The Pardes Community Education courses provide in-depth, Jewish text study on a flexible schedule to meet students’ interests and availability.
The program offers classes, lectures and tours on a variety of subjects. Participants can choose from daytime, lunchtime and evening courses, attend a single class, a course or the entire series.
Click here for the PDF of the 2018-19 Community Education program.
Download the course descriptions or read below.
(*) No classes on Yom Haatzmaut – May 9th, 2019
| Course and Faculty | Course Description | Time |
| Monday Mornings (5 classes in a course) | ||
|
Contemporary Halakhic Issues Nechama Goldman-Barash |
|
9:30-11AM |
| Encountering the Modern – From Moses Mendelssohn to Moses Hess
Rabbi Mike Feuer
|
The Jewish encounter with modernity was both a challenge and an opportunity. Whether one mourns what was lost, celebrates what was born or both, we can all agree that this meeting still shapes much of our world today. This series will explore the roots of the Jewish Enlightenment, the emergence of new religious currents like Reform and chassidut and examine some of the personalities which embody this important era. | 11:15AM-12:45PM |
| Tuesday Mornings (5 classes in a course) |
||
| The State of Israel in Jewish Thought
Rabbi Shai Finkelstein |
|
9-10:15AM |
| Shir Hashirim; Exile and Redemption
Rabbi Alex Israel |
Shir Hashirim is a love story. It has been seen by Jewish Tradition over the centuries as the “Holy of Holies”, a sacred love story charting the ups and downs of the relationship between Israel and God, and a historical mapping of Jewish History. We will study the text of Shir Hashirim looking at the controversy surrounding this book, tracing its storyline, its symbolism and the ramifications for assessing exile and redemption. | 10:30-11:30AM |
| Food Glorious Food!
The Biblical Importance of Eating Rabbi Dr. Howard Markose |
The Torah presents food to its readers on various platters. Sometimes the food is served in explicit terms with elaborate descriptions, while at other times the dishes are ambiguous and have very little taste. In this course we will feast on the many references to food in the Torah in hopes of gaining a greater understanding of and appreciation for food in the Torah. | 11:45AM-1PM |
| Thursday Mornings (4 classes in a course) | ||
| The Mikveh in Today’s World: Sociology, Spirituality and Personal Meaning
Dr. Naomi Marmon Grumet & The Eden Center |
|
10-11:30AM |
| From Holocaust to Revelation, An Omer Journey Through Art
Dr. Susan Nashman-Fraiman
|
|
11:15AM-12:45PM |
| Lunch and Learn – Parashat Hashavua
Rabbi Michael Hattin
|
Come and study the weeks Torah Portion with accomplished teacher and author, Rabbi Michael Hattin. A dairy lunch will be served from 12:45pm | 1-2PM |
| Sunday Walking Tours with Shulie Mishkin | Tour Descriptions | Tour Dates and Times |
| Underground Jerusalem: From First Temple to British Mandate
The Kishle & the Underground Fighters Museum at the Russian Compound |
The Kishle is a newly opened excavation, under the infamous Old City prison. We will go backwards in time and learn about the many layers of history harbored by this site back to First Temple days. Then we will walk over to the Russian Compound and learn about the European empires’ plans for Jerusalem in the late 19th century. Finally, we will hear stories of pre-State heroism as we visit the Underground Prisoners’ Museum where so many fighters for Israel’s independence were incarcerated. | May 12, 9AM-1PM |
| Prime Ministers and Presidents: Rehavia
In memory of Dr. Michael Evan Osband z”l |
On this tour we will hear about the colorful history of the neighborhood of Rehavia and its residents. We will also “encounter” a few of the most famous residents: Yitzchak and Rachel Ben Zvi, Israel’s second president and First Lady, and Levi Eshkol, prime minister during the Six-Day War. We will visit the “Tzrif- the Hut” the Ben Zvi’s residence, as well as the Eshkol house, which has recently been turned into a state of the art museum. | May 26, 9AM-12PM |
Faculty Biographies
Rabbi Mike Feuer is a Pardes faculty member. He has learned Torah in a number of Jerusalem area institutions, including Yeshivat HaMivtar, the Mir Yeshiva and Sulam Yaakov Bet Midrash. He received his semikhah from Sulam Yaakov, where he now spends all his time when not engaged with his wonderful wife and five children. His vision of Torah aspires to rigorous analysis and a passionate love of poetry and approaches learning as a process of mutual self-development. His particular loves in Torah are the Early Prophets, the Maharal and the Bet Yosef.
Rabbi Shai Finkelstein was born in Israel, attended Yeshivat Shaalavim, served in the Artillery unit of the IDF and was ordained by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. He is currently the Rabbi of Kehilat Nitzanim in Baka, Jerusalem, and has guided its evolution beyond merely a house of prayer and Torah learning, to a center for the Kehila and for Chesed. Rabbi Finkelstein lectures at Pardes, OU Israel Center and Yeshurun and he is also the Director of Rabbinic Alliance and Community Engagement in Tzohar. For the past 16 years he was the Rosh Kollel of Torah Mitzion and the Senior Rabbi of the Baron Hirsch Synagogue in Memphis,Tennessee. Rabbi Finkelstein also earned an MBA from the Fogelman School of Business and Economics at the University of Memphis.
