Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on January 21, 2013 by David Bogomolny
Sydni Adler (Year ’13) and Ben Gurin (Year ’13) met during the Summer of ’10 in Washington DC, as participants on the Mechon Kaplan program of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. Together with their cohort, they took classes on Social Justice and Judaism, and each interned for an NGO; Sydni worked on campaign Continue Reading »
Posted on January 13, 2013 by The Director of Digital Media
When Avi Strausberg (Year ’10-’11) studied at Pardes, she began the ‘Haiku Torah Project‘, and wrote a haiku for every parasha of the Torah. This project was then continued by Ben Barer (Fellows ’11-’12), and he continues to write weekly ‘Torah Haikus’ on his blog. Since leaving Pardes, Avi began her rabbinical studies at Hebrew Continue Reading »
Posted on September 12, 2012 by Annie Matan Gilbert
I am a returning student this year. I was in the Year Program in 2009-2010. My goal that year was to attain the skills I needed to be accepted into rabbinical school. It was an incredible, eye and heart-opening year that changed my life. When I returned to Toronto, I found my besherte and indeed Continue Reading »
Posted on September 13, 2011 by The Director of Digital Media
Let’s meet some more of this year’s Pardes Fellows! Kalie is originally from Phoenix, Arizona, and before arriving in Israel, she was completing her undergraduate degree in American Studies at George Washington University (where she also directed a hip hop dance company!). In the fall of 2010, she was gearing up to begin an M.A. in Media and Public Affairs at Continue Reading »
Posted on September 11, 2011 by The Director of Digital Media
Let’s meet some more of this year’s Pardes Fellows! David was born in Jerusalem, but he grew up in New Jersey, and he lived in Washington, DC for several years before coming to study at Pardes in 2009. He completed his undergraduate education at CWRU in biomedical engineering, worked for two years as an AmeriCorps Continue Reading »
Posted on July 2, 2011 by David Bogomolny
Over the course of many consecutive summers as a camper at JCA Shalom in Malibu, Louis learned about Judaism “without realizing” it. He first attended camp as a fifth grader, and returned year after year until the summer after his first year of college (as a camp counselor). “I did USY for six years, and went to Hebrew school through 10th grade, but Continue Reading »
Posted on April 28, 2011 by David Bogomolny
After graduating from Northwestern University in 2005 with a major in theater, Avi Strausberg (2010-2011) started a non-profit theater company called the ‘Hometown Theater Project’, and continued acting and directing in Chicago for nearly three years before she found herself becoming antsy. “I wanted to be some place beautiful, and I became interested in organic Continue Reading »
Posted on April 9, 2011 by The Director of Digital Media
Here is a photo that student Scott Roland* took of his Talmud teacher Rabbi Zvi Hirshfield putting tefilin on his son for the first time… It was a beautiful moment: *Scott is a rabbinical student at Hebrew College. He is studying in Israel this year.
Posted on April 5, 2011 by David Bogomolny
On his 40th birthday, during a silent Shambhala meditation retreat on a mountain in Vermont, Jonathan (’09-’10, Fellows ’10-’11) asked himself, “what do I really want to do?” And the answer came to him, “I want to study Torah in Israel.” Soon thereafter, Jonathan applied to Pardes, and received the nicest e-mail from Dr. Meesh Hammer-Kossoy that he had ever received Continue Reading »
Posted on November 25, 2010 by David Bogomolny
Although they both hail from Los Angeles, Kara and David only met in college at UC Santa Barbara. As a child, Kara attended Christian Science church every week with her mother, but she became skeptical about religion as a teenager, and came to identify herself as culturally Jewish. David was raised in the Conservative Jewish movement, Continue Reading »
