Keeping kosher on campus: meals provided for Jewish students during Passover

Kosher meals for Passover are being offered to students and faculty from April 6 to 13 at the Randall Dining Commons for those who celebrate the holiday. Photos courtesy of Chabad

It’s proven difficult in previous years for Jewish students to find kosher meals options for Passover.

For the first time in Chapman history, Chabad at Chapman University, Chapman’s Office of  Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), the Fish Interfaith Center, Chapman Hillel and Sodexo collaborated to offer kosher meals to students and faculty who celebrate Passover.

Passover, also known as Pesach, is a Jewish holiday that celebrates the Biblical story of the Israelites’ escape from slavery in Egypt. The holiday, which occurs on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, the first month of spring, lasts for eight days, and it consists of celebratory meals, special prayer services and abstention from work, with this year’s Passover taking place from April 5 through April 13. 

Junior communication studies major Talya Malka has been involved with Chabad, one of Chapman’s Jewish student organizations, since the first week of her freshman year. She has attended every Shabbat dinner, holiday festivity and event hosted by the club, and she served as the Shabbat Chair on the club’s executive board last year.

“One of the reasons I chose Chapman was because of the accepting community and staff,” Malka told The Panther. “When I toured, it was during a different Jewish holiday, Sukkot, and I saw a Sukkah, a temporary hut Jews eat their meals in throughout the holiday, right outside the Fish Interfaith Center. With the constant rise of antisemitism, it is so comforting to know our university is doing what it can to support us and provide the necessary resources needed to practice our faith.”

Malka has continued to stay heavily involved in Chabad throughout her three years at Chapman, and she expressed her excitement regarding the cafeteria’s new Passover meal options.

“Chapman’s dining hall offering kosher, and especially kosher for Passover meals, is incredibly beneficial to practicing Jews on campus,” Malka said. “It makes practicing the rules so much easier, provides the convenience of ready meals and supports our community.”

Any student with a Chapman meal plan is able to eat kosher breakfast, lunch and dinner from April 6 to 13 at the cafeteria, according to a Chapman fact sheet on Passover meals. Kosher foods are foods that conform to the Jewish dietary regulations of kashrut (dietary law), with an example being not pairing dairy and meat together to eat. 

“Andrea and I had many meetings about kosher food on campus for Passover, and we both advocated and heavily presented the initiative to Chapman,” said Rabbi Eliezer Gurary, the Rabbi for Chapman’s Chabad club. “We were trying really hard to see what we could do, and Sodexo was willing to offer us the burger grill station to use for kosher food. For Passover, the kitchen that the food is prepared in must be ‘kosherized,’ meaning that the kitchen can’t be used to prepare other foods.”

The kosher station at the cafeteria also featured two supervisors called Hebrew mashiachs to ensure that no outside food was present.

Students without meal plans, as well as faculty and staff who want to eat Passover meals, were able to do so by purchasing packs of five meal tickets online at a discounted price of $40, equaling roughly $8 per meal. 

Students and faculty were also able to purchase just one meal at the cafeteria for the usual cost of $10 for breakfast, $12 for lunch and $14 for dinner.

“When I arrived this past July, I heard from the campus Jewish community that (providing kosher meals) was a priority. And then this really became a story of coalition-building,” said Andrea Siegel, the director of Jewish Life and a Chaplain to Chapman University. “I built relationships across campus and am so grateful that so many people got involved, each making their own contributions to get all of this to happen. It meant a lot to me that Sodexo and Chapman’s DEI office showed so much care to learn about our Jewish religious and cultural practices over many months of preparations.”

Chapman’s Chabad and Hillel student organizations also hosted seders, ritual feasts that take place at the beginning of Passover, which were also co-sponsored by Chapman Jewish Life. Both organizations have been promoting the kosher dining hall meals on their Instagram accounts @chabadatchapman and @chapmanuhillel, respectively. 

On the first night of Passover, April 5, Fish Interfaith Center staff and Chapman’s Hillel Student Organization hosted an Interfaith Passover Seder. At this event, attendees explored the story of Passover and enjoyed a festive meal to commemorate the holiday’s first night.

Chapman Chabad also hosted a Passover Seder on April 5. The event included seder brisket, songs and stories. On the second night of Passover, April 6, Chapman Chabad hosted a second seder for the Jewish community to attend.

“The initiative (to bring kosher meals to Chapman) was taken by Rabbi Eliezer and Andrea Siegel,” Malka said. “Rabbi Eliezer has been a driving force behind making this happen, and from the beginning of his time working for Chapman, he was very adamant about providing this service for Jewish students.”

Rabbi Eliezer also worked to ensure that the kosher meals were being supervised at all times in the cafeteria, and he is in charge of detecting and finalizing each food ingredient in the kosher kitchen to ensure that it is 100% kosher. In the Randall Dining Commons, the burger/grill station at the back of the cafeteria was where the kosher meals were served to all students, staff and faculty.

“Ultimately, (serving kosher food at the cafeteria) is a very special thing,” said Rabbi Eliezer. “Jewish students can now freely practice their age-old traditions, religion and their faith without having to compromise on any of it and still be a complete full-time student at Chapman without having to choose between one or the other. Judaism is part of the core of our identity, so if a student comes to Chapman who is Jewish, it’s very important to have these opportunities in place where they are free to practice their faith.”

Sophomore psychology major Gabe Green, who has been involved in Chapman Chabad since his freshman year, also shared his thoughts on kosher food being offered in the cafeteria.

“Passover is something I look forward to every year, and (it is) a great way to connect with my Jewish identity,” Green told The Panther. “Part of observing Passover is refraining from eating bread, so I’m glad the cafeteria is being so accommodating this year. I rely on the cafeteria for many of my meals, so I will be taking advantage of this.” 

For lunch and dinner meals, the cafeteria offered meats on an alternating schedule of beef, chicken or fish, with vegetarian options also available. The Chapman Passover Food Information handout recommended that students and faculty wanting to partake in these meals should arrive towards the beginning of the cafeteria’s operating hours, since the kosher grill will be open to all people on campus. 

“We’re so excited to debut fresh kosher food on campus,” the Passover handout stated. “This initiative has the support of Chapman’s Office of DEI. Let’s celebrate religious and cultural diversity, building momentum for all kinds of Jewish belonging here at Chapman!”

Breakfasts for students and faculty celebrating Passover consisted of dairy yogurt and matzah with toppings. Meals for Shabbat — the Jewish Day of Rest, which is every Saturday — were served cold, while the other days of the week had hot food available in the cafeteria.

“Throughout this process, Sodexo has been nothing short of amazing, so patient and consistently optimistic about what has been a very challenging lift for them,” Siegel told The Panther. “I’ve heard such wonderful feedback from so many people on campus about this, including Jewish families of admitted students who are visiting campus and deciding whether Chapman is the right fit. It has felt so good to be able to say to them, ‘Yes, you can come to Chapman and know that you will be able to observe Passover here fully.’”