Two defunct Jewish sororities
 

No, no, nothing to do with Iota Alpha Pi!

1. Pi Alpha Tau was a small Jewish sorority in existence from 1920- 1950.
Chapters included Hunter College, N.Y.U., Albany, Saint Lawrence, Wisconsin, New Jersey Law, Syracuse.

(There were a few others.)

It was mentioned in several Jewish publications until the mid 1940s.

2. Iota Phi sorority has a photo in a history of Portland, ME's Jewish community. I have seen badges for this sorority on ebay, a certain online pin store, and a local antique store. The history book classifies this group as a high school sorority.

If anyone knows anything else about either of these groups, chime in...

Click on the link, and go to Page 13 and 14 for Jewish Sororities and Fraternities
http://books.google.com/books?id=1u0...ewish#PPA14,M1

I didn't know anything about Iota Phi, though.

Click on the link, and go to Page 13 and 14 for Jewish Sororities and Fraternities
http://books.google.com/books?id=1u0...ewish#PPA14,M1

I didn't know anything about Iota Phi, though.

THANK YOU BENZGIRL for the link. Very interesting imformation about Jewish Greeks. FYI....The author, Marianne Rachel Sanua wrote ZBT's Centennial Book..."Here's To Our Fraternity" and was one of several keynote speakers at our Centennial Conference in 1998.

ZBT:" Inspiring Today's College Men To Become Leaders Of Tomorrow."

I spent one enitre afternoon reading what I could online. Would love to have a copy of the book; it is SO interesting.

I spent one enitre afternoon reading what I could online. Would love to have a copy of the book; it is SO interesting

BENZGIRL....I found the link of Amazon.com for you.....

http://www.amazon.com/Heres-Our-Frat.../dp/0874518792

I hope this helps.


ZBT:"Inspiring Today's College Men To Become Leaders Of Tomorrow."

Wow! That book is something. Going to have to get a copy.

Syracuse 1950 yearbook has a Pi Alpha Tau page. NYU does too. I requested a of the NYU pages. Can't believe they faded away into GLO obscurity.

Nice book but it claims that Tau Delta Phi ceased operations in 1973, which would be a shock to it's members, as it continues as I speak.

Interesting book. It does focus almost entirely on Jewish fraternities; sororities are little more than a footnote.

Baird's manual of college fraternities (1990 printing) mistakenly has them as defunct as well but then shows them as active NIC. i think there was some misinformation floating around!

It has Phi Sigma Sigma as a Jewish sorority. But in fact we are not. Our founders were Jewish, but we are founded on secular beliefs. :)

Us to but in those days eve tho we were secular, Jewish women were predominantly the ones who joined. Take a look at any alumnae directory for your org - it wasn't until the 1970s we started to see truly diverse membership.

My name is Pete Sasso. I am the national vice president for Tau Delta Phi Fraternity. Tau Delta Phi is active within the NIC and is headquartered in Manhattan. We currently have a number of active chapters, interest groups, and colonies in 5 different states across the East Coast. If you have any questions please visit www.taudelt.net or e-mail me at PSasso@taudelt.net.

The 1990 Baird's Manual does have us being inactive as a misprint. We were in the NIC in 1990. That still haunts us from time to time.

Also, just for a fact... Tau Delta Phi is nor longer Jewish. We are currently a Jewish heritage fraternity as we became non-sectarian in 1932. Tau Delta Phi was ethnically Jewish, not religiously Jewish when we were founded in 1910. Our earliest members were ethnically Jewish but were from all different religious background. For some reason, we are many times grouped with the Jewish fraternities when were never truly were. This also haunts us from time to time.

Pete
Where are your active chapters and colonies? The website doesn't seem to have that info.

I have in my notes that Tau Delta Phi was at Ohio State from 1926-1931, and they were dental students. As Pete indicated, they were predominately Jewish.

Tau Delta Phi also had a chapter at University of Illinois, at least through sometime in the early 70s. My dad is an alum of that chapter. (As was a former boss of mine at the first newspaper I worked at - go figure. He pledged the semester after my dad graduated)

Part of the reason for the confusion is that in the midst of the turmoil of the early 1970s, Tau Delta Phi was down to one remaining chapter at New York Polytechnic. Many chapters had just closed, Illinois merged with Pi Lambda Phi, Penn State merged with Tau Epsilon Phi and Lehigh became a chapter of Zeta Psi (there may be others that also merged with a stronger group on campus). The remaining chapter at NY Poly then began expanding around the New York City area, and there are now about a dozen or more chapters active, although I have never seen a list of their active chapters ever published.

In 1973, Tau Delta Phi had 18 active chapters after we rejected a merger from Alpha Epsilon Pi. No active chapters merged into Alpha Epsilon Pi. The remainder remained Tau Delta Phi and others found homes with other larger national fraternities. We have since re-emerged as a national fraternity and are an active member in the NIC. We have active chapters in PA, NJ, NY, and NH. We are also in a strong period of growth as we are aggressively expanding to reach our goal of becoming more modest in size.

Our Illinois chapter is now Pi Lambda Phi.

According to WorldCat (www.worldcat.org), at least 153 libraries own it.

Your tax dollars have already paid for interlibrary loan service!

And reportedly there's a new Tau Delta Phi colony at Penn State. Looks like it's made up in large part of men who were members of the Phi Delta Theta chapter that was recently closed, if I'm understanding the campus paper's April 7 '09 article correctly:

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive...es_colony.aspx

I am a relatively new reader of GreekChat, although have been involved in greek life since the mid '90s. Something in this post rang a bell and after checking in with my mother, I learned that she was a member of Iota Phi in Portland in the mid 50s. She remembers that it was one of two Jewish high school social sororities (apparently very common at that time) and has no idea if they had a presence larger than her high school. My mom describes the sorority as "slightly upscale," which was very funny given the context that her sister belonged the other Jewish sorority. My mom couldn't remember much more about it, but did note that a former mayor of Portland Linda Ellowitch (her maiden name and not the right spelling) was a member of Iota Phi as well.

I did get the book via ILL. It's most interesting. Though it was published in 2003, the author focuses on the years 1895-1945. Some of the Chapter rolls (an appendix) go to 1968, with the statement, "Economic challenges of the 1930s and 1940's, and, to an even greater extent, the impact of the Vietnam War, student protest, and general campus upheaval in the late 1960s helped to bring about the expiration or consolidation of several of these groups....Several that do survive were nonsectarian in spirit and ritual from their origins or else can no longer be considered specifically Jewish groups. For the most up-to-date information available, readers should consult the national headquarters of the surviving groups."

I also noted this (p. 80): the first Jewish college sorority was founded in 1903...Called at first by the initials J.A.P. (the "Jay-ay-peez" and by 1913 renamed Iota Alpha Pi. "If [the term Jewish American princess] was used in conjuncition with J.A.P., howeever, it would soon have become incongruous, for the group's seniority in the sorority hierarchy did not guarantee it a reputation for affluence or outstanding social prestige....In 1942 a young woman about to be initiated...awaited the moment when the true secret meaning of the initials J.A.P. would be revealed to her. 'We are "Just a Plain Sorority,"' she was finally told--...in other words, just a group of good friends." So much for mystic mottoes!