After two years of being involved in a successful experiment of Jewish community, I find myself moving on to other activities. One of the many contacts I have made over this time has helped me gain a new leadership role in my community - I am one of the co-chairs of LimmudPhilly, a large Jewish learning conference run almost entirely by volunteers. Unfortunately, it is a large time commitment and I cannot see myself performing adequately in Moishe House while putting the time into LimmudPhilly. Thus, I am leaving.
That being said, I want to emphasize to those residents in other cities who are moving out or who have moved out already: you can STILL remain involved. I plan on attending multiple events per month, helping to plan anything that I can, and bring a resource for the new housemates. As "Transition Specialist" I have already helped to bring a few of them into the fold and look forward to helping guide them in their new tasks.
And, in reality, I am not moving that far away. I found a wonderful place about four blocks west of Moishe House Philly so I'll be easily accessible. I look forward to sticking around and seeing how the community will grow and flourish. Yay MHP!
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Building a Jewish Community
One of the confusing things about Jewish community is the feel of it – it’s different from mainstream American community. For folks who aren’t Jewish it can seem to make sense that Jews are different – even if they can’t quite put their finger on why. But for American Jews it can be baffling – why do I feel different or out of place? After all, I grew up here. The American dream is that an individual through hard work can rise to wealth and greater independence. If you become wealthy enough you can pay for your own home, car, health care, vacations, etc. However we never learn about the American Dream as a communal concept, it is an individual goal.
Judaism’s greatest hero is Moses. When Moses rode (or walked) off into the wilderness he took the whole Jewish family along, the women and children, the weak as well as the strong, the complainers with the enthusiasts. The Jewish dream is a time of peace for all the Jews, an end to persecution and the return to Zion. The expectation is that each Jew will care for all the other Jews, sacrificing her/his own needs and desires for the greater needs of the group.
In America we create Jewish community in synagogue. There the multiple burdens – responsibilities – are spread out over the many members so that no one person is expected to do it all. However, synagogues are inherently expensive to be a part of, synagogue dues are currently going up exponentially as synagogue membership is going down, as a way to offset one another. Unfortunately, when you are in your 20's, paying $1,000 or even $2,000 a year to be a part of a "Jewish Community" just is not in the cards. This is where Moishe House steps in. Additionally, there are very few burdens associated with being a part of a Moishe House. There is shopping and preparing food, posting events on the internet, taking pictures, and general event promotions. However, the dividends are endless. We get to create our own community, we get to do the events we want to do, and if the go really well, we get to them again. We get to invite our friends, and have the opportunity to make new friends every single time we have an event. Moishe House is a very informal and comfortable environment, a sad reality that is missing from some synagogue environments.
Countless times, whether it be during Shabbat, a Yom Hashoah dinner, celebrating Hannukah, sharing a tikkun olam experience, playing sports, poker, cooking events, or even picking weeds in a community garden this conversation of how to be a part of a Jewish Community comes up with the people we interact with. What a wonderful outlet for young Jews to be a part of, and not only is of no cost to them, it is with other young Jewish people who are also wanting to be a part of Jewish community, who already are living in the same community. What a wonderful recipe for success that speaks to the groups needs, while also including individuals wants and desires!!
SF monthly blog
Judaism’s greatest hero is Moses. When Moses rode (or walked) off into the wilderness he took the whole Jewish family along, the women and children, the weak as well as the strong, the complainers with the enthusiasts. The Jewish dream is a time of peace for all the Jews, an end to persecution and the return to Zion. The expectation is that each Jew will care for all the other Jews, sacrificing her/his own needs and desires for the greater needs of the group.
In America we create Jewish community in synagogue. There the multiple burdens – responsibilities – are spread out over the many members so that no one person is expected to do it all. However, synagogues are inherently expensive to be a part of, synagogue dues are currently going up exponentially as synagogue membership is going down, as a way to offset one another. Unfortunately, when you are in your 20's, paying $1,000 or even $2,000 a year to be a part of a "Jewish Community" just is not in the cards. This is where Moishe House steps in. Additionally, there are very few burdens associated with being a part of a Moishe House. There is shopping and preparing food, posting events on the internet, taking pictures, and general event promotions. However, the dividends are endless. We get to create our own community, we get to do the events we want to do, and if the go really well, we get to them again. We get to invite our friends, and have the opportunity to make new friends every single time we have an event. Moishe House is a very informal and comfortable environment, a sad reality that is missing from some synagogue environments.
