words, this is a real home, and I haven't lived in one for more than 4 years -- and even then, there was less intention behind the homemaking.

What's also struck me is how easy it feels for me to dedicate my Friday nights to Shabbat dinner. Maybe it's because I'm just coming out of a two-and-a-half-year relationship and my weekend evenings are mysteriously free; maybe it's really because I'm at a stage of life where I don't feel like I need to rush out to the bars or some nightlife-ish event on a Friday night. Maybe it's actually more nourishing to spend one night of the weekend with my housemates and members of the lovely and growing community they've established in, impressively, less than a year's time. The feeling that led me to become a resident of Seattle's Moishe House in the first place was one of familial comfort -- a sense of belonging that hit me immediately, even though I didn't really know anyone yet. Perhaps it's largely because I'm finally trying to embrace, rather than run away from, Jewish identity and connection. Perhaps it's because intentional community is something I've sought since 2001, when I graduated from college, and am only now rediscovering -- coming home to, if you will. Whatever the reason(s), I'm glad I live here. Tuesday night potlucks and Friday night dinners never fail to raise my spirits, which these days is no small thing.

One last note: Today I was at PCC, shopping for Shabbat-dinner salad ingredients, when a middle-aged woman pulled over in her car and asked me about my Obama bumper sticker (it says "Barack Obama" in Hebrew). Specifically, she asked where I got it, and I told her it came from the Ravenna Kibbutz. She said: "I didn't know Ravenna had a kibbutz!" (Common response.) So I explained the Moishe House organization to her very briefly and gave her the Kibbutz's Web address. I've never been much of a proselytizer for anything -- certain movies, maybe, and my college co-op system -- but it's nice to be able to promote a place I believe in and actually call home, too.

Moishe House JHB - ADAM DAVID SACK

Howzit folks,

This is the first blog of one Moishe house representative from the city of Johannesburg in South Africa. For those who don’t know me, my name is Sack – that’s what people call me around here, I guess maybe, its because I am Irish. I have been a Moishe house representative for just under 2 months now and seeing as this is my first blog, I guess I will allow you to delve into my world.

So you will travel down the rabbit hole of my life.

I wake up every morning and shout up the stairs to my house-mates Ilan and Doron to throw down the red key, the red key is particularly important to my morning because it allows me to access the shower, without it I would smell like garlic – Ilan loves garlic, but that is a whole other blog entirely.

After bracing the stairs and waiting in the line to shower I eventually fight the cold winds and enjoy my morning shower, it is the highlight of my day, the rest is all downhill.

Breakfast happens next, it is a fight for the toaster and the last ounce of cheese to go with some stale toast, but of course the toaster still is not working properly and my toast is ruined. Ahh there is light at the end of tunnel, I reach in the back of the cupboard and take out the last remains of the muesli, fetch a bowl from the draw and fill it as much as I can with the wholesome goodness that is bran. As the milk mixes in I know this is going to be a good day.

The milk is off.

You see, you can never be sure if you have milk, this is always my problem when I am at the store, because you don’t want to run of milk, it is the worst. You have the bowl set up, spoon next to it, you have the glass of OJ, you have the morning paper, everything is ready to go and you lift the milk up and OHHH NO! Too light. So I always buy too much milk, and then it is a race against time, yeah, that expiration date – that freaky thing… how do they always know.

Anyway, this day I lost. The milk was off and breakfast was over.

Enough banter

But everyday is a good day for Moishe house Johannesburg. People come over, we chill, hang out, talk about the world, run cool events, such as dinners and book clubs and games nights and quiz shows with prizes and screen movies and slowly but surely we watch our popularity grow.

That’s all for me.

Thanking for exploring my Moishe house morning. Next Blog will include lunch, and if you are well behaved, you might get a sneak preview at tea! I love tea with scons it is my favorite food!

