Building Shabbat-Friendly Fridges with Faith and Heart

Years ago, when Kevin Nolan walked across the graduation stage at the University of Connecticut with his engineering degree in hand, he had no idea where life would take him. Like many fresh graduates, he dreamed of building things, solving problems, and maybe even leading a company someday. But designing appliances that help Jews honor Shabbat? That wasn’t on his radar — not yet.

Today, Kevin is the CEO of GE Appliances, a company with more than 12,000 employees. But even more impressive than the size of the company is its heart — a heart shaped in part by Kevin’s personal journey as a Torah-observant Jew.

In a heartfelt interview with the Five Towns Jewish Times, Kevin shared what drives him: “As a Torah Jew, I’ve poured thousands of hours into helping our engineers understand the unique needs of observant families. It’s a mission close to my heart.”

Kevin speaks passionately about the company’s guiding principle: zero distance — the idea that a company should never feel far from its customers. “To really be there for people, we need to understand their lives,” he explains. “When we realized how many Jewish families were struggling to find appliances they could use on Shabbat without worry, we knew we had to do something.”

But getting there wasn’t easy. Kevin remembers a childhood incident that left a lasting impression. “I once got stuck in a public restroom until Shabbat ended,” he recalls, “because the light would turn on automatically. That’s when I first understood how tricky modern technology can be for Shabbat observance.”

Years later, as an executive with the power to create change, he got to work. The result? A line of refrigerators and ovens that fully meet halachic standards — even the most complex ones. These appliances come with “Sabbath Mode,” a feature carefully engineered in consultation with leading rabbinic authorities. The button must be activated before Shabbat starts, ensuring all automatic functions are paused in a halachically approved way.

designed these products with full awareness of the different halachic concerns about indirect actions on Shabbat,” he says. “It was important to us that every detail respect halachah.”

This attention to detail even led to conversations with major halachic authorities, including the late Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, who raised concerns about computers gathering data on Shabbat. “We listened carefully,” Kevin says. “We wanted these appliances to be something families could trust without hesitation.”

Today, Kevin sees his work as more than just business. It’s a way of giving back to the Jewish people — of helping families keep Shabbat with peace of mind.

“At the end of the day,” Kevin reflects, “this isn’t just about technology. It’s about values. It’s about honoring the beauty of Shabbat — a gift from Hashem that lets us pause, breathe, and reconnect.”

And perhaps, without even realizing it at first, Kevin Nolan became the builder of something much greater than appliances: he became a builder of Jewish homes.