Editorial: No more kosher kitchen

The University's recent decision to close the kosher kitchen at the Freeman Center for Jewish Life is a necessary one, since the kitchen was losing over a $100,000 per year. Nevertheless, this is an unfortunate event, especially for those students who choose to remain kosher and who will no longer have a viable on-campus eatery after this semester.

The simple fact is that the kosher kitchen, which has a reputation for excellent food, is inconveniently located in the Freeman Center, isolated from both East and West campuses. Therefore, it is unsurprising that it could not attract enough business to stay afloat. The money the kosher kitchen lost is money that Dining Services needs to improve dining for all students across campus, and the University cannot afford to continue spending money on an unviable kosher kitchen.

However, it is extremely important that the University work with kosher students to provide them with more dining options. For example, the administration should consider waving the requirement that sophomores live on West Campus for kosher students, enabling them to have Central Campus apartments in which they could cook their own kosher meals. In the longer term, the University should seriously consider making a kosher deli part of the student village.

The closing of the kitchen will inevitably hinder the University's efforts to recruit and maintain kosher students, but the costs were simply too high to justify continued operation.