Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on May 12, 2013 by Andrea Wiese
From my blog: Friday morning was a blur. A scary blur. I didn’t wake up until 6:24 AM when my roommate screamed, “WIESE.” And I jumped out of bed, how could this happen, on a day that was so important to me? Never mind…we jumped in a taxi and I ran down to the women’s Continue Reading »
Posted on May 2, 2013 by Laura Marder
What if What if we were all self absorbed and never helped one another? Could you imagine never grasping a hand if you stumbled, or borrowing a bit of money in a pinch. What would our world look like if we never supported each other? Emotionally. Financially. Physically. Spiritually. Would you ever feel empowered or Continue Reading »
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 February 22, 2013 by Aliza Geller
This weekend, Parashat Tetzaveh, Shabbat Zachor is my Bat Mitzvah portion. When I was 12 years old, I wrote a dvar Torah about the maftir and haftarah. The reason this made sense, is that Shabbat Zachor is one of four Shabbatot where the maftir aliyah is from a different place in the Torah. In this Continue Reading »
Posted on January 21, 2013 by David Bogomolny
Sydni Adler (Year ’13) and Ben Gurin (Year ’13) met during the Summer of ’10 in Washington DC, as participants on the Mechon Kaplan program of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. Together with their cohort, they took classes on Social Justice and Judaism, and each interned for an NGO; Sydni worked on campaign Continue Reading »
Posted on January 13, 2013 by David Bogomolny
Tamar (Fall ’12) had only planned to remain at Pardes for the Elul Program, but ended up staying for the entire Fall semester – much to her own surprise! Having grown up in the Golders Green Synagogue community, Tamar became a leader of her local Bnei Akiva youth group, taking on the role of madricha at the age Continue Reading »
Posted on December 21, 2012 by The Director of Digital Media
Parshat VaYigash has for a long time been a parsha that I have a special connection with. Not only is it my bar mitzvah parsha (20 years ago this year), but it was also the parsha the week following my wedding. After our wedding in Los Angeles, Aviva and I, who had met in Jerusalem Continue Reading »
Posted on October 17, 2012 by David Bogomolny
Bruce Shaffer was raised in an assimilation-bent household in the predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Northwest Detroit, fairly typical of what he saw around him. His curiosity for Jewish learning and Jewish text was seeded at his Hebrew school. There was no core of professional Jewish faculty – Bruce’s teachers were mostly Yiddish-speaking European refugees, and Continue Reading »
Posted on September 27, 2012 by Kayla Higgins
This essay is cross-posted from The Jewish Daily Forward‘s April 13, 2012 issue. The article including this personal essay in The Forward was a collection of “It Gets Better” posts requested from young queer-identified Jews involved with Nehirim, a national community of LGBT Jews founded in 2004: “Jewish Enough” Kayla Higgins, 22 ‘It gets better” Continue Reading »
Posted on May 9, 2012 by The Director of Digital Media
Carrie Bornstein (Year Program ’05-’06) serves as the Acting Executive Director of Mayyim Hayyim, and she recently blogged about celebrating the Mikveh’s 10,000th immersion! Mazal Tov to Mayyim Hayyim! Keep up the great work! You can read Carrie’s blog post below, or at the Mayyim Hayyim blog!
