Kosher on Campus: CUNY Brooklyn College

Contributed by Dani Klein & Charlie Shrem

Brooklyn College is extremely Jew friendly. School is suspended for basically every Yom Tov (not chol hamoed though). I have never come across a situation where I was placed with a scheduling conflict due to my religious observances.

Brooklyn College makes every attempt to accommodate the needs of its Jewish students, in fact, the Kosher cafeteria, located on the lower level of Boylan Hall, rivals the nearby non-Kosher cafeteria. It is the place where people hang out and can purchase pizza, wraps, soups, sandwiches, snacks, and other dairy/pareve lunches, after or even during class hours. They now offer breakfast meals as well for those early class goers! The owner of the Kosher cafeteria, organizes a large daily mincha minyan each day at 1:30 PM, in an area next to the cafeteria.

Brooklyn College boasts a large Hillel House right off campus on the corner of Campus Rd. & Hillel Rd. (directly behind the Flatbush Ave. junction). Within the Hillel you can find Hillelicious, a surprisingly delicious meat cafe with similar offerings to Subsational. The crispy chicken sandwich and special sauce is amazing! Hillelicious is open daily, typically for lunch hours only. you cna check out their menu on the BC Hillel site: http://www.bchillel.org/aboutus/koshercafe.html.

There is a larger Starbucks right off campus as well, on the corner of Hillel Road, directly across the street from the Hillel House.

This is a picture I took back in 2002 when I was a student there. It’s a really beautiful campus. ~Dani

Kosher on Campus: NYU

New York University / NYU, or locally referred to as NY Jew, is 25% Jewish with about 5,000 Jews on campus. Many of the Yidden at NYU are observant, making this campus ideal for those who keep kosher.

On the first floor of the Weinstein Residence Hall at 5 University Place off of E 8th st, is NYU’s Kosher Dining Hall. Anyone can walk into the building, head straight back through the regular cafeteria, and in the back is a decent sized kosher cafeteria. Dairy and Meat meals switch off every day. While most students pay for their meals with meal plans, anyone can purchase a meal, all you can eat I might add, for about $11. Salads, Drinks, and Sandwiches can be ordered daily whether it is a dairy or meat meal.

Around the corner from Weinstein Hall, you can find a Crumbs Kosher Bake Shop, at 37 E 8th St. Crumbs is a popular cupcake bakery found throughout the city. I highly recommend the “Baba Booey”, a chocolate & peanut butter cupcake. Yummm!

Closer to Union Square, at 21 East 12th, right off of University Pl., is University Pita, a Middle Eastern Shwarma/Falafel joint. You can order right off the street, or head up the narrow staircase to a tiny eating area. The shwarma, falafel, and laffa are pretty good, and the chumus is homemade. University Pita is open until 11pm, and is also open Motzei Shabbat, which is definitely useful for those heading to Greenwich Village on a Saturday night in the mood for some late night kosher grub.

For those of you looking for kosher food near NYU Medical Center (not near NYU’s main campus), there is the NYU Hospital Kosher Cart available, but not much else.

For more information on NYU, please visit: http://nyu.edu

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✈ Keeping Kosher in Acapulco, Mexico

Contributed by: Yosef Haas  |  Last Date of Travel: January 2008

I visited Acapulco for five days in January 2008 with my wife at the suggestion of friends. Having access to a kosher restaurant was important to us, so we were very excited to be staying in a hotel with kosher food on premises. We were not disappointed.

Kosher Info: The only kosher food available in Acapulco is in the Grand Hotel Acapulco (formerly the Hyatt). For the last 2 weeks of December through the end of February, the hotel converts one of it’s restaurants (El Isleño) to a full service Kosher restaurant. The restaurant serves three meals a day (including Shabbos) which can be paid for per meal, or included in the cost of the room. Other than that, there is very little kosher food available. Not knowing about the kashrus situation in Mexico, we decided to bring snacks. The meals in the restaurant are filling enough that we did not find the lack of other kosher options to be a problem. Additionally, the breakfast is big, and you can make sandwiches (they will provide you with foil and a bag) to bring along if you are going on a day trip. As for the meals, breakfast includes cereal, coffee, eggs, french toast, assorted pastries, bagels and some other local breakfast items. Not everything was available every day, but there was always a variety. Lunch was ordered from a menu, with several choices of main courses and side dishes. Fish, meat and chicken were always available, with the same menu being used every day. Dinner was buffet style and varied day to day. There was a barbecue on several of the nights and always a variety of dishes available. The food was good, not as good as many restaurants (you won’t go home raving about the food) but it was certainly nothing to complain about.

We had trouble finding kosher food elsewhere.

Tourist Info: If you are looking for packed days of touring, Acapulco is not the place for you. While there is plenty to do there, the activities will not fill every day (of course that is depending on the length of your stay). One of the most popular destinations is the Cliff Divers. As the name implies, it’s basically people diving off a cliff. While it’s interesting to see, don’t worry if you can’t make it there. The cliff divers was one of the stops on the city tour that we went on. Other stops included a jewelry manufacturer (the short tour ended in their store) and a flea market (where everything is negotiable). There is also an aquarium, a botanical gardens and an old fort, which we didn’t see, so I can’t comment on.

Other than that it’s really down to water sports and relaxing. The water sports are cheap and fun. I went wave running, para sailing and scuba diving, none of which cost more than $50. To do any of these just go down to the beach. There are booths for all the activities. You can negotiate for a better price, but everyone expects a tip – they will even ask you for one directly so be ready to pay a little extra after.

The hotel is very nice and comfortable. There is internet access, but it’s pretty expensive. That may have changed since the hotel changed from the Hyatt, so you may want to call to find out more. If you forget to bring something, don’t worry – there is a Super WalMart across the street from the hotel and many stores within walking distance.

The beach is absolutely beautiful and so is the weather. For detailed information go to http://www.acapulco.com/en/

Jewish Info: The hotel (Grand Hotel Acapulco) has a shul downstairs. The minyan is Sephardic so it may be a little of a culture shock if you are not used to it. They have three daily minyanim, and of course davening on Shabbos. On Shabbos, they have people waiting by the desk to go upstairs with you and open your room since all the locks are electronic.