Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on June 25, 2013 by David Bogomolny
If you walked the halls of Pardes days during our 2012-2013 year program, you might have noticed two students spending a lot of time together. You might have heard them laughing on a Jerusalem park bench. You might have seen them learning together in the Beit Midrash. If you found them at your Shabbat table, Continue Reading »
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 »
Posted on January 14, 2013 by Derek Kwait
On the Sunday of Chanukah, I went with the Social Justice class to Sderot. You really can’t appreciate what it’s like there until you experience it for yourself. For those who have only heard of Gaza, Sderot is a small working-class city in southern Israel in view of Gaza made up of mostly immigrants. For Continue Reading »
Posted on January 7, 2013 by Laurie Franklin
From my blog: It’s been a long, dry spell in this blog, its onset corresponding somewhat ironically with the start of Jerusalem’s rainy season. The rainy season began with a clap of thunder and a few minutes of soft rain. I heard the thunder and didn’t quite believe it. Ran out to the merpeset (balcony) Continue Reading »
Posted on November 29, 2012 by Shanee Michaelson
From issues like homelessness to workers’ rights, social justice has been an interest of mine for several years. A few years ago, I wrote a song which addresses related issues as well as the idea that one country could be a place where “social justice for all” was a reality. Currently I study in the Continue Reading »
Posted on September 16, 2012 by Shanee Michaelson
“Atem Nitzavim Hayom Kulchem.” You stand this day, all of you. All of us are standing together today in Jerusalem. From small towns, larger cities, from North America and from Europe. Having grown up in different Jewish denominations, or unaffiliated, whether Ashkenazic or Sephardic, Reform or Orthodox,We have come here together, to this unique country Continue Reading »
Posted on September 9, 2012 by The Director of Digital Media
by Andrew Lustig, Year Program 5772 Just send me back to Pardes. Please, please, please. I promise I’ll learn at Night Sedar every week. And I won’t take a lot of bathroom breaks. And I wont distract my friends. And I wont use conversations with Robby and Donna and Joanne as clever ways to get Continue Reading »
Posted on May 30, 2012 by Andrew Lustig
Originally posted on the Masa Blog: I came to Israel – to the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies – 10 months ago, so that I could study and become familiar with Jewish text. I wanted very much to live a ‘Jewish life.’ I just didn’t know what that entailed or meant. Judaism, for Continue Reading »
Posted on April 25, 2012 by Cheryl Stone
Last semester, I visited Shilo with the Pardes Social Justice Track. It was so cool! Its funny but we just don’t think of that as being the first holy site, or at least I don’t. The mishkan was there nearly 400 years! Click on the photos to enlarge them:
Posted on January 8, 2012 by Derek Kwait
After getting over Hevron, the subject on everyone’s minds and lips all last week was the craziness in Beit Shemesh. I was going to write this blog post with a lot of complaints about how more people aren’t speaking out against this behavior, but since I could have attended the protest and did not, perhaps Continue Reading »
