Hillel Faces Cash Crunch

Faced with mounting financial troubles, Harvard Hillel recently sent a plea to many parents and grandparents asking for donations in an attempt to raise $75,000 by today for Hillel’s kosher dining hall.

The letter, sent on June 6 by Judy Z. Herbstman ’07, the president of Hillel’s undergraduate steering committee, went out to all parents and grandparents in Hillel’s database, including both Jews and non-Jews.

While adjustments will be necessary in order to cut costs if Hillel does not reach its goal of raising $75,000, Herbstman said in an interview that the dining hall would not be shut down.

“Hillel is absolutely, no questions asked, going to continue to provide kosher food next year,” Herbstman said. But she added, “the flexibility and the quality of the dining program are at stake.” Herbstman said that some of the options being considered to deal with the financial shortfall include not serving hot food at all dinners or not offering as many meals per week.

Last year, Hillel offered six dinners and one lunch per week; Herbstman added that she is “99.9% sure” that Hillel will not have to cut back on this schedule.

Regardless of what ends up happening to the dining program, Herbstman said there was no plan to limit who is allowed to eat at the dining hall, which attracts a very diverse group of students, both kosher and non-kosher.

“No one has more of a right to eat at a dining hall than anyone else,” Herbstman said. “There are fourteen dining halls [for undergraduates] and Hillel is one of them.”

Herbstman added that one of the greatest benefits of Hillel’s dining hall is the community it creates.

“The fact that so many people really like to eat at Hillel and find Hillel to be a comfortable place where they really feel at home has a lot to do with the dining program,” she said.

Hillel’s struggle to fund its dining hall stems from the fact that Harvard College does not pay for the extra costs of producing kosher food, and Hillel must negotiate its own contracts with HUDS.

The current negotiations between Hillel and HUDS began at the end of May and are still continuing in an attempt to resolve the budget crisis, according to Herbstman.

The letter sent to parents and grandparents earlier this month was sent out in an attempt to try to find supplemental funds for the dining hall, as part of a larger effort by the Hillel development office to raise money.

Herbstman said that while Hillel is not going to “magically come up with an extra million dollars,” she would like the cuts to be minimal without significantly affecting the student experience. She also added that she is hopeful the negotiations with HUDS will help resolve the dining hall budget crisis even if the $75,000 is not raised by June 30.

—Staff writer Claire M. Guehenno can be reached at guehenno@fas.harvard.edu.