Countless times, whether it be during Shabbat, a Yom Hashoah dinner, celebrating Hannukah, sharing a tikkun olam experience, playing sports, poker, cooking events, or even picking weeds in a community garden this conversation of how to be a part of a Jewish Community comes up with the people we interact with. What a wonderful outlet for young Jews to be a part of, and not only is of no cost to them, it is with other young Jewish people who are also wanting to be a part of Jewish community, who already are living in the same community. What a wonderful recipe for success that speaks to the groups needs, while also including individuals wants and desires!!
SF monthly blog
MoHoLo news JUNE
Hello all,
Summer is officially here and we are loaded with events to fill in the time between festivals, early morning hangovers and Shabbat afternoon sunbathing!
So here's our events for this month- ta ta ta tam tam tam (drums and trumpets) -
13 June
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15 June
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18 June
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27 June
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30 June
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Get ready to our ZOO- MANIA! A themed Sunday summer garden mash-up! Think jungle animals, live music from the castle, carnivores and herbivorous bbq, animal yoga poses, a fully equipped alternative veterinary for all you wild animals and more...
If you live in the NW2 or NW6 area, then order your weekly Moishe House fresh fruit and veg box here.
And a little bit about what's going on with the Moishnik monsters... We have all been insanely busy in the past month. Joel is happy with 'The Engineer of Chelm' at the Jewish Museum and ready to push onto projects new,Rachel is telling stories all over the place and says please join her fb page and have a cup of tea whilst you are there, Brett is attempting self-duplication so he can do all festivals, Tali is planning for her south american adventure and Aviad is living in random airports around the world searching something
Lots of love to you all.. keep hydrated !
The Moi Sha (turning Japanese now) crew
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Moishe House London, in Willesden Green, is part of Moishe House, a worldwide network of houses that are centres for grassroots Jewish community. From our own home, we aim to bring exciting, creative, post-denominational Jewish community to London.
www.moishehouse.org
Monday, June 7, 2010
A meaningful story from Moishe House Warsaw
Once when I just got into MH crew :-) I had a funny situation with observing my friends coming on our parties. The thing for me was, that most of them were even thrilled to come here, looking around like it was a spooky place or a temple other place for prayers. For me it was a grate experience to watch it and in the same time I was feeling that it's the way it should be, that's the point of MH. All of these questions about MH – from religion to rules, were very meaningful. For some it was the first time to get in touch with Judaism.
Specially the way people were looking at inside – just like they were not quite sure how to react and where were they: a temple, a house, squat or what? Afterwards, the concerts I was doing in the house and in synagogue. How to behave, how to react. Of course this is the question to me also – how to describe, how to tell, how to explain. And the best thing was that I could let the people see that inside this old culture you can do something new, you can join it without fear of being bored of it. And important thing for me – to let myself into it even more, be part of it and create something new.
Sometimes it's so grate, that people starts to sign up for youth organizations or some other on place during some event. Then you can actually see how people react when you give them something special, something new or let them see that what old structures, traditions can give today.
Filip from Warsaw
Meaningful story of Moishe house Budapest
A message for the future
On one of our kabbalath shabbaths there was a tall man with mostly white hair and round glasses – who appeared, a friend of one friend – her family name is Mózes – Moishe! Zsófi talked to this tall men, and they had the idea to organize an exhibition in our living room. He is a very nice, very open person – and looks like the “artist” you imagine by the book. Ha has taken photos of beautiful women in the last 4 years, as part of a method called “photo therapy”. The idea is to bring out your true personality through a portrait. After having taken the photo he also paints it with chemicals until it gets to its final form.
