MIAMI, FL — For two years, University of Miami junior Seth Kinzbrunner ate a lot of cereal. That and his mother’s weekly supply of food is what kept the kosher-observant accounting major sated.
“I lived off a microwave and a fridge,” says Kinzbrunner, while other students could trot to any of a number of eateries to grab a bite.
New Kosher Eatery Largest Among American Universities
MIAMI, FL — For two years, University of Miami junior Seth Kinzbrunner ate a lot of cereal. That and his mother’s weekly supply of food is what kept the kosher-observant accounting major sated.
“I lived off a microwave and a fridge,” says Kinzbrunner, while other students could trot to any of a number of eateries to grab a bite.
This school year, however, has been different since the opening of the Oasis, a full-fledged deli and restaurant at the school’s Whitten University Center. At 3,700 square feet, it is believed by administrators to be the largest kosher establishment at an American university. And under supervision by the University of Miami Rabbinical Association, the operation joins a rapidly-growing list of kosher restaurants whose existence is due in large part to campus-based Chabad-Lubavitch centers.
Rabbi Mendy Fellig, director of the Chabad House serving the University of Miami, leads the team of supervisors who ensure that the food at the Oasis adheres the strictest requirements of kosher law. The Chabad House, he says, decided to provide the service at no charge after the university determined that paying supervisors was outside of its dining budget.
“The Oasis wasn’t worth having if it wasn’t going to be 100 percent kosher,” says Fellig. “The university invested a lot of money in redoing the facility and it’s beautiful.”
