When Israeli author Etgar Keret was scheduled as the guest on Sababoosh, he called the podcast’s creator and host, Jake Gillis, to apologize. His assistant had accidentally entered the interview as a Zoom rather than an in-person meeting.
“He apologized profusely about the mix-up and told me he would jump in a cab and come over as fast as possible,” Gillis recalls. “That already built a rapport between us that possibly was reflected in the interview. Here is a famous guy who is humble and relatable.”
Learn how to buy your home in Israel with confidenceHappily, since launching his Israeli culture podcast in February 2024, Gillis has discovered that heroes and celebrities are often genuinely nice people even at eye level.
His guests from many different verticals have included behavioral economist Dan Ariely; Tzohar Rabbinical Organization co-founder Rabbi David Stav; pop star Ivri Lider; cookbook author Adeena Sussman; dating coach Aleeza Ben Shalom; Shtisel co-creator Yehonatan Indursky; Koolulam CEO Michal Shahaf; and Ben-Gurion University President Daniel Chamovitz.
Sababoosh’s name is a take-off of the Hebrew word “sababa,” which means “great/cool/no problem.” Gillis is now fundraising for another season of podcasts – which is a sideline to his full-time job as a research associate at Research Success Technologies, a company that specializes in research and evaluation for Jewish organizations.
Starting a podcast
How does a new immigrant to Israel, born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, manage to attract prominent Israelis to be interviewed on an English-language podcast?
“Getting guests is easier than you might think. People are really generous with their time,” he says. “One of my favorite things about Israel is how accessible people are. You can just send them a WhatsApp, and often they or their manager will answer personally.
“I’ve also been moved by how candid people are. Instead of simply saying that the podcast is not relevant or they are not interested, musicians, for example, might say they have an album coming out and they’ll be busy for a few months but to try again in the future.”
With listeners in the United States, Israel, and as far afield as Norway, Italy, and South America, Gillis hopes Sababoosh will spread and deepen the love of Israel and Israeli culture that brought him here in 2019.
“When I lived in the Diaspora, I had certain points of connection that held Israel at arm’s length. I had been to Israel on a lot of different trips over the years, such as studying at Hebrew University, and working as a counselor on Ramah’s TRY semester program for high schoolers,” he says.
“I realized that my constant listening to Israeli music, binge-watching Israeli TV shows like Shtisel, and reading Israeli authors held Israel in my heart. I always felt close to Israel while talking about it or hearing about it on the news, but something about Israeli culture kept that connection even stronger.”
The podcast grew out of a WhatsApp group in which Gillis explained a Hebrew slang word or phrase (like sachi, which describes a naïvely bright-eyed and bushy-tailed person), and then added daily musical recommendations (his favorite Israeli singers are Benaia Barabi, Yasmin Moallem, Omer Adam, and Ishay Ribo).
“As I got into the practice of consistently choosing Israeli songs and slang, my love for them grew,” he says.
From concept development to audio editing, guest booking, and advertising sales, Gillis built Sababoosh from the ground up and has honed his skills in production, creative strategy, and digital promotion – “all in service of building authentic content that sparks curiosity and connection.”
This labor of love syncs nicely with his career.
“I’ve been able to sharpen my interviewer skills through interviewing alumni of Jewish programs in the US as part of the evaluation process of nonprofit clients. I’ve also learned a great deal about research and storytelling from my job. There is a clear link between the two, and I’m grateful that both jobs are lining up in this way,” he says.
GILLIS HAS been a fan of Israeli culture since middle school at the Hillel Academy in Pittsburgh. He went to Camp Ramah in Canada and traveled to Israel as a teenager through Ramah Seminar. “I really fell in love with Israel during that trip, but I knew I had to go back to America and complete high school and college,” he says.
During his college days, first at American University in Washington, DC, and then at the University of Pittsburgh, he was active in Hillel and kept aliyah in the back of his mind. Afterward, he worked in Jewish education in North Carolina and New York before moving closer to his parents, grandmother, and extended family in South Florida.
At age 26, between jobs and relationships, the time seemed right to make aliyah. Gillis says his parents are fully supportive of his decision to live in Israel. They didn’t get to visit him here until quite recently, but not for lack of trying.
Their first trip should have been to attend their only child’s wedding in September 2021. Gillis married American émigré Dr. Lior Zwanziger, a geriatrician. He met her, thanks to her sister, through a Facebook-based matchmaking group called Let’s Get Our Friends Married. Because the COVID pandemic had closed the skies to foreigners, the couple had a sort of second wedding a year later in Florida.
His parents were then scheduled to visit for the first time in late October 2023, which obviously had to be postponed due to the Israel-Hamas War. They finally arrived in May and met their first grandchild.
The young Gillis family lives in Netanya, which Gillis describes as “the most Israeli place I’ve lived. In Jerusalem, I lived in Katamon among many English speakers, and in Tel Aviv there was an international feel. In Netanya, our shul is an Anglo bubble, but outside of that it’s native Israelis and people from around the world.”
He says his Hebrew is “pretty good, but there’s room for improvement. I love the language and feel it’s really important in order to connect with Israelis, so I’m working on it.”
He and his wife enjoy visiting the various shuks (outdoor markets). “It’s fun to see different kinds of people and feel connected to them right away. I love the familiarity, the sense of connection you feel just walking around the shuk or being on a bus or train. Part of that comes from so many people being Jewish. We already have this huge thing in common,” Gillis says.
He reflects that although his initial attraction to Israel came through its culture, “that led to my excitement to live in the modern story of the Jewish people.”■
Jake Gillis, 33 From Delray Beach, Florida, to Jerusalem, 2019
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