Alumnae Initiation at Jewish Sororities?
 

Hi, I'm new, and I'm so glad that there is a section here for other people like me who always either regretted not joining a sorority/fraternity, or always wanted to but never did.

When I was in college, I always thought that sororities/fraternities were predominantly for non-Jewish students. Now many years later, I find out that there are quite a few Jewish sororities out there.

My question is, does anyone know of any Jewish sororities that have alumnae initiation (or something to that extent), that I can join? I was thinking of going back to my college (it's close by), and ask the sororities there if they have that. I'd really appreciate any information.

Thanks,
NyuViolet Alum

I sent you a PM.

Jewish Sorority AI
 

I had contacted one of the Jewish sororities (I was under the impression that there was only one that was Panhellenic and still primarily Jewish -- am I wrong?) -- and was told that there was no AI option.

Sigma Delta Tau does it on very rare occasions. When the chapter was installed here at FSU, the local Hillel director (very instrumental in helping the interest group) was initiated with the chapter.

Alpha Epsilon Phi, which is the other Jewish NPC sorority, appears to be very similar to SDT in regards to Alumnae Initiation not being very common. The few alumnae initiates I am aware of (outside of members of absorbed local sororities) have been very involved advisors particularly to colonies/new chapters in areas without a strong alumnae base, the mother of an extremely active alumna and more of a honorary initiation of a prominent jewish volunteer. I severely doubt AEPhi would consider Alumnae initiation for anyone who is not already closely conected to AEPhi in a similar way.

Although not part of the NPC, another national social sorority that is primarily Jewish is Sigma Alpha Epsilon Pi. You would have to contact them to find out if they have Alumnae initiation.

Good thought! Weren't they on "Sorority Life" on MTV?

Their chapter at UC-Davis took part in the first season, yes.

They 'went national' shortly afterwards. They have a few chapters across the country now. That said, their main URL has been suspended, but I did find a Beta chapter in Minnesota with links to other chapters, but again, it looks like URLs have been suspended. I know their chapter in AZ closed after just a couple of years.

I am a Jewish member in a non-Jewish based sorority. When I was in school, the Jewish house had closed the semester before I went through rush (yup, I am an oldie moldy). I have love KD from the first party I attended, have been an active member of my Alumnae Association for years and am on our National Leadership Team. My being Jewish has never been a problem for me with the sorority.

DaffyKD

At less conservative universities, you will find more diversity among chapters. Even 25 years ago, we had Jewish members in our house, as did other non-traditionally Jewish sororities. At that time, OSU still had AEPhi, DPhiE and SDT.

There was some discrimination back then in a few of the houses, but that went away. I'm sure you will find the same mentality in the Northeast, Midwest and West Coast, but I can't confirm that would be the case in all areas of the country

We had a sister in our chapter who was Jewish and also very active in our campus Hillel. We didn't have any primarily Jewish orgs on campus besides Hillel but I would definitely look into other groups as well as AEPhi, DPhiE, etc. It seems AI is more common in some groups than others, though I think in general it is somewhat of an uncommon occurance and something that takes a lot of work, dedication, and committment on your part. Good luck!

Hmmm...I don't know if there are any "Jewish" sororities other than Sigma Alpha Epsilon Pi; definitely no female counterpoint to Alpha Epsilon Pi in the NPC. The "historically" Jewish sororities like Alpha Epsilon Phi have a lot of non-Jewish women as members (not that AEPi doesn't...but being a fraternity of "Jewish men" is pretty central to how they present themselves) as well.

AEPhi nationally and officially considers itself a "Jewish sorority" and does not officially refer to itself as "historically Jewish". Some members describe AEPhi using the "historically jewish" label because they feel the label "Jewish sorority" can be misconstrued as saying our membership is limited to Jewish women when, in fact, this has never been a policy of our organization.

Sigma AEPi has never had a restrictive clause as far as I am aware so I don't know why they would be considered a Jewish organization more so than ourselves or SDT. (Though I am not sure how SDT currently labels themselves - any SDT's out there to clarify).

What I find, and this is not an attack on AEPi, is that AEPi has put out its own definition of how it defines itself a Jewish fraternity and then others use this definition to measure other organizations. Each organization has their own idea of what constitutes a Jewish fraternity or Jewish sorority and based on that decide if that is a label they want to apply to themselves.