This Pardes Life Season 3 Episode 3: Dean Dr. David Bernstein

Introduction

In the third episode of this season’s installment of This Pardes Life, which was recorded live, Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield talks to Dean Dr. David Bernstein. David explores with us a powerful text from the Holocaust and shares how being the child of survivors and growing up in the shadow of the Shoa has inspired his vision and passion for Jewish education and his mission to ensure the continuity of the Jewish people. Zvi and David also discuss the broader questions of the role of the Holocaust in modern Jewish identity and if we doing enough to integrate the experience of the shoa into contemporary Judaism and Jewish life.


This Pardes Life sees Pardes teacher Rabbi Zvi Hirshfield gets up close and personal with fellow teachers and alumni talking about life, texts and Pardes. See www.elmad.pardes.org/thispardeslife for other episodes in this series.

Zvi Hirschfield

Rabbi Zvi Hirschfield teaches Talmud, Halakha and Jewish Thought at Pardes. He is also deeply involved in Pardes’s programs for Jewish educators, with a focus on tefilah in educational settings, modern Jewish thought, and Israel education. Zvi holds a B.A. in History from Columbia University, pursued graduate studies at Harvard University in Medieval and Modern Jewish Thought, studied at Yeshivat Har Etzion, and received rabbinic ordination from the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.

Before joining Pardes, Zvi served as Director of Judaica at the JCC of Cleveland and taught at the Cleveland College of Jewish Studies. He also works as a curriculum writer and staff trainer for the Nesiya Institute. Zvi lives in Israel with his wife, Dina, and their four children.