Roman Kobrin- MH Chicago RSJ

I can't believe it! Its been 2 years since I have moved into the Moishe House Chicago - RSJ. People tend to look back and say 'it feels like it was yesterday'. Not the case at all with me. So much has happened in the last 2 years... Between all the events, the drama, the fun, roommate changes, relationships, and overall experiences, it feels like I was an entirely different person then. We actually got around to celebrate our House's 3rd birthday at the beginning of July and I thought a lot about how I found myself here. It was a completely random series of events that led me to meet my roommate, Ross. It's incredible how one quick dialogue with someone could spark such a change in your life. By joining the Russian Moishe House, I have changed my career, met people I would have never met otherwise and have had experiences that I will never forget. I am grateful for the Russian Moishe House for all these changes as well as some lessons that I have learned. Now that we are 3 years in, 2 for me, I believe that by next year, we will need a little change. I think its time to move on to events we haven't done before and bringing in people who have never been. The 4 of us have gotten older and our next big project is to find young blood to begin filling our shoes so that we can pass the torch down. I would love to know that 10 years from now, Chicago RSJ is still throwing events that brings together a Russian Jewish community in Chicago. Its great to know that you have created and passed down a legacy. To the next 10 years!

Danny Kaplan- MH Chicago

Community Last week, Moishe House Chicago hosted a zero-waste Shabbat. Together as a community, we made blessings, broke tree-shaped challah, and caught up on each others’ lives. We also inaugurated our new compost machine, disposing of organic scraps and spinning them around in its tumbler. We chose to do a zero-waste Shabbat because of the value of environmental stewardship in Judaism. In Hebrew, the word for the first man (אדמ) derives from the word for soil, or earth (אדמה). Moishe House Chicago focuses on programming that pursues social justice, but much of our mission resonates strongly with me when I think of the values underlying environmental stewardship. We tend to the earth in order to both cultivate the fruits of our labor and foster a healthy, sustainable environment for our global community and our posterity. This is what MHC seeks to accomplish when we minimize waste, but also when we advocate for more equitable mortgage practices, better public services, and political agency for marginalized groups in Chicago. The Jewish value of צדק (Justice) is a predominant theme in MHC programming. In a way, environmental stewardship ties directly into all of our צדק programs. Even if we are not directly working to improve the earth in the sense of אדמה, every program we do works to create cultivate a healthier, more sustainable life for our community. Sometimes the community we try to foster is global in scope. Other times it extends across the city of Chicago or even just the people in our living room on a given night. While אדמה and םעול are two different concepts, in the end they both mean the same thing: earth. Their interrelatedness demonstrates how social justice and environmental justice are intertwined. I’ve realized that lessons we can learn from a zero-waste Shabbat can be directly applied to addressing the social issues facing our community. At the end of this month, I will be leaving Moishe House after one year as a resident. This last zero-waste Shabbat has given me much to think about as I prepare to leave this space. As we tend to the earth, so too does the earth nurture us and teach us important values. Moishe House residents foster vibrant Jewish communities wherever they live, but we also become more enriched through the people that embody our community. I am incredibly appreciative of the people in Chicago who regularly attend our events, shape our program content, and provide valuable spiritual and intellectual insights. I’ve made valuable friendships with Moishe House community members, and I’ve grown and matured in unexpected ways through knowing these people. It’s been a pleasure living inside of the Moishe House walls, but this experience would have been only a fraction as valuable if we didn’t have the incredible people who make up our community. They are a crucial part of making Moishe House what it truly is. Though I’m leaving the actual “house” of Moishe, I look forward to continuing to attend programs and take part of this special Moishe House community.

Jaycee Greenblatt- MH Dallas

Wow! What a great first month! It has only been one month since Elissa, Karli and I aka the Moho angels began our journey to become leaders in our community and provide meaningful Jewish experiences to Dallas' young adults. Only one month prior to signing our lease, Karli, Elissa and I met for lunch to discuss the Moho program, and instantly felt a connection with each other, and this bond has only grown stronger. Our fist official event was a collaboration with the Intown Chabad, to celebrate Tu B' av - the festival of love. Co-sponsoring this event was a first for Moho Dallas, and provided us with the opportunity for our first collaboration. Although we all come to the table with different experiences, opinions, and perspectives, when like minds with similar goals come together, great things can happen. With over 250 attendees at the the event, it was the perfect collaboration and way to kickoff and introduce ourself to the community. Our first official home event also exceeded our expectations. We anticipated a showing of 20 for our welcome brunch, yet ended up welcoming over 40 young Jewish adults into our new home. The energy in Dallas is amazing!! We are all so impressed by the community, and excited to plan unique, fun, and engaging activities. From our late night planning sessions, to creating the first Moho mailer, to meetings with Jewish community agencies and leaders who are eager to work with us, we all feel very honored to be chosen for the role of Moho resident, and the fun has only just begun for the three of us!

