All rabbinical students are shomrei kashrut. This includes keeping a kosher home and refraining from eating non-kosher food outside of your home. Regarding eating food outside the home, there is a range of Conservative opinions about what constitutes permitted practice, with some prohibiting eating in non-kosher restaurants, some eating only cold foods, and others permitting cooked dairy and pareve meals. Given that Los Angeles has many restaurants with rabbinic certification, students are encouraged to be sensitive to the kashrut practices of other students, and to accommodate those practices when planning communal celebrations. For a practical guide to kashrut, see Samuel Dresner and Seymour Siegel's The Jewish Dietary Laws. Isaac Klein's book is also helpful; cf. particularly pages 359-378. The pages on Kashrut from The Observant Life will also be helpful, pages 305-338.

The Ziegler School recognizes that many of our students and community members are also part of a larger community/family some of whose members may not observe many of these mizvot or they observe them in a limited way. This diversity often creates interpersonal tensions regarding personal observance and maintaining important relationships. The Ziegler School administration and faculty will be an important resource for you as you navigate paths to best maintain the halakhic integrity of your special status as a rabbinical student while affirming the very real implications of an observant and obligated lifestyle in the wider Jewish world.