Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on November 11, 2014 by Alana Bandos
Today at Pardes, we had a faculty panel about the conflict and two related day trips- one to Hevron and the other a tour of 3 vastly different cities (a Charedi village, secular Kibbutz, and Arab-Israeli village). On the panel sat Meir Schweiger, Rahel Berkovits, Tovah Leah Nachmani, and Daniel Roth, four incredible teachers from Continue Reading »
Posted on October 24, 2014 by David Curiel
Lichvod R’Judith Z. Abrams, ז”ל It was a sweet irony that during a break in my Gemara shiur yesterday, I found out that my first teacher of rabbinic texts, Reb Judith, as she was affectionately called, died suddenly of a heart attack the day before. She would have appreciated that, with a patented mischievous laugh Continue Reading »
Posted on June 12, 2014 by Carolyn Gerecht
My dvar Torah from PCJE graduation: To commemorate the last day of our Gemara class this year with Rahel, we looked together at a special passage from Masechet Avoda Zara, Daf Yud Tet, Amud Alef. In the passage, Levi and Rabbi Shimon are studying together with Rah-bee. When they finish the text, Levi demands that Continue Reading »
Posted on March 12, 2014 by Avi Benson-Goldberg
The time was, that when you came into Pardes, the first thing you would see in the morning was Emet Ozar (32) and Jessica Baverman, MSW (27), being cute. Not snarky, but god’s own living Bambi. Unfortunately for us, but blessedly for them, the love birds have flown back to the United States to prepare Continue Reading »
Posted on November 17, 2013 by Melissa Scholten-Gutierrez
Today is the fourth annual Global Day of Jewish Learning and this year’s theme is “Creating Together: Jewish Approaches to Creativity and Collaboration.” Two very broad and important things in my life, and as I sit here attempting to consolidate them with my experiences at Pardes this year, their coalescence becomes so obvious to me. When Pardes’s weekly Continue Reading »
Posted on January 28, 2013 by Avi Benson-Goldberg
(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) It’s been quite a long time since we last checked in. As you might recall, in parts one and two, we looked at what Meir and Rahel had to say about praying. The arrangement of the shiur was fascinating, because we heard first from a very capable prayer, and Continue Reading »
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 »
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 »
Posted on December 19, 2012 by Avi Benson-Goldberg
(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) Pardes was rocked by a shiur clalli (public class) about prayer in the Jewish world, particularly as experienced by three of our teachers: Rahel Berkovits, James Jacobson-Maisels, and Meir Schweiger. It was certainly an honor to see these teachers of ours open themselves up and expose the real humans inside! Continue Reading »
Posted on December 17, 2012 by Shira Bee
Originally posted on my blog:
