Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on January 23, 2014 by Melissa Scholten-Gutierrez
As I progress in my pregnancy and it becomes so visibly obvious people become more and more free with their questions, and one of the most common ones I get goes something like this: Person: Are you going to have the baby here or go back to America? Me: Here! 🙂 Person: Is your family Continue Reading »
Posted on January 23, 2014 by Jessica Baverman
From my blog: As a resident of a country whose primary language isn’t my own and where the health system is very different, I often have challenges when needing to get things done. Seeing a doctor that speaks English is so amazing, you have no idea. We completely take it for granted in the US Continue Reading »
Posted on January 22, 2014 by Jeremy Borovitz
The bus dropped Tamilla and I off in the middle of nowhere, a stop by the side of the road with fields of something green to the left and fields of something yellow to the right. It took another couple minutes for us to lug away the bags of stuff filled with clothes which I Continue Reading »
Posted on January 21, 2014 by Yisrael Ben Avraham
It was a paradox in the space time continuum. Two spaces that were but only a few meters away was actually worlds away. What was an inconspicuous courtyard I felt was actually a wormhole to that connected two very different worlds that seemed like other dimensions. What I’m talking about is the courtyard between the Continue Reading »
Posted on January 21, 2014 by Jessica Baverman
This week, a classmate of mine at Pardes wrote a blog post about Kiddushin, being a gay man, and how he might see this tradition actualized in his own future relationship. I am a queer observant woman who is getting married to another queer observant woman, and my partner and I have discussed how to balance our Continue Reading »
Posted on January 21, 2014 by Taylor Winfield
I found this Jerusalem Bible sitting on the hefker table without a cover or binding. It just sat there distressed, pages falling out, looking for a new home. I knew that I could not let this bible be buried. I had to find a way to fix it. I stood for a minute and let Continue Reading »
Posted on January 21, 2014 by David Bogomolny
oh no. My plane on the runway at Ben Gurion International Airport, I’d just realized that I’d forgotten my tefilin (phylacteries) in Jerusalem. calm down. you’ll deal with this. think about it — lots of people in the group will have their tefilin with them… My internal voice of reason was reassuring, but I felt Continue Reading »
Posted on January 20, 2014 by Andrea Wiese
I was recently in Istanbul with the group of students from Pardes and I stayed after to see my friends who are living there. (Six years ago I lived and studied in Istanbul.) I stayed in my friend’s apartment and I stayed through another Shabbat. At first I was nervous because I didn’t want anyone Continue Reading »
Posted on January 20, 2014 by Laura Marder
The greatest gift a teacher can ask for is to be a student and a teacher at the same time. This past week I, along with the fabulous Turkey Team, taught in the Jewish School in Istanbul. I learned so much in the process of creating the program, working with my colleagues, and interacting with Continue Reading »
Posted on January 19, 2014 by Ben Schneider
From my blog: I’ve been learning a lot about traditional Jewish marriage this semester. In Gemara classes on tractates Kiddushin and Ketubot, we’ve been talking about how a man betroths a woman and what the language of the Ketubah indicates about their rights and obligations. There are also more esoteric topics: A man can encourage Continue Reading »
