They are leading and creating organizations and businesses of all kinds, responding to humanitarian crises, writing novels, educating at all levels, creating works of art, and so much more! In celebration of Pardes’s 50th, we are highlighting 50 standout alumni whose accomplishments exemplify the rich texture of the Pardes community worldwide.
This week, we celebrate a Pardes couple, Rabbi Sarah Mulhern and Rabbi William Friedman. Sarah and William are one of those special couples who met each other while studying at Pardes!
As a team, Sarah and William run Base LNCLN, a Jewish community for people in their 20s and 30s in Lincoln Park, Chicago, where their family opens their home and hearts to build Jewish community. Sarah serves as the rabbi of Base LNCLN, while William is a Jewish educator and doctoral candidate. They have two children together.
CAN YOU SHARE A PARDES MEMORY?
Sarah: I will never forget that our teachers regularly came to eat lunch with us. At the time, it seemed unremarkable, but, in retrospect, I know how busy they are, and the fact that they prioritized not only their time in the classroom with us but time to speak human-to-human speaks volumes of their love, dedication, and energy and why Pardes was a place of so much transformation for me and many others.
William: The memory that sticks in my mind was a turning point for me in understanding the power and potential of Torah study to transcend boundaries of Jewish practice and identity. During the lunch break, when most students, myself included, took a break from the learning day, I was approached by someone who wanted to ask me a question about a text. I went into the Beit Midrash and saw that she had spread out a bunch of sefarim, reviewing and trying to understand something she hadn’t quite grasped from that morning’s gemara shiur. That was remarkable in and of itself, but even more remarkable was that this person who identified as a secular Jew spent her lunch break shteiging. Not only did that moment exempify the power of the Pardes model of bringing everyone together with a singular focus on talmud torah, but it served as a personal goad to take my learning as seriously as she took hers.
WHAT IS SOMETHING YOU DID FOR THE FIRST TIME AT PARDES?
Sarah: Teach! I came to Pardes with very little Jewish background, and in particular without a lot of liturgical or text skills. I became the gabbi of the egalitarian minyan and challenged myself to learn to lead weekday davening over the course of the year. By the end of the year, I was helping teach others to do so, which was incredibly meaningful to me.
In my second year, R. Meesh Hammer-Kossoy gave me the opportunity to prepare a class to sub for her while she was traveling. It was one session, I spent most of the year preparing it, and within a few minutes of beginning to teach I knew this was my life’s work. I might never have discovered that without her trust in me.
William: I taught my first real shiurim as a student in the Pardes Kollel, which contributed to setting me down my professional path as a Jewish educator.
WHAT DOES THE JEWISH WORLD NEED MOST RIGHT NOW?
Sarah: Judaism is flourishing and we need to remember to be excited and confident in the beautiful communities we are building and Torah we are creating! The Jewish world needs more spaces and leaders that love Jews and love Torah and love Yiddishkeit and are energized to share that love with anyone who is excited to learn more and/or invested in being a part of living and building it.
William: We need more rigor, more Torah study, and richer communities of practice that include people at every point in their lives and address their real-life concerns. We need to include people at every socioeconomic level, not just people of means with fancy degrees. And we need Torah that takes a stand on the important issues facing our world, that can be critical and countercultural, and that can build our power and alliances to effect real change.
WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF IN YOUR WORK?
Sarah: It is so much easier for me to talk about the places where we fall short and the work that’s left to do than to answer this question!
I am most proud when everyone with whom we interact or who steps into our home feels cared for by us and by the other people we meet. I am most proud when people walk away feeling that Jewish practice is meaningful, lovely, and fun. I am most proud when people walk away knowing that Torah is intellectually rigorous, emotionally deep, wise, relevant to their life, and belongs to them. I am most proud when people realize that being a Jew means you have roots, that you have fellow travelers, and that you don’t have to figure out being human alone.
William: Moments of real connection and transformation through Torah study, when the ideas stop being interesting words on the page and become lodged in mine and my students’ hearts, moving us to act differently in the world.
HOW DOES PARDES CONTINUE TO AFFECT YOU TODAY?
Sarah: Everything about who I am is different because of my teachers and fellow students at Pardes. I am still in profound relationship with many of them (including the one I married, and now caring for two children and several hundred other people with), and Pardesnikim make up an important part of my personal tribe and professional network. I think a lot about why Pardes was so important to me, and how to create similar kinds of loving, accessible, accepting, diverse, intellectually rigorous and Jewishly deep spaces at Base and beyond for the other people who need them as much as I do.
William: Pardes was and remains such an important touchstone in my life. Many of my deepest and longest-lasting friendships are with Pardes alumni. I met my spouse at Pardes, so our kids have Pardes to thank for their existence! And my personal and professional commitment to learning and teaching Torah that has something of value to say to everyone who wants to engage with it is a direct result of my experiences at Pardes.
עליתי בשלום וירדתי בשלום.