In this video, AVI CHAI Program Officer Michael Berger addresses the graduating Cohort 14 of the Pardes Educators Program (PEP) of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. PEP is a highly selective two-year teacher training program combining intensive text study at Pardes with a Masters of Jewish Education (MJEd) from Hebrew College. The program requires participants to commit to subsequently teach Jewish studies in a day school for a minimum of three years.
AVI CHAI and Pardes conceived of the program over 16 years ago with the goal of cultivating the text-based, dedicated teachers who could inspire the future of the Jewish people. As this latest cohort embarks on this path, Michael Berger says, “You’ve had two years of intensive, secluded spiritual development with phenomenal teachers, inspiring lessons, and engagement with the Jewish sources that are the richest sources of meaning of our people. Now you will go out to the rest of klal Yisrael with the gifts that you’ve been able to cultivate and the talents you’ve been able to develop at Pardes. You will now inspire [the future generations] the way your teachers inspired you.”
AVI CHAI concluded its general grant making on December 31, 2019.