Ezra Application essay questions
Please answer one question from each of the following five sections. All answers should be either in written form, ranging from 150-350 words per answer, or recorded in video format (2-3 minutes each). For any recorded answer, please upload your video to YouTube or Vimeo and paste the link in the answer section of the relevant question.
Section 1 (answer one of the 3 questions)1. Scenario: A student asks you if environmentalism is a Jewish value. What are some of the distinctly Jewish ideas or texts that you would use to answer their question?
2. How would you describe the notion of social justice to a student, using Jewish terms?
3. Why do you think the idea of community is so important in Jewish life? Please use a historical, textual, or sociological basis for your answer.
PLEASE TYPE YOUR REPLY BELOW:
Section 2 (answer one of the 3 questions)
4. What are 2 important ideas that Judaism brings to your life? Please use a classical or contemporary Jewish text, poem, song, or practice, along with a personal experience to explain these ideas.
5. What is the meaning of Shabbat for you? Use a classical or contemporary Jewish text, poem, song, or practice to explain.
6. Why do you think Israel is so important to the Jewish people? Please offer a historical and/or textual basis for this answer.
PLEASE TYPE YOUR REPLY BELOW:
Section 3 (answer one of the 3 questions)
7. What Jewish holiday or practice do you find most challenging and why?
8. Scenario: You are taking a group of students on spring break, and helping the students to plan Friday night services for Shabbat. One student wants to include a guitar because it is his tradition to accompany Shabbat services with music, but another points out that this will alienate him as a traditionally observant student. How would you intervene?
9. What do you consider to be the most important elements of Yom Kippur?
PLEASE TYPE YOUR REPLY BELOW:
Section 4 (answer one of the 2 questions)
10. Scenario: A student tells you that she’s not sure she believes in God, and wonders if she can still be Jewish. In brief, how would you begin to respond?
11. Please write a one-page dvar torah or record yourself giving a 3-minute dvar torah about one of your favorite Jewish texts, or about the following text: Hillel says, "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?" (Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14).
PLEASE TYPE YOUR REPLY BELOW:
Section 5 (answer one of the 2 questions)
12. Scenario: A student tells you that her grandfather passed away, and she wants to know what Judaism has to say about death and mourning. In brief (under 300 words) how would you begin to respond?
13. Scenario: A student shares with you that he’s had an argument with his parents, and now feels terribly about it. In brief (under 300 words), use Jewish concepts to outline a conversation you’d have with this student.
PLEASE TYPE YOUR REPLY BELOW:
OPTIONAL
Optional: What is one question that YOU would ask to assess someone's Jewish Fluency? No need to provide the answer.
PLEASE TYPE YOUR REPLY BELOW:Optional: How important is continued Jewish learning to you, and what do you want to learn? (150 – 200 words or video).
PLEASE TYPE YOUR REPLY BELOW:1