Rabbanit Nechama Goldman Barash teaches Rabbinic Literature, Women and Judaism, Medical Ethics, Prophets and Bible at Pardes.
She made aliyah from Philadelphia over 20 years ago after graduating from Stern College. She studied for three years in Matan’s Advanced Talmud Institute and finished a Master’s degree in Talmud at Bar-Ilan University, with a thesis on the Beaultiful Captive Woman in the Eyes of Chazal. She teaches at a variety of Israeli institutions and is also a graduate of Nishmat’s Yoetzet Halakha program. Recently she has been a member of the Beit Hillel national-religious group. Currently she is studying in Matan’s new Hilchata program, which is an advanced program in the area of Jewish law. Nechama lives in Gush Etzion with her husband and four daughters.
Rabbi Michael Hattin is a master teacher of Tanakh at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. He studied for rabbinic ordination at Yeshivat Har Etzion and holds a professional degree in architecture from the University of Toronto. Michael is the author of Passages: Text and Transformation in the Parasha (2012) as well as “Joshua: The Challenge of the Promised Land”, published by Koren Publishers in 2015. He has served as scholar-in-residence in many communities in North America and Europe and lives in Alon Shevut with his wife Rivka and their five children.
Rabbi Alex Israel has taught at Pardes for the past seven years and is Director of the Summer program, as well as Pardes’s Community Education Program and the Elmad online learning platform. Alex grew up in London and holds degrees from LSE, the Institute of Education London, and Bar-Ilan University. Alex studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion and was awarded semikhah from the Israeli Rabbinate. Alex volunteers for Tzohar – a rabbinic group that works to bridge gaps between religious and secular communities in Israel. He lives with his wife and four children in Gush Etzion. His first book is: I Kings – Torn in Two. (Maggid, 2013). Read his Torah at www.alexisrael.org.
Rabbi Howard Markose teaches Bible and Biblical Hebrew at Pardes. He was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Howard received his rabbinical ordination in 1984 from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. Howard lived in Toronto for ten years from 1984-1994 at which time he served as assistant rabbi at Adath Israel Congregation and rabbi at Shaar Shalom Synagogue. He and his family made Aliyah in 1994 and after seven years as rabbi of Kehilat Moreshet Avraham in Jerusalem, he became the Director of Education for the Young Judaea Year Course. He received his PhD in Bible at Bar Ilan University in January 2016. Howard conducts specialized Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremonies for families from North America who are visiting Israel. He lives in Jerusalem and is married and has four children.
Dr. Naomi Marmon Grumet is founder and director of the Eden Center, a center to make mikveh welcoming and relevant for modern women. Her doctoral research, “An Examination of the Interface of Taharat Hamishpacha and Identity among Modern Orthodox Women and Men”, in which she interviewed husbands and wives in couples who observe niddah, is the catalyst upon which the Eden Center was founded. She lives in Jerusalem with her husband and three children.
Dr. Susan Nashman Fraiman holds a Doctorate in Art History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In the past she served as the Collection Manager of the Yad Vashem Art Museum. She is senior lecturer at the Rothberg International School of the Hebrew University
Single Class: 50 NIS
Course: 190 NIS
Tour: 120 NIS
Register at www.pardes.org.il/springce5779
Tuition
Single Class: 50 NIS
Course (12 classes): 450 NIS
CE Punch Card (6 Classes): 265 NIS
Half-Day Tour: 130 NIS
Full-Day Tour: 240 NIS
Evening Lectures: 30 NIS online in advance, 40 NIS at the door, 20 NIS students and Masa
Click here to apply for the Spring program.
Click here for full 2018/19 brochure.
Click here for the list of all upcoming evening lectures.
All lectures will start at 7:30 pm at Pardes Institute, 29 Pierre Koenig (Corner of Rivka) Talpiot
Cost: 40 NIS at the door, 30 NIS online in advance, 20 NIS students and Masa
You can purchase a Pardes Pass for admission to all 2018/19 evening lectures: 400 NIS. Email ce@pardes.org.il.
Tuition
Single Class: 50 NIS
Course (12 classes): 450 NIS
CE Punch Card (6 Classes): 265 NIS
Half-Day Tour: 130 NIS
Full-Day Tour: 240 NIS
Evening Lectures: 30 NIS online in advance, 40 NIS at the door, 20 NIS students and Masa
Click here to apply for the Fall program.
Click here for full 2018/19 brochure.
Tuition
Single Class: 50 NIS
Full Morning: 80 NIS
CE Punch Card (6 Classes): 265 NIS
Tour: 130 NIS
Evening Lecture: 30 NIS online in advance, 40 NIS at the door, 20 NIS students and Masa
Click here for full 2018/19 brochure.
Click here for 2018/19 Elul registration.
For questions contact ce@pardes.org.il
Would you like us to contact you about classes? Fill in this short form and someone will be in touch.