<p>I'm very interested in Pomona, but curious about what there is in terms of a Jewish community there. Is the campus Hillel active? Does anyone go to services regularly? Would it be possible to keep kosher? I really want to find a way to make this work -- any info would be terrific!!</p>
<p>While I can't speak from experience (since I'm not Jewish) I can say that the on-campus Jewish mentorship program seems pretty active. They've had lots of advertising up for their programs all over campus, so I certainly think there must be some interest.</p>
<p>Also, as far as keeping kosher/food preferences in general, all of the dinning room food is usually labeled if it's vegan, contains dairy/gluten, etc. so I think you could probably work something out (I don't remember if they label kosher items). Hope this helps!</p>
<p>I have a lot of Jewish friends, and there's a very active Jewish community on campus. There are a lot of organisations and clubs that are Jewish based. There's even a political awareness group based out of Scripps called Challah for Hunger that bake Challah once a week and then sells it with 100% of the proceeds going to charity to help with the darfur situation. Currently it's girls only (As it's Scripps based) but they are working on making it 5C. I'm a Pomona boy, but I can tell you - damn good Challah.</p>
<p>Like the previous posters, my knowledge is basically limited to what I see on posters around the campuses and hear from other students...</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Very, very active Hillel.</p></li>
<li><p>Weekly services (I believe).</p></li>
<li><p>The dining halls are VERY cooperative in all respects. At least one dining hall will usually open late specifically for fasting students, and most or all of the dining halls will really cater to dietary needs. This often includes things like tostadas on matzo instead of tortillas, matzo ball soup (which I will personally say is amazing), and so forth. We get annual emails saying "Tell us if you're celebrating ____ so we can make appropriate accomodations." </p></li>
<li><p>There's a pretty significant Jewish population across the 5Cs (and especially at Pitzer), so specific needs are relatively well tended to. Pitzer also has a religious tolerance policy where no student can be penalized for observing religious holidays, even if the school doesn't close for them. I've had at least one professor cancel class based on this policy, b/c it is taken seriously (the other schools might have similar rules, but I know Pitzer's is well advertised and utilized).</p></li>
<li><p>Try calling admissions and seeing if they can put you in touch with a Hillel mentor or representative. I'm sure it would be easy and you could get your questions answered much more reliably. The bottom line is that this shouldn't be a significant hardship. Good luck!</p></li>
</ul>