Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on March 8, 2012 by Leah Stern
Most people have never even heard the word shtender. They think I am making up a pretend word, though to my knowledge it is Yiddish. I said it recently to an Israeli friend and the closest word I could use to explain it was the word מעמד, which means a stand, but that isn’t even Continue Reading »
Posted on February 23, 2012 by aliza
This semester I am taking a course in Peace and Conflict. Recently we have been talking about the power of narrative to color, and help resolve conflict. The challenge is always to understand the narrative of both sides so well that you see them in their highest light. In order to begin this work, we Continue Reading »
Posted on February 20, 2012 by Mira
The shift from first semester to second semester started during our week off when half of Pardes went on a tiyul to the Arava desert. I’m not a hiking fan, but I love the desert in Israel and have always felt connected to it. This was a wonderful opportunity for me to reflect on my Continue Reading »
Posted on January 24, 2012 by The Director of Digital Media
A quote from a student during the Fellows recruitment meeting yesterday: “Pardes is traditional Judaism’s most loving and honest response to modernity.”
Posted on January 10, 2012 by Shibley
Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of participating in a trip called Perspectives Israel which brought me to several locations around Israel, and provided me with an opportunity to hear from a number of different people in on the Israeli political spectrum. With stops in and around Jerusalem, Sderot, and Gush Etzion, I Continue Reading »
Posted on January 7, 2012 by Andrea Wiese
All week I had been excited to spend my Shabbat in the “Gush” with two of my teachers. They always have students in their homes for Shabbat, and the anticipation had been building since I heard about other students wonderful experiences. We (Hannah, Yishai, and Amber) left Jerusalem around 1:30, which was way too early, Continue Reading »
Posted on January 3, 2012 by Eliyahu B.
Here is a dvar tzedek I wrote and gave to my Social Justice class today on our last day of class: Shalom classmates. I am here before you today to share with you my views on humanism and universalism, two topics which have been prominent in my way of thinking for many years, at Continue Reading »
Posted on January 3, 2012 by The Director of Digital Media
She’s super… she’s duper… she’s Falynn Schmidt! Falynn studied at Pardes in 1999-2000 before moving to Atlanta, and founding Pardes Atlanta with the help of Marc Baker (97-98, 99-00 Fellow, 00-02 PEP). She coordinated all the parts that were not teaching — publicity, planning, scheduling, venue, Shabbatonim, and shiurim, and Marc and a few other Pardes alumni taught Continue Reading »
Posted on December 16, 2011 by Shibley
Our parasha, Vayeishev, concludes this week with Yosef sitting in the prison of Pharaoh. Yosef has just concluded interpreting the dreams of his fellow prisoners, the cupbearer and the baker, both of whom had committed relatively minor crimes in the eyes of Pharoah. Why would Yosef care about the dreams of anybody? Remember, Yosef has Continue Reading »
Posted on December 7, 2011 by Aliza B.
When you watch the news and learn that something terrible has happened, it is easy to gauge the disaster by how many people were killed. You can classify it even more by which people were affected. Were they children or elderly? Poor or rich? Humanitarians or average joes? In the back of your mind lurks Continue Reading »
