At Jewish co-op, students explore food, culture

Some students interested in living in the Beit Ephraim food co-operative found out their fate last week—and competition was fierce.

Because there are only 28 rooms, all singles, in Columbia’s Jewish food co-op, getting in can be a struggle. But members of Beit Ephraim—or Bayit, Hebrew for house—said it’s more than an ideal room set-up that attracted them to the residence on 112th Street.

“I was looking for community at Columbia,” said social coordinator Esther Wolff, a GS senior who added that she was also looking for cooperative living. She found undergraduate and graduate students with varying degrees of Jewish affiliation. Wolff met her best friend, a Peace Corps alumna and SIPA student, through the Bayit. “If I didn’t live in the Bayit, I don’t think we ever would have met,” she said.

Prospective Bayit residents must fill out an application, as well as be interviewed by three current residents, according to the co-op’s website. Members said applicants are chosen based on how well they appear to fit into the co-op.

“We try to accept people that would be good for the community, who would be pluralistic and understanding,” said recruiter Tami Epelbaum, GS/JTS ’11 and former Spectator deputy design editor.

Internal manager Avishai Gebler, CC ’10, said that to his knowledge, no non-Jewish students have ever applied, though the co-op has had individuals in the process of conversion.

Once a month, a member is required to prepare dinner with a partner for the rest of the residents, as well as contribute to weekly chores.

Some, like Brandi Ripp, CC ’12, said the house has a religious reputation, “which may intimidate others and make them not want to live there.”

“We have people from all spectrums, religious and secular, liberal and conservative, local and foreign,” Gebler said.

And Epelbaum said the co-op, founded in 1972 by Jewish campus activists, is not necessarily easy living. “It definitely is not the easy way out because you need to want to be part of a community. ... Not everyone can live in a place where … everyone is as responsible as the other,” Epelbaum said.

Currently, the Bayit executive board is working on establishing an alumni network. The kick-off event came when Bayit co-founder Steven M. Cohen, CC '70, spoke at the house on Nov. 19. Hearing about the house’s origins gave Gebler “a renewed desire to make this house more relevant to the campus culture.” The staff works toward that by keeping alumni interested and bringing more students to visit.

“It used to be that nobody had ever heard of the Bayit, and we’re trying to change that,” he said.

carly.silver@columbiaspectator.com

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Herman Wouk, CC ’34, spoke at the house on Nov. 19. Steven M. Cohen, CC '70, spoke. The article also said that seniority is taken into account when reviewing applicants for the Bayit house, but members say it is not a factor. Spectator regrets the error.