Pardes News
Pardes Institute Students Invite Local Ethiopian Immigrants for Purim Festivities
Coed Yeshiva Puts Torah Values Into Practice With Day of Learning and Holiday Carnival
Jerusalem, Israel - February 26, 2007 (8 Adar) - A group of post-college students in Israel for the year from North America and Europe have organized a day at Pardes dedicated to Hesed (compassion) on Wednesday, February 28. The Yom Iyun shel Hesed will open with special learning sessions about Hesed in the Jewish tradition taught by faculty members through Havruta (partner learning), followed by a Purim carnival at Pardes for new immigrant children from Ethiopia, visiting a nursing-care facility for the elderly, and painting homes of needy residents of the neighborhood. In the evening, students will go to the Diplomat Hotel with Mishloach Manot (Purim gifts of food) for the mostly elderly Russian immigrant population there.
The Pardes Purim carnival will be the first celebration of the holiday for many of the immigrants. Purim is not observed in Ethiopia because the Jewish community there was cut off from world Jewry before the Purim events occurred. At the carnival, Pardes students will staff a variety of game and activity booths and hand out Mishloach Manot to the immigrants, who recently were moved into the neighborhood near Pardes.
The Pardes Yom Iyun shel Hesed is dedicated to the memory of Pardes Educators Program students Marla Bennett and Ben Blutstein who were murdered in the bombing of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem cafeteria in August 2002.
"As a recipient of the Ben Blutstein Memorial Scholarship, it's an honor to both learn at Pardes and to give back to our community in the memory of two Pardes students who were so deeply involved in Hesed themselves. Sometimes we think that Hesed is a hard thing to do; I hope that after the Yom Iyun students will see how easy it is to take concrete steps to make a difference in peoples' lives," stated the program's organizer, Pardes Year student Raif Melhado of Urbana, Ilinois.
The Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies The Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem offers men and women of all backgrounds the authentic study of classic Jewish texts in the rigorous, challenging and open environment of dynamic Beit Midrash Havruta partner learning. Pardes, founded in 1972, offers a Year Program for university graduates as well as Educators, Summer and Advanced Scholars learning programs. Pardes students who qualify receive support from the Jewish Agency for Israel's MASA - The Gateway to Long-term Israel Programs initiative.