Hospital Sets Up Facility to Serve Kosher Meals to Jewish Students; First of Its Kind

The Montefiore Hospital in Pittsburgh is setting up a cafeteria-style dining facility to serve kosher meals twice daily to Jewish students attending the seven universities in the Pittsburgh area, Rabbi Bernard Pouko, president of the Religious Zionists of America, disclosed here. Rabbi Poupko said that, to the best of his knowledge, this arrangement by a Jewish hospital was the first of its kind. He said he expected the kosher facilities for students to be in operation in about a week.

He explained that he had been asked what he could do about the problem in Pittsburgh, which is his home city, by Yavneh, the campus affiliate of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations. The problem for observant students in the area stemmed from the fact that there are no kosher restaurants in Pittsburgh. Acting in his capacity as chairman of the Rabbinical Board of Greater Pittsburgh, Rabbi Poupko told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency he approached officials of the hospital, which provides kosher meals from a rabbinically-supervised kitchen for patients requesting kosher food. Arrangements were made to set up a cafeteria-style facility for the students, which will operate seven days a week. Arrangements have also been made so that students will not have to handle money for payment during Sabbath eating at the hospital.