POST-COLLEGE HILLEL HOUSES
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 29 (JTA) -- Say you're a few years out of college, living with friends and working in a low-paying job for some do-good organization. You don't go to synagogue but you miss the camaraderie of your college Hillel, and you like to invite people over for Shabbat meals. Imagine if someone was willing to pay you to keep doing it? That's what's offered by Moishe House, a fast-growing network of subsidized homes for 20-something Jews committed to building Jewish community for themselves and their peers. The project was launched less than a year ago by The Forest Foundation, a Santa Barbara, Calif.-based philanthropy....
The first Moishe House opened last December in San Francisco. Seattle was next in February, joined quickly by houses in Boston and Los Angeles. New ones are to open in October in Oakland, Washington, Uruguay and Nigeria, and the plan is to have 12 houses up and running by next year. Except for the Nigerian house, which is a one-man outreach operation, they all follow the same formula: Three or four Jews in their 20s receive a rent subsidy of up to $2,500 a month, along with $500 for programming, and are expected to become a communal hub for young Jews by hosting Shabbat meals, card games, Yiddish lessons, film nights, book discussions, neighborhood clean-ups and other social, intellectual and civic-minded activities.
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