Lookstein.org – Experientializing the Text: An Invitation to Join
Posted on March 3, 2022
Written by Aviva Lauer (Director of the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators) – Those of us reading this journal are a pretty self-selected group. We love studying Jewish text. We find meaning and value and personal relevance in the word of God, in the divinely inspired writings of our ancient leaders, and in the holy Continue Reading »
Times of Israel – Carry That Weight
Posted on March 2, 2022
Written by Rabbi Brent Spodek (PNA Faculty, Year ’00-’01) – The first and only time I tried to impress a girl by singing was when I was 15 years old. I had gone to the closing dance of my summer program with Franchesca, even though I really had a crush on Stacey. However, when the Continue Reading »
Jerusalem Post – The Mystical Importance of Location in Judaism
Posted on February 6, 2022
Written by Rabbi Dr. Levi Cooper – The mystical importance of location in Judaism: Just as righteous people leave behind permanent marks of holiness, so, too, sinners leave behind tainted marks. “And Jacob departed from Beersheba and went to Haran” (Genesis 28:10). The sages asked why the verse needs to detail that Jacob departed from Continue Reading »
The Times of Israel – Can We Be a ‘Holy Nation’ While Abuse Persists?
Posted on January 24, 2022
Written by Pardes Faculty Judy Klitsner – Charismatic Jewish leaders and teachers are in the headlines again: abusing their power by betraying the trust of unsuspecting followers. As is too often the case, it appears the offenses were widely known, or at least strongly suspected, by communal members and leaders. In this frighteningly familiar pattern, Continue Reading »
Jerusalem Post – In the Wake of an Earthquake: Meet Rabbi Avraham Dov
Posted on January 11, 2022
Written by Rabbi Dr. Levi Cooper – Avraham Dov survived the 1834 looting of Safed and the 1837 Galilee earthquake, but he died in late 1840 when a plague struck Safed. Rabbi Avraham Dov of Owrucz (Ovrutsh) (1760-1840) was a hassidic master during the formative years of the movement. He first served in the rabbinate Continue Reading »
Jerusalem Post – Justice in the Biblical Story of Dinah
Posted on November 21, 2021
Written by Pardes faculty member Rabbanit Nechama Goldman Barash – “Out went Dinah the daughter of Leah whom she bore to Jacob, to see the girls of the land. Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite, Prince of the Land, saw her. He took her and lay with her and degraded her.” (Genesis 32: 1-3) Continue Reading »
Jerusalem Post: Pardes’s Rabbi Alex Israel and Gila Fine Reflect on Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’s First Yahrzeit
Posted on November 2, 2021
Written by Benjy Singer – Rabbi Sacks: Top educators reflect on his first yahrzeit. As we mark the first anniversary of his death, The Jerusalem Report heard the personal memories of four leading international Jewish educators of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. “Benjy, we need to realize that the key to successful Jewish education is nurturing Continue Reading »
Times of Israel – ’Rabin Day’ could become a day of healing
Posted on October 20, 2021
Written by Rabbi Alex Israel – I will never forget the night of Rabin’s assassination. For days afterwards, I could viscerally feel the terror and shame, the fear and the foreboding, in my stomach, in my bones. And here we are again marking 26 years since that dreadful night when a Jew, an Israeli citizen, Continue Reading »
Dr. David I. Bernstein Featured on Israel From the Inside with Rabbi Daniel Gordis
Posted on October 6, 2021
Last month, Israel and Poland came close to the precipice in their diplomatic relations when Israel’s Yair Lapid reacted strongly to a new Polish law. The law sets a 30-year limit on legal challenges to property confiscations that had taken place decades ago. While the law affects Polish, Jewish and other contested property claims, many Continue Reading »
Dean Bernstein’s Closing Words on the Final Day of Classes
Posted on July 5, 2021
The following inspirational words by Pardes Dean, Dr. David I. Bernstein, were delivered to Year Program students on the final day of classes, May 27, 2021. As I said on our very first day back in September: we believe the Torah is given not only to the rabbis, or to Kohanim, or to the Orthodox, or to Continue Reading »