These and Those

Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem

Tag Archives: IDF / Israel Defense Forces / Tzahahl

[Alumni Guest Post] ‘Dear Golani Commander’ by Dan Yagudin

Posted on November 10, 2012 by The Director of Digital Media

This was originally posted by Dan Yagudin (Year ’09-’10) on Facebook: Dear Golani commander, The world needs to know about what I saw you do today. I was the non-descript American you sat next to on the bench after leaving your three soldiers at the entrance to the train station. You barked orders at them Continue Reading »

Why I’m Not Making Aliyah

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Derek Kwait

“Oh, so you’ve been here [almost a year/two years]! So are you planning on making aliyah?,” they say, bearing their teeth and gently lifting their eyebrows in anticipation of the upcoming hearty “Mazel tov!” they’re sure to owe me. “No.” “Oh,” this is less an expression than the sound a face makes as it falls. Continue Reading »

[Guest Post] Reflections of the Alex Singer Hike in 2012, the Year of his 25th Yahrtzeit and a Poem

Posted on November 2, 2012 by The Director of Digital Media

by Suzanne Singer, Alex’s mom Three events happened this year that gave us a theme for the Alex Hike.  Benjy joined around 250 IDF officers on their trip to Germany and Poland to learn about and see the physical remains of the Shoah. Benjy’s son Itai went with his 12th grade class to Poland to Continue Reading »

Alex Singer Hike

Posted on October 13, 2012 by Andrea Wiese

http://www.alexsinger.org/ Last week I went on a hike that I had first heard about over a year ago. I was probably busy last year and didn’t pay much attention. But last year, always around pesach, Pardes put up special art work and poems in the hallway. Not only was it beautiful, it came with a Continue Reading »

An Unexpected Israel Experience

Posted on October 12, 2012 by Laura H.

A good family friend of our’s from Toronto asked me to do him a favour a couple of weeks ago. He is an architect and, as part of his work for a proposal for a Jewish cemetery in Toronto, is researching the signage and organization of different cemeteries. He sent one of his employees to Continue Reading »

My ניצבים Shabbaton Dvar Torah

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Abayiss

Shabbat Shalom everyone, I hope you are all enjoying our first Shabbaton, communal weekend, so far, resting from the past week, and gathering energy for the next one. This week’s Torah Portion opens with the words “אתם ניצבים היום כולכם”, “Ye are standing this day, all of you” (דברים כ”ט, ט’, Deut. 29:9). All of Continue Reading »

Yom HaZikaron

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Barer

Last week, I attended MASA’s Yom HaZikaron ceremony (טקס) with some other Pardesniks.  It had been six years since I had commemorated Israel’s two Memorial Days — for fallen soldiers and victims of terror since the founding of Israel and Holocaust Remembrance Day — in Israel, when I was a participant on March of the Continue Reading »

Week 34: Yom HaZikaron/Yom HaAtzma’ut

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Derek Kwait

(X-posted from my home blog, Yinzer in Yerushalayim) Since the end of Pesach, the whole city has been snowing Israeli flags. Every morning, more and more of them turned up, sticking out of car windows, strewn across balconies, suspended from buildings and streetlights, pocketing rearview mirrors—flags everywhere a flag could fit, all in preparation for Continue Reading »

A Shabbat in Hevron

Posted on April 4, 2012 by J. Belasco

About a month and a half ago, I went to Hevron for Shabbat with a few Pardesniks to visit a fellow student’s wife’s family. His wife actually grew up in Hevron; and her parents still live there today. I was very grateful for the family’s generosity and hospitality, and for the chance they gave me to experience Continue Reading »

Hevron

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Lauren Schuchart

Originally posted here.   Teach me and instruct me how to behave with all people in the world so that I may merit being in peace with all, even with those who disagree with me, And so that I should merit to always be a lover of peace,and a pursuer of peace As it is Continue Reading »