Mandelbaum Family Dining Pavilion

Construction is underway, with a planned opening date of Winter 2025 for the Mandelbaum Family Dining Pavilion located inside the Center for Jewish Life (CJL), which will make possible renovation and expansion of the center’s main kitchen and servery facilities that will greatly enhance the food offerings available and create a lighter, brighter atmosphere.

A gift from David Mandelbaum ’57 and his wife, Karen Mandelbaum, The Mandelbaum Family Dining Pavilion will allow the CJL to serve a student population that has increased significantly since it opened nearly 30 years ago. David and Karen are both honorary trustees of CJL. They contributed to its construction and landscaping upgrades in the 1990s and made a contribution that led to the establishment of the Mandelbaum Lounge, a popular student meeting place on the main level of the building.

“This gift is named for my parents, who never went to college,” said David Mandelbaum. “I have old pictures of my father as a boy in Poland, standing in front of a wooden house, and I remember how emotional my parents became when they moved me into the Princeton dorm for the first time. It was hard for them to believe what had happened in just one generation. I am in awe of the education that I got at Princeton, and it is my privilege to give back to the University that did so much for me.”

“I have such a love for Princeton, and I am so proud of the Center for Jewish Life,” said Karen Mandelbaum. “They have a wonderful location and they are open to everybody who would like to come in for meals together. Places like this are so important at a university, where people of different backgrounds learn to understand each other and get along.”

The current kosher dining facility, supervised by the Orthodox Union, provides 20 meals per week— breakfast, lunch and dinner — to anyone with a Princeton meal plan. Hundreds of Princeton students — Jewish and non-Jewish — eat there every day.

“Thanks in part to its central location on Washington Road, its leadership and its active campus partnerships, the Center for Jewish Life is an integral hub in the lives of Princeton students from all backgrounds,” said W. Rochelle Calhoun, vice president for campus life. “With the announcement of the new dining pavilion, we honor the Mandelbaum family and all their contributions to the social, educational and spiritual health of our students.”