Contributed by Dani Klein | Last Date of Travel: July 2010

Kosher Info: Last summer, another couple joined me and my wife for a few days in Amish Country, PA (specifically staying in the city of Lancaster) over the July 4th holiday weekend. In our research, we found that Kosher food would be available, but not at a restaurant. The only eatery we learned of was on (or right off of) the campus of Franklin & Marshall College, in the Ben Franklin Dining Hall, with a Star-K hechsher (although if you keep reading you’ll see that we were wrong). The dining hall obviously is only open when students are on campus, so even if students were on campus for the summer break, July 4th break was not a good time to find it open. (We also don’t think the kosher section is open over the summer, despite summer sessions). When school is in session, they also offer Shabbat meals. Regardless, I recommend calling ahead 717-291-3993.

Ben Franklin Dining Hall
415 Harrisburg Ave.
Lancaster, PA 17603

Having said that, the large local supermarket chain Weis, carry lots of everyday kosher products… we even found a small section of frozen kosher meat – good for BBQing.

Otherwise, we brought food with us from NY that we were able to prepare in our hotel room, sandwiches, and dry snacks. If you’re going to this region in the heat of the summer, it can be really hot – it was in the high (90ºs F) when we were there, so be sure to bring along cold drinks and find ice cream. Luckily, you’ll have an abundance of local kosher ice cream and iced tea from Turkey Hill – made locally in Lancaster. (My only concern about their iced tea is that they sweeten it with High Fructose Corn Syrup. I wish they’d use real sugar.)

Now that I’m back from my trip it has come to my attention that there’s actually a few kosher eateries operating between Memorial Day and Labor Day plus Chol Hamoed Sukkot as stands at the local amusement parks, all by one owner.

• Hershey Park – Central PA’s Kosher Mart – A fleishig restaurant located in the park. You can get a free 25 minute shopper entry pass into the park to access the restaurant.
• Dutch Wonderland has 2 places:
  • Central PA’s Kosher Mart – A fleishig restaurant located in the park. You can get a free 25 minute shopper entry pass into the park to access the restaurant.
  • 3 G’s Pizza – take out only pizza.
• Cherry Crest Farm – 3 G’s Pizza – sit down area available

Info to all 4 of these locations can be found by clicking here. They notified me that they also deliver to hotels in the area and offer discounted rates to the amusement parks.

We should also note that nearly all of the chocolate products at Hershey Park are kosher. Please confirm that each Hershey product is in fact kosher by double checking the label.

Tourist Info: In the Lancaster area itself, there’s surprisingly a lot to do and see, for both the adults, and kids. For New Yorkers looking to get out of the city and experience some country life, the entire Lancaster County / Dutch Country / Amish Country – a short ~3 hour from Midtown Manhattan isn’t bad at all … and, the region is also accessible via Amtrak.

Amish Country (as I knew it in elementary school) is known for many things, and it is worthwhile spending at least 2 to 3 days in the area to soak in the rich culture and history of the region.

Things worthwhile doing in the area:

• Visiting an Amish Farm – there are a few, and perhaps shockingly – many of them have websites.
• Enjoying an Amish horse and buggy ride – although be sure to ask if there’s a specific destination in mind, or if it’s just one way and back (not as fun). Definitely ask questions to the driver of the buggy, as he can tell you more about the Amish way of life.
• Learning about Amish quilts and textiles – be sure to check out the Quilt & Textile Museum in Lancaster.
• Shopping at the numerous hand made wood craft shops: Listing of nearby shops.
• Enjoying the family friendly day/nightlife which include numerous mini golf courses, life size mazes, a Tanger outlet shopping center, and numerous museums.
• The region is also known for Toy Trains – unsure why, but who doesn’t love toy trains?! Be sure to check out the Toy Train museums and shops: National Toy Train Museum and the Choo Choo Barn, both located in nearby Strasburg.

