Hillel at Cornell officially began construction on Harkavy Hall, a new Jewish student center, during a March 8 ceremony attended by Ithaca mayor Robert Cantelmo, U.S. Rep. Josh Riley (D-N.Y.) and President Michael Kotlikoff. The project is part of the “Hillel is Home” campaign, which has fundraised more than $37 million in donations.
The center, located at 722 University Ave., will become the new home of the Steven K. and Winifred A. Grinspoon Hillel Center for Jewish Community at Cornell, offering students access to amenities such as “Herb’s” Kosher cafe, an event hall for Shabbat dinners, a communal Kosher kitchen and a Beit Midrash — a hall dedicated to Torah study. Harkavy Hall is expected to open in Fall 2027.
During the ceremony, President Michael Kotlikoff, Adam Lehman, Hillel international president and CEO, Rabbi Ari Weiss, Grinspoon Hillel CEO, and donor Steven K. Grinspoon ’83 made remarks on the center.
“Today we embark on a new beginning for Grinspoon Hillel, despite the ongoing conflicts, the rising tide of worldwide antisemitism and continuing political tensions on this campus and others,” Kotlikoff said before the groundbreaking, according to the Cornell Chronicle.
Weiss described the event as “joyous” in an interview with The Sun.
“This has been a dream for our community for so long,” Weiss said. “To make sure there was a building to support Jewish students, to make sure they had a home on campus to belong.”
The center holds significance for Jewish students on campus, Hillel President Noah Bodner ’27 said.
“This project means an assurance that Jewish life at Cornell is celebrated, honored and proudly present,” Bodner wrote in an email statement to The Sun.
Despite serving the largest Jewish student population in the Ivy League for nearly a century, Cornell is the only Ivy League University without a dedicated Hillel building. Cornell Hillel currently operates out of Anabel Taylor Hall.
“I’ve heard since I’ve come to Cornell in 2016, sort of the need for a place to just gather,” Weiss told The Sun. “I’ve seen it through tough times at Cornell, students just sitting on floors in our current space in Anabel Taylor Hall because there isn’t a place for them to gather.”
Harkavy Hall will be 24,000 square feet and is anticipated to serve over 3,000 Cornellians each year, according to Hillel.
Construction was able to begin in large part due to the more than 1,300 donors who have raised a collective $37 million to Hillel’s construction fundraising campaign. Their goal is to raise $54 million by June, with $25 million allocated to construction costs, $7 million to building maintenance and $22 million for programming.
Weiss said fundraising “took a tremendous amount of work,” but that the amount of money raised “tells [him] that this project was right.”
“So many people were looking for a place to invest in and support Jewish students at Cornell,” Weiss said.
Bodner expressed his desire for the new center to represent the strength of Cornell’s Jewish community.
“I hope the building represents another marker of the immensely strong and lively Jewish community that we have at Cornell,” Bodner said.
Sophia Koman ‘27 contributed to reporting.
Mary Caitlin Cronin is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She is a senior writer for the News department and can be reached at mcronin@cornellsun.com.
