October 2009
42 posts
2 tags
Oct 31st
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Oct 30th
Do YOU have Shabbat Plans?
Molly and Bess on Moshe Hess have a few extra seats around their Shabbat table and would love to fill them - still need a place to have Shabbat dinner?  Call us!
Oct 30th
“Happy Birthday to the Birthday Twins - Erin Kinch & Callie Souther!”
Oct 28th
2 tags
Wednesday is Israel Seminar Day!
Today’s Israel Seminar Topic: The Undermining of Labour’s [editor’s note: notice the cute British spelling by Dave Mendelsson] Hegemony (Part 1 of 3) We know what you’re thinking…but it was a really great day full of INTERESTING lectures, guest speakers, Paul’s taunting, and more! Here’s our Top 5 from the Day: 1. Paul’s greeting to Molly’s class:...
Oct 27th
1 tag
The World Union for Progressive Judaism →
A few months ago we wrote about Rabbi Gilad Kariv’s session about the Israeli Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ) - the Reform Movement in Israel. IMPJ is an affiliate of the umbrella organization, World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ), and today we met with some of the staff from WUPJ to learn more about their work around the globe to support Reform Judaism. WUPJ supports the...
Oct 26th
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Oct 25th
HUC-JIR Student Divrei Torah →
Ever wonder what exactly we’re learning over here in Israel? Well, now you can follow our progress, week in - week out. Thanks to our classmate, Jordan Ottenstein, who put together a blog to post our student Divrei Torah each week. Every Thursday, during our student-led Tefillah, a classmate shares some words of Torah relating to the weekly portion, and now YOU can follow along too!
Oct 24th
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Oct 24th
1 tag
Longest Ride Yet
Today’s bike ride was approximately 35 miles. We rode through Ein Kerem up to Bar Bahar (a bar in the mountain). If there is photo evidence of this ride, you probably don’t want to see it because Molly was pretty unhappy at the time. Have you ever gotten sore arms from bicycling? Apparently it’s possible. It’s a good thing we have such an incredible group leader, that...
Oct 22nd
1 tag
Thursday is Student Led Tefillah Day!
Today Molly took her turn leading the Thursday morning tefillah. It was a challenging experience to act as service leader, Gabbai, and lead a lot of the music, but luckily she had help from many talented classmates and had three amazing Torah chanters! We present Molly’s Top 5 Thursday Morning Surprises: 1. Michael Marmur couldn’t be there. Surprising, but probably for the better....
Oct 21st
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Oct 20th
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Oct 20th
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Kadosh →
Time to break out the popcorn - today was another movie day in Hebrew. “Kadosh” was a fairly depressing movie about two sisters living in Meah Shearim, our favorite ultra-orthodox neighborhood of Jerusalem. There were some loose ends to the plot, so we now present our Top 5 Unanswered Questions (Spoiler Alert! Our unanswered questions give away the plot): 1. How did Rivka die? Some...
Oct 20th
2 tags
Oct 19th
Women of the Wall →
Today was a momentous day. Bess woke up early, in the six o’clock hour, to go to Women of the Wall with classmates Jodie Gordon and Keara Cummings. Check out what Jodie wrote about the experience! (via jodiesays)
Oct 18th
Shuk Fail
Dave's summary of our Friday morning conversation:
Molly: It turns out you need to get a salad for tonight instead of dessert.
Me: Really? Is there anywhere I can just get a prepared salad?
Bess: Yeah. You should try the Whole Foods on Ramban.
Oct 18th
3 notes
3 tags
Oct 16th
1 tag
Lovely Day for Picking Olives in the West Bank!
We met in the parking lot next to Liberty Bell Park at 8:15 a.m., we boarded a mini-bus with 10 others and headed to an area just a 30 minute drive outside of Jerusalem in the West Bank.  Our goal was to help Palestinian farmers harvest their olive trees with Rabbis for Human Rights.  Rabbi Arik Ascherman explained to us in details the issues facing the Palestinian farmers in the West Bank that we...
Oct 15th
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Oct 14th
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Israel Seminar Does Yad Vashem and Mt. Herzl
Looking for a Wednesday morning pick-me-up? Try going to Yad Vashem! Today’s Israel Seminar focused on civil religion and examining how Israel handles the topic of all topics…(dun dun dun)…the Holocaust. We’re not exactly sure how to write a top 5 about the Holocaust, so let’s just say it was very interesting to look at this period in history from an analytical...
Oct 13th
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Oct 13th
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Oct 12th
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Oct 11th
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Oct 11th
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Oct 10th
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Guest Blogger Sally Klein-Katz Enters our Virtual...
Sally Klein-Katz teaches Jewish Education at HUC-JIR and answered our question: If you could invite one person, living or dead, to be your Ushpiz (guest) in your sukkah, who would it be and why? Enjoy! I would like to invite into my Sukka Miriam the Prophetess, the first woman in the Tanach to have this title.  With only 4 references in the Torah, Miriam still plays a significant role in the...
Oct 9th
1 tag
Simchat Torah at Kibbutz Gezer
The Jewish month of Tishrei has a plethora of holidays (many of which you of course have followed our experiences of on the blog) and each one keeps getting better.  We just finished chilling in Sukkot and it was time to dance with the Torah after rolling it back to start the yearly cycle of reading all over again with Simchat Torah.  Beautiful.  A contingent of HUC students (and the lovable Tick...
Oct 8th
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Oct 8th
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Oct 8th
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Oct 7th
2 notes
3 tags
Oct 7th
1 tag
Step Into Our Sukkah
Dear devoted readers, We hope you’ve been enjoying this special Sukkot project. It’s been great for us being able to talk to our faculty, staff, and Haim, and getting to hear their stories. We would now like to extend our invitation to you to step into our sukkah, and share your stories. So now it’s your turn to answer the following question: If you could invite one person,...
Oct 6th
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Oct 6th
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Oct 5th
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David Levine's Sukkot Ushpizin
Guest blogger and professor, David Levine, shares his answer to our question: If you could invite one person, living or dead, to be your Ushpiz (guest) in your sukkah, who would it be and why? “I’d have to split my answer into several parts: 1. A few guests from the 12th century Tosafist Academy of Rabbeinu Tam in the town of Ramerupt in Nothern France. The grandson of Rashi...
Oct 5th
5 tags
Oct 4th
Opa!
Molly and Bess on Moshe Hess will be relocating to a villa in Crete for a few days. If you need to find us, we’ll most likely be here.
Oct 3rd
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Oct 3rd
3 tags
Oct 2nd
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Welcome to Our Virtual Sukkah, Come Meet Our...
The Project: Invite members of the HUC Community (faculty, staff, and Haim) into our virtual sukkah found at mollyandbessonmoshehess.tumblr.com as our Ushpizin (guests).  We asked each of our guests to answer one question - If you could invite one person, living or dead, to be your Ushpiz (guest) in your sukkah who would it be and why? For the next 7 days we will be posting video and/or written...
Oct 2nd
1 tag
Oct 1st
1 note