Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on January 16, 2020 by Elyssa Hurwitz
This blog post was written by Elyssa Hurwitz, 2019 PEEP student. Today I am 25 and a half. I know that that may seem insignificant, but it’s important to me. I was born on July 14, 1994, and I can’t remember being the kind of person who has liked being spoiled or the center of Continue Reading »
Posted on January 14, 2020 by Mimi Farb
This blog post was written by Mimi Farb, first year PEP student. My day began with morning minyan in the hotel conference room in Warsaw. We read the beginning of Sefer Shemoth from the tiny Sefer Torah we borrowed from the family of Adi Rubnista, that we carried against our chests later in the day Continue Reading »
Posted on February 27, 2018 by Doug Russ
A few weeks ago, while on the Pardes trip to Poland, I and our group visited the hometown of my paternal grandfather, William Russ z”l. It’s a small village named Gniewczyna, located in Southeastern Poland. My grandfather grew up there with his two brothers and parents – one of the twelve Jewish families in a Continue Reading »
Posted on January 17, 2018 by Barry Rosekind
Our second day brought out a lot of conflicting thoughts and tensions. There were parts of me that was hesitant to come to Poland. I thought why should I come visit a place where so many Jews were killed and we weren’t loved by a lot of our neighbors. We visited a shtetl named Tikocyn, Continue Reading »
Posted on January 28, 2015 by Nate Goldman
From our trip to Poland, we definitely had our share of sad sights. Through the five days of our tour of the country we visited countless ghettos, camps, and graves. The stories about life as a Jew during the Shoah were tragic and horrifying. Other stories, like the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, seemed heroic. Seeing Schindler’s Continue Reading »
Posted on January 19, 2015 by Samantha Vinokor
Under the night sky, lit only by stars, we return. None of us have been here before, to this town trapped in time, and yet our presence here is a return. We come as a memory of what once was, confronting the sky, the trees, and the houses with each footstep. On a footpath in Continue Reading »
Posted on October 11, 2012 by Lauren Schuchart
This past Sunday night was Simchat Torah. I spent the evening in the Pardes beit midrash, dancing and singing, along with many of you. The energy in the room was palpable, and filled me up with a feeling of pure joy. I experienced a particularly moving moment when the singing shifted to “Am Yisrael Chai: Continue Reading »
Posted on September 8, 2012 by Leah Kahn
In looking back at our Poland Heritage Trip in January, it’s quite difficult to fathom just how much we witnessed in 5 short days. We began with the colorful tapestry of Jewish life that existed in Warsaw and Lublin, which was hardly a foreshadowing of what was to come. We tapped into the spirituality of Continue Reading »
Posted on April 23, 2012 by Laura H.
Being in Israel has taught me how to prepare. No, not how to properly pack bags, or take provisions for a hike – both of which are useful skills in this country, but how to prepare mentally. I noticed this immediately when I arrived. Pardes began as the month of Elul started, a time when Continue Reading »
Posted on April 22, 2012 by Laura H.
There is a great deal of contrast in the types of graves we are seeing in Poland. Today, we went to Belsec, where even in the mid-1990s, there were still bones visible on the earth. The memorial there is cut into the shallow hill of the camps – into the mass grave. We spoke about Continue Reading »
