Arizona State University Now Offers Kosher Option
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Students who observe kosher laws have a new campus choice: Arizona State University.
The Tempe school, home to at least 3,500 Jews, will feature kosher lunches and dinners starting this fall at the Hassayampa Academic Village Dining Hall.
The move is “enabling Jewish students to easily follow kosher dietary laws,” the university said.
Rabbi Shmuel Tiechtel, director of the ASU Chabad, said he was contacted by Jewish students and parents who were “eager” to get kosher food on campus.
“Thousands of Jewish students come to Arizona State and find a welcoming, positive Jewish community experience here,” Tiechtel said. “But kosher meal options take our Jewish provision to another level, making ASU truly one of the best places in America to be a Jewish student.”
Left to right:
Maxim Averbukh, ASU Sophomore, Rabbi Shmuel Tiechtel, director of Chabad at ASU and Sophomore Tal Sneh sit in front of the dining facility where the new kosher kitchen is under construction. Image by Chabad at ASU
The Hillel Jewish Student Center also has worked with the university to bring kosher food to campus.
“I have found ASU to be a strong and active partner in making the university increasingly more welcoming for Jewish students who keep kosher,” said Debbie Yunker Kail, executive director of the Hillel Jewish Student Center.
Kosher food had been difficult to find, said Hannah Widawer, an ASU senior.
“For a long time, kosher food was only accessible by car, unless I went to Chabad for food,” said Widawer, who is majoring in tourism development and management.
“It’s great that we’ll have another dining option while I’m at school. I think that the kosher meals on campus will allow many Jews to consider applying to Arizona State when they couldn’t before. It’s a huge step for the growth of the Jewish student community.”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
