Kosher-Halal Dining: 

More than Matzoh

by Steven A. Haidar & Matthew Tokson

Sometime in the next few months, Thayer’s Westside Buffet will be replaced with a new kosher-halal dining hall. The closure of Westside and the postponement of construction on the new eatery have contributed to the already-long lines at Food Court and the Hop. But a kosher-halal dining hall could potentially be an asset, both to admissions officers seeking to attract Jewish and Islamic applicants and to current students seeking some variation in their Dartmouth Dining services diets.

Of course, creating a successful kosher and halal dining area is no easy task. Despite the many similarities between the two diets, small differences generally force the kosher and halal ingredients to remain completely separate from each other, and from most other cuisine.

Announcing a two-month-or-longer delay officially due to summer construction crunch, Rabbi Edward Boraz indicated that certain issues still need to be addressed, saying, "These things can take a little longer, meeting the technical demands. We don't want to open before we're ready." But will Dartmouth be able to address these demands and make the new facility a worthwhile replacement for Westside?

Though this remains unclear, the student-controlled nature of the project bodes well for its eventual success. The eating hall plan is the product of a collaborative effort between Dartmouth’s Muslim organization, Al-Nur (led by Yousuf Haque ’02) and Hillel, an association for Jewish students at Dartmouth (led by Jason Spitalnick ’02). President Wright approved the eating hall plan in December of 2000.

"With the Student Life Initiative and the Muslim and Jewish students supporting each other, everything just clicked," affirmed Haque.

"Unfortunately," explained Haque, "we're not sure exactly what will be offered yet. We may have Halal meals or we may just have a small halal deli section." As Kapil Jain ‘02 reports, "We're still developing the infrastructure, and a lot has to be decided by the students."

According to DDS Director R. Tucker Rossiter, several decisions about the new facility will be made in the next few weeks. "The name of the facility and exact hours of operation will be determined by students working with DDS," Rossiter told the Review. "These are Jewish and Muslim students as well as any other interested students." He said the students plan to meet next week to begin the decision-making process.

Rossiter acknowledged a "possibility of further delays" but remained confident that the facility would open sometime this November. The kosher and halal products will be purchased through Dartmouth’s food purchasing agent, and will probably cost a few dollars more than DDS’s normal fare due to the special requirements involved.

Rossiter also told The Review that while most DDS facilities break even financially, the kosher-halal facility is expected to lose money. He anticipates "fifty to one-hundred customers per meal period with an expectation that it will grow," and predicts that "there will be a heavy interest when we open."

The facility aims to serve Dartmouth’s roughly 350-400 Jewish students and roughly 75 Muslim students (though the number of these students who follow a kosher or halal diet much smaller), as well as other interested students, faculty and staff. But in order to provide actual kosher and halal meals, a variety of problems will have to be overcome.

First, though kosher and halal animals are killed in the same manner (the throat is swiftly cut by a professional), an animal is only considered halal if the name of Allah is pronounced during the procedure. Also, the hind quarters of the animal are unacceptable under (strict) kosher dietary restictions but acceptable for those eating halal. Thus halal and kosher meats are considered incompatible and must be kept separate from each other. There are several other important differences between the diets. For example, cheese must be produced from the stomach enzymes of kosher animals to be acceptable to kosher eaters; halal cheese must be produced from halal animals. Also, combining dairy products and meat is halal, but is forbidden in a kosher diet.

These and other conflicts require special arrangements in a kosher-halal dining hall. The new hall will feature two separate kitchens, one for kosher meats and another for other deli ingredients (such as cheeses). Halal meals, which are expected to be in lower demand, will be prepared in one of the other Thayer kitchens, meaning that there will be some small risk of contamination with non-halal meats. According to Rossiter, only kosher cheese will be available.

Haque explained that to avoid mixing certain foods "the dining hall will probably use disposable plates and knives. Several environmentalist students have complained about this proposal, apparently upset by the garbage that disposable utensils would create.

The religious background of the DDS staff working at the new facility may be a concern. Kosher Food Specialist Arlene Mathes-Schart told The Review that some foods, such as potatoes, must be prepared by a Jew according to the rules of kosher law. "There is a concept in Jewish law called Bishul Yisroel, meaning that someone Jewish must be involved in the cooking of certain foods," said Mathes-Schart. "In the context of Dartmouth, this probably means that the dining hall would need some kind of Kosher supervisor."

Rossiter hopes to address this issue by hiring students from Al-Nur and Hillel. "The full-time staff, one manager, two cooks and one counterworker are neither Jewish nor Muslim," Rossiter told the Review. "The student staff has not been hired yet but we expect many of them will be from the Jewish and Muslim community."

Some Muslim students have expressed concern over the staff’s ability to follow the strict rules for preparing halal and kosher foods. As Kamil Jain told the Review, "All we can do is write down the regulations, and hope they follow."

If DDS does manage to provide a genuine kosher-halal dining hall, it will be a worthwhile addition to the College. While most peer institutions already have extensive kosher kitchens, Dartmouth has only a small section of kosher frozen dinners hidden away in the back of Foodcourt. This new dining hall would be a giant leap for Dartmouth, from having no Kosher facilities to the having the first Halal-Kosher eatery in the Ivy League. "We can now attract more observant Muslims and Jews who haven't come here because of a lack of dining options," notes Haque. "We are simply giving students the option of practicing their beliefs."

The new dining hall would certainly make Dartmouth more attractive to prospective students who follow a kosher or halal diet. "I have a son looking at colleges right now, and we’re not even looking at schools without Kosher food service," said Arlene Mathes-Schart. "It demonstrates a strong Orthodox [Jewish] community."

Kosher-halal are being touted on other campuses and at Dartmouth and as representing a spirit of tolerance between American Jews and Muslims. Last week, at Mount Holyoke College, a new kosher-halal dining hall was opened amid calls for reconciliation and acceptance between the two groups.

"This is a Mount Holyoke celebration, but it is in particular a celebration between two religious communities," said Chair of the Jewish Studies Department Lawrence Fine. "In light of the long-standing Arab-Israeli conflict, this cooperation here…this mutual respect, this friendship, is no small thing. It reminds us that Judaism and Islam have a lot in common."