Joshua Malinkovich

I was not raised religious. My mother's side is from Ukraine, and my dad's side is from Belarus.  We would have "pizza and chicken" Shabbos nights every now and then until we stopped mixing meat and dairy when I was 7.  My family started getting involved with JET through Rabbi Zev Kahn when I was a kid, and I ended up going to Camp Nageela for a few years because of that.  I was interested and curious about Judaism as a teenager.  I went to Hebrew School weekly for a few years until my Bar Mitzvah.  Overall, I was raised in a home with Jewish values and was taught to be proud of being Jewish, but it wasn't a very big deal in everyday life

Rabbi Kahn told me about the Podcast Fellowship a few years ago, right around the time that I came to college.

I was very excited to be getting paid for Jewish learning, because I was curious and loved learning anyway, but this gave me a platform that encouraged me to incorporate more learning into my schedule, and it definitely achieved that effect.

I would have probably engaged with it, but much less, and less formally.  The stipend helped instill a sort of learning schedule in me, where I would make sure to be learning something weekly.

My mentor is Rabbi Hauss, who is the Hillel and JLIC Rabbi on my campus.  At first, my mentor was Rabbi Kahn, and, after Rabbi Hauss (who works for JET) came on campus, I started to spend more time with him.  In some of our earlier discussions, we would discuss various topics about things that I was interested in, especially about the meaning of life and the validity of the Torah.

Rabbi Klatzko is my favorite speaker, on the topic of Jewish fundamentals.  He has a whole series (Judaism With Confidence) in which he goes through the logical proofs of the validity of our tradition, which were incredibly important to me as they addressed many of the burning questions I had in the beginning of my Jewish journey as an adult.  I actually happened to run into him when I was on a trip with Ohr Somayach in Jerusalem about a year ago, and I was able to thank him for the effect that he had on me.

I was able to strengthen my faith to a very large degree, and I realized that that our tradition is incredibly complex, meaningful, and true.  It opened my eyes to the many topics which are covered by the Torah, and encouraged me to begin to explore those as well.

As a Jew now, I would, at this point, call myself Orthodox. A few months ago, I started to take on davening all 3 times a day, where I had previously not been as consistent.  There are still little things like that that I'm taking on.  I'm still learning about all of the holidays every year  (sometimes I forget the details, because I have only been keeping them for 2 years!).  I keep kosher, Shabbos, etc. And, B"H, a few months ago, I got engaged to a girl that is also growing in the same direction, and we will be getting married in January, Be"H!

"The Podcast Fellowship strengthened my faith in and understanding of the Jewish tradition that our ancestors have been keeping for many years."