Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
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 December 20, 2011 by Derek Kwait
On Sunday the 11th, the Social Justice Track went on a tiyyul to South Tel-Aviv to explore the situation of refugees and migrant workers in Israel. Refugees in Israel are mostly asylum seekers fleeing persecution in their native Sudan, Darfur, and Eritrea. While walking through South Tel-Aviv, it is easy to forget you are still Continue Reading »
Posted on December 4, 2011 by Eliyahu B.
(Thanks to Falynn for asking me to post this) I gave this dvar tzedek in my Social Justice class a few months ago. I hope it is meaningful for everyone: A fundamental tenet of social justice, to me, is equality. I believe that equality is a natural human right which should always be found among Continue Reading »
Posted on December 2, 2011 by Derek Kwait
(X-posted from my home blog, Yinzer in Yerushalayim) Americans living in Israel typically celebrate Thanksgiving on Friday night for Shabbat dinner, as the old joke goes, there is second day of Yom Tov in the Diaspora. Since the tiyyul made celebrating on Thursday impossible for most of us, my friend Michael (pronounced מיכאל, “Mee-kha-el”) treated Continue Reading »
Posted on November 5, 2011 by Derek Kwait
(X-posted from my home blog, Yinzer in Yerushalayim) It’s finally hoodie weather here in Jerusalem. It had been getting progressively cooler each day for the past two weeks–at first, it was just cold at night, but this week, for the first time, I needed to wear a hoodie any time I went outside, even in Continue Reading »
Posted on October 30, 2011 by Eliyahu B.
Cross-posted from the Peaceable Pilgrim: Shalom friends! It is the beginning of a new week here in Jerusalem, and the past one was filled with SO MUCH AWESOMENESS that I just have to share with you. Classes started up again full-swing on Sunday, and even though I was somewhat dreading getting back to a normal Continue Reading »
Posted on October 29, 2011 by Derek Kwait
Ever since I’ve arrived here there’s been stuff I wanted to talk about but just didn’t have room for in that week’s blog post. Since this was a relatively slow week, I thought this would be a good opportunity to share some of them, but I’ll start with the biggest story from this week: *So Continue Reading »
Posted on October 29, 2011 by Derek Kwait
Once upon a time, a Middle-Eastern nation wanted to build a tower with its top in the heavens to make a name for itself. This tower would be a powerful monument to their civilization’s unsurpassed greatness and modernity. They even refused to announce what the final height of the building would be until it was Continue Reading »
Posted on October 12, 2011 by Derek Kwait
(X-posted from my home blog Yinzer in Yerushalayim) There is nothing like Yom Kippur in Israel. During a community guest lecture about 2 weeks ago, Jeremy Benstein, director of the Heschel Center gave us a chart showing Israeli energy usage hour-by-hour during Yom Kippur, it virtually flat-lines For 25 hours, the entire country shuts down. Continue Reading »
Posted on September 27, 2011 by Derek Kwait
In Social Justice, everyone must give at least one d’var tzedek during the course of the semester. Here is my first: I was raised by television. When I was little, we lived on a busy street with no boys, meaning instead of going outside to play, I sat inside watching TV and playing with action Continue Reading »
