The president of a small Presbyterian-sponsored college in Tennessee has reported that the 1971-72 college catalog will carry a statement to the effect that special arrangements will be made for kosher food for students who ask for it. Bethel College in McKensie has an enrollment of about 400 full-time men and women students and currently has three Jewish students, Dr. James E. McKee, the college president, informed the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The plan to offer kosher food service to attract more Jewish students stemmed from a “need for Bethel College to recruit more students,” Dr. McKee reported, and from a conversation between him and Abe Waldauer, a Memphis Jewish communal leader. Mr. Waldauer was invited to attend a meeting of the college board and was asked by Dr. McKee and a board member why Jewish students appeared reluctant to enroll at the college. Mr. Waldauer said absence of kosher food service was, undoubtedly one reason.
Dr. McKee asked the Memphis Jewish leader to have a rabbi outline for the college procedures for kosher food service. When Mr. Waldauer returned to Memphis, he discussed the matter with Rabbi Alie Becker, a Memphis Conservative rabbi, who prepared a guide to kashruth observance which he sent to Dr. McKee. The college board, at Dr. McKee’s recommendation, approved creation of kosher food arrangements for the 1971-72 college year. Reporting that Bethel College had students “from many races, colors and creeds.” Dr. McKee added that his interest in meeting the needs of Orthodox Jews was based on the goal of enrolling more students. He indicated he understood that the proportion of college-age American Jewish students requiring kosher food was “limited” but that “we felt adjustments should be made” for Orthodox Jews who might be attracted to the college. Dr. McKee also said that the director of the college food service had been instructed to make the necessary arrangements and that Rabbi Becker’s outline would be used by the college cafeteria manager to meet the food needs of any observant Jewish students who enroll.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
