Partnerships, Moishe House, scalability and reach

Interestingly - certainly from my point of view as founder-resident of Moishe House London - there are lots of anecdotal links between AVODAH and various Moishe Houses across the USA. Conceptually this makes a lot of sense. Both programs provide Jews in their 20s with an opportunity to form a community in a house together and reach out to affect other people. A number of AVODAH Corps Members, having tasted vibrant Jewish community, have graduated and moved into Moishe Houses to help create Jewish community for their friends and peers.

There are of course some important differences between the two programs. AVODAH is more of a program in a traditional sense, lasting one year, with mandatory learning and activities (two nights per week, most weeks). Corps Members have some say in programming, in dialogue with their program manager, but not nearly as much autonomy as Moishe House residents in designing the shape and content of their community. And they obviously exist for different purposes. Moishe House is first and foremost about creating Jewish community, and reaching out to other Jews. AVODAH is, I think, about the intersection of social change and Jewish life - providing participants with a chance to explore "justice issues in a Jewish framework" (Rabbi Stephanie Ruskay, AVODAH Education Director) - and an intense experience working with social poverty.

One of the most attractive aspects of Moishe House to potential funders is its enormous reach and, therefore, value for money. One house of say four residents reaches hundreds if not thousands of young Jews per year. The work performed by the placement organizations served by AVODAH Corps Members may touch the lives of thousands of clients, but it is not possible to say AVODAH creates this reach. Rather AVODAH provides each placement organization with one staff member.

In the staff brainstorming session I attended at the AVODAH offices we spoke about innovative potential partnerships between AVODAH and other Jewish organizations, such as Hillel and Moishe House. To what extent could AVODAH benefit from a partnership with Moishe House, forming, let's say, a hybrid Moishe-AVODAH House by which participants work for social justice organizations during the day and create outward-looking Jewish community at home? How much further might AVODAH's message of social justice in a Jewish framework spread, serving as an inspiration to all who visit the house?

I'm asking these questions not to challenge AVODAH's staff in America - they are already deeply involved in thinking about a wide range of possible future directions - but rather to consider the extent of the parameters of our proposed organisation and programme. We probably need to identify the core of AVODAH UK's operations before breaking out into innovative partnerships and hybrid programmes. Nevertheless, could AVODAH UK's core focus incorporate some of Moishe House's best elements? To what extent could our corps members create events for others in their house, as a major part of the programme? How much time and energy would they have to do so?

AVODAH houses in the USA are always a short distance from existing centers of Jewish community, so Corps Members can experience Jewish life relatively easily. If we, as AVODAH UK, established our first house in say Hackney residents would be close to the communities in Stamford Hill, but these are mostly ultra-Orthodox... One of the house's tasks might be to bring more Jewish community to the area, to revive a vibrant sense of Jewish community in places it used to thrive. This might require more facilitation and help from a central coordinator and educators, depending on the Jewish experience and skill-set in the group. And these questions tie in strongly with the local/city-wide focus issue raised below (8th bullet-point, 'Placements', 21 September).

In starting a new organisation we have the luxury of a blank canvas, the opportunity to take elements from a wide range of organisations and programmes, to tweak our own programme's focus to perfectly suit societal and communal needs, participant and placement demand, and the funding landscape. I am now reaching the stage in my feasibility study where I will be meeting representatives from relevant organisations across London and the UK - bringing further opportunities to consider just what AVODAH UK might do.