Harvard expands kosher dining options following antisemitism task force recommendations

Kosher dining options are expanding at Harvard this semester following recommendations released earlier this year by the university’s Task Force on Combating Antisemitism, with hot kosher lunches added at Hillel’s dining hall, and hot dinners expanded to multiple dining areas on campus.

The Task Force broke down its recommendations into six sections: clarify Harvard’s values; act against discrimination, bullying, harassment, and hate; Improve disciplinary process; implement education and training; foster constructive dialogue; and support Jewish life on campus.

In its preliminary recommendations released to the university in June, the Task Force said Harvard must “ensure a welcoming environment for religiously observant Jewish students, faculty, and staff.”

In a statement to The Jerusalem Post, Harvard Hillel Executive Director Rabbi Jason Rubenstein called the expansion of hot kosher food on campus a “tremendous step for Harvard’s Jewish community, and for the university’s diverse and thriving religious and cultural community.”

Rubenstein, who graduated from Harvard in 2004, said these changes will mean that Jewish students are “better-fed, happier, and more fully integrated into the fabric of Harvard’s social life, so much of which takes place over shared meals.

“We’re grateful for the many months of dedicated, careful work by [university dining] leadership and staff to put all the details into place and make this two-generation-long dream a reality,” Rubenstein said in the statement to the Post.

Expand Jewish culinary options

‘Looking forward, we hope to build on this step by continuing to expand the culinary options across Harvard for all Jewish students and by the university implementing the remaining recommendations from the Antisemitism task force,” he said.

To support Jewish life on campus, the task force also called for reasonable accommodations for observant students who miss class or examinations due to Jewish holidays or Shabbat and allow for newly hired Jewish staff who lack vacation days to use “yet-earned” time off to observe Jewish holidays.

In terms of the other recommendations, the university over the summer clarified its policies on the use of campus spaces.

With policies clear, it remains to be seen how the university will respond to anticipated protests and demonstrations at the start of the school year.

A representative for the task force did not return the Post’s request for comment.