KASHRUS KURRENTS

Who Has Whom… Over the Barrel?

Someof the top colleges in the U.S. boast a 10-25 percent Jewish student population. In 2022, Jewish students were well-represented at all eight Ivy League schools, with Columbia leading the way at 24%, followed by Brown (19%), Cornell (17%), UPenn (17%), and Yale (13%).1

The continually increasing number of kosher and other Jewish amenities on the American college campus mirror these statistics – and act as magnets to attract Jewish students. For some, STAR-K’s presence on campus offers a first – and sometimes only – taste of Yiddishkeit.

Rabbi Mayer Kurcfeld, a STAR-K kashrus administrator, has been engineering and overseeing the agency’s many certified on-campus facilities since 1999, customdesigning those that were not pre-existing. We asked him to describe the kashrus challenges of certifying the ever-evolving college campus dining platform.

KK: Which college and university dining services are certified by STAR-K?

RMK: We currently certify kosher dining at American University, Cornell University,

Franklin & Marshall College, Ithaca College, Johns Hopkins University, Muhlenberg College, Penn State University, Rollins College, Towson University, UMBC, Yale University, and most recently, University of Rochester. I constantly get inquiries regarding on-campus certification.

KK: Why would a regional college campus reach out to a national kashrus organization for certification?

RMK: One of the practical reasons is to attract more domestic and international students to their location. They understand that offering kosher on campus is a draw for some of their Jewish and Muslim clientele who prefer not to eat non-kosher or non-halal foods, and who – though they might not be religious – are interested in tradition.

Secondly, many times, it is demanded by the college itself to service all students. As part of their contract with the hired contractor (such as Aramark or Sodexo), it must also provide kosher for those who demand it – much as it must provide an allergen-free station or halal offerings.

1 Belasco, Andrew. “Best Colleges for Jewish Students.” College Transitions. September 2, 2022. https://www.collegetransitions.com/blog/colleges-with-the-best-jewish-life

The immortal words of Koheles, “l’kol zman va’eis” – there is a time and a place for everything – rings true in all of life’s twists and turns and is certainly relevant in the world of kashrus and kashrus standards. Kosher food certification has grown exponentially, and standards have improved with age. Who would have dreamed that pas Yisroel, bishul Yisroel, and cholov Yisroel would be available to the wider kosher marketplace?

Forty years ago, a can of tuna with bishul Yisroel and hashgacha temidis was a rare commodity. Many a yeshiva would resort to stam cholov when cholov Yisroel wasn’t available, something that would be unheard of half a century later. Yoshon was an anomaly, except for the meticulous few; today, yoshon is a kosher household term and it continues to proliferate.

These amazing developments across a variety of industries are a testament to the tireless diligence of kashrus agencies which strive to provide the kosher consumer with the finest quality kosher products and to uphold the gold standard of hilchos kashrus. These efforts to certify many popular consumer items have told the story of the growing success of kashrus in this country over the last quarter century. This has held true for many industries – save one.