
Jewish Student Says College Denied Shabbat Accommodation, Left Him in the Cold
Here’s something that would never happen to a Muslim student at a prestigious college — denial of religious accommodations. An Orthodox Jewish student at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., requested a physical key to his dorm to use on Shabbat. After his request was denied, he has had to wait over an hour in freezing weather for other students to arrive and let him in.
It’s outrageous.
According to the complaint, the private liberal arts college, which was founded nearly 235 years ago, suggested that the student ask someone in the campus office to escort him to the building, but that was even more inconvenient than waiting in the cold.
The student was also allegedly told that if he found the school’s kosher food accommodations not to his liking, he should go elsewhere.
Indeed, the school provided kosher vegan meals that were inferior to the vegan meals other students receive — so much so that the food made him violently ill. The student has had to find his own food at nearby restaurants and take his Shabbat meals at the local Chabad.
Rachel Balaban, senior litigation counsel at the Brandeis Center, discussed the case with JNS.
“This student’s ability to exercise, freely, his religion should not be incompatible with his equally important right to fully participate in residential life at Williams,” the lawyer said, referring to his being frozen out of the dorm.
Balaban also said that the school violated the Fair Housing Act by withholding a working key from the student and not providing adequately nutritious and edible food.
“Being provided these services in connection with housing that are unequal and inferior to those provided to other students because of his religion is a violation of the Fair Housing Act and is a serious concern for the Brandeis Center and the student,” she said.
Colleges bend over backward to accommodate students of minority faiths. They should do no less for Jewish students.