Summer '11
“My time at Pardes was wonderful. It really helped me take my relationship with traditional text to the next level. “Pardes is a place where learning is akin to digging in a gold-mine… If my soul is nurtured and my Jewish knowledge is deepened – which I believe it would be at Pardes – then I will be better able to serve the Hillel community in which I work; it takes inspiration in order to inspire others. I am lucky to be an alum and so grateful for the existence of a place like Pardes that gives Jews the tools to own their Judaism, a place that helped me become a text person. As I discussed recently with a colleague, Israel doesn’t need more politically ‘pro-Israel’ Jews; Israel needs more Jews to be strongly-enough identified and knowledgeable as Jews to love and yearn for Israel as a homeland. Pardes is at that nexus of Jewish text and Jewish commitment.”
Ethan Bair, Los Angeles, CA
Oberlin College; Majors: Religion, Jewish Studies and German
Hebrew Union College: Rabbinic Ordination