Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on March 28, 2013 by David Bogomolny
Emly Oren left Israel with her family at the age of four, but in many ways Israel never left her family. At school in Orange County, Emly was the only Israeli student; but her family continued to speak Hebrew at home, and they only watched Israeli television programs. The Orens would travel to Israel every Continue Reading »
Posted on March 15, 2013 by Derek Kwait
Hannah Grossman is an explorer. Her Jewish journey has taken her from the farthest ends of the earth to the deepest corners of her psyche. Yet the further she has traveled from her native New Jersey, the closer she has come to finally finding her Jewish home. Hannah grew up in West Orange, NJ to Continue Reading »
Posted on February 10, 2013 by Shoshana Rosen
From my blog: The important thing to remember is to not make yourself afraid at all Somehow this song, always comes back to me. In times that i least expect it…. I first came across this song at Jewish sleep away camp, singing it on the top top of my little lungs Kol Ha’olam kuloGesher Continue Reading »
Posted on January 23, 2013 by The Director of Digital Media
The semester I spent at Pardes was among the most important periods of personal growth that I’ve ever had. Upon my return to the US, when family or friends would ask about it, I could only create impressions of how I had grown or what I had truly learned. I would say, “imagine six months Continue Reading »
Posted on January 16, 2013 by The Director of Digital Media
Sara Brandes (Year ’01, Fellows ’02, Elul ’05) shares her Pardes reflections: I met my friend, teacher and fellow Pardes alumna Rabbi Shawn Fields-Meyer during the summer before I arrived at Pardes, as a participant in the Brandeis Collegiate Institute. Inspired by her teaching and hungry for more, I sought her out. When I told Continue Reading »
Posted on January 1, 2013 by Derek Kwait
When it came to picking out a college and a major, Mike knew he wanted to work with numbers and that he wanted to do something practical. So he searched and weighed the available data: He looked into economics but found it boring. He looked into physics, but thought it just wasn’t for him, then Continue Reading »
Posted on September 14, 2012 by David Bogomolny
Over the summer, I worked for an amazing summer program called Genesis at Brandeis University. One of the programs that we developed for our participants was called ‘iDentity’, and each of the six community educators modeled this project for the community, each sharing something of ourselves in different media. The question we all had to Continue Reading »
Posted on August 26, 2012 by Derek Kwait
This week was my last back at my shul Young People’s Synagogue, which last year, raised around $7,000 to send me to Pardes for a year. Yesterday, I delivered this speech to let them know how their investment turned out. So, how have you all been? For those who don’t know, from September through the Continue Reading »
Posted on August 24, 2012 by Derek Kwait
Derek Kwait never spent longer than five consecutive weeks outside of his native Pittsburgh area prior to fulfilling his dream of studying at Pardes last year. After attending one year of film school at Point Park University in 2007-8, he transferred to the University of Pittsburgh in fall 2008. He graduated in 2011 with a Continue Reading »
Posted on July 30, 2012 by Andrea Wiese
(From “You’ve given me the most beautiful set of wings.”) This is very rare that I have such a long absence from blogging, but thus is life, and it happens. Since my classes ended at Pardes, I was working for NFTY. http://www.nftyisrael.org/ It’s reform Judaism’s summer trip to Israel. This was my third summer working Continue Reading »
