Rush based on religion?
 

Now, let's not make this flame-y!!

My Aunt went to a large southern school in the 1960s and joined a sorority. My mom has mentioned (we're Jewish) that back then, that my aunt only rushed the "Jewish" sororities on campus. I thought you had to rush all of them like you do now?

Was it different back then?

I think that the NPC rules were more lax back then, although I could be wrong. Also, when she says she only "rushed" the Jewish groups, she could mean those were the only ones she showed interest in or went back to their parties.

I wish I could remember which thread this was on awhile back...a lot of UF members were discussing their recruitment and how the historically Jewish groups worked. I'm pretty sure, though, that even if a PNM knows she wants to pledge one of them, she'd have to go by the school's rules and visit every group at first.

I know one person on GC that might know, and it would be Bama_Alumna

From the way my mom told me, it made it sound like she only visited the houses she was interested in, but I'm not sure...

But I knew GC would be the place to ask!

You rang????? :D

I went through rush in the early 90's, so I'm not sure how things were when your mother rushed. I'm assuming that she was an SDT if she was at Alabama, because that is the only predominately Jewish sorority at UA. As long as I've known anything about the greek system at UA, SDT has participated in formal recruitment along with the other NPC sororities. Probably, your mom meant that she was only interested in joining that house. She may have cut other houses and only returned to SDT, or the other houses may have cut her because they knew her religious background and assumed that she was only interested in joining a Jewish sorority. I know this didn't do much to answer your question... I will try to ask some questions of people who are older than myself and find out more about how rush was conducted back then. If I find out anything more, I will PM you.

Actually, it was my Aunt and she joined Alpha Epsilon Phi. And yes, the school was the University of Alabama.

I was just going to post that there were probably more "Jewish sororities" back then -- AEPhi had a chapter, DPhiE had a chapter until 1973 that may or may not have been considered "Jewish," and it's possible that there were even some other NPC sororities that no longer exist that were there too.

I'm not sure how that works either, but I agree that rush rules were probably more relaxed back then.

I dont know a whole lot about this, but what I do know from talking to alumnae from various organizations is that back in the day, is that there were indeed two rushes at many schools - "Jewish" rush and "Christian" rush. From my understanding (and correct me if I'm wrong, please, because I am very curious to know about this!), is that Christian women rushed the Christian sororities and Jewish women rushed the Jewish sororities. Within those groups, rush runs like it does now, i.e. you have go attend parties at all the sororities, etc.

Many of the groups that were predominantly Jewish back then have since moved to a more non-sectarian base. The only two NPC groups that I can think of that are still predominantly Jewish are AEPhi and SDT.

Again, please correct me if I'm wrong - this was a long time ago, and this is based on information I've recieved from chats with alumnae from a few different organizations....

This makes sense, but what about the groups that were founded to be inclusive of both religions?

DPhiE was at Alabama. It sounds as if (from a family friend) that there were many Jewish girls in it then mid 1960s. The family friend is Jewish as well as a my dad's cousin these two women were big and little sister at Alabama's DPhiE.

FWIW, when I was in school, Alpha Epsilon Phi, Delta Phi Epsilon, and Sigma Delta Tau were considered Jewish sororities, with the occasional exception. Theta Phi Alpha was considered a Roman Catholic sorority.

Strangely, the "Christian" sororities were more religiously (searching for the right word here) blended (?), for the most part.

Is there anyone on GC who rushed in the South before 1970? Perhaps she could explain the whole rush process back then. :)

Sorry... I guess I didn't read your post carefully. For some reason, I thought you'd said your mother and I was wondering if it was your mom, why she hadn't explained more fully! LOL

Like I said, I rushed in the early 90's, and I was the first in my family to go greek at Alabama. So I don't know much about the history of the greek system as far as what chapters were there in the past and are no longer around. Since I've been involved with the system, only one chapter (Sigma Kappa) has folded.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help. When I have a chance to speak to some older alums, I might be able to clarify a bit more.

What sorority are you a member of?

Hmm...this sounds like this might be what happened

I prefer not to reveal my affiliation on these boards, because I am a member of the chapter's advisory board and am employed by the University of Alabama. I also tend to speak my mind candidly on the board and I wouldn't want someone from the University or from my chapter to identify me and be upset because of my posts. I know that many collegians and alums from UA read these boards, even though not too many of them post here. I hope you understand.

Ok now I have a ? LOL :D Were there certain sororities back then were if you weren't Jewish you just couldn't join or did it just so happen that most of the girls that joined a certain sorority just happened to be Jewish. I thought religion wasn't supposed to be discussed during rush and I can't imagine not inviting back a well liked girl just b/c she may happen to be a different religion than me or some of my sisters. I guess I'm just confused...:confused:

I mean, you have to put it into the context of the time... religion was much more of an issue throughout the country 50 years ago.

I think at most campuses it was just "understood" - I don't know if there were specific clauses preventing a Jewish woman from joining a Christian sorority, or vice versa, but I think it kind of went without saying. I also think that honeychile is right, that the Christian sororities were more likely to have Jewish women then the other way around - I think it's kind of comparable to NPC and NPHC sororities now. You are probably more likely to find an African American woman in an NPC sorority than a white woman in an NPHC sorority. ( Please don't get mad at me, it's just an observation!)

