These and Those

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

Tag Archives: kibbutzim

Swirl Swirl Desert Stop

Posted on January 19, 2013 by Naomi Bilmes

From my blog: (written two days ago) So, last night, I sat around a crackling fire with a group of religious people chanting incantations in ancient languages while passing around a hand-carved knife and letting the blood from our left pinkie fingers drip over the hot, scalding flames… Okay, that was an exaggeration. But I 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 »

Week 36: From Silence to Song

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Derek Kwait

(Mostly X-posted from my home blog, Yinzer in Yerushalayim) The weekend before last was the retreat Shabbaton for Self, Soul, and Text class at Kibbutz Hanaton, our teacher James’ home, in the Galil. The schedules Friday and Saturday were nearly identical, each day going like: 9-9:45: Sit. 9:45-10:30: Walk. 10:30-11:15: Sit. 11:15-12:30: Lunch. 12:30-1:15-Sit. It Continue Reading »

What’s Meaningful to Me

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Heligman

Last December I attended the first of a series of Meditation Retreats in Hannaton (co-led by Pardes faculty member James Jacobson-Maisels).  It’s been about 2 months now since experiencing the awakened state of being that defines “Retreat”. I call it an awakened state because the sensitivity you develop during these retreats can be described in Continue Reading »

Bring-your-Mom-to-Pardes Day

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Mira

The shift from first semester to second semester started during our week off when half of Pardes went on a tiyul to the Arava desert. I’m not a hiking fan, but I love the desert in Israel and have always felt connected to it. This was a wonderful opportunity for me to reflect on my Continue Reading »

Arava Tiyul 2012!

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Andrea Wiese

Over the semester break I went to the Arava, or Eilat mountains in southern Israel with a small group from Pardes. We stayed at Kibbutz Keturah and we had an amazing time! Even some of the new students from the spring semester joined us, so it was great to meet them! Yishai hiking in his Continue Reading »

Week 20: The Arava Tiyyul

Posted on January 21, 2012 by Derek Kwait

(X-posted from my home blog, Yinzer in Yerushalayim) Tuesday through Thursday those of us who didn’t go on the annual Poland trip went on a tiyyul to the Arava. The Arava is a huge rift valley south of the Dead Sea split between Israel and Jordan. Similar to the Negev tiyyul, our primary activities on Continue Reading »

[Student Profile] Katie Greenberg

Posted on March 22, 2011 by David Bogomolny

This profile is in honor of Katie Greenberg‘s upcoming wedding to Matan Glazer on March 31st. From all of us at Pardes, we wish Katie and Matan… 🙂 מזל טוב ובהצלחה 🙂     Katie (Summer ’06 & ’07, Year ’09-’10, Fellows ’10-’11) and Matan met at Kibbutz Ketura while Katie was on the Young Judea Year Course, Continue Reading »

[Student Profile] Ronit Rapoport

Posted on January 18, 2011 by David Bogomolny

Ronit Rapoport (Fall ’10) first found herself at Pardes when she was sixteen years old; she was living in Jerusalem while her parents were studying in the Pardes Summer Program (Summer ’06). Two years later, Ronit returned to Pardes while visiting her sister Sophie who was studying in the Pardes Educators Program (Educators ’09). In 2008 she began college at Continue Reading »

Two shabbatot

Posted on January 5, 2010 by Katie

I would like to share a unique shabbat experience I  had a couple of weeks ago. It was on a small religious yeshuv (town/gated community) called Hoshaya in the North of Israel. I went with my boyfriend to stay with one of his friends from Hebrew Universtiy who is studying archeaology with him. We had Continue Reading »