A Spiritual Journey from Marietta to Aish Yeshiva

Jacob Schwebel didn’t grow up with plans to study in a yeshiva in Jerusalem or to make Aliyah. Like many Jewish teens in Marietta, he was part of a Conservative community — attending Hebrew school, High Holiday services, and spending summers at Camp Barney Medintz.

“I was brought up that way, so I’m very thankful for the foundations it gave me,” Schwebel says. “The main focus was on learning the fundamentals of holidays, not as much a push toward more observance.” After his bar mitzvah, like many kids in his community, his Jewish education came to a pause.

It wasn’t until last year, during his senior year at the University of West Georgia, that things started to shift. A family friend was learning Torah with Rabbi Netanel Friedman in Dunwoody, and during a chance encounter at a restaurant, “I asked him to connect me,” Schwebel recalls. “Rabbi Friedman introduced me to something called the Podcast Fellowship, where I’d watch shiurim and then discuss them over Zoom with other Jewish students at different colleges.”

“He would host sushi and shiur on Tuesdays, or pizza and shiur on Wednesdays,” Schwebel says. “And then, I slowly started getting pulled more into the community events.”

The rabbi eventually invited him for Shabbat, where Schwebel had his first Shabbat meal in the Dunwoody community. “It was pretty cool. He was just a friendly rabbi and super accommodating.”

Schwebel started trying to keep Shabbat in his fraternity house, which created an interesting dynamic and changed something fundamental within him. The typical college social calendar meant social events on Thursday and Saturday nights, with Friday nights quiet. Schwebel realized he was missing the whole point of Friday night in Judaism: being with other people, sharing Torah, and learning together.

“At that point, I had no idea what Shabbat was,” he admits. “So, I improvised. I bought Shabbat candles, started making challah, and I would grab food from the dining hall beforehand (carefully separating meat and dairy, which I’d only recently started doing). I’d watch Friday night services from Central Synagogue in New York on YouTube. Then, I would try not to drive, not to spend money, and not to use technology.”

“I was slowly implementing Shabbat into my lifestyle,” he says simply.
After graduating in May, Schwebel went to Israel on July 7 and arrived at Aish Yeshiva on Aug. 25. His family has been supportive, happy that he’s found something meaningful.

“Growing up, Shabbat wasn’t really observed in my house. And as far as kashrut was concerned, we didn’t do anything; my grandparents would ship us stone crabs once a year.”

Movies on Saturdays were normal. “My parents’ community focused more on Jewish identity than on halachic details, but I’m forever thankful because it helped shape me into who I am today.”

He’s also learned to be more understanding of others who aren’t on the same journey as him. “Since the beginning of my time at Aish, I’ve gradually learned to be less intense,” he laughs. “At first, I would tell my parents, you need to keep Shabbat. You need to have a Friday night Shabbat dinner.” His parents encouraged him to slow down and take things more progressively. His local rabbi was surprised when Schwebel’s father called, asking for a letter confirming his Judaism for Aliyah purposes. Jacob had always been one of the less involved kids in Hebrew school.

“The hardest part about yeshiva isn’t the social adjustment or even the new religious obligations,” Schwebel says, “it’s learning Talmud, which is completely different from years of Hebrew school.”

Beyond the intellectual challenge, there’s the spiritual one: “Learning to really have a connection with G-d is way more difficult, because that just wasn’t anything I was focused on while going to High Holiday services,” he added.

Schwebel decided to make Aliyah about three months ago, around the same time he committed to studying in yeshiva. The two decisions happened together, one feeding into the other.

“I sometimes think about what I would say to my 12-year-old self, from my bar mitzvah and about to drift away from Jewish learning. I would tell him to be serious in whatever education you’re going for and to firmly know the ‘why’ behind any future decision you make in your life,” Schwebel says.

He’s still figuring out what that purpose looks like, working through Talmud passages that don’t come easily, growing healthy relationships, and connecting to something he only vaguely understood growing up. But at least now he’s asking the questions; and unlike in Hebrew school, this time he’s actually interested in the answers.