By Liora Bernstein I’ll be honest, before this experience, I had never touched a pair of T’fillin, let alone create them from scratch, wrap them or learn the reason behind why Jews wrap them. I grew up at a Reform Jewish camp and a Conservative synagogue, yet I had never seen any of my Rabbis […]
By Shira Botzum Our weekend in Tzfat was filled with emotions both high and low and a multitude of thought-provoking new experiences. Some parts were incredibly meaningful; others, incredibly challenging. We attempted to explore what spirituality and holiness mean and how they are accessed within a limited but still diverse range of the Jewish community. […]
By Sophie Gordon Tzfat. Breathing a certain spiritual energy and intentionality. A spirituality unlike one in Bnei Brak or Mea Shearim. It is unique to its kind; coated in Jewish mysticism, perhaps reflecting the residents of the dominion. The city attracts English speaking olim, mostly spiritually lost individuals who found solace in the sweet and […]
By Sarah Kusnitz We recently had the privilege of meeting with Laura Solomon, a lawyer that specializes in representing nonprofit organizations and helping them incorporate. She spoke with us about the different types of nonprofit statuses that an organization can have and how many of them are structured to have multiples statuses. Our conversation focused […]
By Adina Samuels Before Shabbat began during our Jerusalem Shabbaton, we came together to hear a pre-Shabbat concert with Hadas Pal Yarden. She introduced herself as a paytanit, and went on to explain what piyuttim are: Jewish liturgical poetry written by Jews worldwide. Piyuttim act as a way of connecting spiritually to Judaism and are […]
By Harris Mevorah As part of our Shabbaton that focused on different expressions of religious Judaism we heard from a Haredi (“Ultra Orthodox”) man named Avi, who met with our group in the Ultra Orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood of Me’ah She’arim. The entire experience was extremely insightful as it gave our cohort a unique lens into […]
By Sari Mishell When Rabbi Susan Silverman walked into the room to speak with our cohort, I knew two things about her. One, that she is (famed comedian) Sarah Silverman’s sister. And two, that she is a vocal advocate for Women of the Wall. During the learning we did with her, I came to appreciate […]
By Bianca Seta As Nachshon fellows this semester, we are given the incredible opportunity to explore Judaism with our peers at The Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, a truly special place. Pardes is an open, co-ed and non-denominational Jewish learning community based in Jerusalem where people are able to come and learn in a Bet […]
By Eva Bogolomly Prior to coming on Nachshon, I had very limited experience with studying text. I felt that due to this lack of exposure, my literacy in text-based study was not as evolved as other fellows amongst the cohort. However, throughout the weekly courses at Pardes in addition to other text-based learning I have […]
By Yosef Nemanpour I have always thought of myself as ambitious—I have big goals and great aspirations. With these goals almost always comes the same internal struggle, the “Of course I can do it” and the “How in the world could I do it”. When I experience the former, I am efficient and productive: emails […]
