In-Person PCJE Student Teaching Resumes!
Posted on March 2, 2022
JERUSALEM – The Pardes Center for Jewish Educators is pleased to announce the in-person resumption of the month-long student teaching component of the Pardes Day School Educators Program (PEP), which has been on hold due to Covid-19. “The opportunity to student teach in well-established day schools around the United States and Canada is one of 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 »
New York Times – Opinion | In the Jewish Tradition, the Words We Choose Matter
Posted on February 20, 2022
Written by Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt (Year ’99-’00) – Rabbi Holtzblatt is a co-senior rabbi at Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, D.C. The Torah begins with the world being created by words. “Let there be” is the recurring refrain. God names each item — Light. Day. Night. Darkness. Earth. Sea. Heaven. From this emerges the concept Continue Reading »
Jerusalem Post – This is How Jews Can Be a Light Unto the Nations
Posted on February 17, 2022
Written by Sherwin Pomerantz – The immediate past Chair of the Israel board, Sherwin discusses the recent public remarks made about race in America and what alternatives we have to improve the situation. What does that mean to us in today’s society? How can we Jews fulfill the mandate to be a light unto the nations 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 »
Pardes Alumna Miriam Lorie Makes History with Rabbinical Appointment at UK Orthodox Community
Posted on February 6, 2022
Written by Simon Rocker of the Jewish Chronicle – Miriam Lorie (PCJE ’16-’17) makes history with rabbinical appointment at UK Orthodox community. She hopes her role as ‘rabbi in training’ at Borehamwood partnership minyan will have ‘positive ripples on the Jewish world’. An Orthodox community in Hertfordshire is making history as the first in the Continue Reading »
eJP – Retrospective of a Retired Pardes Board Chair
Posted on February 3, 2022
Written by Sherwin Pomerantz – As the immediate past Chair of the Israel board, Sherwin shares why serving Pardes was so meaningful and how Pardes is making a difference. What has impressed me about Pardes and seemingly, the motivating factor for everyone involved, is the incredible impact our graduates have had and continue to have, Continue Reading »
Mazel tov to Rabbi Dr. Erin Leib Smokler on winning the National Jewish Book Award in Modern Jewish Thought and Experience!
Posted on January 26, 2022
Rabbi Dr. Erin Leib Smokler (Pardes Alumna Summers ’03 and ’04) is a faculty member at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. She is also the Dean of Students and the Director of Spiritual Development at Yeshivat Maharat, where she teaches Hasidism and Pastoral Torah, and a faculty member at the Institute for Jewish 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 »
Times of Israel – Colleyville: ‘It is burning, brothers, it is burning’
Posted on January 19, 2022
This blog for Times of Israel was written by past Israel Board Chair Sherwin Pomerantz – In February 2019, I was in Colleyville, Texas, at Beth Israel Congregation for the bat mitzvah celebration of the daughter of Charlie Cytron-Walker, the rabbi who was held hostage with his family this past Shabbat. His mother-in-law is my Continue Reading »