New Brunswick – More than 150 people attended ground-breaking ceremonies for the new Eva and Arie Halpern Hillel House at 70 College Avenue in the heart of Rutgers University’s New Brunswick campus. The Halpern and Stein Families, leaders in New Jersey Jewish philanthropy, have named the building for their late mother and father, both Holocaust survivors.
The new home of New Jersey’s flagship Hillel is an architectural standout and will be a centerpiece of the Rutgers College Avenue Redevelopment project. Hillel has been conducting an $18 million Capital and Endowment Campaign for close to eight years to provide a state-of-the-art, 35,000-square-foot home for its myriad religious, social, Israel advocacy, cultural, social-justice, and learning activities on campus.
Rutgers Hillel serves a Jewish student population of 6,000 undergraduates and more than 1,200 graduate students, the second-largest Jewish student population in the United States. It has provided a robust mix of programming at Rutgers for more than seven decades.
In spite of operating out of inadequate space in rented buildings on the campus for the past 18 years, Rutgers Hillel has become a national model of programming excellence, said Hillel Board President Roy Tanzman. In praising the Halpern Family’s gift, Tanzman said: “Our state deserves a world-class Hillel and the Eva and Arie Halpern Hillel House will be the finest campus building in the nation. More than ever, we can say proudly that ‘Rutgers is a great place to be Jewish.’”
According to Executive Director Andrew Getraer, Rutgers Hillel has raised more than 75% of its goal, which was initiated with a $2 million gift from Jewish community leaders and international philanthropists Audrey and Zygi Wilf and Jane and Mark Wilf that enabled planning, design, and land acquisition of a building site on Bishop Place. That parcel was eventually traded for the highly desirable College Avenue site, which is part of the university’s $330 million College Avenue Redevelopment Project that carried with it significant financial benefits for Hillel.
“The Eva and Arie Halpern Hillel House,” said Getraer, “is going to change Jewish life at our state university for decades to come.”
Hillel’s new 35,000-square-foot student center features a 400-seat kosher dining hall; individual prayer space for Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform services; a unique indoor-outdoor kosher caf?; a Center for Israel Engagement; an exhibit gallery; social lounges; meeting rooms; and an outdoor patio. The spacious and welcoming lobby will include a Legacy Wall dedicated to the memories of Rutgers Hillel’s first executive director, Rabbi Julius Funk and his wife Pearl.
Designed by the architectural firms of Kann Partners of Baltimore and Guzzo & Guzzo Architects of Lyndhurst, the new Hillel House is of a warm and inviting design reminiscent of a mountain lodge with student-lifestyle touches like an indoor and outdoor lounge, a signature staircase, and a welcoming high-ceilinged lobby.
Activities of Rutgers Hill may be found on its website: www.rutgershillel.org.
