Image by OU-JLIC Facebook

By Laura E. Adkins August 15, 2018

As an Orthodox Jew who is a fairly recent college graduate (and proud alumna of NYU), I know firsthand the challenges of being an observant Jew on a college campus. At many universities, Shabbat, holidays and everyday meal planning can be a hassle — especially in universities far from a large Jewish community. Thankfully, I attended a college with an abundance of resources — including delicious kosher food available on the meal plan and at Hillel events, abundant Jewish programming on campus, an engaged and tight-knit Jewish student community, dedicated Jewish professionals and plenty of synagogues nearby.

The schools on this list provide all of these things and more: our formula for Orthodox-friendly campuses is designed to ensure that all of the colleges on this list have kosher food on the meal plan, at least one Orthodox synagogue within 10 miles, abundant Jewish programming and an eruv surrounding their campus (a construct that allows Jewish residents to carry certain objects outside their own homes on Shabbat), allowing community members to observe Shabbat more easily. The following list is presented in alphabetical order:

American Jewish University

Barnard College

Binghamton University

Boston University

Brandeis University

Brown University

College of Charleston

Columbia University

Cornell University

Harvard University

Hunter College

Johns Hopkins University

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Muhlenberg College

New York University

Princeton University

Queens College

Rutgers University

Stanford University

Stony Brook University

Syracuse University

Temple University

Touro College

University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Los Angeles

University of California, San Diego

University of Maryland

University of Michigan

University of Pennsylvania

Washington University in St. Louis

Yale University

Yeshiva University

Image by Kurt Hoffman

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

This article is part of the award-winning Forward College Guide — to read more fascinating stories and see the definitive rankings, click here.

Laura E. Adkins is the Forward’s deputy opinion editor. Contact her at [email protected] or on Twitter, @Laura_E_Adkins

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount