The Hillel Jewish Student Center, located at the corner of Summit Street and Terrace Drive, is on pace to be completed during the fall semester. Daniel Doherty | Summer Kent Stater

Credit: DKS Editors

There is a first time for everything, and soon students will be taking their first steps to go into the new Hillel building being built by the Jewish organization.

The progress of the new Hillel student center is on schedule. Construction should be completed in late November and the building will open in late January 2009 for student and faculty use.

“When students come back in August they will see a finished skin,” said Mike Levinstein, assistant director of Hillel. “All of the inside things are happening now.”

The building will have a coffee shop, laundry facilities for students and faculty and a library that focuses on Jewish studies.

The location of the new building is unique. The new building is located at 613 Summit St., property that the university owns.

“The university has leased them (Hillel) the land,” said Tom Euclide, director of the Office of the University Architect.

This is the first time a Hillel building has been built on property that the state of Ohio owns. The exchange involved Hillel giving the university the property it owns on Lincoln Street to expand a parking lot for students.

“This shows the strength of the relationship between the university and Hillel,” Levinstein said.

Contact religion reporter Amanda Egut at aegut @kent.edu.