There might be no such thing as a free lunch, but Jewish students can get a free dinner once a week.
Northwestern’s Fiedler Hillel Center, 629 Foster St., now offers free Shabbat dinners for Jewish students of all sects every Friday night at 7 :15.
In previous years, students had to pay $8 for the meal or $5 if they signed up in advance.
“This is an idea that I’ve had and a hope that I’ve had for years,” said Zach Galin, president of Hillel Cultural Life. Galin, a SESP junior, said the change is because of the significant increase in turnout for the meals this year.
The first Shabbat dinner, held during New Student Week, was attended by a record 146 students.
In past years, about 80 students normally attended the dinners, campus Rabbi Josh Feigelson said.
“We had to sit people outside because our dining hall wouldn’t hold them (during New Student Week),” he said.
A member of Hillel’s executive board attended the first Shabbat dinner of the year and saw the large number of students. The member, who wished to remain anonymous, provided the initial funds to establish the free dinners, Feigelson said.
“He was just like, ‘How can you charge for this?'” Feigelson said. “So we announced that from then on, dinners would be free.”
Jewish students have been campaigning for free Shabbat dinners and improvements to the dinners for the past several years, said Rachel Sacks, a Weinberg senior and the Shabbat committee chairwoman. Hiring an in-house chef in the spring helped meet student requests, including a greater menu variety, she said. It also kept costs lower than when Hillel bought food from caterers.
“With a chef, it’s not like every additional student costs exactly 12 more dollars per meal,” Sacks said.
Keeping the meals free is a priority because paying for dinner is a deterrent to many students who would normally attend, Galin said.
“There’s no way to use a meal plan to pay for the meal right now,” Galin said. “And people who live off campus can eat for less than $8.”
Providing the free dinners is an expensive undertaking, said Hillel Executive Director Adam Simon. Simon said dinners cost about $600 per week, and Hillel aims to raise a total of $18,000 this year to put towards funding Shabbat meals.
Hillel staff is spearheading the fundraising drive by seeking donations from community members who think Shabbat dinners are an important part of Jewish life, Simon said.
“Shabbat dinner shouldn’t be about money,” he said. “It should be about hanging out in a community, and there should be no obstacles to that.”
McCormick freshman Bryan Cowan said he has been to every Shabbat dinner so far this year. He said he thought more students attended the dinners because they were free, but said he would have gone anyway.
“My friends and I went because we wanted to be part of the community,” Cowan said. “We thought we should continue a family tradition.”
Reach Christina Alexander at [email protected].
