Fairhope teen's Jewish journey featured in Times Square
Ben Sigal and Abi Zablow at the CTeen Shabbaton in New York City
For a Fairhope teen, a recent trip to New York wasn’t just an opportunity to see his name in lights in Times Square — his story was highlighted on the huge screens.
Ben Sigal was featured during the CTeen International Shabbaton, where he represented the Mobile community. Organized by Chabad, the largest gathering of Jewish teens in the world attracted 4,000 participants from 60 countries from Feb. 28 to March 2.
That atmosphere is far from what he has experienced at his high school in Fairhope, where there are three Jewish students out of over 1,600 — but that hasn’t stopped him from expressing his Judaism, inspired by the previous year’s CTeen Shabbaton.
Originally from Fort Lauderdale, his family moved to Fairhope four years ago, as he was starting high school. “When I got to Fairhope, it was a huge shock, as there was no one Jewish around me,” as opposed to in South Florida.
While his friends “are obviously very accepting, he found “classmates that didn’t know what Judaism was… they would say stuff and not understand what they were saying. It took some educating.”
Last year, Rabbi Yosef Goldwasser of Chabad of Mobile urged him to go to the Shabbaton, even though he would be the only one from Mobile going. There, Sigal met Abi Zablow of Pittsburgh, and they quickly became friends.
“Being with Abi and all the other teens from Pittsburgh and seeing their yiddishkeit and everything I was missing back at home, I realized I could do it even though there’s not much around,” Sigal said.
At a Farbrengen, Rabbi Binyomin Abrams asked the teens what they could do to bring more Judaism into their lives, and that’s when he decided to start wrapping tefillin each day. He also decided to start wearing a kippah to school each day, and embrace his Judaism more fully.
Zablow was already doing tefillin each day, and in Pittsburgh, he enlisted the help of a friend and went to a nearby supermarket to set up a table and help others put on tefillin, and continues to do so on a busy street after school.
Rabbi Yitzhok Goldwasser from Pittsburgh said both teens brought the light from CTeen back to their communities.
After Sigal returned to Fairhope from the Shabbaton, his father, Gary, was inspired to also put on tefillin.
“Ben came back from that first Shabbaton last year with a sense of purpose that spread to everyone around him,” he said. “He didn’t tell anyone what to do — he just quietly set an example. Watching your child inspire you to reconnect with your own heritage is a powerful thing as a parent.”
Rabbi Yosef Goldwasser then started a WhatsApp group where people along the Gulf Coast could post photos of themselves putting on tefillin.
Jewish women in the area then started their own WhatsApp group with photos taken right before lighting Shabbat candles.
“Ben didn’t set out to lead — he just wanted to feel proud of who he was,” said Goldwasser. “But when one teenager leads by example, without asking for attention or credit, it inspires everyone around them. That’s exactly what happened here.”
“It’s not about convincing anyone to be more religious,” he added. “It’s about being proud of who you are, and when people see that, it makes them think about their own heritage too. That’s what I learned at CTeen — and that’s what I’m bringing back to Fairhope.”
At the start of the five-minute video that was played in Times Square, and is now available on YouTube, he said that “if you had asked me a couple of years ago” about his favorite part of being Jewish, “I probably wouldn’t have had much to say.”
The video was displayed during the weekend’s closing ceremony. Seeing himself up there “was one of the craziest viewings I’ve ever had,” he said. “Being around all those Jewish teens, being able to hopefully jnspire them, it was just amazing.”
“When a teen like Ben shares his personal story with thousands of peers, the impact is exponential,” said Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky, Chairman of CTeen International at Chabad World Headquarters. “Hearing from someone their own age, who understands their world, carries a power no adult could match. Today more than ever, we need every teen to step up — because that energy doesn’t stop in New York. It travels home with each teen, reaching friends, classmates, and entire communities.”
Back home, Sigal is finishing his senior year of high school and continuing a weekly Tanya study with Goldwasser, while being the go-to resource for classmates’ questions about Judaism.
His family is moving to Birmingham, where his mother, Sharon, will become the new director of Friendship Circle and Full Circle. He will be attending the University of Alabama, studying music performance.
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