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Shoresh - A Grounding SpaceLaunching in the Greenfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh in Early 2027Description: Shoresh is a Jewish religious organization that offers a coffee shop, workshops, and communal gathering space.
Location: Pittsburgh, PA Business Type: Coffee Shop, Jewish learning and communal space Vision: To create an innovative, forward-thinking community in Pittsburgh that fosters spiritual growth, social connection, and a love for high-quality coffee. Mission Statement and Core Principles Mission Statement Shoresh aims to blend the sacred and the everyday by providing a welcoming space where community members can gather for prayer, learning, or just a really good cup of coffee. We strive to break down barriers to participation in Jewish life. By meeting in an inviting social space where folks experience an authentic Judaism, Shoresh is unburdened by the weight and discomfort some feel in walking through the doors of a traditional synagogue. Shoresh offers a space for Jewish classes from introductory to advanced texts for folks interested in nourishing their souls through study and discussion with phenomenal teachers. We will provide a space for small scale, upstart Jewish communities to begin their life together as a minyan with all the tools and support they need to get going: a minyan incubator. Through our innovative financial model blending the coffee shop and the shtibl, we offer both sustainability and scalability. |
Core Principles
1) Shoresh is a coffee shop, a learning space, and a communal gathering place.
2) Shoresh is a minyan incubator space.
Shoresh can provide space, structure, advertising, professional support, a Torah, and prayerbooks to a nascent experimental community that wishes to create a regular prayer, song, or learning community. This lowers the barriers to entry for a group of Jews that want to try a new prayer or learning format: if the space is available, it is theirs to experiment, explore, and create.
3) Shoresh offers a la carte Jewish life in a marketplace dominated by a members-only model.
4) Shoresh is small-scale, intimate, and focused on the core elements of Jewish spiritual life.
1) Shoresh is a coffee shop, a learning space, and a communal gathering place.
- Conventional synagogue spaces are often unused for much of the week. A traditional synagogue main sanctuary may only see use on Shabbat morning, meaning that in a 128 hour week, the primary space is unused 124 hours a week. Shoresh is a coffee shop from Monday to Friday, 8 am to 3pm, generating income on drip, pour over, espresso drinks and baked goods during the week.
On Friday nights and all day Saturday, Shoresh’s Coffee Shop will be closed, but the space will be open for small, bespoke davenning communities to offer Jewish prayer and learning. The coffee shop pays the rent, the utilities, and for its own labor. Potentially, minyanim would pay a small fee to Shoresh to rent the space on a per-use or monthly basis.
2) Shoresh is a minyan incubator space.
- Jewish prayer tastes and modes evolve over time, but not all synagogues are equipped to accommodate those changes. The traditional synagogue model resists innovation and change through its various layers of boards of directors, committees, and professional staff. Minyanim operate primarily as lay-lead, small scale, low-overhead communities.
Shoresh can provide space, structure, advertising, professional support, a Torah, and prayerbooks to a nascent experimental community that wishes to create a regular prayer, song, or learning community. This lowers the barriers to entry for a group of Jews that want to try a new prayer or learning format: if the space is available, it is theirs to experiment, explore, and create.
3) Shoresh offers a la carte Jewish life in a marketplace dominated by a members-only model.
- Modern folks generally want to pay only for goods and services that they use frequently. Conventional synagogues follow a membership dues model, partially because conventional synagogues have large buildings and a large professional staff. Shoresh will financially support itself through a mix of income from coffee sales, classes, Jewish lifecycle events like weddings, funerals, and bar mitzvahs led by our trained professional staff, and donations to our 501c3 that lends space, support, and materials for gatherings.
4) Shoresh is small-scale, intimate, and focused on the core elements of Jewish spiritual life.
- No Hebrew school, no cultural programming, no youth groups, no gym. Just a space to pray on Saturdays, learn about the parsha on Thursday afternoons, or get a knish and a coffee on a Tuesday. The premise is simple and uncluttered: a well-caffeinated shtibl.