City Council Greenlights Local Jewish Center

    Construction of a new hub for local Jewish students — to be built in a triangular lot across from Revelle College at the intersection of La Jolla Village Drive and Torrey Pines Road — was approved by the San Diego City Council earlier this month, pushing forward a project that has been delayed for years.

    The Hillel Association, a foundation aimed at supporting Jewish campus life across the world, is based in several regions. Rabbi Lisa Goldstein, the executive director of Hillel at UCSD, has been coordinating the plan for construction since its inception six years ago.

    “The idea [for a local Hillel Center] began in 1999, when the city entered into exclusive negotiations with Hillel,” Goldstein said. Since then, the organization has fought through two lawsuits over city zoning laws and La Jolla community planning.

    “We won both the lawsuit and the appeal, and then San Diego fell apart,” Goldstein said.

    The 2005 corruption trials for San Diego Deputy Mayor Michael Zucchet and Councilman Ralph Inzunza caused instability in San Diego’s leadership and delayed the approval process for construction. With new leadership in office, the campaign for a Hillel Center continued.

    John Muir College senior Neil Spears, a member of the Hillel of San Diego Board of Directors, headed an e-mail and telephone campaign to persuade the city councilmembers to approve the construction.

    “[The center] will be a home away from home at college,” Spears said. “I think it’s going to make the Jewish community more tightly knit and be a rallying point to gather around.”

    Among the amenities to be included in the new center is a kosher kitchen and enough space to hold three concurrent Shabbat services, two obstacles the Jewish community has been struggling with on campus.

    “We’ll have a kosher kitchen, which is huge,” Goldstein said. “To have a place where we can just be, and be together, is huge. We’re constantly struggling to find space on campus.”

    The city council approved the construction in a 6-2 vote. It is expected to start next spring, once the official blueprints have been drawn up.

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