While preparing to the exhibition he invited us, the Moishe girls to his studio that is located in a squat, close to us. The building used to be a school, there is still the place of the big bell that signalized the beginning and the end of the break. Before the war it actually used to be a Jewish school. In the middle of the house there is a café / bar, and it has several other rooms where there are parties, concerts, movie screenings, exhibitions and more. Already getting into András Szirtes apartment was an experience. His apartment can be reached from the corridor, is on the 5th floor. His doorbell is mechanic, meaning, you need to pull a string at the entrance, and ca. 5 meters behind, at the door of the apartment a small bell, that is tied to the string, starts to move and make sounds. The next image of this visit was that the three of us sitting next to each other, and need to stay still until he takes the photo. We agreed before that he will take a photo of the three Moishe girls, but none of us knew how this will really go. While preparing to the photo he gave funny instructions, like: And now look, as if you are sending a message to the future by your expression. Or: and now look, as if you knew that this image of your is on a huge painting at the entrance of your castle, that your grandchildren look at whenever they enter. His camera is really old, it stands on huge legs, and he hides behind it when he takes the photo – or he makes circles with a candle in front of our faces to light it up. He made a shorter exposition time with us – just 4 seconds, maybe a bit longer. After the experiment he has developed and checked the photos. Some days later we have received the work – framed. It did not become part of the exhibition, but more just a joke, a memory. This time he has started to put up the exhibition and come to the Moishe house regularly. András, quickly became member of the Moishe house family – a brother, a father, an uncle, sometimes a child. Finally the time of the exhibition opening came. András has sent an invitation to all of his models, and many of them came. It was really funny to recognize people who were on the photos. Eszter has invited Dani, our friend a great jazz musician to play some music. András has written a very funny text about the exhibition he made, and he also has read aloud an other text which was the lines of him chatting online with his daughter. We provided some wine and some leftover sandwiches from the previous day. They were gone in a minute. After András has read his exhibition opening he was suddenly holding three roses in his hand that he said were presents for the Moishe girls. Moreover, since this day was Anna’s birthday, he also got a cake (flódni – typical Hungarian Jewish cake) for her. Anna was really touched by his “performance”, and it was a very special moment for us, the Moishe house girls. We had a lot of work and things in the last months, but the exhibition and Anna’s birthday has united us again, in a very special way. Couple hours after there were still people coming, even though we have almost consumed everything. Dani was playing “juke box” – you could ask for any song, and he played it! We were in Anna’s room, with open window, as the weather was nice already – and we felt like 18 a bit… The exhibition is still there, there is a nice guest book, and András comes regularly to take care of the images, sometimes he changes one person to someone else, sometimes he just comes to hang out. He even put a painting on our balcony, so that you can see it from the street – something we have planed for long to do! In the meantime, talking to András it has turned out that he used to go to the camp in Bánk – a place where we are organizing a summer festival. It is so interesting how our lifes are connected, intertwined!
We are now planning to do a finissage this month for those who could not see the exhibition yet. Next week one of the models will come – we are curious to meet her. And maybe, Anna Mózes, our friend whose friend is András, will be the next one to make an exhibition in the Budapest Moishe house. I am sure it will be as adventurous, meaningful and funny as this one!
May Blog - MH Cape Town
The Crazy Cat lady strikes again!
May has been a fantastic month in the Cape Town Moishe House! With the world cup just around the corner, everyone seems to be getting really patriotic even in the house. It is a very exciting time, and we are looking forward to hanging out in the moishe house and watching some of the games together. We will be screening all the games live in the house and we welcome everyone to come and watch together. It should be great!
May also saw the birth of two new kittens Rosey and Lulu. As I am sure you know we live opposite a lady who is very fond of looking after stray kittens. One of the stray kittens recently gave birth in our back yard to two adorable kittens. Our neighbour has been helping feed them and we are now looking for homes for the two of them so that they can be nutured and loved in a good home. It was a very memorable experice and we erally hope that we can find homes for the two kittens as soon as possible. Although it shouldn't take too long, because they are exceptionally cute.
We are thinking of maybe adopting one of them as the new Moishe House cat, but we still need to give it some more thought.
We also celebrated both Julian and Omer's birthday in true Moishe House Cape Town style. They were both fantastic nights, I hope Julian and Omer enjoyed them as much as the rest of us. Unfortunately since all four of us have now had out birthdays, it looks like there won't be any cakes in the house for quite a while!
