After seven months of renovations, the new Center for Jewish Life (CJL) dining hall officially re-opened for full meal service on Sunday, March 16.
“I worked at Stanford, I have worked at Cornell and University of Chicago, so I worked in all these places, and I can guarantee you this is the best,” Nadeem Siddiqui, Assistant Vice President of Campus Dining told The Daily Princetonian.
The CJL was closed before the start of the Fall 2024 semester to renovate the facility. During the renovation, kosher meat and vegetarian dishes were prepared in an off-campus kitchen and delivered to the CJL, while dairy meals were not provided. Jewish food laws prohibit the mixing of meat and dairy.
“It has been [challenging] for the last nine months for our students and our community, but having this open and the way it looks and feels and flows, it really is incredible,” Siddiqui said.
For some, the CJL dining hall drew them to Princeton even before the renovation.
Asher Liss ’28 described coming to Princeton with his family on a Princeton Preview visit and seeing the CJL dining hall. “Because I keep kosher, seeing a good kosher dining hall really boosted Princeton for me,” Liss said.
Students and staff members alike commented that the natural light provided by the newly installed windows creates a more welcoming environment.
“[Before the renovation], it was kind of like walking into Halloween … very dark and gloomy. There were no windows inside the servery at all, just very dark,” Chad Rovner, Chef de Cuisine at the CJL, told the ‘Prince.’ “This is completely different, and everyone was just blown away.”
“The other one seemed a little more compact — this one’s open, has the dual kitchens, … and the lighting is a great atmosphere,” Liss said.
The renovated dining space now offers more options than the previous smaller serving station, with a salad bar, stir fry station, dairy kitchen, vegan station, and meat kitchen that will be opening after Passover.
“It feels amazing to be able to have people come eat and not worry,” Alex LaFontant, a food service worker at the CJL told the ‘Prince.’ “I really love this building.”
Students and faculty also expressed hopes that the new CJL dining hall could bring together students of different backgrounds and communities.
“I think that students who aren’t keeping strictly kosher will now see this dining hall, see it’s similar to [other] dining halls, and be more open to coming here, which is better also for Jews who get to interact with non-Jews,” Liss told the ‘Prince.’
“I think the food has such a glue to bring people together from all different backgrounds,” Siddiqui said.
According to Siddiqui, the CJL will host a special dinner on March 19 and an inaugural event on March 31 in honor of the Mandelbaum family, who donated to the CJL and made the renovation possible.
Devon Rudolph is an associate News editor and staff Sports writer for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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