Rutgers Hillel Celebrates Property Purchase for New Site

By Ronn Blitzer

Rutgers Hillel will hold a celebration from 12 noon to 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 28, at the site of its future home on the New Brunswick College Ave. campus, 572 George St., on the corner of Bishop Place (the Fiji fraternity house). The event will feature a block party, barbecue and invited speakers.

Andrew Getraer, executive director of Rutgers Hillel, said the organization leases its current space on College Avenue, which is "too old and too small." He explained Hillel recently made a deal to acquire the property on which the Fiji fraternity house -- which is more than 20 years old -- sits. This now dilapidated building will be torn down and a brand new, state of the art, 35,000 square-foot, purpose-driven Hillel facility will be built.

"This will be a Jewish center of as high a quality as any in the country and will serve our students for decades to come," Getraer said, explaining this acquisition is part of Rutgers Hillel’s $15 million capital campaign, one-third of which has been raised so far. "This is our first opportunity to share with our donors and supporters the site of the project."

Getraer added that the program will also include the annual installment of the new Rutgers Hillel board of directors, but the main purpose will be to celebrate the purchase of the property.

"Most of our events we can’t hold here," Getraer said of the College Avenue building which Rutgers Hillel now uses. "Now we’re very constrained in what we do."

In the future he sees Hillel as having space for more than one event at a time in the new building.

Currently, Rutgers Hillel holds Shabbat dinner every Friday night in the Brower Commons dining hall due to lack of space in their own College Avenue building. Plans for the new site include a dining facility for 300-400 students, space for all religious services and an Israel resource center.

Ideas for the new building are in fact inspired by those at other campuses, such as the University of Pennsylvania, which is known for its large, flourishing Jewish community. Rutgers Hillel’s new facility, in addition to the upcoming expansion of Rutgers Chabad -- already the largest Chabad on campus in the country -- may put Jewish life at Rutgers in a position to rival that of its Ivy League counterpart before much long.

While not on College Avenue itself as their current building is, the new Rutgers Hillel will be immediately visible to everyone coming onto campus from Route 18. Students will also have easy access to it as it is nearby the freshmen dorms, directly across the street from Clothier Hall and down the road from the river dorms.