Students: Keeping kosher can be difficult

“It is not ideal, but it is worth it to be part of the club,” said Brodie, an Orthodox Jew who observes kosher dietary restrictions. The Center for Jewish Life houses the University’s only kosher kitchen and offers three meals daily, but this still limits dining and socializing options — especially for upperclassmen.

Fewer than 10 Orthodox juniors and seniors are members of eating clubs, which serve meals to 75 percent of upperclassmen. “I am sure many more would be interested, but it is complicated by dietary rules ... I eat at the CJL a lot,” Brodie said.

While there are no specifics on how many students keep kosher, the number is around 46, according to Rabbi David Wolkenfeld of the CJL. This is the number of students who receive mechanical keys from the University to use during the Sabbath, when observers cannot use electricity or operate the electronic locks on dormitory doors. Even though keeping kosher is not the same as observing the Sabbath, students who maintain one set of rules often tend to uphold the other.

Jeremy Furchtgott ’12 said that Orthodox upperclassmen would ideally choose to live in the Spelman Halls, equipped with private kitchens, as this would allow them to cook their own meals and also eat at the CJL. Most Orthodox upperclassmen are independent and pay to eat at the CJL on a per-meal basis, according to Furchtgott.

The option of living in Spelman effectively ended in September 2009. Previously, the University kept all dormitory doors unlocked for the first 10 minutes of every half hour during the Sabbath through a remote system. After changing their policy to include mechanical locks instead of regular remote unlocking, “the only doors that won’t accommodate mechanical keys are the Spelman doors,” Furchtgott said.

“They changed the system because security issues were raised,” he said. “We cannot ask other students to prox us into buildings because on the Sabbath you’re not supposed to ask others to do something that you wouldn’t do yourself.”

There have been efforts by the University and its Jewish community to provide students more dining options, especially as there are no kosher-certified restaurants or cafes in Princeton except Twist, which serves frozen yogurt.

For several years, the University ran a program in which meals cooked at the CJL could be frozen and stored at the residential college dining halls. This ended because of limited demand, but students can still request the manager or chef of their dining hall, with a day’s notice, to bring in freshly cooked kosher food from the CJL and warm it up for the meal. Dining Services director Stu Orefice noted in an email that the CJL kitchen is certified by the Orthodox Union, “viewed by many to be the highest level of kosher supervision in the industry.”

Rabbanit Sara Wolkenfeld and CJL administrator Ruth Palmer have looked into establishing a kosher kitchen in one of the dorms to create a space where students can cook kosher food for themselves. However, the logistical barrier of limiting a kitchen to only kosher cooking is a roadblock.

Rabbanit Wolkenfeld and students are currently discussing uses for the kosher kitchen. One of these could be establishing a University chapter of Challah for Hunger, a nonprofit organization that works to alleviate hunger and disaster relief through the production and sale of challah bread. If the chapter is approved, it might pave the way for students to purchase something like “a convection oven, that can be plugged into the CJL” and maintained as a kosher appliance, Rabbanit Wolkenfeld explained. Otherwise, students would most likely cook the challah at her house.

To compensate for this lack of kosher options, students on campus often adopt the rules to keep kosher in a way that suits their lifestyles and beliefs, Brodie explained. “Some keep kosher by not eating meat that isn’t kosher. Others do not eat anything cooked in a non-kosher facility,” she said.

Depending on one’s definition, “things can get very confusing,” she explained. “For example, bread can be kosher or not depending on whether it was made in a facility where the Orthodox Union oversaw that it was kosher. Some normal items like salad dressing are often not kosher because of the facility where they were made.”

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Most Orthodox students are nonetheless very happy with the CJL. “It is amazing in that it offers a lot of classes with meals that are free for upperclassmen,” Brodie explained. “The same goes for holiday and Sabbath meals.” Chabad, a Jewish group on campus, also offers meals to students, especially during the holidays.

“The fact that I eat every meal with the same close-knit group of people also creates an incredible sense of community,” Furchgott said. “This is one reason why the Orthodox community is so closely knit.”

There are possible downsides to this. “Social life can become stifled when you are only eating your meals in one place and with a very small group of students,” Brodie said.

Abby Klionsky ’14, who eats only vegetarian food in the dining halls but does not keep strictly kosher, said in an email that “while food at the CJL is delicious, and the dining staff makes the CJL feel like home, it would be nice to have a wider selection ... so that I can eat with whomever, wherever, just like everyone else.”

“Having only one kosher kitchen on campus means that I can’t bake a birthday cake for a friend who keeps kosher. I can’t invite friends who keep kosher to my room to snack on cookies I just pulled out of the oven, or skip a dining hall meal to host a home-cooked dinner party meal that I made in the basement of my building,” she said.

Klionsky is also a copy editor for The Daily Princetonian.

Brodie suggested that it would be helpful if eating clubs, which cannot prepare kosher meals because they lack the facilities, provided “more salad options at formals as well as not putting dressing, cheese and other things that are not usually kosher on the salads. They could also make sure to have kosher bread or something.”

Regarding her decision to join Tower, however, she said she had “made the choice to join the club, so it is not Tower’s obligation” to provide kosher food.

Nonetheless, students said that the limited kosher dining options did not affect their decision to attend Princeton. “That we even have a kosher dining facility is really impressive,” Brodie said. “Many schools do not even have that,” Furchtgott added.

Both the Rabbi and Rabbanit said that the Jewish community was “very lucky” to have a University-supported kosher dining hall. “As I speak to colleagues from other universities, I understand how lucky we are to have such a great kosher dining hall,” said Rabbanit Wolkenfeld.

“Keeping kosher requires some sacrifices,” Brodie said. “I think that the University is really accommodating.”