Jumping into the water

Mentally I am already in Israel when I call up the taxi company to reserve a taxi in advance from the airport to Jerusalem. I dial an Israeli number over WhatsApp and immediately hear people screaming in Hebrew in the background. I know I have reached the right place. I explain what I am looking for in Hebrew and he tells me to wait on the line. I expect nice elevator music, but I'm spoiled. Instead I get to listen to the tumult in the office. Someone asks where her cab is. Someone asks is a driver is free. Someone asks how much that would cost. I am feeling a little scared, but I quickly understand that everything is okay. That was my first impression of Israeli culture since I've been there for a visit with my best friend more than two years ago. Did I miss it? To be honest, yes. It's life. Am Israel Chai!

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Alumni Reflections on Pluralism and Student Life at Pardes during Covid

Hello friends close and far! I wrote the following piece for the Pardes Havruta magazine. It's about my experice at Pardes, Covid and my thoughts on Pluralism. You can read the full magazine here .

the jewish bookshop

After classes were over for the day I headed to the city center to a lovely book shop called... ... yes you (tried) to read correctly, its Pomeranz! On first view already promising an amazing experience, the moment I stepped inside, I knew this will be a place I will be returning to more often! I was there to buy Machzorim for the upcoming high holidays, and I was on the lookout for the Koren Machzor with translation and commentary by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. I found a small pocket hard cover edition. That would be not so heavy to hold during the long services of the High Holidays. Some of you know already, I very much like the typeface of the Koren AND I love Rabbi Sacks' commentary on everything! for 200 shekel for 2 Machzorim, I knew this is a good buy and they will serve me some good years. There were SO MANY books I immidiately wanted to buy, but I knew this had to wait, and after all, I could always come back and read them in the store ;) One thing I knew, I felt li...

PEEP

In the third block of the day was our first PEEP class. PEEP stands for Pardes Experiential Educators Program. We got to know what specific courses the program would cover with us during the year. The topics I am most looking forward too are "Types of Experiences: meaning-making conflict as core for growth" and "Social-Emotional Learning (as opposed to intellectual/logical learning)" as well as "Character Education". We also got to know our assignments for the year that we each have to fulfill at some point during the year. In the second part of the class we had to think of 5 - 6 of our formative Jewish experiences and use tape (and only tape!) to symbolize them using our tables as a canvas. For me that second part was very reflective and it was also very interesting to hear and see what the other participants (5) got together and what their formative Jewish experiences were. Here is what I got together: Let me know what you think those mean in the commen...

tefilat haderech

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