My daughter is an observant Jew and would prefer to be close to the Hillel for services. If she request this, does anyone know if there are certain dorms that she would be put in, or is it just in any dorm that is on the main campus?
She will need a letter from her rabbi attesting to the fact that she is Shomer Shabbos. There is no one specific dorm for students who make this request. She just won’t get placed on North Campus because that would require riding the bus.
Technically it could be any Non north dorm. But many of my daughters observant friends were placed in Oxford.
Where is Oxford ?
It is housing on Oxford Street (up behind Washtenaw). It was originally built for grad students and program housing (language immersion, for example). Now it is used for freshman. It is not a traditional dorm; it is apartment style housing. It is probably the closest to Hillel (East Quad would be the other closest dorm).
I’m not saying that it doesn’t happen, but I have not heard of students being given housing preference for religious reasons.
@letsgoblue1 . My guess is that you haven’t heard of this because you don’t know any Orthodox or other observant Jews. All my daughters friends who are observers of the sabbath ( I.e. Religious Jews who do not travel except by walking on Saturdays…no car or bus travel) were assured by Michigan that they would be placed on Central or the Hill so that they could walk to religious services at Hillell. And they indeed were.
Your lack of " hearing about" this also demonstrates a lack of understanding. As a public institution Michigan has a legal obligation to accommodate religious observance if it reasonably can. Michigan would have to show it would be too expensive and difficult or would interfere with the academic purpose of the university to give this sort of preference to religious students which the Universoty would have a difficult time doing.
Observant Jews do not ride in motor vehicles on the Sabbath. Therefore, they cannot be on North Campus. This request is accommodated, as long as the request is accompanied by a letter from a rabbi attesting to the fact that the student is an observant Jew.
Oxford is about a 10-15 min walk from central campus and most usually use the Oxford bus in the winter. The closest would be East Quad. If you want to guarantee East without a rabbi note, apply for the Residential College. I haven’t heard of anyone getting rejected and you get central campus housing with cool professors and students