BoxingLeprechaun

I recently have begun calling up many schools about the Jewish life at their respective schools in regards to Jews of the Modern Orthodox/Orthodox sect. I will update this page frequently, so be on the lookout.

EMORY-I was told that while there are manyJews on campus only 2(no typo) are observant of Sabbath/kashruth.

U. of MIAMI-Roughly 2,000 Jews, with about 15 observant ones. However, most of the religous Jews on campus happen to be commuting locals according to the director of the Hillel house there.

VANDERBILT-While Vandy is lacking in the amount of observant Jews(roughly 15), they realy excited me. They seem so eager to attract a more diverse group of Jewish people, which is clearly evident based on the fact that they just installed a kosher kitchen. I spoke to the head of the Hillel there for roughly half an hour, and he seemed do eager to improve the Jewish life there, leaving me intrigued with the thought of helping to build something there.

I will be looking at Tufts, Hamilton, Colgate, and Vassar in the near future.

P.S. FYI if any students want to know, the most observant campuses are Yeshiva University(obviously), SUNY Binghamton, Brandeis, U. Maryland-College Park, BU, and the Ivies.

ses

You might want to look at Columbia since it's got a great relationship with the Jewish theological seminary...

pam-b

I don't know how many Orthodox students attend UVA but they have a very active Chabad house less than 2 blocks from campus with weekly Shabbat dinners, monthly programs for Jewish and all interested students and observances of all the holidays for students that can't do home (like a brisket dinner for Erev Rosh Hashana). They will even deliver chicken soup to you in the dorm if you are sick!

funployee

Brandeis and Yeshiva of course

Trying looking into Northwestern. They have a ton of jewish kids there and they have a good hillel program from what I've heard.

cherokeejew

JewPenn is pretty good, surprisingly.

briantheman

glad you're looking at vandy. incoming class is 17% jewish and as you've noticed efforts are being made regularly to improve the jewish community (he did mention the schulman center?).

monydad

As I'm sure OP already knows, Jewish Theological Seminary = Theological seminary for Conservative Judaism does not = Orthodox judaism.

Vanderbilt is indeed making huge strides to attract jewish students, with new facilities, etc. We have a (reform) family friend quite excited about attending in the Fall. I wonder how the alumni are viewing these changes on campus, which represent a rather striking change there. Still, with such a small orthodox community I would imagine there might be some issues.

BoxingLeprechaun

ses, JTS is affiliated with the Reform omvement I believe, so hat wouldn't fit an orthodox student's criteria. I don't know much about UVA, and I honestly wasn't considering it based on one point; I've heard that getting into one of the "public Ivies" from out of state is nearly impossible(please correct me if I'm wrong). funployee, I might do a litlle research on NW so check back later. cherokeejew, if only I could get into there. Possible reach option just for fun. I don't feel that schools taht already have an established Jewish population need to be listed though, I'm looking at schools which aren't necessarily known for their Jewish population. briantheman, I was told briefly about the Schulman Center, along with Grins(pronounced Greens). The head of the Hillel there seems super-dedicated to expanding the Orthodox Jewish population. monydad, there will most likely be massive challenges for an orthodox student at Vandy, however the knowledge of having even a minute orthodox presence on campus can help make someone feel more at home.

huskem55

you will definitely find a vibrant community at tufts. while there is a decent jewish population at colgate, i doubt that many are orthodox.

45 Percenter

In terms of the Ivies (percentages of Jewish undergrads):

Penn 31%

Harvard 30%

Brown 25%

Columbia 25%

Yale 23%

Cornell 22%

Princeton 14%

Dartmouth 11%


http://www.hillel.org/HillelApps/JLOC/Search.aspx

BoxingLeprechaun

huskem55, I hope that you are correct. Are you Jewish and in Tufts? And 45 percenter, it's not about the quantity of Jews, it's about their level of observance.

45 Percenter

I know, but the law of large numbers would indicate that the larger the number, the greater chance of finding more obervant Jews. By the way, Penn has a wonderful new Hillel building (one of the largest in the country, I believe) that includes a Kosher dining hall.

Penn Hillel web site:

http://pennhillel.org/

Kosher Dining page:

http://pennhillel.org/node/44

Virtual tour of new Hillel building:

http://pennhillel.org/node/129

45 Percenter

Here's a separate web site for the Orthodox Community at Penn:

http://www.hillel.upenn.edu/~ocp/

And here's the site for the Conservative Community:

http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~cjc/

mythmom

I don't know about which branch of Judaism they follow, but observant family friend is happy sending her daughter to American U. Other daughter went to Binghamton. Another very observant family sent their daughter to Vassar FWIW.

BoxingLeprechaun

45 percenter, thnaks for your help. If only everyone could get into PENN.... mythmom, I haven't really looked into American, but Vassar I will find out about soon. Binghamton though is a school that I have already established as my safety.