Moishe House Strives to Meet International Expansion Demand for Young Jewish Adults – Establishes Global Community Fund
Charlotte, NC (PRWEB) July 28, 2014 -- Moishe House currently has more than 60 houses worldwide and receives weekly requests from communities around the world who are interested in starting their own Moishe House community. The unique and innovative Moishe House model trains, supports, and sponsors young Jewish leaders as they create vibrant home-based communities for themselves and their peers.
Founded in 2006, Moishe House began in the U.S. and has seen much success with establishing and maintaining healthy and thriving communities in North America. As word about the Moishe House models spreads, young Jewish adults from around the world are expressing their interest in starting their own Moishe House in their own communities. Outside of North America, there are currently Moishe Houses in Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria, China, England, Hungary, Israel, Latvia, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine. Last year alone, these houses held a combined 1,351 programs (such as Shabbat dinners, learning retreats, book clubs, and sporting events) engaging 25,604 in total attendance. Additionally, Moishe House is currently working to open houses in Berlin, Cape Town, Paris, Prague and Sao Paulo. Beyond these houses that are in the works, Moishe House continues to receive other serious inquiries from Jewish young adults on a consistent basis that are requesting new locations.
The newly established Global Community Fund will support groups of young and dynamic leaders in places that are well-positioned for a Moishe House, but lack the necessary financial resources to get it off the ground. This fund was established in partnership with the Sabrina Merage Foundation, who has issued a challenge and dollar-for-dollar match up to $50,000 to all new supporters to this fund.
"The Sabrina Merage Foundation’s challenge grant provides wonderful momentum to raise support so that we can continue saying ‘yes’ to the growing network of incredible global community builders," said David Cygielman, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Moishe House. “We fully intend to leverage this generous gift to inspire an even broader base of supporters, enabling more young adults to create peer-based Jewish communities in the places that need it the most,” David added.
Moishe Houses were created specifically for Jews in their twenties because the Jewish community has created infrastructure for engaging Jews from early childhood through college and then again once they choose to start families. Moishe House recognizes and seeks to fill a major gap in which there were almost no appropriate organized venues for post-collegiate Jews in their twenties. Moishe House was created to meet the needs of this growing demographic by cultivating a meaningful and attractive pathway from Jewish college life to Jewish family life.
About Moishe House
Moishe House was born out of the increasing need for meaningful Jewish engagement amongst Jewish 20-somethings around the globe. Now including a network of 62 houses and counting, Moishe House is becoming an increasingly recognized avenue for young adult engagement in the Jewish community and beyond through a model that is scalable and replicated in 14 different countries. Today, Jewish young adults are markedly different from previous generations, and are more mobile, transient in their careers, and waiting longer than ever before to settle down and start families. The residents of each Moishe House come from a variety of Jewish backgrounds, ranging from liberal to traditional, and they all share a strong desire to create a home that becomes a hub of Jewish life for their peers, known as participants or attendees. Learn more at http://www.moishehouse.org.
About the Sabrina Merage Foundation
The Sabrina Merage Foundation was founded by Sabrina Merage in 2008 with the intention of building bridges between diverse societies through educational programs for young people. The foundation focuses on issues of religious, cultural, racial, and ethnic diversity and seeks to partner to find progressive solutions and programs that promote tolerance of these issues in schools and college campuses throughout the world. Learn more at http://www.sabrinameragefoundation.org.
Carli Franks, Merage Foundations, http://www.merage.org, 3037892664 Ext: 265, [email protected]
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