Pardes: The Pluralistic People of the Book

When one thinks of a beit midrash (a study hall), the image that pops into most minds is a crowded room full of Orthodox men dressed in white and black who are studying Jewish texts in small groups. The Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies is very different. Founded in 1972 with the intention of making Torah study accessible to all Jews, the Jerusalem-based institution welcomes both men and women from a wide range of Jewish backgrounds, age groups and nationalities. The language of instruction is English.

“The Torah belongs to everybody regardless of one’s level of observance,” insists Rabbi Leon Morris, President of the Pardes Institute. “Pardes is revolutionary. We are a rare example of a truly pluralistic institution, where all Jews can feel comfortable and at home. There is so much love here, so much acceptance.”

The students at Pardes define themselves in so many different ways: Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionist, and “Just Jewish.” Many seek to enrich their Jewish education for their own personal or professional growth. Others want to deepen their knowledge of Jewish texts after converting to Judaism or undergoing a process of becoming more religiously observant.

Life-changing experiences

Around 1,400 people take part in Pardes programs every year, on the Jerusalem campus as well as online. Thousands more around the world engage through various digital tools. They learn Bible, Talmud, Prayer, Ethics and other classic and contemporary Jewish texts. These subjects are taught by an outstanding faculty that also embodies diverse backgrounds and fields of expertise – all of whom have in common a deep love of teaching and a commitment to mentoring Pardes students and helping them grow intellectually.

“They are amazing people,” Rabbi Morris says about the cohort of master teachers who define the Pardes experience. “Since Pardes was founded 50 years ago, our faculty has always included rising stars. In fact, such luminaries as David Hartman, Adin Steinsaltz and Eliezer Schweid were on the original faculty.” Current teachers include two women Orthodox rabbis, three ordained Reform and Conservative rabbis and numerous other first-rate academics, many of whom have published books in their field.

Pardes’s signature Year Program is an immersive, intellectually challenging post-college curriculum which combines classic Jewish texts with the exploration of ethical, spiritual, philosophical and social issues facing the Jewish people. Participants form a tight-knit community together with Pardes’s faculty and enjoy an intensive year-long experience, which many alumni describe as life-changing.

Next year, Pardes will be evolving its renowned program for future Jewish studies teachers, which has produced 270 day school educators in the past 20 years. Participants will spend the first year at Pardes in Jerusalem, while the second year consists of in-service teaching in Jewish day schools in North America while receiving coaching and mentoring throughout the year. Pardes also has a special one-year program for experiential educators who work in Jewish summer camps, youth movements, community centers, and so on.

Not all Pardes programs are an entire academic year. The Pardes Summer Program features an engaging schedule and includes such classes as “The Five Megillot and Their Relevance to Us Today,” “Jewish Social Justice,” “Does Gender Still Matter in Halakhic Judaism?” and “The Writings of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z”l,” among many others. The Pardes Learning Seminar takes place for five days at the end of June and the end of December.

In addition to the unique opportunity of delving into the world of Torah and Jewish studies, students take advantage of the fact that all of Israel is in fact a giant classroom. Pardes regularly organizes field trips and excursions, enabling students to visit numerous places of interest throughout Israel, including sites where the Torah stories actually took place.

Building the future

In the past 50 years, Pardes has become a magnet for Jews from all walks of life and from all over the world who wish to deepen their knowledge of Judaism in general, and of Jewish texts in particular. As a result, the Institute has outgrown its current facility in Jerusalem’s Talpiot neighborhood, which is small and worn down.

Looking towards the future, Pardes has launched a $36 million capital and endowment campaign aimed at overhauling its physical space. So far it has raised $26 million.

A generous gift by Cindy and David Shapira of Pittsburgh, PA has made it possible to begin construction on a new home for Pardes in Jerusalem’s Talpiot neighborhood. The new signature building, which will be named Beit Karen in memory of David Shapira’s late first wife Karen Shapira, is scheduled to be completed in 2025. It will be roughly three times larger than the current space and will contain a 250-seat auditorium, 20 classrooms, a dining hall, a garden and an art gallery. “We are currently bulging at the seams. In the new building, we will be able to conduct many programs simultaneously, and also forge a new relationship with the city of Jerusalem,” notes Rabbi Morris.

In addition to its full roster of programs in Jerusalem, three years ago Pardes launched a new educational venture called Pardes North America. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, Pardes North America relied on digital technologies to make Torah study accessible to a large and diverse audience throughout the United States and Canada. Returning to in-person programming, Pardes North American’s activities center on three different areas: partnering with Jewish organizations in order to expand their educational capacity; empowering Pardes’s 7,000 alumni to innovate and convene new Jewish learning opportunities wherever they live; and developing new educational resources that foster a stronger Jewish learning ecosystem.

“Our raison d'être is to create a Jewish world that is conversant with Jewish texts. There is lots of innovation and creativity in 21st century Jewish life. We’re offering an anchor – content that can fuel a Jewish cultural revival based on the centrality of our sacred texts,” says Rabbi Morris. Pardes will undoubtedly continue to thrive and fulfill this raison d’être for the next 50 years as well.

“The Best Decision Ever”

Lara Rodin, who is 27 and from Calgary, Canada, grew up as a Conservative Jew involved in her local Jewish community. Her connection to Judaism was mainly related to culture and peoplehood. She was first exposed to the Pardes Institute when she spent a semester at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on the Nachshon Project Fellowship. “They took us to Pardes for one day. My reaction was, ‘Wow! There are people here who look like me and talk like me!’” Soon after that, Lara had an epiphany: she loved Judaism and always enjoyed teaching and facilitating growth in young people – that’s exactly what a rabbi does! As a first step, she wanted more pedagogy training and deeper knowledge of the Torah. “Everyone told me to go to Pardes. That was the best decision I ever made!”

Lara enrolled in the Pardes Education Program, a two-year Master’s track in Jewish Education, where she studied Gemara, Chumash and other Jewish texts in the morning and pedagogy in the afternoons. “It’s a special place. In every interaction I could feel Pardes’s mission of enabling the Torah to be open to everybody,” she says, adding that she especially cherished the meaningful connections she made with the faculty. “Although there is often a political and religious divide, they invite the students into their homes and into their minds. I was invited to spend Shabbat with my teachers, and they joined us on excursions together with their families.”

No less important than the connection she developed with the texts and the faculty, Lara also cites her interactions with fellow students as a meaningful highlight: “Pardes fosters egalitarianism and equal access to a shared Book. Many of the people in my havruta (learning cohort) were less Jewishly literate than me, but there was also someone with payes (sidelocks) and a kipa.”

Lara is also grateful for the hard skills that she acquired at Pardes, including learning how to pray and Biblical grammar. She is now a 3rd year rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary and plans a career focused on Jewish education.

For more information about the Pardes Institute and its programs, visit >>

Partnered with Pardes