Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Forward 50 2018

Zalman Tiechtel

Making Jewish College Life In Kansas Accessible, Rewarding And Tasty!

Our two years of producing a college guide has given us tremendous insight into the innovations and personalities affecting Jewish life at the colleges around the country. Yes, we’ve seen innovations at places better known for their Jewish life, like Brown and Harvard or even Carnegie Mellon with its Jewish Futurist Club.. But we’ve also discovered people making takhles changes that make Jewish life at colleges in the most unlikely of places more accessible and rewarding. And that’s exactly what Zalman Tiechtel, 37, has done for the Jayhawks attending the University of Kansas.

Though they also throw a mean Seder, Tiechtel and his wife Nechama have made Jewish life accessible to those who observe the dietary restrictions 365 days a year, even in the college town of Lawrence. After 13 years at KU, the Tiechtels established a kosher meals program in a dining hall in February. They have been working for years to expand kosher options, including operating a concession stand at Allen Fieldhouse, the home of the Jayhawks’ five-time national champion men’s basketball team. They’ve also worked to comfort the community amidst tragedy: After three people in Lawrence were killed in a mass shooting, the same day as a Las Vegas gunman killed 58, the Tiechtels set up a system of “good cards” — instructing recipients to do a good deed within 10 minutes and then pass it on to someone else.

“The rabbi is always there whenever you need him,” student Abby Chargo told the student newspaper. “I’ll always call him for advice.”

It’s second nature to the rabbi: Many of his brothers are also Chabad emissaries.

Working from the Rohr Chabad Center, the Tiechtels have done their bit to make KU home to their growing band of Jewhawks.

— Aiden Pink

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.