These and Those

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

Tag Archives: learning

Social Justice class heads South

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Laurie Franklin

Last semester, Meesh Hammer-Kossoy’s Social Justice class made a visit to Lakiya, a recognized Bedouin village, and Sderot, a city well known for its 12-year history as a target for projectile strikes from Gaza. In Lakiya, we visited Sidreh-Lakiya Negev Weaving, a nonprofit that advocates for Bedouin women and their families by providing economic development Continue Reading »

Azkara for Janet Robbin

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Andrea Wiese

One thing that is very real lately at Pardes is the Jewish life cycle; particularly, the end. Last week many students traveled to Alon Shvut to support Zvi Hirschfield at the funeral of his father. And just last night, many students and people from the community gathered in the Beit Midrash for an azkara or a type Continue Reading »

Dear Marla and Ben:

Posted on January 27, 2013 by Laura H.

Dear Marla and Ben: I feel connected to you even though I never knew you. The moment that you were killed was a powerful moment in my own personal narrative relating to Israel. I was scheduled to come to Israel for a semester of high school in the fall of 2002. All summer, I was Continue Reading »

[Alumni Guest Post] In Loving Memory of Rose Goldberg

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Carole Daman

Thursday’s learning is dedicated to the loving memory of Rose Goldberg, Bryna Rayzel bat Avraham V’ Tcherna. (Rose’s first yahrzeit is on Friday, Shevat 14) Rose’s daughter, Carole Daman (Year Program ‘74) writes: My mother was a very warm, vivacious woman who was active in Jewish communal affairs into her 90’s. For many years she Continue Reading »

[Alumni Guest Post] Ben Freedman — Building Upon my Pardes Experience

Posted on January 23, 2013 by The Director of Digital Media

The semester I spent at Pardes was among the most important periods of personal growth that I’ve ever had. Upon my return to the US, when family or friends would ask about it, I could only create impressions of how I had grown or what I had truly learned. I would say, “imagine six months Continue Reading »

Enfranchised

Posted on January 22, 2013 by David Bogomolny

After joining AmeriCorps, getting a graduate degree in public policy, and working for several years at the U.S. Department of Energy, I’ve developed a fascination with politics. I read a lot about U.S. politics, which I’m very familiar with, on a regular basis even though I’ve actually been living in Israel for the past several Continue Reading »

I found my heart calling to the Jerusalem stone

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Shoshana Rosen

From my blog (10/30/13): I shall follow the truths i do know to find direction to the big questions that I do not know the answers to. So here I am, Heneni, I have Been living in Jerusalem for 4 months now. The last month and a half, I have hoped to put those questions Continue Reading »

Jerusalem: Pulled to a Place

Posted on December 28, 2012 by Shanee Michaelson

During the summer of 2011, I was a recovering attorney who had just completed a year teaching in Jewish early childhood education. I felt a calling towards deepening my own formal Jewish education and learned at Pardes for 3 weeks. I was exposed to the tip of an iceberg of knowledge of every imaginable sort. Continue Reading »

What is a prayer? [pt. 2 in a series]

Posted on December 26, 2012 by Avi Benson-Goldberg

(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) At Pardes, it is easy to look at our faculty and see inhumanly perfect beings. This is an unfair assessment. Don’t tell Rabbi Eliezer I said this, but sometimes kavod rabbeinu (respect for our teachers) can go too far in making it impossible to see something of ourselves in Continue Reading »

[Alumni Guest Post] Aryeh Ben David – What is Spiritual Education?

Posted on December 3, 2012 by The Director of Digital Media

Posted by Aryeh Ben David (Year ’80) On the Ayeka Blog: (These thoughts were influenced by Parker Palmer’s A Life Unidvided) Holding the space for souls to reveal. Soul evoking soul. If I had to summarize Judaism in a sentence it might be: souls evoking souls. Sympathetic vibrations of our souls. First – I pluck Continue Reading »