Moishe House Providence opens for young Jews

PROVIDENCE — Nathaniel Lepp and Jesse Stout have filled a void.

These two young professionals recognized a problem in their community and sought to address it by opening Moishe House Providence.

Upon college graduation, Lepp, currently a graduate student at Brown University and Stout, executive director of the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition, recognized that the Jewish infrastructure they had centered their lives around had crumbled. As they left the education system, no organization reached out to them and showed them a way to continue the Jewish component of their lives.

During their undergraduate years at Brown, Lepp and Stout were involved with Brown/RISD Hillel. Stout was additionally a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi, the international Jewish fraternity, and both men attended temple growing up.

“The way that I was raised was to experience Judaism,” said Lepp. “Shabbat was central, and considered a joy.” Lepp held open Shabbat dinners for his friends throughout college. “Not every week,” said Lepp. “It gets expensive.”

When Lepp heard of the Moishe House concept from a friend in San Francisco, where the organization began, he approached Stout. The two men were already looking for an apartment together, and their apartment hunt became a search for a Moishe House. They opened their doors in September 2007, after sending in the requisite multi-media application. Once their application was accepted, the opportunity provided them with a part-time job and program budget ($250/month, plus one-third rent), to do something they were going to do anyway.

“This felt very organic,” said Stout, who noted that their Moishe House hit the ground running with a large group of interested friends who were still living in the area after attending Brown. The organization continued to grow through word of mouth.

Lepp and Stout continue to send e-mail blasts and notify participants about larger events through the social networking website Facebook, but they maintain that old-fashioned word-of-mouth is their secret weapon for great event attendance.

Their first “event” was a painting party. Volunteers helped them to paint their “house,” which is actually a modest apartment near the corner of Wickenden and Benefit streets. For their savvy allocation of minimal space and resources, Lepp and Stout won two trophies in this first year, one of them at Moshe House’s national retreat, held in Santa Barbara in January.

Lepp and Stout make up the smallest Moishe House in number of inhabitants but they have been able to host an impressive variety of events: Rosh Hashanah dinner, Kabala Shabbat, “shabbatluck” dinner and secular activities, including movie nights, beach days, and parties.

They often enlist upstairs neighbors to welcome attendees into their home during larger events.

“The national organization is very unrestrictive in the way that they allow Moishe Houses to manifest their own sense of Judaism,” said Lepp. “It makes it easy for young people to get involved.”

According to the Providence Moshe House, there are 25 houses nationally including several in California. Lepp and Stout have visited the Boston Moishe House, and Stout sent a friend to visit the Moishe House in Hoboken, N.J.

Although Lepp and Stout don’t have spare bedrooms for visitors, they have welcomed overnight guests, many from out of town, offering their couches and futon.

“It’s not in the job description of a Moishe House,” said Lepp. “but this hospitality seems to be a natural outgrowth of our Jewish identity.” While hosting overnight guests is not required, one of the goals of Moishe House is to serve as a way for past Birthright participants to stay in touch.

The House leaders, sometimes referred to as “Moisheniks,” have reached out to other community groups in the area, including Brown/RISD Hillel and the Jewish Federation of Rhode Island (JFRI) in order to have an idea of the scope of their programming. But Stout added: “We don’t cross-pollinate our e-mail lists.”

“I have heard of Moishe House but I haven’t heard about any of their programs, or about what exactly they did,” said Jacob Brier, who just stepped down as coordinator for GesherCity RI. GesherCity is a networking group for young Jewish professionals. Similar to Moishe House, it is part of a national organization and uses the Internet to stay in touch with members.

Moishe House Providence is funded by the national organization, which is supported through a variety of foundations and private donors. The name “Moishe House” comes from a primary funder of the organization, Morris B. Squire, whose Hebrew name is Moishe.

Moishe House Providence welcomes new members. Young professionals ages 22-30 are the group’s target demographic, but all are welcome to contact the group, which has no membership fee. Contact Moishe House at moishepvd@gmail.com.

Julia McCann can be reached at mccann.julia@gmail.com.