U. aims to keep Dining kosher

When the new Faculty Club opens two years from now in Sansom Common's Inn at Penn, it will be little more than one-sixth its current size. And while the space is adequate for the needs of University faculty, kosher dining -- which uses the building during dinner time --Ewill be left homeless. But kosher service may not require a new dining hall, due to changes resulting from the new college house plans to go into effect next fall. The plans, which call for each of 12 college houses to occupy its own dining hall, has led administrators to explore the possibility of offering kosher food in each hall, according to Marie Witt, director of support services for Business Services. This system would allow kosher students to eat with their college houses, adding to the community atmosphere of the residences, Associate Vice President for Campus Services Larry Moneta said. Moneta said the current proposal -- which is extremely preliminary -- would allow for the continuation of Jewish community meals for Shabbat, holidays or special occasions. In order to accommodate these large community meals, kosher dining would still have to find a space to replace the Faculty Club, in addition to finding a permanent central kitchen where the kosher food for all the dining halls would be cooked. The two buildings on either side of the Hillel building -- the Faculty Club and the Christian Association -- will soon be vacant. But Hillel Executive Director Jeremy Brochin said Hillel will not purchase the CA. And the Faculty Club building is slated for academic use, according to Executive Vice President John Fry. The University has not decided whether this plan would also allow for a central kosher dining hall, similar to the one in the Faculty Club, for regular weekday meals. "We want kosher observant student to eat with their houses and not be compelled to eat in one place," Moneta said. "And we want all students to eat with each other when they want -- we expect that they will want to on Shabbat, holidays and some other special occasions." But Hillel President Ami Joseph, a College senior, said many kosher diners enjoy eating together during the week and may not want to move to other dining halls. Hillel Executive Vice President and College senior Meyer Potashman said the University must take care not to damage the kosher observant community in the name of building stronger residential communities. "There are advantages of having people who care about kosher food meeting people in other dining halls," he said. "At the same time, there's something very special about the kosher dining program at Penn that creates a very important community atmosphere that I wouldn't want to disappear." And the laws governing kosher food may make it difficult to serve a variety of kosher options in multiple dining halls, according to Barry Weiss, who supervises the kosher kitchen. In order for food to be certified as kosher it must be cooked in a separate kitchen under the supervision of a person familiar with Jewish law, like Weiss. As a result, all the food would likely be cooked in a central kitchen and served as boxed meals in other dining halls, a proposal which would limit the variety of kosher options, Weiss said. Because of its limiting nature, Weiss said the program, while feasible, would work better as a service for busy students than as a replacement for daily meals in one kosher dining hall. And Joseph said the proposal would probably enjoy more success if it was introduced in one or two other dining halls, rather than all. "It would go a long way towards integration, but it's not really that feasible," Joseph said. "Maybe if they extended it to one other dining hall, that might work."

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