Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on October 5, 2011 by The Director of Digital Media
An OTZMA particpant shares some thoughts after a visit to Pardes: Greetings, My name is Billie Hirsch and I am a participant of OTZMA 2011-2012, a JFNA initiative offering post-undergraduate students a year in Israel, volunteering in various arenas. I write a blog for Jewish Boston, and recently visited the Pardes Institute on an Continue Reading »
Posted on September 23, 2011 by Derek Kwait
Who we are slideshow What we’re looking at slideshow (X-posted to my home blog Yinzer in Yerushalayim on the side column.) I can’t write about last weekend’s Shabbaton at the Beit Yehuda Hostel in the southwest of Jerusalem. To properly capture an experience so jam-packed and uplifting, with so much bonding, learning, singing, eating, Continue Reading »
Posted on August 19, 2011 by Shibley
I originally posted this on my blog on August 16: Later this afternoon and evening I will have the pleasure of travelling to Philadelphia where I will board a flight bound for Tel Aviv. In many ways I am going home, and in many ways I am leaving home. Since returning to the States from Continue Reading »
Posted on July 23, 2011 by Tamara Frankel
Dear Friends, This week I read the parsha ‘cover to cover’ and am stumped. There is a lot to talk about in the parsha: the status of women in Jewish (biblical) law, a gruesome (and vengeful) battle against idolators and the decision of two tribes to settle outside the Land of Israel. But somehow as Continue Reading »
Posted on December 26, 2010 by Tamara Frankel
Dear Friends, It’s hard to believe how the winter months are passing and in particular, that the ‘holiday season’ is upon us. In Israel, you don’t really feel that it’s almost Christmas — there are no colourfully decorated trees in front yards, no “Jingle Bells” playing in the mall. Being in a dominantly Jewish society Continue Reading »
Posted on November 9, 2010 by Merissa
Today in class someone asked if I consider myself racially Jewish. I answered as honestly as possible on the spot, “I don’t know, I am still forming my Jewish identity.” My thoughts are quick, but not that quick. Later it occurred to me both why I was speaking in dissent, and how I define myself Continue Reading »
Posted on October 15, 2010 by Zahara
The Lone Arab Soldier “His best friends cut ties with him, his fiancé left him and he still gets cursed in the street. But Hisham Abu Varia does not regret becoming the first Arab-Israeli IDF officer. ‘You must give back to the country you live off,’ he says.” Not sure how I feel about this Continue Reading »
Posted on February 16, 2010 by David Bogomolny
This will likely be my final note on the Pardes ’10 Poland Trip. We’ll see. Much of what I’ve reflected upon has been inspired by R. Levi Cooper, and I’m particularly appreciative of his emphasis on the wealth of Eastern European Jewish culture before the Shoah. We spent much of our final day touring the Continue Reading »
Posted on January 24, 2010 by David Bogomolny
I had intended to post daily from Poland, but the schedule left me exhausted; I didn’t sleep for more than five hours at any time… late nights and early mornings (particularly for those who woke up to daven Shacharit)… trekking through the bone chilling cold and snow of Poland… travelling back and forth by bus Continue Reading »