Additionally, how can we forget the aforementioned amusement parks (with kosher food stands!):

• Hershey Park (aka Hershey’s Chocolate World), located about 45 minutes outside of downtown Lancaster, is a favorite for Jewish summer camps and groups of teens over Chol Hamoed Sukkot. The park is popular with adults and kids of all ages and includes a chocolate factory!
• Ducth Wonderland, located in Lancaster itself, right near the Tanger Outlet mall, is more of a little kid type of amusement park, which may be necessary for “minivan-families”.
  
• Cherry Crest Adventure Farm – this is less an amusement park, and more an amusement farm. Cherry Crest Farm is best known for it’s 5 acre “Maize Maze” as we like to call it (Corn Maze) and other outdoor ‘natural’ attractions. It is located in Ronks, PA about 5-10 minutes from Lancaster.

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If you’re driving to Lancaster, which I recommend if you live in the northeast – make sure you have proper car insurance.
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Jewish Info: I’m not too familiar with a major orthodox population in the region, although there is a local Chabad (located at Franklin & Marshall College), and minyanim are organized at the parks each evening.

Here’s a list of minyanim at the parks at in Lancaster (at Cong. Degel Israel).

Students at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, whose undergraduate population of 13,000 is 20 percent Jewish, are lucky to have plenty of Kosher options right on campus.

The main kosher dining hall, 104West!, is run by Cornell Dining and supervised by the Orthodox Union. It is located on Cornell’s west campus, adjacent to the Cornell Center for Jewish Living. Because of its integration with Cornell Dining, students need not purchase a separate, more expensive Kosher plan: A meal at 104West! costs one meal swipe, just like every other all-you-can-eat dining hall. 104West!, which serves both dairy and meat meals, is open for lunch and dinner every day, and offers daily soup, salad bar, and deserts, in addition to whatever the hot option is that day. Students also have the option of ordering custom specialties from the grill, which include omelettes, quesadillas, and pad thai. 104West! provides catering services, allowing students to buy Kosher food for outside events—Pizza, deli, and even Shabbat meals!

For freshman who live on North Campus, which is approximately a 12 minute walk from 104West!, there exists a more conveniently located Kosher option. North Star, an all-you-can-eat facility in North Campus’ Appel Commons, features a kosher station supervised by a mashgiach. Besides for such classics as deli sandwiches, hot dogs, and matzoh ball soup, the station also provides fresh hot food, brought from the kosher kitchen at 104West!

When on the go, Cornellians have the option to pick up Kosher, prepackaged deli sandwiches from many restaurants and shops around campus. The Noyes convenience store offer kosher staples such as frozen pizza bagels, lox, deli meats, and more. And for those students adventurous enough to venture into Ithaca, the supermarket Wegmans’ maintains well-stocked kosher meat and dairy sections.

Dear Kosher Travelers,

Due to the recent economic situation, many of you are traveling less, some are traveling more, and hopefully, everyone is still traveling kosher. There are a few items we’d like to announce as the late Spring / Summer travel season gets underway.

First, we’d like to shep nachas. YeahThatsKosher founder, Dani Klein, was named the #13 most influential Jewish individual on Twitter. You can follow Dani, and all YeahThatsKosher updates here: @YeahThatsKosher. You can view the rest of the top 100 Jews and Organizations on Twitter here: http://kavod.jta.org/out.php?title=jtarsquos-100-most-influential-jewish-twitterers

Secondly, we’d like to ask for your assistance. In order for our site to constantly provide content, we need the support and insight from our readership. If you’ve been traveling over the past year, consider writing a post for the blog. Keep in mind the mitzvah you’ll be doing by providing others with kosher information.

If you are interested in writing for the blog, please visit our Writer’s Tools page: http://yeahthatskosher.com/writers-tools/

And finally, we are looking into researchng keeping kosher on college campuses, as well as which sports stadiums and arenas offer kosher food. If you are interested in helping with this research, or writing about your college campus, please post, or email: yeahthatskosher.com@gmail.com

Please help spread the word about YeahThatsKosher.

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Shabbat Shalom!

~Dani Klein

YeahThatsKosher Founder

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