Tag Archives: heritage / legacy

Yevgenia Baron Probst

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YI shared the following words at Pardes, wishing my friend Yevgenia and her family chizuk (encouragement, support) and Hashem’s rachamim (mercy).

She was born with a congenital heart defect, which has always impacted the quality of her life. Last Sunday, a week ago, I was not entirely surprised to learn that she had been hospitalized.

Yevgenia inspires me to believe that we can all achieve more than we may believe possible if only we push ourselves to succeed and live our lives to the fullest. She has certainly done so herself. Continue reading →

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Present and Accounted For

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Naomi Minsky (Year '13, PEP '15) came to Pardes this year
for the Year Program, and will be returning next year as a
member of the Pardes Educators Program!

nmSince my teenage years I secretly wanted to pursue a career as a doctor. This is not because I am scientific and enjoy learning about the human anatomy. In fact, I go into panic-mode at the sight of blood. I was attracted to helping others live life to the full. Thankfully I have found an alternative route to achieve my aim.

Unlike medicine Jewish education does not literally save lives. However, it supports people to have meaningful experiences and relationships. It is a way to help others appreciate Judaism and approach it with confidence. My Bat Mitzvah involved facing the community and saying the shema prayer. The whole time I looked directly at my grandparents. They were sitting in the front row saying the words back to me. I am indebted to my Jewish education teaching me that the shema is an affirmation of Jewish identity and love of G-d. I felt the beauty of the experience as I was connected to my family, community and religious tradition simultaneously. Jewish identity today is multifaceted, for some it is Continue reading →

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Legacy

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Originally posted to my blog yesterday, March 31:

Today is my mother’s birthday. She would have been 68. What a strange thing to think. Sixty-eight, so young. Such a difficult life, surreal in ways I can’t imagine and in ways I know too well.

My mother was an amazing woman, as you’ve either experienced first hand or heard me say many times. Independent, she left home at 18 to join the Navy against her Jewish mother’s wishes and leaving her 13-year-old sister behind, recently fatherless and alone. My mother worked hard, sent money home, saved, put herself through nursing school, survived boot camp, basic training, and three years of Stateside service during Viet Nam.

She was the first in the family to go to secondary school, the first to own a car, the first to live outside the family’s one-bedroom apartment in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Continue reading →

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Returning in Choice (חוזר בבחירה)

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“I assume that you’d consider yourself a ḥozer beteshuva, right?”

As somebody who was raised by parents who self-identify as traditional, ḥiloni Jews, and chose himself to live a life committed to and guided by halakha, I’ve come to expect some form of this question from people in conversations about Jewish faith and practice.

But this term does not sit well with me. For reference, here’s the Wikipedia definition (emphasis mine):

Baal teshuva literally means “master of repentance or return (to Judaism)”. The term has historically referred to a Jew who had not kept Jewish practices, and completed a process of introspection and thus returned to Judaism and morality. In Israel, another term is used, ḥozer beteshuva (חוזר בתשובה), literally “returning in repentance”. Also, Jews who adopt religion later in life are known “baalei teshuva” or “ḥozerim beteshuva”. Continue reading →

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Ten Years of Chesed

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The year after Ben and Marla were killed was a year of mourning for our whole community, even for those, like me, who never had the pleasure of meeting them. The first Yom Iyun shel Chesed enabled us to come together and celebrate the lives of two fellow students by creating something positive from the midst of this tragedy, some light from the darkness. Marla and Ben had been in the Pardes Educators Program, learning, working, and planning to become Jewish educators. As such, we were able to tangibly feel the immense positive influence these future teachers would have undoubtedly had on the lives of thousands of children.

One idea behind the Yom Iyun shel Chesed was that this would become a yearly Pardes tradition that would eventually impact thousands of people for the better, just as Ben and Marla surely would have. It was therapeutic for our immediate Pardes community at that time, and it also was a way to somehow make up for Ben and Marla’s lives being cut so short.

Reflecting on this now, it’s powerful and rewarding to be here in person and to see that indeed this tradition is alive and thriving today, ten years later. Our greatest hopes, nascent in that very first Yom Iyun shel Chesed, are every year coming to fruition. The legacy of Marla and Ben, who were both so committed to making Jerusalem and the world a better place, is truly commemorated and celebrated each and every year through the annual Yom Iyun shel Chesed.

Stu Jacobs (PEP ’11-’13), who was first at Pardes as a year student in 2002-2003 and helped organize the very first Yom Iyun shel Chesed, reflects upon Ben and Marla’s legacy of kindness.

