These and Those

Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem

Tag Archives: Israeli culture

Jerusalem: Pulled to a Place

Posted on December 28, 2012 by Shanee Michaelson

During the summer of 2011, I was a recovering attorney who had just completed a year teaching in Jewish early childhood education. I felt a calling towards deepening my own formal Jewish education and learned at Pardes for 3 weeks. I was exposed to the tip of an iceberg of knowledge of every imaginable sort. Continue Reading »

[Alumni Guest Post] Post Office Chutzpa

Posted on December 20, 2012 by The Director of Digital Media

Daniel Shibley (Fellows Program ’12) shares an amusing anecdote of daily life as an Israeli Amid the mound of mail in the “shin” box of Yeshivat Har Etzion, I located a small paper notice from the Israel Post with my name on it. Once I managed to peel it off the plastic wrapper of another student’s unclaimed copy Continue Reading »

Newton’s Third Law and the Jewish Question

Posted on December 9, 2012 by Derek Kwait

Maybe it’s because I grew up feeling like one, or maybe it’s just some genetic Jewish thing, but for whatever reason, I’ve always sympathized with the outsider. When I went on the Tale of Three Cities tiyyul the two weeks ago, I didn’t know what to expect, except that we were going to meet three Continue Reading »

Empty Notebook

Posted on December 4, 2012 by David Bogomolny

I doodled once on the cover of my notebook, but I didn’t take any notes. Every time we met with a speaker, I brought my notebook and pen with me, but I never once wrote down what they were saying. I’m not sure that I couldn’t have; I’m only sure that I didn’t want to. Continue Reading »

Chanukah is almost here! Unbelievable!

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Stuart Matan Lithwick

The following post has been cross-posted from my Studymoon blog. Hello! Shmatan here again, writing from the holy land! I cannot believe that Chanukah has almost arrived! That means that all us Pardesniks have now been here for 3 months! It blows my mind how fast time goes by. Before, we get started, I must Continue Reading »

Talent Show!

Posted on December 2, 2012 by Avi Benson-Goldberg

Before there was an operation that was almost a war that kept me on the edge of my seat as much as it sat in the back of my mind, we went on a tiyyul. Tiyyul is a sort of quintessentially Israeli thing. It’s not a field trip. It’s a journey somewhere, but it’s short, Continue Reading »

Why I’m Not Making Aliyah

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Derek Kwait

“Oh, so you’ve been here [almost a year/two years]! So are you planning on making aliyah?,” they say, bearing their teeth and gently lifting their eyebrows in anticipation of the upcoming hearty “Mazel tov!” they’re sure to owe me. “No.” “Oh,” this is less an expression than the sound a face makes as it falls. Continue Reading »

Beautiful Jerusalem

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Heather Kantrowitz

Originally posted on my blog: Since I’ve mostly been settling into a normal routine of class, class, eat, class, class, eat, shabbat (eat, pray, eat, pray), class… etc, I thought I would do a different kind of post. By the time I get home at night, I’m usually completely wiped out and ready to relax Continue Reading »

Falling in love with Tel Aviv

Posted on November 4, 2012 by Cara Abrams-Simonton

Originally posted on my blog: So there is this thing. Tel Aviv vs. Jerusalem- and I’d say probably the majority of your average secular Israelis would say Tel Aviv, hands down. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m in love with Jerusalem… there is incredible history, beauty and complexity here. But there is something else going Continue Reading »

My Spiritual High at Zorba

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Laura Marder

Do you ever feel like there is a cage around you? Like you can carry it around but sometimes it gets heavy and tires you down. Perhaps it restrains you from moving in a comfortable way or running to what you really desire. I hadn’t really thought of myself in a cage at all before Continue Reading »