i too am a member of a sometimes deemed "jewish" sorority. and the main reason that phi sig as well as other "jewish" houses is because they were founded by women who were off all jewish, or mixed religions who could not join other sororities because of the christian basis of the ritual. i understand that this doesnt seem like a huge deal to some, but to others a conflict in ones faith is a conflict in one's values etc. it is really upsetting to hear my sorority deemed "jewish" because it is not, we just appeal to many jewish girls because of our non-denominational aspect...and i guess cause we are that good! ;)

I have heard this about some of the NPC sororities but I've always wondered how their founders knew that the rituals of other sororities were Christian-based? Were some of them members of a sorority and then quit and founded a new one? Were they told during rush? Does anyone know? I was just curious. :)

Glitter, Rho Chi is the name of a national pharmacy honorary and they asked NPC to stop using the term Rho Chi. Now some PHs will use Recruitment Counselor, some will say Pi Chi, and others will say Gamma Chi.

AEPhi is one of the sororities that this is true of. I don't think that the founders (who were all Jewish) knew if the *rituals* of other sororities were Christian-based, but I imagine some of them went through rush and saw that all (or most of) the members of the existing sororities at Barnard were Christian, and they either felt uncomfortable with that and dropped out of rush, or the sisters of those existing sororities felt uncomfortable with the idea of Jewish sisters and cut them. These women still liked the idea of being part of a sisterhood, though, so they formed their own - and since they were Jewish, they built it on Jewish ideals.

This is why I'm so dismayed when I hear statements, such as those made in this thread, that particular chapters of AEPhi routinely cut anyone who isn't Jewish. I cannot believe that is what our founders would have wanted.

Hi Glitter
The decision was made for us not by us. There is a pharmacy fraternity called Rho Chi and they got really testy about us using their name! I agree that it is a pain. Some schools are calling them Rho Gammas. Recruitment Counselor is just toooo long!

Some schools are also using Rho Alpha, as in Recruitment Advisors, I think.

Rho Chi will probably be like rush/recruitment and pledge/new member...they say not to use it but people still will.

It's not that Rho Chi is a bad term, it's just that a pharmaceutical (sp?) honor society has been calling themselves Rho Chi (put the letters together and you get a little prescription symbol!) so panhel decided that we can't use it anymore. So, we're now recruitment counselors. Dumb, huh?

Sounds like that episode of 90210

thanks for the info on Rho Chi... I thought it was a change because of some crazy hazing thing they had come up with and thought the term could be associated with hazing like some of the other terms that have recently changed. :D Now I know...

I have had plenty of girls at pref say "So at Bid Day, are you going to wear jeans or khakis with the shirt, 'cause I want to make sure I match!". Or "Will you be my big sister?".

That can get a little bit dodgy, but if it is someone who the chapter likes, then it is actually really helpful. If we can tell that she is being sincere and not trying to "hang the list" then we know that we should put people like that on our first list (assuming we want them that bad).

We have had plenty of people though who say things like "Ever since I got to this school I wanted to be a _____". You have to take those people with a grain of salt, and sometimes you know in your heart that this person will get cut because of grades or something and there is nothing she can do to change it.

You know who I feel for? Rushees who are naive about rush--maybe they're the first to rush in their families--who say the wrong thing inadvertently. Like somehow they think if they make it to prefs, all they have to do is choose between their 2 or 3 favorites, totally unaware that one more vote is still ahead, so they ask if you'll be their big. Or they're desperately trying to figure out which group to list first so they try to get a hint out of members to see if they're really wanted.

Oh, am I glad I'll never be a PNM again!

i wish i knew the things i do now about rush. but i am glad that i really didn't realize that it was such a big deal. when i went through, i thought it was like just joining a special club or something, i didn't realize the magnitude of it until much later. but, in away it was good that i was so naive, because it really made me relax.

i always felt bad for the PNM's that go through rush telling everyone they are going to be in a certain house. Esp. as a "Recruitment Counselor" (can i please still use Rho Chi!), you try and help these girls see the bigger picture, but sometimes they are stuck on one idea and one group that it breaks your heart when you don't see it happen.

We are using "Rho Gamma" which stands for Recruitment/Rush Guides.
I remember when I was a PNM and I was signing my bid card, it freaked me out that I was signing a card to be involved with Chi Omega FOR LIFE. I didn't understand it was forever and I thought it was just for college! Talk about not knowing much about Rush! Anyways, I'm so glad now it's for life! ~Got along without you before I met you but I sure couldn't do it now~ :D

Yeah you always seem to get the "few" that are totally set on one house -- fine by us. Makes it easier to pare the list down (and I do have to grin when they get cut by everyone -- they shouldn't be closed minded!)

We had one girl come dressed HEAD-to-TOE in the colors of another house. She was SO going to be an XYZ -- then after the second night (our philanthropy night) she had a total change of heart and we knew we had her :D So now she's able to tell people that they shouldn't assume they are going XYZ because things can change during recruitment.

We also had a legacy come through who was such a B&*@# -- she paraded through the rooms and was telling everyone what this was and that was (meaning - "Oh, this is the badge, I'm going to get my sisters", etc.) in front of all the other PNM's. It was really disgusting to watch. I knew she was just excited, but we had a serious debate on whether or not to pledge her (we have small chapters - not the big ones that have to cut some legacies). The girl made a complete butt of herself during our parties. It was obnoxious. She should've just gone through informal. But we did pick her up in the end...and no, things didn't change.

As for the side topic of this thread -- I don't get the "Jewish house" thing. I can promise you all that AXO is totally 100% non-religious in any way, shape, or form. That is clearly stated before and during ritual and in our by-laws. One of my pledge sisters was Jewish, and we've had plenty of others in both the chapters I've worked with too. I just don't understand how people would "know" what religious affiliation a group has in their ritual.

Sometimes you can guess, based on who the founders were, what religious "flavor" (if any) might be in the ritual. If you're Jewish and writing a ritual, you're probably not going to include references to Jesus. If you're Christian and writing a ritual, you might. (I know of one sorority at my school where a Jewish new member left initiation crying because there was a reference to Jesus in their ritual.) If you're deliberately trying to write a non-sectarian ritual, you will be careful to eliminate anything specific to one religion or another - and the non-sectarian GLO's (like AXO) often make a point of being non-sectarian, so everyone knows this up front.