Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on May 23, 2014 by Alanna Kleinman
I’m leaving Israel today. I hurry to catch my plane, held up before security for sentimental reasons. Rushed goodbyes and confusion. I enter the plane with a crowd full of men in black jackets, fur hats, and peyos. I walk inside to find the aisles crowded full of these men, pushing and shoving, frantically fitting Continue Reading »
Posted on February 16, 2014 by Avi Benson-Goldberg
1. WAIT, YOU’RE GAY? I WOULD NEVER HAVE GUESSED! Probably I don’t get this as much as I feel like I do, but hey, we are all humans and so sometimes I go to work in my normal pants and sometimes I go to work in my garish neon-rainbow-flag leather tuchus-less chaps! This is really 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 »
Posted on December 28, 2013 by The Director of Digital Media
From my blog: A few weeks ago, an actress came to Pardes to do a kind of skit, stereotyping Four Faces of Israel, or four different people that one will inevitably encounter in Israel. She portrayed the narratives of a Haredi woman, a settler, a kibbutznik and an Arab woman. Somehow, every experience that I have, Continue Reading »
Posted on December 27, 2013 by Naomi Bilmes
From my blog: On Tuesday night, I went to Bethlehem. Growing up in America, all I saw of Christmas were signs reading “Buy One get One FREE” and “Sale: 70% mark down! 5-7am only!!” All I saw was consumerism and a huge traffic jam outside of the church. But this year I’m in the Middle Continue Reading »
Posted on November 17, 2013 by Ben Schneider
This past week, I had the privilege of being a member of the Masa delegation to the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly. The JFNA is the largest Jewish charity, and I believe the largest charity of its kind in the world, and its primary purpose is to raise money and distribute it in Continue Reading »
Posted on October 8, 2013 by Candace Mittel
About Jerusalem Medley Omar We’ve been here in this same location three hundred eighty five years. We came from Jerusalem, we owned a house seven hundred years ago, we still own it, we live upstairs. I was born and raised upstairs. The store was closed for eight days during the Six Day War. In 1967, Continue Reading »
Posted on August 14, 2013 by Falynn Schmidt
From my blog: Does any other language have a word for the particular pride we feel when someone we love does something great? I am not sure, but perhaps this is specific to the Jewish people and their languages of Yiddish and Hebrew. Nachas. It is exactly that: a word that describes in two syllables the almost Continue Reading »
Posted on August 13, 2013 by Adena Kemper
I spent three weeks at Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies this summer, and what did I learn? Yes, I learned about Birkat Hamazon in the Gemara and halachah pertaining to women and even postmodern philosophy. Sure, I learned a few new zemiros tunes and how Karaites differ from rabbinic Jews. But above all, at Pardes Continue Reading »
Posted on May 27, 2013 by Tadea Klein
My dvar Torah from the Galil Shabbaton: First of all, I would like to thank Adam Masser (Spring ’12, Year ’13), who gave me the perfect set up — and we didn’t even plan it. I also am going to talk about lashon ha-rah, specifically the consequences of it. I believe that the most telling Continue Reading »
