Gratitude and Good Wishes to Mike Uram
Posted on October 31, 2022
October 31, 2022 Dear Pardes Community Members and Friends, Rabbi Mike Uram, who has led Pardes North America for nearly two years, is leaving Pardes to take a new job as the Chief Jewish Education Officers of Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) where he will serve as rabbi and educator-in-residence, increasing Jewish content in Continue Reading »
Pardes Welcomes Two New Board Members
Posted on October 26, 2022
The Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies is pleased to welcome two new board members! Both are alums of flagship Pardes immersive programs. They represent the next generation of Pardes leadership, whose fresh perspectives will be critical to Pardes’s growth. Dammara Kovnats Hall – Israel Board of Directors Jessica Fain – North American Board of Directors Continue Reading »
Exiled from Our Souls
Posted on September 29, 2022
by Rabbi Brent Spodek. When the Spanish fleet conquered Mexico in the 16th century, Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva was appointed governor of the New Kingdom of Leon. In his jurisdiction were the towns of Leon, Neuvo Almaden and Monterrey, and thousands upon thousands of acres of silver mines. He was, to put Continue Reading »
Once Every Seven Years: Dismissing Debt on Rosh Hashanah
Posted on September 21, 2022
The concept of Shemittah – the Jewish Sabbatical Year – includes among other things a provision to release people from debts owed to others. Though clearly a noble and moral sentiment, such a law can easily lead to problematic situations and even exploitation. Levi Cooper delves into one possible solution to this issue, provided by Continue Reading »
Rabbi Leon Morris: Speech from 50th Anniversary Kickoff Event
Posted on September 20, 2022
Edited remarks by Pardes President, Rabbi Leon Morris, delivered at Pardes’s 50th Anniversary Kickoff Event. The event took place on September 19, 2022 at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem. One of my favorite rabbinic texts is the description found in the Mekhilta d’Rabbi Ishmael of the way in which Moshe remembers to take Continue Reading »
Recapping Pardes’s 50th Anniversary Kickoff Event
Posted on September 19, 2022
JERUSALEM – Overlooking the walls of Jerusalem, friends of Pardes gathered today at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem for a beautiful program to kick off a year off 50th-anniversary celebrations. Viewers from around the world tuned in as well via live stream on Pardes’s Facebook page, many of whom left touching comments about Continue Reading »
Synagogue Teshuva
Posted on September 19, 2022
As synagogues plan for a new year of programming and community building, now is the perfect time to reprioritize ways to better serve marginalized people.
Have Faith: A New Spiritual Leader
Posted on September 2, 2022
Rabbi Giulia Fleishman continues her work at 2Life Communities.
Argue for the Sake of Heaven
Posted on August 22, 2022
by Elisheva Gray – When they were having their animated disagreements so many centuries ago, could the wise Jewish sages Hillel and Shammai have imagined how much we would still look to them today to help us navigate our fragmented world? Mishna Avot, a third-century collection of teachings, reminds us that “any mahloket (disagreement) that is l’shem shamayim (for Continue Reading »
Author/Educator Rabbi Mike Uram to Speak at Annual Cardin Leadership Symposium
Posted on August 22, 2022
Rabbi Mike Uram tends to be a big-picture kind of guy. A Cleveland native who now lives in the Philadelphia area, he tells a story about his first visit to Baltimore as a teenager with his older brother. While walking around Fells Point and noticing its wide variety of taverns and alehouses, they were more Continue Reading »