Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on January 6, 2015 by Rivka Epstein
Rivka Epstein, married to Pardes instructor Rabbi Michael Hattin, wrote the following piece on the occasion of their son, Elchanan’s, first jump with the IDF. I gave birth today. But my belly was steel and my arms, wings. I flew above the sands, precariously positioned myself, and ejected a life. Gracefully, he dropped, gravity his Continue Reading »
Posted on November 4, 2014 by Michael Sager
Originally posted on my blog at Times of Israel. Today at the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem, where I am a student, we heard speakers about Hebron, the occupation, and the IDF. One of these was Shai Davidovich, educational director of the group Breaking the Silence. I asked him a question. Not very well. I tried to explain my problem. Continue Reading »
Posted on July 23, 2014 by Jenn Mager
I am an incoming Pardes student, spending this summer in Israel, and blogging about my experiences. This post is from my blog: By the end of last week, I needed a separation from “Breaking News”, Facebook, and political discussion. I’ve seen too many photos and cartoons expressing anger, violence, revenge, hatred, a side of human Continue Reading »
Posted on July 11, 2014 by Lisa Hoelle
From our blog: Although we are still catching up on our blog posts from the whirlwind of the first few weeks of our stay here in Israel, I wanted to jump for a moment to the present and speak about the current tensions happening around us. First, I want to assure everyone that Lisa and Continue Reading »
Posted on July 11, 2014 by Elana Shilling
Dear incoming Pardes students nervously biting your fingernails while watching rockets fly on their TV screens, I won’t lie. Israel is at war. Rockets are terrorizing the country and ground troops are waiting for the okay to enter Gaza. It’s a tense time for Israel. That being said, this morning I woke up to my Continue Reading »
Posted on June 2, 2014 by Aliza Sebert
I wanted to share an exciting project with you. As part of my semester studying Israel education (through Kesher Hadash, the Israel semester of the JTS education school), I made a documentary dealing with the challenges of egalitarian religious practice on Israeli army bases. It is based in my experiences staffing Gadna last year while Continue Reading »
Posted on February 3, 2014 by Jeff Amshalem
This past week, while I was substitute teaching a halakhah class here at Pardes, I mentioned by way of introduction that as well as being a proud and very busy member of the Pardes Educators Program, I am also, in that context, a member of the Kollel here. People immediately asked, what is this Kollel Continue Reading »
Posted on January 26, 2014 by Hirsch Fishman
Daniel Shibley’s (Year ’11, Fellows ’12, Kollel ’14) post: Day in and day out in the army, somebody somewhere can be overheard delivering these two words. Often they follow a complaint about any number of potential issues or a minor injury. Frankly, there are plenty of opportunities to be on the giving and receiving end 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 15, 2013 by The Director of Digital Media
Alum Daniel Shibley (Year ’11, Fellows ’12) blogs about his IDF experiences: Early last week, we made our first trip to the shooting range. Winter, which had been largely absent until that point, decided to arrive. The winds picked up, spraying sand and dust onto and into everything. I had no idea that dust could Continue Reading »
