Oberlin's Hillel is distinctive in its vibrancy, diversity, and the richness of its Jewish life. A Hillel annually recognized as one of the top Hillels in the country, it continues to receive the highest awards and honors from national Hillel.

Oberlin boasts a unique Kosher dining co-operative of thirty-eight members. It is completely student-run. Students order food, plan menus, cook, and clean the co-op. The co-op is a special environment for Jewish education, wherein Jews who have not been exposed to Kashrut, Sabbath, and Holy Days laws and traditions can be exposed to them by observing those laws and creating those holiday meals in the co-op for themselves, and also for the campus at large. The co-op is also unique in its inclusion of both Jewish and Muslim dietary laws. It officially changed its name to Kosher-Halal Co-op in the 1990s to relfect this partnership with the Oberlin Muslim community in sharing and welcoming the celebration of Muslim holidays and tradition alongside Jewish ones.

Shabbat services and dinner at Oberlin are the centerpiece of Jewish life on campus. A meal, including fresh-baked challah, is prepared by Kosher-Halal Co-op and open to the entire campus. On a weekly basis over 100 students attend. Services are student-led from the award-winning Oberlin Siddur, and new songs, instrumental music, and melodies are introduced as new students lead the services.

With the tremendous resource that is Oberlin's Conservatory of Music right on campus, we enjoy High Holy Day services of great musical richness. Our cantors, being students in the Conservatory, bring a special Oberlin hominess to our congregation; how rare to have one's peers be the leaders of the congregation! With a campus of 70% musicians, there are many musical offerings throughout the service, among them the translating of some of the message of the holidays into sing-along folksongs at the conclusion of services.

We strive to reach students by sponsoring a wide variety of outstanding programming from the artistic to the academic to the social and religious. We continually search for new ways to reach Oberlin's student body, with its great talent, intellectual rigor, and diversity of interests and identities.