Kosher Kitchen
Want to eat at the Kosher Kitchen? Just a swipe, for any Yale student on a meal plan.
(Don’t have a meal plan? No problem – individual meals or blocks of credit can be purchased whenever meals are being served)
HOURS
Breakfast, 8:30AM-10:30AM, M-F
Lunch, 11:30AM-1:30PM, M-F
Dinner, 5:00PM-7:30PM, M-Th
Shabbat Dinner (Friday), 6:45PM
Shabbat Lunch (Saturday), 12:30PM
The first Kosher Kitchen for Yale graduate students opened in the fall of 1959. It was housed in the Young Israel Synagogue and open for dinners only during the week. Students who wanted a kosher dinner had to walk twenty-five minutes each way, no matter the weather. On weekends these same students were invited into local homes for their meals. None of this would have been possible without the generosity of Young Israel members Herbert Batt, Max Bleich and Ben Cohen.
In 1962, the Kosher Kitchen was relocated to an apartment on Dixwell Avenue, somewhat closer to campus. A dozen students regularly ate there. Later that year, the Kosher Kitchen gained its first undergraduate member – with more to follow shortly. In 1965 the Friends of Yale Hillel purchased a home for the use of the Hillel Rabbi, and the Kosher Kitchen moved into the basement of that residence at 35 High Street, where it remained until 1973 when it moved to the basement of 305 Crown Street. Membership in the Kosher Kitchen grew as Yale began to allow student members to eat in other dining halls during the week on occasion, but even with delicious food and a uniquely collegial atmosphere, the Kitchen did not feel quite like part of Yale.
The Kosher Kitchen made its grand move to the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale in1995, becoming one of the most popular dining halls on the Yale campus. Today, Slifka boasts:
- overflowing Shabbat dinners
- Bagel Brunches that feed over 400 students
- Theme dinners throughout the year
- Kosher for Passover meals
- A chef who will cook family recipes on request for students who feel homesick