It's not a problem :D

Back in the day, and this is pretty far back, Jewish women were not accepted into many of the NPC sororities. This is the reason groups such as Phi Sigma Sigma, Delta Phi Epsilon, AEPhi and SDT were started. This is why today, some folks refer to D Phi E as a Jewish sorority, when in actuality, we have no religious affiliation tied to our group. Phi Sigma Sigma is the same way. While we may have a predominately Jewish chapter at our older chapters, it stems from the fact that the Jewish women were not accepted by other sororities, and thus, joined D Phi E, and with legacies and all that, they remain largely Jewish.

All of the GCers are so full of information! I knew this would be the place to go! :D

Shadokat wrote just what I was thinking. Except that it really wasn't that far back. I had posted this story before. My mother's male friend attended college about 40 or 45 years ago. He was given a bid to a fraternity and pledged, but his name was not submitted to their national because he was Jewish. All the brothers liked him, but their national would not permit it. He said that things were even worse for the Catholic students. The world has changed since then, but it really wasn't that long ago. I am sure that this type of discrimination was even worse in 1909, 1913 and 1917 when AEPhi, Phi Sig, DPhiE, and SDT were founded.

I am still wondering if there were separate sorority rushes based on religion.

Let us think of today! 01-05-04!

This is not Years ago, right?

This Today! Right?

Today, there is and has been crossing of Colors and Religions!

So what is the question again!:confused:

Do you want to throw in Triangle and Farmhouse into this Mix?

Is there any True Greek Organization that beleives in Race and Relegion?!:)

Just a question!:)

I have a friend who goes to Florida who didn't go through formal rush because she only wants to be in a Jewish sorority, so she is COBing with one of them this semester, along with quite a few other girls. Apparently this is still a pretty common practice there.

I wouldn't call it "common practice." There are only 2 traditionally Jewish sororities @ UF - DPhiE & AEPhi. It's not often that both of them don't make quota the same year...if it happens at all. (They always made quota when I was @ UF in the 80s).

There are quite a few girls from her hometown (on Long Island) that are in these houses that told her she would have no problem getting in during the spring...so I was just going on what she told me.

GeekyPenguin, I think that your friend should go through formal recruitment since the University of Florida is very competitive. Their DPhiE chapter is one of our strongest and is very successful in terms of reaching quota as kdonline mentioned. COB might not be an option.

She didn't want to go through formal as she will only be in a Jewish sorority - and as far as I know, she has already spoken with sisters in the houses she is interested in about COBing. I'll keep you all posted if she joins.

Just like many other questions, Tom, I think people want to know what it was like. Some of us are intrigued by the history and evolution of things.

I can remember cleaning out some files when I was an active and finding that back in the early 1950's, my chapter wanted to extend a bid to an exchange student, but could not because she was Hindu. We found that fascinating!

I wish her luck. :)

You need to add AOII to the list. ;) One of our Founders and our first president was a Jewish woman from New Orleans. We owe Stella so much. BTW - Happy Founders Day, AOII - 107 years of tradition!

I understand that Theta Phi Alpha was founded for similar reasons for Catholic women.

I received a copy of the 1925 edition of Ida Shaw Martin's Sorority Handbook as a gift for inspiration in AI. It's fascinating to see that with all of the "social progress" that had been made at the time, there are little asterisks scattered throughout with footnotes like, "for Catholic women" and "for Jewish women." And absolutely NO mention of AKA, DST, ZPhiB, or SGRho.

Adrienne
:)

I imagine that even if they both made quota, they'll probably have at least a couple girls who graduated in December, so if she already knows the girls and they know they want her it wouldn't be too tough to COB. Assuming they're not over total, that is -- but I don't know what total is down there.

Just guessing though.

At IU we have two traditionally Jewish sororities, AEPhi and SDT. Both make quota very easily and I've never heard of either doing informal rush. (However, IU does have the hypercompetitive rush, as discussed earlier on this board.)

SDT at Purdue does NOT do formal rush at all. It does its own informal rush twice a year.

I pledged at Bama in the fall of 1960. At that time, there were three Jewish sororities (SDT, DPhiE and AEPhi) as well as several Jewish fraternities (ZBT, SAM, AEPi). I believe the Jewish girls came to all of the houses for Ice Water Teas and then could go to only the houses that they wished. At that time, my own sorority could not pledge Jewish girls. Later we could pledge Jewish girls but only if the advisor called their parents first and explained that our ritual was based on the New Testament and got their permission. Even later, the procedure was to explain to the individual rushee that our ritual was based on the New Testament and to ask whether or not she could accept that. I assume that these procedures applied to girls of other religions as well. I do not know if that procedure has changed since I have not been involved in a collegiate rush for about ten years. I do know that nationally we have numerous members at this time who are not Christian and they are accepted as sisters with no thought as to their religious affiliation. When I pledged, the separation between the Jewish sororities and the others was not questioned. After all, there were separate country clubs, Jews could not stay in some hotels in Miami, many non-collegiate fraternal organizations discriminated, etc. I am glad things have changed or I would not have so many wonderful sisters who could not have been accepted when I was at Bama.

That was a long long time ago.

-Rudey
--Get with the times babe.

I think that was her point babe - that she is glad things have finally gotten with the times. :cool:

That seems to answer it! GCers Rock!! :D

And my point is that it hasn't and that the blatant is no longer.

-Rudey
--:cool:

I believe you missed my point all together - it helps if you read the entire post! The question was asked about what it was like then and I believe I answered it and additionally answered how the changes in my GLO have progressed over the years. I personally have Jewish heritage and had it been known, I would not have been accepted at the time I pledged. (In fact, it was kept from me because of discrimination. I learned of it while I was in college.) I believe you misinterpreted my post. Of course, I accept your apology - as does my GLO!

By the way, I know it was a long time ago; the question was regarding "a long time ago".