Makom 4HQ Moishe House Cohort

Through a year-long learning training program from Makom, Moishe House residents and Moishe House Without Walls (MHWOW) hosts are bringing engaging Israel programing to their peers. Makom’s 4HQ program takes the penultimate line of Hatikvah—To Be | A People | Free | In Our Land—and adapts it to four question areas that address the ongoing creative tension between 1) security, 2) Jewish Peoplehood, 3) democracy, and 4) the Land of Israel. The result is that a topic, Israel, that once was avoided for programming at Moishe Houses, is now discussed, debated, and appreciated in its full complexity.

It feels like this whole approach to digging deeper into Israel programming, and having the hard conversations, could be applied to all our Moishe House programming.
– Member of 4HQ Cohort 1

The 4HQ cohort of residents and hosts engage in webinars, in-person gatherings, 1-on-1 mentoring sessions to dive deeper into what they’re learning, and one weeklong trip through Israel. All of these platforms are vehicles to explore the social, historical, and political landscape of Israel from a multitude of perspectives. The trip to Israel, for example, showcases the beauty of Israel, gives space to grapple with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, offers meetings with Palestinians and Jews living over the green line, enables discussions with ultra-Orthodox Jews, provides experiences in cutting-edge civil discourse initiatives, and more. This reflects Makom’s goal not just to teach Moishe House leaders how to engage others with Israel, but to teach these leaders Israel content as well. In the second cohort, scheduled to begin this summer, Makom will roll out a unique Israel 101 Quiz intended to help participants set learning goals, while learning more about the history and culture of Israel.

As the training progresses, cohort participants gain the knowledge, skills and confidence to create and facilitate meaningful, practical, real-life Moishe House programs about Israel with their peers—for which they receive microgrants from Makom.

A spoken-word performance, reflecting on the experience of engaging with Israel

Around the country, Moishe Houses and young adults are finding that Israel programming can inspire deep engagement, excitement, and interest. When approached through the 4HQ framework, young adults of various backgrounds and perspectives come together, respect each other, and dive into Israel. Based on the success of the first 4HQ Moishe House cohort, Moishe House and Makom have begun reviewing more applications for cohort 2. More program and application details are available here.

Take part in “The Makom Parallel Israeli Election” and access resources about the Israeli election at www.makomisrael.org. The parallel election is meant to engage Jews around the world in the Israeli election, encouraging them to learn about the salient issues in Israel today, and ultimately to strengthen the conversation between Jews around the world and Israelis.  

 Makom’s 4HQ training program for Moishe House received one of ten grants in educator training from the Jim Joseph Foundation, following an open RFP.