MOISHE HOUSE RESIDENTS—Marcus Dorsen and Eleanor Greenberg stand on the deck of Moishe House, a hub for young Jewish adults.
Moishe House adds ‘talent’
By Jenn Director Knudsen
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Already vibrant, the Portland Moishe House now is more so with the addition of two new, young talents, one for the short-term, the other here to stay for a while.
Freelance writer Eleanor Goldberg of New York City will live in Moishe House through mid-September and conduct a writers’ workshop Aug. 19 through Sept. 9 during her Portland stint.
The free, evening workshop is for all comers, Goldberg said in an e-mail prior to leaving the Big Apple for Portland.
“Participants will learn how to translate everyday experiences into personal, salable essays,” wrote Goldberg, 26, who has written for magazines and online publications including Relate Magazine, Metro Sports Magazine, Time Out New York, Nike’s The Sponge and UrbanDaddy.com.
She also has experience organizing informal writing groups.
Goldberg, a 2004 graduate of NYU with a dual bachelor’s, including in journalism, continued, “The class will be catered to writers of all levels, encouraging both amateur and seasoned scribes to join.”
Jodi Berris, 29, founded the Portland Moishe House in January in Southwest Portland. Last summer she befriended Goldberg, who spent about a month in Portland.
The two became good friends, Berris said, and she believed Goldberg would be a strong addition to the local Jewish community and to Moishe House and the values it espouses.
Moishe Houses, funded by the Forest Foundation of Santa Barbara, Calif., exist worldwide to set up grassroots community centers mainly for post-college 20- and 30-something Jews, according to the Moishe House Web site. House residents create regular programming and in exchange receive subsidized rents and an events budget.
“Eleanor has had a very solid Judaic background her entire life,” Berris said in a phone conversation from her office in Beaverton, noting house residents are shomer Shabbat and keep glatt kosher.
She added, “We live in both worlds: We care about Shabbat and kashrut, and we both like to party.”
So while Goldberg herself is an observant Jew, her workshop is secular; it offers different programming from Moishe House’s otherwise Jewish-themed opportunities, Berris emphasized.
Also at Moishe House, but from a very different Jewish background, is Marcus Dorsen, 21, the house’s youngest resident.
Raised Reform in Austin, Texas, Dorsen said in a phone interview that after his bar mitzvah he stopped pursuing Jewish education.
Now in Portland since January and at the Moishe House since July—he was selected to rent the room recently vacated by Matt Peterson—Dorsen is committed to amplifying his academic, spiritual and religious educations.
He says of learning to keep strict kosher and shomer Shabbat: “It’s an educational experience in and of itself —the amount of information you’re forced to learn.”
He’s working toward his bachelor’s in Middle Eastern Studies from Portland State University and, fresh off an energizing and eye-opening 10-day birthright Israel trip, Dorsen is excited and poised to bring new events to Jewish college-age young adults.
Dorsen said birthright left an indelible impression on him. While in Israel, he felt compelled to further explore Judaism and the Jewish community, and the young Israeli soldiers’ commitment to their country awed him.
“Because a Jewish state is just that important to them” they’d sacrifice their lives for its preservation, he said. “It really drove me; seeing that was incredibly powerful.” He added: “I didn’t really start seeking out other Jews until I went on birthright.”
New to Portland, Dorsen nonetheless attended Moishe House’s February Superbowl XLII party.
“I didn’t really know anybody in the city” and found the partygoers “cool,” he said. So much so he attended other events and now is at the helm of putting on new ones—with a $500 monthly budget—targeting Jewish folks his age.
“There is a strong contingent of young college-age Jews in Portland who are not (yet) being reached, certainly by Moishe House,” he said.
Dorsen first is heading up an Aug. 20 poker night with room only for 14 card sharks.
This fall he’s kicking off a six-week bowling league and will work closely with Hillel, as it gets up and running on the PSU campus, serving Jewish college students at his university and at both Lewis & Clark and Reed colleges.
He says his transition from knowing nary a Jewish soul in Portland, to attending Moishe House events to spearheading them himself has required adjustments but, overall, “It’s been a pretty smooth transition” for which he credits Berris, Peterson and Jeremy Rogers, the three who started Portland Moishe House.
Berris said of Dorsen: “I like his passion and commitment to the cause (of) building the Jewish community. He’s got lots of good ideas.”
And, his timing is perfect.
“He went on the birthright trip and came back powered up and gung-ho,” Berris said.
Writers’ workshop: The free workshop will meet from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Aug. 19 and 26 and Sept. 2 and 9. For more information and to enroll, contact Eleanor Goldberg at eleanor.goldberg@gmail.com, or 917-608-6323.
Poker night: Aug. 20 at Moishe House, 617 S.W. 33rd Pl. $10 per person; consider an additional $5 donation for beer and snacks. There are 14 slots available. To sign up, contact marcusdorsen@gmail.com.
For more about Moishe House: www.portlandjewishevents.com/MoisheHouse.html