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Some Initial Thoughts on Halakha

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One Aspect of Halakha that is Particularly Meaningful to Me

“Anyone who identifies as Jewish today only need go back three or four generations to find observant Jews in their family. And from there an unbroken chain of Jewish living that goes back more than three thousand years. Not that everyone has always been observant. There were plenty of unobservant Jews. But we don’t know their grandchildren. They have been lost to the Jewish community.”

I came across this quote on the Chabad website, and it speaks to a deeply-held belief of mine. Of course, this quote applies specifically to those of us who are of Jewish descent, and maybe it would be more accurate to claim that we “only need go back” four or five generations… but I agree with the spirit of R. Moss’ idea.

As with all cultures, there exists Jewish art, music, theater, literature, etc., but it is our halakhic system that has sustained our People since our exile from our Land. Continue reading →

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a new struggle i didn’t see coming

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From my blog:

“An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.”

I know this sounds naive, but I really didn’t see this one coming.

aw

Just some clarifications before I start. I love being Jewish. I love not using electricity on Shabbat, I love keeping mitzvot, I love davening, I LOVE Torah. I choose to believe Torah is from Sinai. I like dressing conservatively, although I don’t always wear skirts. I often think about being orthodox and marrying an orthodox man.

I grew up in a place that I didn’t have anyone to raise me Jewish, to answer my questions, or help me become the Jew I wanted to be.  I grew up in a predominantly farming community in Indiana, where there weren’t any other Jews. My dad is Catholic. My Jewish education is also about survival. At this point in my life, I wouldn’t choose to raise my family there, because I want to them grow up more Jewishly observant, but I did grow up there, and there weren’t people who could teach me. Continue reading →

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[Alumni Guest Post] Shira Abramowitz – The Burden of Legacy: It is no dream.

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Shira has left us for another adventure, and we miss her...
But her insightful writing continues (x-posted here below)!
Shira Bee

Shira Bee

Legacy.

A pretty big word around here.

Here being Jerusalem, a city that many nations hold dear due to its history and importance in relation to their people, their culture, their religion. As a proud member of the Jewish religion and culture, I find this place resonates with me on an impossibly deep level. I feel the ties to the land, not magically or mythologically, but rather in a historical sense; with understanding and awe that my ancestors have considered this land sacred for longer than I can truly comprehend. That this land has served as a place of refuge and of tragedy, of life and of death. And that the experience I have today while living in Jerusalem is inextricably tied to the experience my ancestors had in this land so long ago. Continue reading →

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[Alumni Guest Post] Intrafaith Engagement

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by Ben Barer (Fall 2010, Fellows 2011-12)

Cross-posted from his blog.

“All Jews are friends”

I came across this article recently, and the tenor of the article greatly disturbed me.  My friend and fellow Pardes alum did a wonderful job setting the record straight, but I see the underlying problem as requiring more thought as well.  Why are we so quick to demonize fellow Jews?  This is not a case of unaffiliated Jews who see no particular connection between themselves and other Jews, nor is it a case of questioning whether criticism of the State of Israel is legitimate coming (loudly) from a Jewish voice.  This is the question of whether committed Jews from various denominations in the global Jewish community can see that there is much to be lost from sniping at each other, and much to be gained by trying to understand one another, despite our differences.

In the Crimson article, the following were among the inflammatory words that appeared: “endangered,” “anathema,” “medieval,” and “parochial zeal.”  I struggle to understand what the goal of inciting such antagonism is.  The author himself states that the Orthodox community is the dominant demography in Judaism today.  While he claims that Reform and Conservative Judaism stand for tikkun olam — repairing the world — the concept of כל ישראל ערבים זה לזה (Sanhedrin 27b), that all Jews are inextricably bound up in each others’ lives, has been sidelined.

I am not arguing that, if only Jews would all unite, there would be peace in the Middle East — or anything similarly grandiose.  I actually think that the people who stand to benefit most from Jews making a concerted effort to decrease a rhetoric of hate and increase understanding are Jews.  The Jewish tradition stands to be enriched by having Jews of all backgrounds come together and grapple with the issues that animate our lives.  This is in large part because there are so many different, institutionally sanctioned ways of Continue reading →

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Post-Modernity’s Footnote to Modernity

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I just had the immense privilege of watching Footnote (הערת שוליים) with some fellow Pardesniks followed by a discussion with faculty who have intimate personal knowledge of the culture being described in the film.  First, I highly recommend watching the trailer and, if you are even remotely interested, watching the movie before reading what I have to say (in other words: spoiler alert).

Continue reading →

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