Andrew Guckes | Staff Writer
Jacob Zieper is young for a teacher, but even younger for a bar mitzvah tutor. His own bar mitzvah was only a little more than a dozen years ago. And when he prepares preteen students to read their own Torah portions, he approaches it with as much if not more passion than he did for his own.
“The students are pretty confident and I think part of it is [that] I’m very gung-ho,” he said. “I lead with the most positive attitude I can muster, even if it’s a Tuesday or Wednesday and I’ve already been coming off a full day of work. My whole shtick with the students is, it’s really just a matter of taking it one step at a time, and there’s no real shortcut. It’s a matter of giving a little bit of your time as often as you can.”
Zieper loves to teach. He spends most of his days at Perelman Jewish Day School as a Jewish Studies teacher, a position he has held since 2021. The Mekor Habracha and South Philadelphia Shtiebel member was raised in Florida, but he was intrigued by Philadelphia even as he was studying in New York.
“I went to JTS (Jewish Theological Seminary) for my master’s and I knew people in Philly, and I heard really good things about the Philly community,” he said. “I would come down every now and again for Shabbat, and I just sort of fell in love with the community, and I got here in 2019 and I have not left.”
He hasn’t left because of the people and the work. He said that adding tutor to his list of roles was an easy decision because of the people who endorsed Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel, the synagogue that employs him.
“I had a coworker at Perelman who was also working at BZBI, and she made the connection. I have been doing it since 2023, and I have had three kids so far and have two more on the way — it’s such a rewarding experience because they’re operating with a bit more advanced thinking, so they can dig a little deeper and make higher-level connections,” he said.
While Zieper identifies as Orthodox, he said that he attends two different synagogues because his background taught him the value of different forms of Jewish life.
“I had friends who had all kinds of different practices, and then going to the Jewish Theological Seminary, I was generally the only Orthodox-identifying person in the rooms I was in,” he said. “I really think I benefited from being exposed to a wide spectrum of ideas and practices in the Jewish world, and I’ve just sort of very naturally continued that in my professional life.”
He thanked his family for his values, as growing up with different types of Jews and seeing different types of Jewish practice showed him that there wasn’t a right way to be Jewish. In Philadelphia, he found a community that feels the same way.
“It’s a credit to the Philadelphia Jewish community that there is such a diverse spectrum of Jewish institutions. Some of them are so old, some of them are so new … they sort of hit so many different niches whether you’re looking to affiliate or do something that’s a little bit different,” he said.
Outside of work in the Jewish professional sphere, Zieper is entering an exciting part of his life. Last September, on the final Shabbat of the Jewish year, Zieper proposed to his now fiancé. The two will wed in June. Together, they enjoy reading and watching movies. They also enjoy theater.
“Emily is not a big theater person, but she is happy to go see it if there is an actor she likes or if it’s [an original show] or that kind of thing. I’m the one who will drag her around to all these things,” he said with a laugh.
Zieper is enjoying the other side of the day school experience.
“It’s a very funny, sometimes surreal experience. I’ll start playing a song from our curricular materials for my kids on my computer, and I’ll think to myself, ‘Oh, I remember when my teacher played this song on her CD boom box in 2000’ and it’s the same song that hasn’t been updated. It’s really interesting to be on the other side of it,” he said.
When each day is over, and Zieper has done all of his teaching and tutoring, he feels confident that he has imparted something good to his students.
“I hope that my positive attitude and encouragement has leaked over into my students,” he said.