Until next time folks
Moishe House CT
May Blog - MH Mexico City
What does "meaningful" actually mean? If by meaningful you mean important, then I guess that this is something we have to define too.
There are many moments from which we have learned as a group, some that you could call crisis evens, and others that we can consider, in every aspect, as success stories.
Taking this in mind, it has been hard to choose only one as the most "meaningful" one of the many moments we´ve had in the Moishe House, What we have decided, then, is to talk about our last event as the most meaningful recent event. The reason for this is that it helped us have a feel of what a self-sustainable Moishe House community could be like in the future. This is, a vibrant pluralistic, international spot for jews to meet other jews.
Although we planed a month in advanced for one of our already traditional movie nights, lack of time and energies where factors that influenced this a pretty irregular night. Most of the times we have to call people to get them to come. This time, however, due to pressure from work and school, neither one of us called someone this time. The whole event was prepared a little hastily: we only uploaded the facebook event and hoped for the best. All we had where: a couple movies, no popcorn and nothing else to eat or to drink during the movie time.
"So... What make this event so special?" the reader could ask. Let us warn the reader that the upcoming answer to this question may not be as amazing or fantastic as reading about a miracle or something extraordinary series of events that will change world dynamics or alter future events. The very simple, very straightforward thing that happened was that, this time, our guests were completely new.
These newcomers found out about us through press, media and word-of mouth. What´s interesting is that none of them came from the same countries, and all of them had been planning on coming to our events a long time back, not knowing each other in any way.
Finally, they all managed to get to our facebook page and come to the event.
With the presence of these international newcomers, the event transformed completely; we could see that our past work as finally getting into all the rest of the people. We immediately felt what it´s like to feel like the catalyzers of a local community. Our house had turned into a place where anyone could come and just enjoy watching a movie with people, most of them unknown.
Tomorrow we are pushing the limits once again and making our first tikun olam event, this time we are going to join a meeting in support to the parents that lost their sons and daughters. Last year a daycare center exploded i´m Mexico and there has not been any accountable, all of this because of all the corruption that we suffer here in Mexico. We don't know what is going to happen in this event: lets hope we receive one of these small surprises once again.
There are many moments from which we have learned as a group, some that you could call crisis evens, and others that we can consider, in every aspect, as success stories.
Taking this in mind, it has been hard to choose only one as the most "meaningful" one of the many moments we´ve had in the Moishe House, What we have decided, then, is to talk about our last event as the most meaningful recent event. The reason for this is that it helped us have a feel of what a self-sustainable Moishe House community could be like in the future. This is, a vibrant pluralistic, international spot for jews to meet other jews.
Although we planed a month in advanced for one of our already traditional movie nights, lack of time and energies where factors that influenced this a pretty irregular night. Most of the times we have to call people to get them to come. This time, however, due to pressure from work and school, neither one of us called someone this time. The whole event was prepared a little hastily: we only uploaded the facebook event and hoped for the best. All we had where: a couple movies, no popcorn and nothing else to eat or to drink during the movie time.
"So... What make this event so special?" the reader could ask. Let us warn the reader that the upcoming answer to this question may not be as amazing or fantastic as reading about a miracle or something extraordinary series of events that will change world dynamics or alter future events. The very simple, very straightforward thing that happened was that, this time, our guests were completely new.
These newcomers found out about us through press, media and word-of mouth. What´s interesting is that none of them came from the same countries, and all of them had been planning on coming to our events a long time back, not knowing each other in any way.
Finally, they all managed to get to our facebook page and come to the event.
With the presence of these international newcomers, the event transformed completely; we could see that our past work as finally getting into all the rest of the people. We immediately felt what it´s like to feel like the catalyzers of a local community. Our house had turned into a place where anyone could come and just enjoy watching a movie with people, most of them unknown.
Tomorrow we are pushing the limits once again and making our first tikun olam event, this time we are going to join a meeting in support to the parents that lost their sons and daughters. Last year a daycare center exploded i´m Mexico and there has not been any accountable, all of this because of all the corruption that we suffer here in Mexico. We don't know what is going to happen in this event: lets hope we receive one of these small surprises once again.
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