Frequently Asked Questions
What is Pardes?
The short term goal of the Pardes Foundation for Jewish CoHousing is the establishing of a young suburban religious Jewish communal building containing the basic accessories of religious life, such as shul, mikva, grocery store and community areas.
The long term goal is the building and expansions of our community and renewing religius Jewish life in Hungary. An important characteristic of a traditional community is the close proximity of the menbers for joint holidays and joint learning.
The Hebrew word pardes translates as orchard. Some theorise that Paradise derive from it. In religious parlance it refers to the quadruple layers of Torah exegesis by their initial letters: pshat is literal meaning, remez is hint, drash is explanation and sod is secret.
What is co-housing?
Cohousing is an intentional community of private homes clustered around shared space. Each attached or single family home has traditional amenities, including a private kitchen. Shared spaces typically feature a common house, which may include a large kitchen and dining area, laundry, and recreational spaces. Shared outdoor space may include parking, walkways, open space, and gardens. Neighbours also share resources like tools and lawnmowers.
Households have independent incomes and private lives, but neighbors collaboratively plan and manage community activities and shared spaces. The legal structure is typically a homeowner association or housing cooperative. Community activities feature regularly-scheduled shared meals, meetings, and workdays. Neighbours gather for parties, games, movies, or other events. Cohousing makes it easy to form clubs, organize child and elder care, and carpool.
Cohousing facilitates interaction among neighbours and thereby provides social, practical, economic, and environmental benefits.(1)
The five main characteristics of cohousing (2):
- Future residents participate in the planning and design of their community.
- The physical design encourages a strong sense of community.
- Communities are generally designed to include significant common facilities, however, all residents also own their own private homes, including kitchens.
- Unlike a typical condominium homeowner’s association, residents in cohousing usually manage their own community after move-in, making decisions about common concerns at regular community meetings.
- Decisions are non-hierarchical, they made together, as a community, often using decision-making models such as consensus.
Other useful characteristics:
- Communities seem to work best when they contain between 12 and 36 dwelling units.
- In addition to intentional neighborhood design, separation of the car from the dwellings is a key feature of successful cohousing community design.
- Cohousing groups usually choose to share several evening meals together each week in their common house.
- The control of design decisions and the responsibility for the development process vary. Some maintain complete control, others only buy in the final housing project.
(1) Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohousing downloaded: January 21 2022
(2) Source: The Cohousing Handbook – Building a Place for Community 2-5. oldal http://library.uniteddiversity.coop/Ecovillages_and_Low_Impact_Development/Cohousing/The_Cohousing_Handbook-Building_a_Place_for_Community.pdf downloaded: March 18 2015
Who will be living in Pardes?
Mainly young families for whom religious observance is everyday reality (be it shabbat, kashrut or family purity and beyond) not occasional rite. We envision a inclusive community welcoming (either on events or as semi-permanent guests) those who are in the beginning of their Jewish journey, but the core will be traditionally religious.
Why is there need for Pardes?
A basic tenet of Shabbat observance is not to travel on Shabbat and Holidays. Consequently religious communities need be concentrated.
Currently, the Budapest Jewish community is fragmented, scattered all over the city. The historical Jewish neighbourhood has transformed into a partying area, unsavoury for families with small children.
This lack of proximity is one of the reasons why serious families are leaving the country themselves strengthening the very state of affairs they escape. It makes it difficult to form an attractive, stable community welcoming newcomers and serious people alike
Where will Pardes be located?
The exact location has not been fixed and the building lot has not been purchased. There are several options. The rule of thumb is that we are looking for a quiet neghbouthood in the green belt with good public transoprtation links, about 30 minutes away from the city centre.
When will it be ready?
It is difficult to give estimates. Trends in the construction business project the opening ceremony in about 2-3 years.
How much will it cost?
It is not primarily a business project but a communal one. We are seeking benefactors who find our goals attractive and promising. Thus committed participants may buy for 30-50% below market prices.
This would start up an important but heavy weight process. Participants, as beneficiaries, cannot sell their properties for 5-10 years. This is typical for such projects worldwide.
Even after this period Pardes retains right of purchase for each apartment to help preserve its unique characteristic. This also facilitates the entry of newcomers in place of those who leave.
We also plan to have a few apartments for rent, also about 30% below market prices.
What will it look like?
The apartments will be arranged like in a regular building. Community members take part in the planning, they may change details to tune for their personal preferences.
The synagogue in the ground floor will be a classical beis midrash, full of books and – hopefully – full of learners. Part of the expansion plan is to have a separate beis kneses and a strong community in close proximity to Pardes.
How can I take part?
If you feel that you are in line with our goals and would happily take part in this endeavour then you should join the Pardes Civil Society and affiliate of the Pardes Foundation. Then you may buy or rend an apartment, or even buy one to rent it out. The membership fee is 2000HUF per calendar month (to be paid annually).
If you agree to our goals and would like to foster them then, please, contact us at pardeszalapitvany@gmail.com. See also our Donation page.
