These and Those

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

Tag Archives: Jerusalem

Two Yerushalmi Poems

Posted on June 23, 2016 by Sarah Marx

This blogpost was originally published on the author’s personal blog, Ramblin’ Maidel. Inspired by Jerusalem, as always, and its characters, and its millennia of liturgical music. The Electrician’s Psalm Unhemmed Creator, spinner of the world, Today beneath Your power lines a man Crouched down, his battered palms burnished like leather, His skin limp with the Continue Reading »

Yom Iyun shel Chesed 2016: The Power of Supporting Choice

Posted on February 10, 2016 by Ma'ayan Dyer

When I decided to volunteer at Hillel, a non-profit organization in Jerusalem that is dedicated to helping former ultra-orthodox Jews that have decided to leave the Haredi world and assimilate into secular society, I was not entirely sure what I was getting into. Inspired by a disturbing report in a 2014 article in The New Continue Reading »

Yom Iyun shel Chessed 2016: Jerusalem Garbage Pick-Up

Posted on January 31, 2016 by Yaakov Feinberg

Even when there isn’t an ongoing garbage strike in Jerusalem, it often seems like the streets are strewn with litter. Having identified this problem, several Pardes students took the initiative to reverse the blight. Our philosophy was that since trash on the ground often encourages further littering, we needed to nip the problem in the Continue Reading »

Finding Our Voice in Times of Conflict

Posted on November 16, 2015 by Rachel Cohn

I wrote the following reflection after returning from my second trip with Encounter, an organization that brings Jewish leaders to meet with and hear from Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The goal of these trips is not to find political solutions or to dispute each other’s narratives, but rather to encounter voices Continue Reading »

Early Morning Reflections at the Kotel

Posted on September 30, 2015 by Dan Pelberg

3:00 am Walking through Jerusalem’s Old City at this hour makes me marvel at how the place can get so loud and crazy during the day. The winding, dimly lit streets are empty enough to make me feel like a lone rat in a maze, trying to find any way I can to reach my Continue Reading »

A Complicated Love Affair

Posted on September 19, 2015 by Ma'ayan Dyer

Three weeks ago, I made aliyah. It had been a long time coming, something that I have been thinking about, dreaming of and longing for since I was first faced with saying goodbye to Israel after a year of living in Jerusalem in 2012. Back then, months before I even had to go back to Continue Reading »

Beautiful Jerusalem

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Yuliya Mazur

Jerusalem is a place I dream about, a place I begin to yearn for as soon as I am back home (?) from it. I had planned my study at Pardes long ago, thanks to Yaffa Epstein; and that’s when I wrote this little verse: Seeing you in my dreams Craving your warm embrace Hoping Continue Reading »

In My Hands Now…

Posted on November 4, 2014 by Celeste Aronoff

I came to Pardes this year because I needed to be in Jerusalem. I was supposed to start rabbinical school in the spring, but I decided to come to Jerusalem instead for the summer to study Hebrew and deepen my Jewish experience and identity before then embarking on my rabbinical journey in August. But a Continue Reading »

Heartache

Posted on October 31, 2014 by Jenn Mager

From my blog: Last Wednesday a man drove a car into a crowd of people waiting at the Ammunition Hill light rail station, killing a three month old baby girl and wounding 8 others.  A newspaper reported that evening “Israeli police shoot man in East Jerusalem”.  I read that the family was on their way back Continue Reading »

[PCJE] The Prophecy of “The Walking Dead”

Posted on October 30, 2014 by Geo Poor

(Spoiler Alert) I live 0.93 miles from the Green Line. For those who don’t know what that means, I live, in a perfectly normal suburban(ish) area that is less than a mile from an area that is called by some “occupied.” An area that looks just like this, and many other cities, and yet if Continue Reading »