Orthodox Life at Yale
The Orthodox Community at Yale is growing and vibrant. From pizza and learning on Sundays to scholars in residence, shiurim and chaburot, and regular chavrutas, opportunities for learning abound. There are three minyanim daily and a full-service kosher kitchen that is integrated into the Yale dining plan.
The OU-JLIC program sponsors guest speakers several times a semester, and hosts various seasonal events including melave Malka hangouts, holiday parties and programming, and musical havdalah. The programs offered by OU-JLIC cater to all levels and backgrounds from graduates of yeshivot in Israel with a yeshiva high school background to students with no formal background at all in Jewish learning. The OU-JLIC staff also spend time informally with students at meals at Slifka center and invite many of the students to their home on a regular basis.
To arrange a visit, ask questions, or be in touch for any reason, please contact Rabbi Alex Ozar at alex.ozar@yale.edu or Lauren Steinberg at lauren.steinberg@yale.edu.
Check out www.yihy.org/ for more info.
The Slifka Center: Hillel at Yale
Jewish life at Yale centers around the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale, home of the Yale Hillel, where all minyanim and shiurim take place. The Slifka Center also houses a kosher kitchen where many Yale students eat daily. There is a weekday and Shabbat Orthodox minyan at the Slifka Center. The OU-JLIC couple works together with the Hillel board and the other staff members on various educational and cultural activities including such events as Messibat Channukah, Seder Tu Bishvat, Oneg Shabbat and more. Their activities involve Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and other types of Jews.
Check out www.slifkacenter.org for more info.
Shabbat
Shabbat at Yale includes minyanim, communal meals in Yale’s kosher dining hall, seudah shelishit and Havdalah. Dinner and lunch are accompanied by vibrant zemirot. Friday night after dinner, there is frequently an oneg with singing, socializing, and dessert. Lunch is attended by both undergraduate and graduate students as well as community members and is followed by a shiur.
KOSHER Dining
The kosher kitchen housed at Slifka Center, serves meals three times daily as part of the Yale University dining system. Breakfast and lunch are dairy and dinner is a meat meal. On Shabbat, dinner and lunch are meat and seuda shlishit (third meal) is parve or dairy.
In addition to the many students who eat there, the Kosher Kitchen hosts many members of New Haven’s local Jewish community who enjoy the good food and informal atmosphere, as well as special events like Bagel Brunch and Jewish Deli Night.
The Kosher Kitchen is under the auspices of the Va’ad HaKashrus of Fairfield County. Please contact Rabbi Ozar with any questions at alex.ozar@yale.edu.
Kosher restaurants and food establishments in New Haven
Slifka Center kosher dining hall: 80 Wall St, New Haven. Check prices and when open – when Yale College is in session. 203-432-9419
Claire’s Corner Copia (Kosher dairy restaurant): 1000 Chapel St., New Haven. 203-562-3888.
Edge of the Woods (Health food store, bakery and dairy café): 379 Whalley Ave., New Haven. 203-787-1055.
Westville Kosher Market: 95 Amity Rd., New Haven. 203-389-1166.
Also note that the bakeries in the ‘Stop and Shop’ supermarkets located at 112 Amity Rd, New Haven and 2335 Dixwell Ave, Hamden are under KVH Kashrut supervision. Signs are posted in the bakeries.
The ‘Stop and Shop’ supermarket located nearest to Yale, at 150 Whalley Avenue in New Haven, has a good selection of kosher products including packaged deli meats and cholov yisroel milk, cheese and yogurts, but its bakery is not under supervision.
Housing at Yale
First year students at Yale all live in Yale dormitories. The Yale dorms, part of the university’s college system, are a unique feature at Yale that create a sense of smaller communities within the broader university. Upperclassman have the choice of remaining in dorms or moving into off-campus apartments.