Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
Posted on August 12, 2014 by Alana Bandos
All summer long (not the Kid Rock song), my peers, my parents’ peers, my aunt and uncle, my bosses and their neighbors, the random lady painting my nails, my SCUBA instructor, the guy from Verizon selling me a new phone, and just about everyone else has been asking me this one question: “Are you crazy?” Continue Reading »
Posted on August 1, 2014 by Rachel Dingman
I don’t formally blog, but I did spend some time reflecting on something I shared at our 2014 Pardes Summer Program Tish. Here are my reflections: At a dinner at Yaffa’s house she made the joke “sing along if you know the words, if you don’t just say Watermelon”. Needless to say, I said watermelon Continue Reading »
Posted on July 11, 2014 by Lisa Hoelle
From our blog: Although we are still catching up on our blog posts from the whirlwind of the first few weeks of our stay here in Israel, I wanted to jump for a moment to the present and speak about the current tensions happening around us. First, I want to assure everyone that Lisa and Continue Reading »
Posted on July 11, 2014 by Elana Shilling
Dear incoming Pardes students nervously biting your fingernails while watching rockets fly on their TV screens, I won’t lie. Israel is at war. Rockets are terrorizing the country and ground troops are waiting for the okay to enter Gaza. It’s a tense time for Israel. That being said, this morning I woke up to my Continue Reading »
Posted on July 11, 2014 by Rachel Bikofsky
To the incoming Pardes student who’s watching the news and feeling anxious, I know how it is. You’re reading the headlines about everything going on in Israel and you’re thinking, “Wait, am I sure I want to go over there?” Allow me to be the voice that speaks insistently in your ear and says, “Yes, Continue Reading »
Posted on June 2, 2014 by Aliza Sebert
I wanted to share an exciting project with you. As part of my semester studying Israel education (through Kesher Hadash, the Israel semester of the JTS education school), I made a documentary dealing with the challenges of egalitarian religious practice on Israeli army bases. It is based in my experiences staffing Gadna last year while Continue Reading »
Posted on May 23, 2014 by Deborah Renert
Every morning when we recite Birchat haTorah we say “Blessed are You, HaShem our G-d, King of the universe, Who has sanctified us with His commandments and has commanded us “la’asok b’divrei Torah.” It has always struck me that this blessing could have utilized clearer wording if it were meant to refer specifically to studying Continue Reading »
Posted on May 23, 2014 by Alanna Kleinman
I’m leaving Israel today. I hurry to catch my plane, held up before security for sentimental reasons. Rushed goodbyes and confusion. I enter the plane with a crowd full of men in black jackets, fur hats, and peyos. I walk inside to find the aisles crowded full of these men, pushing and shoving, frantically fitting Continue Reading »
Posted on April 28, 2014 by Rory Sullivan
It took me eight years to get back to Pardes. During a Birthright trip my freshman year of college, we sat in the Beit Midrash, the great big room filled with tables of four chairs each and books lining every wall. We studied a text that I don’t remember. What I do remember is liking Continue Reading »
Posted on April 11, 2014 by Sarah Pollack
From my blog: A few weeks ago, an actress came to Pardes to do a kind of skit, stereotyping Four Faces of Israel, or four different people that one will inevitably encounter in Israel. She portrayed the narratives of a Haredi woman, a settler, a kibbutznik and an Arab woman. Somehow, every experience that I have, Continue Reading »
