Absolutely.

But in any GLO, there are members who are driven to leadership positions such as president, treasurer, ritual chair, etc., and there are members who are content with just "being a sister / brother", and there's a whole continuum in between - people who want to chair committees but don't want to stand for exec board positions, people who want to be on committees but not run them, people who want to be big sisters, etc.

I think what sigmagirl10 is trying to say is that some of her non-Jewish sisters are in the "I want to be on exec board" group even though they are not Jewish. (FFS, I was an e-board officer.) I will let her and her sisters elaborate. :)

And what I am saying is that the bolded part is irrelevant. You know me. You know I'm not dumb. :) Nor am I picking a fight. And I think everybody here is smart enough to place me in the same situation, saying "White brothers are some of the hardest working Alphas I know." Or "Women in APO are some of the hardest working APO brothers I know."

I wouldn't expect a white Alpha to not want to serve on exec board.

Positive stereotypes are as dangerous as the negative ones, too.

I'm pretty much done with this.

(This is not a flounce out, I just don't think the people I am talking to have the same sort of life experiences to be able to break this down the way it needs to be broken down.)

I think I understand what you're saying. It's not that I think we should discriminate..it's that even I can say that being in a Jewish interest sorority is not what everyone would expect.

Judaism and the Jewish culture is a big part of our sorority. So saying that someone who isn't Jewish is involved isn't really discrimination, it's a distinguishing factor in a more important way (because the sorority is based on Jewish values).

I am on E-Board, as my second semester as a sister. I'm hoping that if I have time to in the future, that I'll get to be the president of my chapter someday. I'm proud to be in my sorority, because even though I'm not Jewish, I can basically say that I'm "culturally Jewish" and I'm proud of that.

Here is my take on AEPhi's "jewishness" as an alum. AEPhi's leadership wants it to be a "Jewish sorority" not just a "historically Jewish sorority". Volunteers were told that historically Jewish was incorrect. A new philanthropy was picked to support Jewish women with cancer. I don't think they would ever shut down a mostly non-jewish chapter if it was thriving but when helping or reorganizing struggling chapters I get the impression that reclaiming the chapter's "Jewishness" is very strongly pushed.

There are arguably a few problems with this. First, probably because they are trying to be politically correct and avoid being seen as discriminatory, this is not clearly explained to PNM or actives. There is a lot of "we're historically jewish, but we are sort of diverse and love everybody." When trying to get more involved in the group a non-jewish member could feel out of place because they didn't quite know what they were getting into it.

Secondly, I found that it wasn't completely embracing all kinds of Jews. I attended convention as an active with an observant Jewish sister who kept kosher and observed the Sabbath. The kosher food was obviously a second thought and disgusting. And the programming didn't really work for someone who couldn't write. It had been a hassle to get her promised a room on a lower floor because she couldn't use the elevator.

I think this is a problem with recruitment sometimes. Every sorority wants everyone to like them and puts a very nice generic picture of themselves. And for a sorority that does have a particular mission like AEPhi this can be confusing and cause problems. Maybe AEPhi should say right off the bat at recruitment: "We're a Jewish sorority, most of our members are Reformed or Conservative Jews. We mainly support Jewish causes. We encourage chapters to participate in Jewish life on campus. Make sure you're cool with that before you put us on your list."

I think SAEPi is more straightforward about that mission and that straightforwardness along with not dealing with NPC practices has really helped them expand.

This post = the posts where sorority women say OMG WE DON'T HAVE A HOUSE BECAUSE OF THE BROTHEL LAW. Please get your facts straight before you say something like that. It's easy enough to do by looking at their national website for all of 2.5 seconds. If you said to anyone from my college (or most colleges in PA) that D Phi E was a Jewish sorority, they would piss their pants laughing.

This, to me, is along the same lines of "just because all the ASAs at Miley Cyrus U are born again Christian, the whole sorority must be born again Christian across the nation."

Do you think things would ever get to the point where AEPhi would find it easier/more advantageous for growth to leave the NPC?

We're in agreement here.

(a) You are not dumb. ;)

(b) Many GLOs were founded on certain principles. Alpha Epsilon Phi was founded on Jewish principles. Same with Sigma Delta Tau, Zeta Beta Tau, Alpha Epsilon Pi, and others. If you pledge one of those fraternities or sororities, you should know what you're getting yourself into - a GLO founded on Jewish ideals - and you have to be ok with that. It doesn't matter a bit whether you're Jewish or not when pledging, running for office, asking for a little sister, etc.

Many of our members join because they are specifically seeking a Jewish Greek experience. Plenty do not, and have a multitude of reasons as to why they joined a sorority that is actively Jewish. All I meant is that:

a) I think it's great that sisters who aren't Jewish step up to leadership positions--wanting the opportunity for this kind of involvement may be why they were interested to being with, which is awesome.

b) I love that our non-Jewish members are so active, passionate, and dedicated, because I think it shows the strength and universality of our sisterhood to people from a variety of backgrounds. Another thing I appreciate is that our non-Jewish sisters have been some of the ones to really advocate for maintaining our Jewish focus and activities as a highlight of our sorority, rather than minimizing it in favor of larger numbers.

Yes.