By Emily K. Alhadeff, Associate Editor, The Jewish Sound
This is the true story of three to five strangers picked to live in a house to work together for pluralistic and innovative Jewish programming.
Moishe House, with 75 houses in 17 countries, is dedicated to bringing Jewish twenty-somethings together in communal living situations to study, program, and grow their Jewish identities. (No, it’s not a taped reality show, but I would watch it if it were.)
Thanks to a funder who wants to see more U.S. houses, a Seattle house is slated to open this year.
“It was exciting when they reached out,” said Josh Furman, director of programs and strategies at Hillel at the University of Washington and the past director of Jconnect, Hillel’s young adult organization. “Why wouldn’t we want it here? It can provide something totally different than what Jconnect can do, and they will be a wonderful complement.”
According to Furman, Jconnect is Moishe House’s “thought partner” on the ground, helping the organization get its bearings in a new city.
“We’re the feet on the ground. We know people. We’re helping them try and find people to live in the house,” he said. “And they’re pluralistic, so they’re a perfect partner for us. A win for both us and the community.”
Furman is also excited about the home-based nature of Moishe House, which provides an alternative vibe to traditional, institution-based programs.
“It could bring such different people together,” he said. “When it’s constituent driven it feels more accessible to people. Having something at someone’s home creates a beautiful, caring, thoughtful space. We are thinking of how to do that more in Jconnect, and this is a great way to get more of that in the Seattle Jewish community.”
This is not Moishe House’s first go around in Seattle. Seattle, in fact, was home to the second Moishe House ever, just after the fledgling organization launched out of the Bay Area in 2006.
Jonathan Herzog, who enjoyed having Shabbat dinners with his single friends at the time, remembers then-Hillel director Josh Miller returning from a conference saying, “‘There’s this guy with a lot of money who wants to build community.’”
In exchange for subsidized living expenses, Herzog and his friends started hosting eight events a month for young Seattle Jews, like the Shabbat dinners they were already doing as well as social events.
“It was as organic [a process] as I’ve ever been part of,” said Herzog by phone from Oakland, where he now works as a therapist for children with behavioral issues. “We did it for a total of a year and a half. It was amazing how much it grew.”
Without realizing it, by the time the house organizers started coupling off and moving on, they had hosted close to 300 people. The impact mirrors the international growth: Moishe House claims to reach 88,000 young Jews around the world a year through 5,700 unique programs.
“When we were ending, a handful of people came to me and said, ‘this is a huge part of my social life,’” he said. “None of us realized we were being effective. I was surprised by that. This has actually been effective without me realizing it.”
That first Moishe House evolved into the Ravenna Kibbutz, which followed a different model and closed its doors in 2013.
Furman is optimistic the second run of Moishe House will be successful. It’s interesting, he says, that half of the Hillel staff has been a Moishe House resident at some point, and there is an obvious alignment in how the two organizations view community.
In addition, “Seattle is the kind of city where co-ops thrive,” he said.
“Seattle is a great booming city with a vibrant Jewish community,” said Eve Lowinger, the Midwestern regional director for Moishe House. “There should be a Moishe House there.”
According to Lowinger, every house has autonomy and its own identity, and the organization is currently seeking out three to five “interesting, diverse individuals who are eager to engage their community members,” she said. The cost of housing is subsidized according to the amount of programming residents do. They are not yet sure which part of the city the house will be in.
Furman is looking forward to Moishe House as another outlet for young Jews to grow their identities and shape the future of Seattle. For Furman, the “ideal Jewish community” is one where when people move to town, he knows the perfect place for them.
He looks forward to getting to the point where Seattle has so many great things happening, and he can say, “Here’s what’s perfect for you,” he said.
“Young people are the future of this city,” said Furman. “We need to start giving them a chance to start saying what they want.”
So funny and sad in a sense. When I read the header for this article and I got all excited because oddly enough I thought ‘someone’, finally figured out that our religion is completely fragmented. That many of us have gone our own way and not looked back because few cared what the heck we did. That once we got past a certain age we were on our own and bonds were hard to come by especially as a foreigner like myself.
That because there were so few people who cared about me and others when I grew up, that finally there were going to be people that would reach out and pull us back into the frey.
And then I actually read the article and realized that my religion was going to stay connected by extreme behavior of clicks and total committment. You were either 100% in or not at all. That you lived with a group and had a home with a ‘group’ or you didn’t.
This article is great for those who want to be saved and recruited, as youths, but how about thinking a bit smaller and reaching out to those who always felt judged, by their religion and walked away. Little baby steps sometimes are more helpful than the kibbutz type, exclusionary, identity you are offering here………… Think about reaching out to those like myself who gave their lives to a religion who sent them packing once they grew up.
I wish I had felt the sense of need, want, committment, love, etc. that one joins the synogage for but I never did.