Adios Amigos

Sack

Moishe House JHB - ILAN STRAUSS

Hello Everyone,

INTRO
Well Moishe House JHB is going from strength to strength. And what a mesibah. Our house is pumping, the food is flowing, people are chilling and the house arrangement is going really well. People are even bringing over items to help us out. Someone brought a couch and even some random Jews from France.

POLITICS 101
Johannesburg life is the window of the "New Africa." It is the tash mahal of Africa in fact and immigrants from around the world choose to come here. This is also part of the problem. South Africa at present has 40% unemployment. During the great depression by most estimates unemplyment was around 35% max. To compound this our good old friendly neighbour Robert Mugabe (or "Bob the builder - can he destroy it") has continued since 1999 to cleanse the country of political opposition and so in the proccess around 6 million Zimbabwians have been pushed into South Africa. The SA government has felt no need to pass any legislation over the last half a decade to deal with this influx of immigrants, creating a loose loose situation for immigrants (no jobs or labours las can apply to illegal immgirants who have not been granted asylum seeker status) and for SA (we loose out on bringing into the labour market many individuals with skills such as teachers and doctors). Instead we stead them off to towns for immigrants where they live in inhumane and barbaric conditions. Instead we let locals watch as foreigners sometimes receive RDP (post 1994 - Economics policy dedicated to Growth through redistribution of resources) houses ahead of locals thus creating a teapot, with the steam coming out and a hissing noise letting people know that the situation is about to explode.

This lead to mass violence against foreigners in South Africa. Our gardner who is from ZImbabwe, was beaten and so him and his wife and his brother and there wife and his child, were sleeping in our house for a period of time. Most peoples origonal housing (which was in informal shanty towns - in tins shacks) was burned down and still dangerous, thus making it hard for these locals to return safely to there houses even after the violence had subsidided.
Layer sof political manipulation and interest can and should be read into this situation however this blog must have a word limit on it.

So with that in mind, come to JHB and see Moishe here. Where we try and help others and not just ourselves. And we say that Moishe House money should not just be spend on junk but on helping those around us. A strong Jewish community can only radiate it message outwards, Moishe House can create that core.

Best,

Ilan

Rae, MHP August 2008

Is August seriously almost over? Just say no, because if it is then so is the summer, and I'm having none of that. We've been having a great time over at MHP, and it's really amazing how quickly the summer has been flying by. Plus summer can't be over, because we still haven't gotten any tomatoes off of our tomato plants (they look beautiful though, so there can't just be something wrong with our plants). And I'm not ready to stop spending so much time in our beautiful little back yard (although, I hear heat lamps aren't nearly as expensive as you would think, so who knows, maybe the backyard will become a year-round destination). Even if summer does eventually come to an end though, as I guess it must, I'm amped for all the great things coming up this autumn, from the East Coast Regional Retreat, to Inter-MHP Camping at French Creek with MH Hob and MHSS, to Apples N' Hunnies.

St. Louis is on the Map

Shalom, Salaam, Salut, MH world.

I figured it was about time to wade in and give a little detail about what a Moishe House in the Mid-West is all about.

There are a couple unique issues that my coreligionists in larger metropolitan areas tend not to contend with, simply put, there aren't that many Jewish young adults in St. Louis.

Second, the vast majority of the JYAs here in STL are students at Washington University (guilty). They are transient, and often come from those larger metropolitan areas. Meaning, they see St. Louis as backwards, conservative, and boring. This is St. Louis' fault for not doing better PR. To that effect we created (separate from MHSTL) The St Lou Jew in order to create the content to reach out to the JYA demographic.

On the MHSTL proper front, we have been throwing together as many Shabbat dinners as possible, combining the ancient Israelite tactic of networking with the evolutionary strategy of eating to create some pretty fantastic nights.

Add a few nights at the Missouri Botanical Gardens to catch some jazz (with no open container law), a free show or three at the outdoor theater known as the MUNY, and we have had a pretty solid month!

More as it develops, Yalla!