Musings from Students of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
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 December 14, 2012 by The Director of Digital Media
Daniel Shibley (Year ’11, Fellows ’12) started a new blog! Here’s one of his posts, from Dec. 11: Although we are now a few weeks removed from the tense days of war that came to define the month of November, the exact moment of the first siren has remained with me, a quasi-trauma, a frozen Continue Reading »
Posted on October 11, 2012 by Lauren Schuchart
This past Sunday night was Simchat Torah. I spent the evening in the Pardes beit midrash, dancing and singing, along with many of you. The energy in the room was palpable, and filled me up with a feeling of pure joy. I experienced a particularly moving moment when the singing shifted to “Am Yisrael Chai: Continue Reading »
Posted on August 3, 2012 by Vicki Raun
Pardes Summer Program students Annabelle Jaffe, almost 91, and Jacqueline Cohen, almost 19, are decades apart in age and live in different parts of the globe. But they both brought to Pardes lifelong involvement with their local Jewish communities and will leave Pardes with renewed commitments to Jewish life in their hometowns. Annabelle Jaffe is Continue Reading »
Posted on April 21, 2012 by Laura H.
Today we went to Majdanek. I walked around the camp thinking a lot about why I came back to Poland. I had a hard time focusing on what was around me and found myself intellectualizing, rather than feeling things. I pictured much of the imagery from Survival in Auschwitz to try to visualize camp life. Continue Reading »
Posted on April 19, 2012 by Barer
This testimonial was written by Pardes alumnus Daniel Schwartz (Year ’10-’11): Jeff’s reaction to Orthodox Paradox? Noah Feldman had been too easy on the yeshivas of his youth. I can’t help but look back on the bulk of my yeshiva education with bitterness. My teachers smoothed over all the tensions that animate contemporary Judaism, petrifying Continue Reading »
Posted on April 12, 2012 by David Bogomolny
Rob Murstein comes from a ‘very liturgical’ family; they attend Shabbat services every Friday evening, Saturday morning, and Saturday afternoon until havdalah. Rob’s father is a regular Torah reader at shul, his brother studied chazzanut with their cantor, and Rob himself read Torah at shul for the first time when he was six years old; and then again at Continue Reading »
Posted on March 28, 2012 by Lauren Schuchart
(The third in a series of 5 posts detailing my heritage trip to Poland… originally posted on my blog) ___________________ Houses of Life We visited several Jewish cemetaries throughout Poland. In ordinary circumstances, a cemetery would seem like a low point on an itinerary. In Poland, cemeteries were a way to remember and memorialize great lives that were lived. Continue Reading »
Posted on January 30, 2010 by David Bogomolny
I credit R. Cooper with presenting our group with a broad, illustrative picture of Jewish life in Poland before (and after) the Shoah in addition to exposing us to & teaching us about Nazi horrors. In my posts, I must necessarily gloss over some of the sites we visited because I lack the time to Continue Reading »