The kitchen and dining room at the 1414 dormitory will reopen on Thursday and serve food to any bochur registered in 770 yeshiva, sources confirmed to Anash.org.
By Anash.org reporter
The kitchen and dining room in the dormitory at 1414 President St. will reopen and continue serving food to bochurim, sources confirmed to Anash.org.
The dormitory was closed over a month ago, and bochurim were encouraged to return home. Nevertheless, many bochurim remained in New York, even after they were requested numerous times to leave until the pandemic is over.
Earlier this week, the kitchen and dining room were closed as well, leaving close to 200 bochurim with nowhere to eat. The bochurim organized public protests outside the house of the Executive Director of the Central Yeshiva Tomchei Temimim Lubavitch, and arranged a Charidy campaign to raise money to buy food.
A battle of narratives then emerged, with many of the bochurim claiming that they had been encouraged to stay by the heads of the yeshiva Rabbis Shneur Zalman Labkowski and Shlomo Zarchi, while the executive director claiming that the yeshiva was closed on directives on Rabbonim and with agreement of the hanhala.
On Thursday, following pressure by the hanhalah ruchnis and many parents of students, the kitchen and dining room reopened. Any bochur registered in the yeshiva in 770 will continue to receive meals from the kitchen.
“Rabbi Shlomo Zarchi called me three times,” Yosef Yitzchak Kratz told Anash.org, “requesting that I publicize the information.”
It is unclear if the bochurim will be allowed to eat in the dining room, or will be required to take the food to where they are staying and eat it there.