Micaela - MH Cape Town

Moving into the Johannesburg Moishe House this year has truly been an incredible experience. Living amongst friends and having constant Jewish social interaction has been amazing fun and has allowed for real personal growth.

On a personal and social level, I feel I have gained so much from the experience. I have taken part in every Moishe House event this year. From a Tu B’Av event and crazy Girls nights, to sessions on the occupation and National Women’s day, the year has been filled with fun, laughter and a lot of learning.

I have been able to keep in touch with my Judaism on a very real level and engage with topics that are relevant in South Africa, Israel and internationally. Thank you to everyone who makes it possible!

Popularity by Vitaly Moishe House SF RSJ

Popularity

When starting our house from scratch, I made one of our top goals to give our house a good name and spread the good word about us across the bay area Russian Jewish community.  While in the beginning, it wasn't smooth sailing and most the people that came were our friends, eventually we saw numbers rise and new comers found their way to our door at an average rate of 1 person per event now.

I think our greatest success has been in helping people who just moved to the city make friends and network with people of a similar background.  Having moved from Chicago without knowing almost anyone 3 years ago, I know how challenging it can be.

I'm very proud of our house and we've made big steps from having to call every single person we knew to have a successful event, to the mentality: "if you plan it, they will come".  Popularity and reputation is something that naturally spreads on it's own.  Once you establish a presence and provide a positive experience, that experience will broadcast automatically and seamlessly without even your knowledge.

Nikki Levitan - MH London

I discovered the Moishe house London purely by chance shortly after I returned to London after living in Israel for many years. I thought my return to North West London would be very hard, but I was pleasantly surprised to find this delightful, open, fun, cross denominational community with like minded people.

Some months later I was lucky enough to get a place in the house as a resident and since then life in London for me has exploded in an amazing way.

The house always has flow, creativity, good people and high energy. Whether it is open mic night at the house jamming good quality music or just some of my housemates hula hooping and doing poi, I am constantly inspired to be more and to be creative and active.

My housemates have become like family and they each bring something unique. Because of this I feel as a house we offer a diverse range of awesome programmes from Jewish Learning, fun big Shabbat dinners, Zumba, cooking for the homeless and a pop up cafe to name a few.

As a community organiser in Social Justice in my profession I am able to take the skills I have leant through my work and apply them to building the community around us.

My mission in the house and the community is to bring more people in who do not know about us and share the love and wealth of our golden community. I hope non residents also feel some sort of ownership over this community by bringing in their skills and running events at the house themselves.

I am working on inspiring our community to becoming more socially active and responsible.

I do this through exposing the community to amazing local and national charities and initiatives and encourage people to find their niche and get involved.

In time I am also working on setting up a regular moishe house London Social Action project where we can and will effect positive change within our local area.

Thank you Moishe house and my fellow housemates for changing my life. I am truly blessed and hope to live life in the future in some sort of communal way.

Nikki Levitan :) x

David Kadosh - Moishe House West LA

I love Moishe House! What an incredible experience this has been for me since we started our house in West LA last December. Moishe House empowers its residents to run with their ideas and share their enthusiasms in an inspirational way with the community. I’ve also been lucky to meet so many awesome people in the last 8 months and build strong, lasting friendships. My passion has always been Jewish self-defense and empowerment. Both sides of my family have suffered and been uprooted because of anti-Semitism. My mother’s father had many members of his family killed in the Holocaust and survived 5 years in the Plaszow concentration camp and Mauthausen death camp. My father’s father had his clothing store in Casablanca set on fire twice because it was Jewish owned. Jews around the world have been easy targets of anti-Semitic fueled aggression. I have made it my life mission to practice situational awareness, understand self-defense, and to prepare for a wide array of potential threats. Now, thanks to Moishe House, I am able to share my knowledge with other young Jews in my community. Moishe House West LA runs a monthly self-defense program which focuses on Krav Maga (Israeli close quarters combat). We started our trainings with simple techniques, but as our classes grew and members kept coming back, we needed to expand. I applied for a special grant from Moishe House which helped us purchase some of the necessary equipment we needed to expand our training. We now have punching pads to practice our strikes and rubber knives and guns to practice weapon disarming techniques. At Moishe House West LA we have a core group that looks forward to the monthly training and is dedicated to actualizing a life of Jewish self-defense. Moishe House has given me such a tremendous opportunity to share my passions with my peers and to build strong connections and friendships. I love being a part of the Moishe House community!