Breaking News

Hillel needs new home

By By Kristen Jarboe (Contact)

Monday, February 6, 2006

The University of Kansas Hillel is looking for new headquarters.

With about 1,800 Jewish students at the University, Hillel is hoping to find a place that will hold more people.

Hillel has been located at 940 Mississippi St. since 1982, when there were few Jewish students on campus, according to Jay Lewis, executive director of Hillel. Last year, however, 200 students were actively involved in the organization and 400 more participated in Hillel activities. The current building holds about 70 students.

Lewis said Hillel had looked at a few places around Massachusetts Street over the past two weeks.

“If we rent a place downtown, this means we won’t permanently live there,” said Melissa Horen, member of the facility task force, and last year’s student president. “It just means it will be a good option for awhile.”

Lewis has talked to several realtors and to the University to explore what options Hillel has. Ideally the organization wants to be on campus, but when the organization starting looking for space on campus in the fall, there was not much available for it.

“Places like the Ecumenical Christian Ministries and the Islamic Center have great locations,” Lewis said. “We would love to be that convenient for students.” Ecumenical Christian Ministries is located on Oread Avenue, and the Islamic Center of Lawrence is on Naismith Drive.

In the event the group would be housed downtown, Horen said there would be a very high possibility that certain programs would be kept on campus, like the weekly Shabbat on Fridays.

“It’s important to be accessible for the students,” Horen said.

When space becomes available, Lewis said that selling the group’s current residence would not be a problem. In order to help pay for the new property, however, fundraising would be important.

— Edited by Matt Wilson

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