The Pardes community believes that the best way to answer tragedy is with kindness. The 16th annual Yom Iyun shel Chesed in loving memory of Marla Bennett and Benjamin Blutstein, z”l who were murdered in the 2002 Hebrew University bombing during the Second Intifada began with a short memorial ceremony, followed by a moving lecture by former director, Rabbi Levi Lauer and food rescue with Leket Israel. The ceremony is recorded here.
16th Annual Yom Iyun shel Chesed
Introduction
Meesh Hammer-Kossoy
Rabbi Dr. Meesh Hammer-Kossoy is Director of the Year Program and Rosh Beit Midrash at Pardes, where she has taught since 1999. Originally from Washington, D.C., Meesh is a Pardes alumna herself, attending the Year Program in 1991-1992. Meesh holds degrees from Brandeis University and New York University, and received Orthodox ordination from Beit Midrash Har’el in 2015.
Meesh previously taught at NYU, Drisha, and Midreshet Lindenbaum. She has received multiple fellowships, including from ATID, the Memorial Foundation, and the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. Despite having written her doctoral dissertation about criminal punishment in the Talmudic period, Meesh is known by her husband and three children as a lover of mercy and kindness.