And the non-sectarian founding may have attracted Jewish women who couldn't find their niche anywhere else, which may explain why they have a lot of Jewish women on certain campuses.

I don't think that's true - she may have misinterpreted something. Unless something has really changed since my undergrad years.

We had an SDT chapter on my campus, and although the majority of members were Jewish it certainly wasn't a requirement. (efcheerBB was a member of SDT at my campus, albeit several years after me :o...she should be able to confim that)

That's what I thought. But, I'm always kind of gullable and tend to believe something if the person has more credibility in the subject than I do.

Sorry guys! :o

No need to apologize...this has given us something to discuss while we wait for Leslie Anne to finish her story! *hint hint* (although I didn't intend for my mini-hijack to take us off on this much of a tangent)

Yeah, Leslie, we're waiting.....*hint hint* :p

Tell us more! :D

come on, you know you want to! :p

Seems like at least half of the retro recruitment stories have had an odd tangent go off in the middle.

There is a second force in effect. If there are traditionally Jewish sororities on your campus, and a PNM is Jewish, many chapters assume she is going to join a Jewish house. If they are limited in the number of invites they can issue, they won't want to waste one on her. I have seen this happen even when the PNM didn't express that type of preference, in much the same way a chapter would probably release a triple-leg to another chapter.

SECDomination, were you raised in a household with a lot of sisters? Or maybe had English teachers who particularly attended to teaching foreshadowing? You're welcome to blame it on that later if you feel uncomfortable with being such a sensitive recruitment thread reader about the lady comment. ;)

At UGA when I was there, DPhiE and SDT both were locally traditionally thought of as Jewish groups. That didn't mean they didn't have other members, but it was a commonly accepted group identity comfortable for the members.

It seems like I've heard that DPhiE at UGA drifted away from that identity for while and that membership decreased as a result since many Jewish girls were looking for a home away from home religiously and went SDT, and other non-Jewish PNMs didn't get the memo that they DPhiE at UGA wasn't Jewish anymore.

All the groups at UGA were open to having Jewish members when I was there as far as I know; but Jewish girls at SDT and DPhiE could count on food in the house to be kosher, and they would have been on their own in that regard in other groups.

I think of it as just talking amongst ourselves at intermission between acts of the main drama.

For the love of all that is Kappa Delta --HURRY UP!!!
Sorry. I just can't help myself, I've become thoroughly engrossed.:rolleyes: A Kappa Delta story that takes place in Maryland...it doesn't get much better!

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the delay, I had to take a breather and run some errands. This discussion about Jewish sororities is really interesting. To this day, I don't know for certain whether or not I would have been allowed to pledge Soccer. They are a Nationally Jewish sorority, not just a chapter that happened to have many Jewish girls at Maryland.

Going Greek: Jewish College Fraternities in the United States, 1895-1945 is on my list of books to read (right after Bound by a Mighty Vow). I might find my answer in there. But it sure would be easier, for now, to hear from members of AEPhi, DPhiE, and SDT. Were any of them at one time "Jewish Only?" If so, when did it change?


Okay, so...the rest of my story. I'm having a tough time because I'm trying to pare it down. I could just tell you really quickly "blah blah blah, blah blah blah, THE END." The thing is, that's not the way it happened. More characters entered the story and A LOT more went on. I don't want this story to become a drag though. So what should I do? A quickie ending? Full story? Full story pared down as much as possible?

Let me know (you can PM me) and I'll get on with it.

Thanks for being interested!

Leslie :)

Full story; the ending of the novel can make the novel a good book!

My Mom has always told me that when she went through Rush in the 1960s at the University of Michigan, there were only 4 houses that 'took' Jews. 2 of them, I'm pretty sure were founded as non-sectarian (DPhiE and Phi Sig). The other 2 were definitely founded as 'Jewish' sororities (AEPhi and SDT). But she has always said that she never looked at the other houses because she was more comfortable where there were other Jews. I know they weren't discouraged from joining a house that didn't have Jews, but no one apparently did it. That and I think in 'mutual selection' both the 'non-Jewish' houses and the "Jewish" rushees would mutually drop each other. I think that Jewish girls were more attracted to houses where they felt like there were others 'like' them. Isn't that why we all joined our respective chapters in the first place? Someone in DPhiE confirm this--weren't at least some of your founders Jewish?

Contrast to when I rushed...when girls joined every NPC chapter on campus regardless of their religion. Yes, AEPhi did cater to more Jews (partially because so many of us were legacies because our Mothers/Grandmothers/etc. only joined "Jewish" houses) but they definitely took non-Jews too. I knew a girl who was a Lutheran who joined AEPhi the year we pledged. She was the only non-Jew in her pledge class. Didn't bother her one bit. I do know that some girls were a little turned off by the fact that AEPhi was 'so Jewish', but I also went to a school with a large Jewish population, so that was also probably a factor. I personally didn't join AEPhi, and joined a house that was pretty religiously mixed. There weren't that many Jews in my pledge class specifically, but I was far from the only one.

If memory serves me right, there was a time where some houses really didn't take Jews, and that had a lot to do with the Christian ideals that they were founded on. But someone PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong--aren't the NPC chapters all supposed to have non-discrimination policies nationally now?

/end hijack

I vote for the full story, but make it snappy sister!!

Wouldn't you know, the only Chi Omega that I know personally (IRL) is Jewish!