Oberlin Hillel

Oberlin's Hillel is distinctive in its vibrancy, diversity, and the richness of its Jewish life. A Hillel annually recognized as one of the top Hillels in the country, it continues to receive the highest awards and honors from national Hillel.

Oberlin boasts a unique Kosher dining co-operative of thiry-eight members. It is completely student-run. Students order food, plan menus, cook, and clean the co-op. While all students who join must agree to follow the laws of Kashrut in the co-op, there is always only a minority of Kashrut-observant Jews in the co-op and there are non-Jewish members as well. Thus, the co-op is a special environment for Jewish education, wherein Jews who have not been exposed to Kasher, Sabbath, and Holy Days laws and traditions are educated in them by observing those laws and creating those holiday meals in the co-op for themselves, and also for the campus at large. To make clear its intent to welcome muslims and honor their traditions as well, the co-op recently changed its name to Kosher-Halal Co-op.

Shabbat services and dinner at Oberlin are the centerpiece of jewish life on campus. A meal, inlcluding fresh-baked challah, is prapared by Kosher-Halal Co-op and open to the campus at large. On a weekly basis, 65-120 students attend. Services are student-led from the award-winning Oberlin Siddur, and new songs, instrumental music, and songs are introduced as new students lead the services.

With the tremendous resource that is Oberlin's Conservatory of Music right on campus, we enjoy High Holy Day services of great musical richness. Our cantors, being students in the Conservatory, bring a special Oberlin hominess to our congregation; how rare to have one's peers be the leaders of the congregation! With a campus of 70% musicians, there are many musical offerings throughout the service, among them the translating of some of the message of the holidays into singalong folksongs at the conclusion of services.

We strive to reach students by sponsoring a wide variety of outstanding programming from the artistic to the academic to the social and religious. We continually search for new ways to reach Oberlin's student body, with its great talent, intellectual regor, and diversity of interests and identities.

For information on Oberlin Hillel, click here.