“Before coming to Pardes, I had been working as a hospital chaplain in San Francisco for two years and I decided I needed a change of scenery and to find a different mode of connecting with people. Three people in my synagogue were graduates of the Pardes educators program and several more had done various year programs. I felt excited by their description of their time here, and I decided to change career paths and join PEP to become a Jewish studies teacher. I have found the learning really exciting and the staff extremely accommodating. As I get ready to begin my student teaching after Purim, I am feeling very grateful to Pardes for this opportunity.”
Ari Weber is from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has a BA in Hebrew from the University of Wisconsin, and earned semikha from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. Prior to joining the Pardes Educators Program of Cohort 18, Ari was most recently the leader of Tzibbur Hatza’ir/Junior Congregation, Congregation Beth Israel in Berkeley, and an Interfaith Hospital Chaplain at the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco.
