In this class given by Meesh Hammer-Kossoy at Pardes address the issue of what the Shoah teaches us and how the Jewish tradition contributes to the question of refugees in Israel. Israel is home to more than 50,000 African Refugees, mostly from Sudan and Eritrea. Some see taking care of these refugees as a manifestation of our national identity. Others see it as a dangerous avalanche threatening to eclipse a struggling Jewish State.
Yom Hashoah: Paying it Forward – Our Responsibility to “Never Again”
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.