Pardes and Hillel have a longstanding partnership, and over 100 Hillel professionals have studied at Pardes for an empowering boost to their Jewish literacy skills, content-rich engagement work, and personal identities. Participants are enriched by the larger diverse summer cohort, which includes learners (and educators!) of all ages and backgrounds from around the world.
For summer 2020 (session I: July 5-23), Pardes is happy to offer a limited number of 50% off tuition grants to select Hillel professionals who plan to return to Hillel in 2020-21.
For more information about the Pardes Summer Program, click here.
This experience gave me the confidence to serve as a Hillel educator and eventually led me to rabbinical school. It was incredible to see my colleagues go through this same transformation- many arrived unsure of how they would relate text learning to their work and not fully comfortable in the Beit Midrash and they all left deeply enriched personally and professionally.
– Rabbi Megan Goldmarche, Rabbi Silverstein Base Hillel at Lincoln Park and Campus Rabbi of Metro Chicago Hillel – Staff 2017
My experience at Pardes was incredibly fulfilling for me as a Hillel professional as well as for my own sake as a Jewish learner. After years of leaving text to the Rabbis, I feel a new sense of empowerment to incorporate text into my daily life at Harvard Hillel. I used a lesson plan that we developed in our Hillel session based on Yaffa Epstein’s Talmud class for this semester’s leadership training, inspiring students to have meaningful discussions about our community in the style of the Talmud. I have never seen my students so engaged in a program. They took the discussions seriously while also having fun with it, and walked away with more confidence in their ability to engage with text as well as in their roles as leaders. Many of the students told me that this program was their favorite training they have participated in at Harvard. It is clear that the Pardes Hillel model works. I can’t wait to continue my own learning so I can continue to enrich my programs with the magic of Jewish text.
– Rebecca Powell – Student Activities Director – Harvard Hillel
As a Hillel professional this experience changed my work more than any other professional development before or since. I headed back to campus that Fall with a new confidence and richness to my teaching — not because I was suddenly a sage, but because I was a more inspired learner. I now urge every Hillel professional I know to spend time at Pardes.
– Erica Frankel – Managing Director of Hillel’s Office of Innovation
I can’t believe how much I’ve learned in such a short amount of time! I’m looking forward to bringing home the lessons I’ve learned to enhance my work as a Hillel professional.
– Rebekah Thornhill, Program Coordinator for Core Services, NYU Hillel
For the first time Talmud feels palpable in a way for it to have a place in my everyday life.
– Jon Falk, Assistant Director, Hopkins Hillel
The Pardes program has been one of the most influential experiences I’ve had as an adult. The program is current, relevant and extremely useful for any application of our Jewish faith … for someone with very little formal Jewish education, this has been an excellent journey, giving shape to previously vague concepts.
– Janu Mendel, Jewish Student Life Associate, University of Miami Hillel
Participants eligible for a 50% off grant contribute $395 (full tuition: $790) plus a non-refundable $75 application fee towards the full 3-week program, and are responsible for covering airfare and living costs.
Applicants are encouraged to seek out and utilize professional development funds available to them.
Pardes students usually rent apartments in Jerusalem. Pardes provides helpful housing resources to accepted students, including a listserve. Click here for help with housing in Jerusalem.
Applicants must fill out a summer program application AND a supplementary grant application, and submit a letter of recommendation from a direct Hillel supervisor to registrar@pardes.org.il. The financial aid deadline has passed.
For more information, contact Haley Schulman: haley@pardes.org.