Photo by News Bulletin staff.

PEORIA — The Hillel opened a renovated, 4,200 square-foot house last month to serve as a neighborhood house for Jewish Bradley University students as well as local Jewish communities.

The house located at 1532 W. Fredonia Ave., Peoria, includes separate kosher meat and dairy kitchens, a dining area with seating for 100, an office, a library, space for social activities and a large sanctuary with a vaulted ceiling and stained glass overlays on windows.
This is the fourth house that the Hillel, the Bradley University Jewish student organization that was founded in 1947 by the late Dr. Allen Cannon, has occupied since it opened its first house in 1965. The new house is largest house the organization has occupied.
“Up until now, we’ve had houses that were originally built for single families,” said Seth Katz, the faculty adviser for the Bradley University Hillel and an assistant professor of English at Bradley University. “This was the first house designed for the organization.”
Bradley University owns the house and donated it to the Hillel. Members of the Bradley University and Peoria communities, the Hillels of Illinois, students, parents, alumni and friends helped renovate the house.
“The university actually owns the house, but we did all the renovations — gutting it into the bricks and to the floor joists and then expanded it to the 4,200 square-foot facility that we have,” said Katz. “The university helped us with the fundraising efforts so we could do the renovations.”
The Hillel plans to host several weekly, annual and special events at the house.
“It’s a meeting place for having religious services and dinners and holiday celebrations and speakers and also for Jewish students to come and hang out,” said Katz.
In addition to the Hillel, other Jewish organizations and congregations in the Peoria community will utilize the house.
 “We do collaborative programs with the local congregations and with the Jewish Federation of Peoria, so it’s going to make a much more comfortable place for those programs as well,” said Katz.
Currently, the Bradley University Jewish student population is around 250. The university hopes the new Hillel house as well as its new kosher meal plan will attract more Jewish students to its campus.
“The university has just started a kosher meal service on campus,” said Katz. “They added kosher kitchens (one for dairy and one for meat) in Geisert Hall — one of the residence halls with a cafeteria in it. The Hillel House also has kosher kitchens, so when we have Sabbath dinner or a holiday dinner or Sundays when we have bagel brunch, we can prepare them completely kosher.”
The Chicago Rabbinic Council supervises the meat and dairy kosher kitchens at Bradley University.
During a dedication ceremony on September 21, Bradley University President Joanne Glasser said she expected non-Jewish students to also visit the Hillel house.
“All will be welcome in this house,” said Glasser. “It’s a place of unity, so I believe this home will bring people together. People of different faiths will be welcome to sit and discuss their differences and their similarities. This is a place of peace.”
To learn more about the Hillel house, visit www.bradleyhillel.org.