At Vanderbilt NYC: kosher food, synagogue link

A “secret garden.” That’s how James Kellerhouse describes the grassy, historic grounds of Vanderbilt University’s new campus in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood.

“You walk through the gates and you’re just in this oasis of historic, beautiful buildings,” Kellerhouse, assistant vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and executive director of operations and engagement for Vanderbilt in New York, told JNS during a walkthrough of the campus on opening day, Aug. 25.

Tucked behind iron gates on West 21st Street and surrounded by red-brick, Gothic buildings, the campus welcomed its first cohort of 87 students two days prior.

Kellerhouse said that there are Jewish students in the inaugural cohort and that Vanderbilt has begun discussions with Central Synagogue — the Reform congregation recently attacked during a Friday night service — about possible partnerships.

“Vanderbilt is known fairly well as a university that welcomes and has a welcoming environment for our Jewish students,” Kellerhouse said.

The campus’ grab-and-go food provider will make kosher food available if students request it, Kellerhouse said.

For its first five years, the campus is authorized to offer an undergraduate study-away program for rising juniors and seniors and a planned one-year, full-time master’s program in business and technology set to launch in fall 2027.

Undergraduate students take classes on Mondays and Wednesdays and work at internships on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

Students, Vanderbilt officials and New York lawmakers gathered on the lawn for the opening ceremony, during which Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier and NYC Comptroller Mark Levine delivered welcome remarks.

“If you want to build a great film school, don’t do it in a rural location,” he said. “You want to do it in a thriving artistic community, like New York, LA. whatever it is. That is true for every other area as well.”

Each of Vanderbilt’s locations is “designed with a particular purpose in mind,” he said.

“New York is very much about allowing our students to be in a global city,” Diermeier said prior to the opening. “You can’t replicate this in Nashville. Nashville has other assets — has other advantages — but not that.”

The property was formerly home to General Theological Seminary, an Episcopal institution founded in 1817 that established its Chelsea campus in 1827, according to Kellerhouse. Vanderbilt occupies 13 buildings on the property, known as “the Close,” including seven residence halls and the Chapel of the Good Shepherd, built in 1889.

Vanderbilt has drawn attention in recent years for taking a different approach than many other schools to the campus turmoil that followed Oct. 7.

At the New York campus, Vanderbilt intends to carry over its emphasis on free expression coupled with expectations governing how students engage with one another, according to Kellerhouse.

Vanderbilt “had stuff,” he said, of widespread campus protests in the wake of Oct. 7.

“We know that students have the right to protest. We have created spaces for that to happen, but where we really focus our time is on creating community together and having different opinions and living and working with one another.”

The campus is generally closed to the public outside of events and requires electronic access. “We’re in an incredible neighborhood,” he said. “But safety and security is important to us.” —JNS