Our Story

House of Sages began out of something we felt was missing: an open, welcoming “third space” where Jewish life and learning could happen outside of school, synagogue, or home. We wanted a place where all Jews could feel comfortable gathering, learning, and growing together, ideally over a good cup of coffee.

In December 2023, we founded House of Sages when Mimi was an undergraduate at Columbia University, and Rikki had just moved to New York City. What started in our own apartments has grown into monthly Sunday Cafes, where people come together to explore Jewish texts in conversation with modern sources. Our goal is to show how Jewish wisdom isn’t just ancient or abstract, rather it speaks directly to the questions and challenges of our daily lives.

At our core, we’re guided by values of inclusivity, community building, and a love of Jewish learning for its own sake. We aren’t here to tell people how to practice; we’re here to create space for curiosity, depth, and connection. The name “House of Sages” comes from a line in Pirkei Avot (1:5): “Let your house be a gathering place for the sages; sit in the dust of their feet, and drink in their words with thirst.” The image of a home filled with wisdom, conversation, and shared nourishment is exactly what we hope to bring to life.

In the future, our dream is for this to become a physical coffee shop that doubles as a beit midrash, and really acts as a place of connection.

We imagine House of Sages to be a warm place, somewhere that can belong to all of us. A place for sitting with friends over coffee, a place to have the same debate you always have. A place to pick a book from our shelf and read alone. A place to see friends, a place to just be, a place to join in. A place that can become a center of a community, vibrant, engaging, and new but also familiar and comforting, and always full of ideas.