Following month after month of setbacks, the Penn Jewish community was finally able to celebrate yesterday when campus leaders broke ground on Steinhardt Hall, the new Hillel building on 39th Street.
The center bears the name of philanthropists Judy and Michael Steinhardt, who made the initial $2.5 million donation to the $12 million project. When constructed, the building will act as a central space for the 6,000 Jewish students at Penn.
At yesterday's groundbreaking, students, alumni and administrators all came together to dance the hora, worship and testify to the importance of the event.
"This is such a special day, it deserves more than a greeting," President and International Director of Hillel Richard Joel said. "It represents a half century of two institutions, Penn and Hillel, being strong together in a common cause and that deserves much more."
More than 26 different student groups call Hillel home. The building accommodates more than 1,500 visitors each week, and the numbers are growing yearly. The need for something larger than the nearly 70-year-old current space became obvious several years ago, but problems finding a location and funding for the new building set the project back for months.
For David Kagan, president of Hillel Student Va'ad, the fact that Steinhardt was the main donor for the edifice makes the construction all the more special.
"He is a man who is on the forefront of Jewish philanthropy," the Engineering senior said of Steinhardt, who initiated Birthright Israel to finance students' first trips to Israel. "I went on the Birthright Israel trip -- he sent me to Israel. To be able to be here and sit next to him today is simply amazing."
The new complex, which will be located in what is now the parking lot behind the Alpha Tau Omega and Sigma Chi fraternities, will include a student activity center, a library, an auditorium and rooms for relaxing in informal groups. The building is expected to be completed in the spring of 2003.
Currently, Hillel operates out of the Korman Hillel Foundation at 36th Street right off of Locust Walk, and since Steinhardt attended Wharton in 1960, the structure has remained much the same.
More than 40 years have passed since Steinhardt was here, and the Penn Jewish community has grown in both strength and numbers, making the current space inadequate to maintain their activities.
"We've outgrown the other building," said Rachel Saifer, associate director of Hillel. "Isn't that a wonderful problem to have? Right now we need a new building just to accommodate Hillel, forget about growing anymore. The Jewish life on this campus is just phenomenal and it seems to me that we are just busting at the seams."
In the past 10 years, Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia universities have each constructed new Hillel facilities. In all cases, the resulting buildings have produced an increase in Jewish community life at those schools.
"There was a sense of need here," Steinhardt said. "I used to come here myself for dinners when I went to school here, not because it was kosher, which it was, but because it was my entry into the Jewish community. The decision to build now is a function of the old building simply being inadequate whereas in my day it was enough for the students."
David Bard, president of PennPAC, a bipartisan student-run group which supports the preservation and the betterment of the American/Israeli relationship -- and operates out of Hillel -- sees the new building as an enticement to Jewish and non-Jewish students who normally would not come to visit Hillel. It is his hope that the new structure will be less intimidating and will strengthen both Jewish and community life at Penn.
"It really represents advancement," Bard said. "It's a way to help others and ourselves to provide a support system for Jews and non-Jews. A strong Hillel helps the whole community."
The crowd of students, alumni and administrators that gathered to watch the groundbreaking celebration could hardly contain their excitement, as hugs and smiles were exchanged throughout the many speeches, songs and prayers.
College sophomore Angelika Zilberman clapped her hands eagerly as University President Judith Rodin, Kagan, the Steinhardts and others grabbed their shovels and began the groundbreaking.
"It's a symbol of the growing and flourishing Jewish community at Penn," Zilberman said. "It is so nice to know that Jewish students and other members of the Penn community will have a place like this to come and hang out and do homework and basically anything else all in one place."
For Kagan, Hillel has helped him to find himself over the past four years. He is overjoyed that Hillel will now be able to reach out to more students and affect more students' lives in the positive ways that it has affected his own.
According to Steinhardt, fundraising for the project will continue during the building's construction as only 70 percent of the needed amount has thus far been raised.
"This is a community effort that will take a lot of people to come together and for everyone to do their own small part to see our goals come true," Steinhardt said before leaving behind the formalities of the celebration to dance the traditional hora with students and administrators.
