The Grinspoon Hillel Center for Jewish Community at Cornell seeks to join the rest of the Ivy League in building a stand-alone Hillel center, on the site of a demolished fraternity house on Cornell’s West Campus. The proposed facility is intended to provide a welcoming space for Jewish students and become a vibrant hub for campus life.
In 2021, Cornell Hillel submitted a proposal to redevelop the vacant land at 722 University Ave., with plans to secure the property through a 99-year lease.
In her cover letter submission, Yifei Yan MLA ’19, senior designer at the Ithaca-based Whitman Planning and Design, wrote “Cornell Hillel proposes to construct an attractive, sustainable, energy-efficient LEED Silver building with a welcoming public facing landscape design worthy of its prominent location abutting West Campus.”
According to the Ithaca Voice, if the proposal is approved and barring interruption, construction is slated to begin in the spring of 2025, with the project expected to be completed by the summer of 2026.
The proposed three-story building, with a basement, will span 24,000 square feet and feature a 6,400-square-foot footprint.
Plans released by Cornell Hillel show a kosher café called “Herb’s Café,” a recreation room, classrooms, a beit midrash, a multipurpose room and a garden.
Maya Weisberg ’26, vice president of Cornell Hillel, described the space as a hub for meaningful Jewish experiences, including faith practices, holiday celebrations, study and cooking traditional foods.
Cornell Hillel has launched a $54 million campaign to fund the project, with a goal of raising the full amount by June 30, 2025. The funds will allocate $25 million for construction costs, $7 million for maintenance and $22 million for an endowment to support staff and programming.
Rabbi Ari Weiss, CEO of the Grinspoon Hillel Center, expressed confidence in the project’s importance to the community.
“The new Hillel building will be a place for Jewish students to gather, celebrate, explore their identity and connect with each other,” Weiss said. “Most importantly, it will be a home — a place where they can be themselves, find support and belong.”
However, the project has encountered zoning challenges. While located in a Residential University zoning district, the site qualifies as a “church,” which allows for spaces dedicated to worship and religious activities.
In a presentation on March 21 before the Ithaca Board of Zoning Appeals, Cornell Hillel explained that the project complies with most zoning regulations.
However, Yan emphasized that the project would require exceptions for lot size and width, as the project site is only 20,274 square feet and 90.75 feet wide, which is smaller than the minimum required lot size of 30,000 square feet and width of 125 feet in the zoning ordinance.
Yan argued that these exceptions are necessary to support the building’s design and function, noting that similar projects — such as the Roitman Chabad Center at Cornell, which was approved by the BZA in March 2022 — have received similar zoning relief without significantly impacting the surrounding neighborhood.
In addition to addressing zoning concerns, Weiss highlighted the project’s impact, noting that Grinspoon Hillel is among the largest student organizations on campus and serves as a bridge to other groups, with over 1,000 non-Jewish allies, friends and classmates attending Hillel events annually.
Weisberg expressed hope that the new building would create a true home for Jewish students at Cornell.
“Cornell’s campus is vibrant, but it’s also big — for many Jewish students, something is missing: a true home,” Weisberg said. “This new Hillel building is designed to be just that — a home for Jewish students to connect with friends, learn, celebrate and take pride in their heritage.”
Emma Galgano ’27 is a Sun contributor and can be reached at [email protected].