Moishe House Absorbs Base Movement Network from Hillel International

Jewish adult engagement organization Moishe House announced on March 5 that it will acquire the Base Movement rabbinic network from Hillel International. This move will allow Moishe House to provide more Jewish education resources to its residents and create experiences within their communities.

Since 2015, Base was incubated as an innovation project at Hillel International, growing to engage more than 6,000 young Jewish adults per year and fostering data regarding Base’s home-based engagement model. Base aimed to build community in spiritual spaces facilitated by rabbis. Moishe House, which engages more than 70,000 young Jewish adults in more than 12,000 programs across the world each year, will absorb six Base locations.

While Base will function within Moishe House, it will continue to be led by its co-founder Faith Leener with a wider vision to expand the model.

“We feel confident that Moishe House’s extensive reach and operational expertise provides Base the best platform to continue to grow, innovate, and serve our communities with the love, care, and intention that we have provided these past six years to over 30,000 young adults,” Leener said. “I’m proud to continue growing this initiative from a six-year-old startup to a movement that is more fundamentally embedded in the fabric of how young adults experience Jewish community across the country and how they experience Jewish leadership.”

While both Base and Moishe House are rooted in home-based programming, Base Movement’s rabbinic-led education and engagement model will enable Moishe House to continue to grow and integrate more direct-learning and rabbinic mentorship opportunities for young adults. Base closely aligns with Moishe House and is a strategic next-step in engaging with its global community. Moishe House CEO and founder David Cygielman said the integration of their outreach and communities will further increase their ability to serve as fulfilling resources for young Jews.

Base Movement’s rabbinic-led education and engagement model will enable Moishe House to continue to grow and integrate more direct-learning and rabbinic mentorship opportunities for young adults.

“Moishe House is a natural home for Base,” Cygielman said. “We are eager to grow this exciting model and look forward to finding new partners to seed new Bases. We are deeply grateful for our partners at Hillel International, along with all the local partners and generous donors who have supported this acquisition.”

According to an official statement given to the Journal, Moishe House will acquire six of Base’s locations that are unaffiliated with universities in New York, Chicago, Boston and Miami, with plans to incorporate Base into more Moishe House communities across the United States. The professional staff responsible for overseeing the broader Base Movement and supporting the teams will now be Moishe House employees. Base Ithaca (Cornell) and Base Berlin will remain part of Hillel and rebrand over the next two years. During a transition period, the Bases will continue to receive support from the Base movement, including cohort building, training and continuing education.

“We are proud of the role Hillel has played in the first chapter of Base’s story and excited to watch it continue to grow as part of Moishe House,” Hillel International President and CEO Adam Lehman said. “Hillel remains committed to developing innovative new models and platforms for Jewish engagement, through projects such as Base, and to finding the best paths for maximizing the impact of these initiatives for the overall Jewish community.”