Moishe House

Overall, Moishe House aims to:
1. Bridge the gap for Jewish young adults and make vibrant Jewish community more accessible, ensuring Jewish 20-somethings find a Jewish pathway to adulthood.
2. Train the next generation of knowledgeable and confident Jewish leaders and prepare them to lead Jewish homes and communities.
3. Enliven Jewish community, ritual, culture and Judaism for young adults.

To accomplish the above, MH seeks to expand its reach to 100,000 unique young adults (annually by the end of 2024) engaging in Jewish life, rituals, wisdom, experiences and community, in frequent and ongoing ways.

Moishe House is the leader in creating meaningful Jewish experiences for young adults in their 20s, providing 12,000+ programs and engaging 65,000+ unique young adults in a typical year. MH places a strong emphasis on breadth and frequency and is creating systemic change through an ecosystem of interconnected programs and initiatives that includes:

• Moishe Houses and Moishe Pods – 150+ Houses and Pods, each led by a core group of young adults (residents) who lead ongoing, home-based programming for their peers approximately 5+ times/month;
• Moishe House Without Walls (MHWOW) – The geographically limitless engagement mechanism that allows alumni of MH and other select young adult leaders to provide high-quality experiences to build community for their peers;
• Immersive Jewish Learning Retreats and Jewish education – 100+ weekend-long Retreats in a typical year, including many that are Peer-Led Retreats, that train young adults on specific Jewish holidays, rituals and practices to use through existing MH structures back home.
• Base – MH acquired The Base Movement from Hillel International in 2021 as a collection of home-based, rabbi-led communities focused on engaging young adults, primed for expansion. Base enables MH to grow beyond the peer-led model and bring young adults more rabbi-led direct-learning and access to rabbis.
• Research & Development (R&D)/Innovation – As a nimble organization, Jewish young adults dictate the culture and atmosphere of Moishe House as the organization experiments with new models, many of which have become signature programs (such as MHWOW, Learning Retreats, Peer-Led Retreats, Moishe Pods and Camp Nai Nai Nai – Jewish adult summer camp). MH is currently piloting an interfaith Pod initiative and partnering with Onward Israel’s Career Passport program, in which young adults can live and learn in Israel (while working remotely) for 5 weeks.

MH has identified the key ingredients responsible for its past success and utilizes the following essential components to maximize impact: Peer-to-peer engagement; high frequency of programs and attendance; depth of content and variety of Jewish programming; specific age range; vetted and trained leaders; and leaders’ buy-in and commitment. A 2018 external evaluation found that 64% of all Moishe House participants attend programming at least once a month. The frequency of programming, and the nature of Moishe House's peer-led and home-based model set it apart from other organizations, while also paving a path for partnerships and collaborations, helping increase cross-pollination/involvement in the Jewish community. Through a strategic growth plan, MH aims to impact 100,000 unique young adults annually by the end of 2024, growing each of its key initiatives.

Moishe House is systemically changing how Jewish 20-somethings connect, learn and lead, while also shifting how the Jewish community views their potential and involvement. Since 2006, Moishe House has attracted more than 1,100,000 young adults in total attendance through more than 72,000 programs, with high levels of annual growth each year (during a typical year). This is tracked through the Mintranet, Moishe House's online proprietary database, which collects information about every Moishe House program hosted, enabling a more impactful, decentralized model with a lean infrastructure. Moishe House is focused on building a network of Jewish leaders who are successfully changing the landscape in their communities. An independent evaluation completed in 2018 by an outside firm (Informing Change) assessed the reported engagement of young adults before and after they become involved with Moishe House:
• The percentage of respondents who say they know how to get involved in activities or organizations open to young Jewish adults increased by 78% (from 45% prior to involvement in MH to 80% now).
• The percentage of respondents who report feeling confident in leading some aspects of Jewish rituals, traditions and customs increased by 37% (from 49% prior to 67% now).
• The percentage of respondents who say they see themselves as leaders or role models in the Jewish community increased by 70% (from 30% prior to 51% now), indicating that even those not explicitly in a leadership role within MH are strengthening their leadership skills and confidence. Moreover, 64% of respondents say they organize, motivate and invite others to be involved in Jewish life (up from only 35% prior to MH).
• 80% of respondents say they invite others to MH programs and 87% say they have built relationships and friendships with other young adults through MH.

Although Moishe House has only existed for 16 years, its expansive network of Houses and initiatives and growing methods of outreach and training have placed the organization at the forefront of Jewish young adult engagement by effectively reaching a large cohort of Jewish young adults in meaningful ways.

Some of Moishe House's achievements to date include:

• Doubling down on the House model for building community – As part of a strategic growth plan, which started in 2015 and has been rolled into an even more ambitious longer-term plan, Moishe House is experiencing rapid, demand-based expansion. Because of the proven ripple effect of Moishe House's programs, and how the programs affect participants' Jewish engagement after they “age out," Moishe House's increased reach has the potential to play a major role in changing the future of the Jewish community. Since the beginning of 2015, Moishe House has opened nearly 50 new houses and 33 Pods, bringing the current total to 150+ Moishe Houses and Pods.

• Redefining pluralistic Jewish learning and trainings for young adults – Moishe House's comprehensive Jewish education agenda is empowering Jewish young adults as leaders, with the knowledge, tools and drive to effect change in their home communities. Weekend-long Jewish Learning Retreats focus on a myriad of topics, including Shabbat, Passover (including how to lead a Seder), Shavuot and its connection to social justice, Sukkot (and how to build a Sukkah), and much more. Based on the success of the Learning Retreats model, Moishe House piloted and scaled a Peer-Led Retreats initiative, which empowers Jewish young adults to host their own immersive multi-day convenings for their peers and has grown exponentially over the past few years, indicating the need for this kind of opportunity. Since the first Learning Retreat in 2011, there have been over 450 Retreats – including many Peer-Led Retreats – for 10,000+ trainees.

• Maintaining a commitment to innovation – Moishe House is committed to innovatively approaching Jewish young adult engagement, making vibrant Jewish life more accessible to Jewish young adults throughout North America. Although Moishe House has gained significant traction, the organization believes that it is just starting to scratch the surface for what is possible. In the future, while growing the activities listed above, Moishe House also anticipates that there are many other activities that have not yet been thought of but that will someday define the organization. Innovation and research/design is a major initiative of Moishe House's strategic growth plan. MH staff and lay leadership are continually brainstorming innovative ways to reach Jewish young adults, and evaluations help provide insight into young adult trends, interests and needs. Given these inputs and areas of focus, MH likely embark on new paths for Jewish young adult engagement while building off proven models in the coming years. The organization is already seeing this through expansion beyond the peer-led model with Base, which is helping Jewish young adults develop connections with clergy and educators, and the Jewish Learning Collaborative, which will help the staff of other organizations engage in meaningful Jewish learning as professional development.