People were surprised to learn that Adin Burwell didn’t live at Moishe House Columbia Heights, given her deep involvement in its event planning and promotion.
“I always found a lot of joy leading Jewish programming,” Burwell said. “It genuinely made me excited, like when I was a camp counselor, I absolutely loved it.”
Participating in Jewish life has always been special to her, the Washington, D.C., resident said.
She began attending local Moishe House events — “Sometimes people actually thought I lived there before I lived there because I was there a lot” — long before she moved into Moishe House Columbia Heights in spring 2025.
Burwell helped the three residents plan communal events and promote their “shidduch survey” online. “I got them to make a video and I edited it to put on their Instagram to try and push the survey,” she said.
After the Moishe House residents hosted an Ashkenazi Shabbat, Burwell suggested, “What about Ethiopian Shabbat?” and helped them plan that.
“I’d actually just gotten two new Dutch ovens from my mom, and the first time they were used was to make dabo for this Ethiopian Shabbat,” Burwell said. “I just wanted a way to share my Ethiopian roots and tell that story with the community to show Jewish diversity.”
Dabo is a traditional bread that Ethiopian Jews eat on Shabbat.
“And this was all before I lived there,” she added.
Then, a resident spot opened up in the Moishe House CoHi apartment, and Burwell successfully applied.
“I just wanted to play a more active role and continue building the community I was already part of,” she said.
Burwell has two roommates, both of whom she knew before moving in. Moishe House CoHi is a seven-program house, meaning that each of the three residents takes charge of two monthly events, then all three run Shabbat together.
Event planning, logistics and budgeting make up much of Burwell’s responsibilities as a Moishe House resident. “I have a very outgoing personality,” she said. “I’m definitely an extrovert. I love the hosting responsibilities — I also host a lot in my personal life. I’m a people person.”
In addition to facilitating new friendships — and even a romantic relationship — Moishe House events can be educational. “We infuse a lot of Jewish learning into our events,” Burwell said.
The residents consult a Jewish life specialist through Mem Global, Moishe House’s umbrella brand, to help determine the lens through which to present an event or the Jewish texts to incorporate into an event.
They also conduct community outreach, promote events through GatherDC’s calendar and run social media.
One of Burwell’s priorities is ensuring that every attendee of a Moishe House CoHi event feels welcomed.
“Whenever someone walks through the door, I always make sure to greet someone hello and say goodbye, and especially if they’re new, try to have a conversation with them,” she said.
Creating an open Jewish space can be somewhat complicated by the various levels of observance and knowledge of Jewish tradition. The Moishe House CoHi community welcomes Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Mizrahi and any other Jewish ethnicity into its space.
“Everyone’s coming from different knowledge levels and different minhag and family customs, which is really cool, but it can make it [so that] people don’t necessarily know what’s going on or do the same thing,” Burwell explained.
To remedy this possible incongruity, Shabbat dinner guests are invited to sit or stand during kiddush, whichever is most comfortable for them. Moishe House CoHi residents narrate customs out loud as they’re performing a ritual. They make sure to give all attendees a prayer book for the post-meal Birkat Hamazon, whether they know the words or not.
“We treat everyone in a way where it’s truly accessible for everyone,” Burwell said. “We really try to have quality programming and have people keep coming back and feeling welcome.”
This commitment to Jewish community stems from Burwell’s Atlanta upbringing.
“Something very foundational to me is having a strong Jewish identity and pride, and also the importance of prayer, and the importance and truth of the Torah,” she said.
Notably, much of her Jewish life was centered around the home, spending Shabbat dinners with her mom’s coworkers and seeing her dad reading and discussing the parshah, until high school.
At a teacher’s encouragement, Burwell joined her school’s Yad B’Yad, the equivalent of a Jewish student union. “From there, it really exploded my involvement,” she said.
Burwell then became actively involved in Cornell Hillel during undergraduate, serving as a campus engagement intern. She also interned on Capitol Hill to advance food justice, reflecting a longtime interest in agriculture.
By day, she works as an agricultural specialist at the Embassy of Chile in the United States.
“One goal I have is always continuing to learn,” Burwell said. “I think something really cool about Moishe House is that I had the opportunity to learn new things I didn’t know.”
She referenced hosting a Kiddush Levana event — a monthly Jewish ritual of gazing up at the waxing moon while making blessings and reciting prayers — and the process of kashering the kitchen as personal learning experiences.
“I’m constantly learning more, so my goal is to continue learning [and] putting on great events for the Jewish community,” Burwell said. “Our house has been a Moishe House for almost 20 years … so we have a really great legacy.”
