Hillel at the University of Delaware breaks ground on new $12M Jewish student center to meet growing community needs

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Since 1993, the one-story Kristol Center for Jewish Life in Newark, Delaware, has served as more than just a building –– it’s been a home, a gathering space and a cornerstone of community for Jewish students at the University of Delaware. For more than three decades, the center has provided programming, resources and a welcoming environment for a growing Jewish population on campus.

But as the Jewish student community grows, so does the need for space. What once comfortably served students in the 1990s now feels too small.

“We’re currently 13% of the population, about 2,300 Jewish students on campus,” said Donna Schwartz, executive director of the Kristol Center for Jewish Life at UD. “Our programs and everything that we do at Hillel are overflowing. It’s a fantastic problem to have, but we can no longer fit in the current building.”

Schwartz said the turning point came on Friday nights, when students gathered for Shabbat dinners and Hillel began running out of room.

“We were realizing that our main event space just wasn’t holding the number of students that were coming every Friday night and we were having to turn people away. We just at that point knew that we had to do something,” she said.

Last week, Hilel officially broke ground on its new state-of-the-art center: a two-story, 18,000-square-foot facility that will replace the current 5,000-square-foot building.

Growing needs

Inside the current center, four Jewish student organizations host events and programs throughout the year. But as attendance increases, coordination has become more challenging.

That’s where the Student Leadership Council came in. The council is a newly formed body that is designed to help these organizations communicate, collaborate and avoid overlapping events.

“It ends up being that we usually have events almost every day,” said Maya Taylor, a senior at UD and the current president of the Student Leadership Council. “It’s actually nice because students can come to what they can depending on their schedule, and the different clubs can also support each other in those events going to each other’s events because again they’re not on the same day or at the same time.”

Still, the limited space often makes collaboration difficult and routines have become limited.

“When we want to have a larger event … it’s not as easy to do that because we don’t have as much space as we’d like,” Taylor said. “That’s when we have to decide, ‘Are we able to do this collaborative event or will it end up being too many people?’”

“Within just Jewish Religious Life in itself, we have now expanded to two different Shabbat services,” she added. “But now that there’s two separate services, we don’t have two separate rooms available. So, we’ve been having the second service outside. But again, now that it’s getting colder, that’s not something that we can necessarily do.”

A space with more features and what’s ahead

The new Kristol Center will feature modern, flexible spaces to meet those growing needs — conference and study rooms, offices, telehealth spaces, and a kosher kitchen — all designed to make students feel comfortable, supported and at home.

“We’re going to have tons of different spaces,” Schwartz said. “A huge event hall will hold 250 students at round tables. We’ll have a courtyard with a fire pit and barbecue, a second-floor terrace with big comfy chairs and outdoor games, a multipurpose room that can act as a classroom or meeting space, and a couple of conference rooms for smaller gatherings.”

Construction of the new center is part of Hillel’s “Building the Jewish Future” campaign, which aims to raise $12 million. So far the campaign has brought in $9.5 million in support from donors.

Demolition of the current building will begin in the coming weeks and is expected to be completed by the end of November. During construction, Hillel has secured a temporary space on Main Street to ensure students continue to have a place to gather.

Construction is expected to be completed by spring 2027.