Jacob Schwebel

The journey towards keeping Shabbos started when I was doing Shabbat dinners with friends I made during a recent summer program in Tel Aviv.  Everyone would bring dishes to make a full Shabbos meal.  Every Shabbos after that, I got more and more into obeying the Shabbos laws.  My first major Shabbos kept was when I stayed at Heritage House in Jerusalem.  We were invited to a huge, beautiful Shabbos lunch with the Claman Family in the Old City, followed by hours of powerful davening out loud. I felt the holiness of Shabbos and it made me feel great.

When I came back to Georgia, I learned how to make challah and would make two loaves every Shabbat as well as light Shabbat candles.

Now I go to all Shabbat services at Georgia Tech Chabad.  It's about an hour away from my campus, but well worth the trip. I also keep my phone off for the full Shabbos.

The main challenge to keeping Shabbos is being in a fraternity.  Learning how to balance the two with time management was a big step, but Shabbos comes first.

My parents are both Jewish, my mother is from New York and my father from Miami.  My grandmother on my mother's side was a Holocaust survivor.

I grew up in a Conservative household.  I attended Hebrew school and got bar mitzvah-ed at my local synagogue. I went to Camp Barney Medintz for 9 summers.

Through Rabbi Netanel Friedman (of ASK--Atlanta Scholars Kollel).

One of my lifelong family friends referred Rabbi Netanel to me. Rabbi Netanel scheduled a call with me. After I discussed my life story with him, he told me about the many different programs I could sign up for to meet more Jews and learn.

My experience with TPF has been amazing. Rabbi Netanel encouraged me to do the program and I wish I had started it earlier. Initially, I was nervous to do an interview to get accepted to the program because my background in Judaism is not very strong. But I am always open to learning.

Once a week, Rabbi Netanel will send me a podcast to listen to. I will listen to it with open ears and take notes. Even the small details that the Rabbis are talking about are facts I never knew about so I’m engaged the whole podcast.

When I meet with Rabbi Netanel over Zoom, we discuss the podcast in depth, and he answers any questions I have about the podcast, or other topics relating to Judaism. It’s amazing having a mentor that is always open to questions. Some weeks there will be more than 1 student on the call, which gives me insight into how others relate to the podcast of the week.

I prefer group calls because I am able to see how other Jews at bigger universities and living different lives relate to the same topics. When we talk about antisemitism, I can’t relate that much, but those who attend bigger colleges can, and through that I’m able to see what they are dealing with.

My summer camp was more about learning about the cultural part of being Jewish and having great Shabbat services. I thought for TPF I was going to have to know ahead of time a ton of Jewish history on the level that people study in Yeshivas.  I was wrong. I’ve been learning soooo much more than just the basics of Judaism.

My favorite podcast topic so far has been, “Can You Steal from the Rich and Give to the Poor?” (from Ofir Tzoubari's Dilemmas on Screen podcast)  It talked about how Tzedakah is not the same thing as charity, and about how you can fulfill the mitzvah of tzedakah passionately.  It’s a very interesting podcast.

The Jewish community on my campus is extremely small; I would say that I know less than 5 Jews here.  Thankfully, no one on my campus is tuned into the outside world, so I haven’t faced any antisemitism like Jews at bigger colleges.

“The Podcast Fellowship has soo much incredible content that helps me learn what it means to be a Jew every single day.”