A Different Retro Rush Thread

[paulam]

My retro rush thread is a lot different from what has been posted here, but I think you’ll find it interesting. I attended a large southern school back in the mid-1960’s. At that time, there was an issue about Jewish girls pledging “non-Jewish” sororities. I wanted to go through rush but was discouraged from doing so because there were no “Jewish” sororities on campus.

I had recently moved to the city so I didn’t really know many people before school began. I ran into the boyfriend of a relative on campus who happened to be a member of a Jewish fraternity and he introduced me to his fraternity brothers. Through them, I met more and more young women.

Our days were all the same, going to class, meeting in the “Den” for a Coke and going home. Boring. I was approached by two of the women I recently had met who said they wanted to start a sorority. Several weeks later, we had a number of women who were interested and we made an appointment with the Dean of Women to discuss getting the green light. She approached Panhellenic and they approved our starting a local sorority. Before long, we had a viable organization for Jewish women entrenched on campus. It was exciting choosing our name, motto, colors and symbols and developing a ritual.

As we grew, we eventually discussed affiliating with a national sorority. Everyone seemed positive at the idea. Panhellenic enthusiastically approved bringing another national to the campus, mainly because we would not be in competition with the other sororities for members. We would have a separate rush with only Jewish girls attending.

We were told by the Dean of Women that we would not be allowed to contact any of four known historically Jewish sororities ourselves but that she would contact each sorority to determine their interest level and to set up interviews.

I have named the four sororities:

Exodus
Leviticus
Deuteronomy
Genesis

[SydneyK]

This is interesting! I'm intrigued. I don't remember ever reading any local --> NPC threads before.

I'm not familiar at all with Jewish customs, so, while this may be obvious to others, it isn't to me: Do you mind if I ask why you started with Exodus instead of Genesis?

[paulam]

Originally Posted by SydneyK

This is interesting! I'm intrigued. I don't remember ever reading any local --> NPC threads before.

I'm not familiar at all with Jewish customs, so, while this may be obvious to others, it isn't to me: Do you mind if I ask why you started with Exodus instead of Genesis?

When you read to the part where I reveal which sorority we joined, the last one we rushed, I wanted to name it Genesis because it was the beginning for us. I didn't want to give any hints so I just listed randomly rather than in biblical order. In fact, I took out the beautiful bible I was given at my initiation by our national to choose which of the Five Books of Moses I would use as names.

Paula M.

[SydneyK]

Oooops... I completely misread the four groups! I saw Exodus, and noticed that the rest were biblical names as well, and must not have read carefully. I completely missed Genesis being on the list at all; I thought it was Numbers instead. (And I even thought, "how ideal would it be for this group to be Genesis, since it would be their beginning!") Anyway, I'm sorry.

Regardless of my code name mistake, I'm really looking forward to this thread.

[Benzgirl]

This sounds VERY good. I'm looking forward to it

[catiebug]

Me, too!

Originally Posted by Benzgirl

This sounds VERY good. I'm looking forward to it

[violetpretty]

Originally Posted by paulam

When you read to the part where I reveal which sorority we joined, the last one we rushed, I wanted to name it Genesis because it was the beginning for us. I didn't want to give any hints so I just listed randomly rather than in biblical order. In fact, I took out the beautiful bible I was given at my initiation by our national to choose which of the Five Books of Moses I would use as names.

Paula M.

Way to ruin the surprise! I'll still be reading this one anyway

[paulam]

Originally Posted by violetpretty

Way to ruin the surprise! I'll still be reading this one anyway

Our first interview would be with Exodus. We had agreed not to make any decisions until we had completed “rush” with all four sororities

The Exodus alum was a charming lady who was very proud of her sorority and she spent several hours with us describing the sorority and what they had in mind for a chapter. There was an Exodus chapter at a large state school about 180 miles away but they wanted more presence in the state.

We were very interested in Leviticus whose representative also spent quite a bit of time explaining what Leviticus was about and what plans they had for a chapter on our campus. They had no chapters anywhere near the area at the time so this was an important step for them.

By now, we were starting to realize how difficult it was going to be choosing an affiliation. We were very impressed by both Exodus and Leviticus. But we still had two more sororities to rush.

A few weeks later, the Dean called to say we had an appointment with the representatives from Deuteronomy. There were two of them, one of whom was a national officer who lived in our area and the other was a local alumna. There was a small unrecognized group of Jewish girls on our campus which was interested in bringing Deuteronomy to our school. These were not girls we particularly liked and we had no desire to bring them into our chapter. The sister of one of these girls was a member of Deuteronomy. We had been told we could not contact any of the four sororities ourselves but since the other group was not a recognized organization, there had been nothing to stop them from doing so. The Dean and Panhellenic had agreed that only one new NPC sorority would be allowed on campus.

The first thing the Deuteronomy national officer mentioned was the other group. She talked about bringing them into the organization which did not sit well with us at all. She and the other alum did not seem to be interested in us without the other group. It only took a few minutes for us to realize we were not a good fit with Deuteronomy. We felt none of the interest we felt from the Exodus or Leviticus representatives and the meeting ended much more quickly than the previous two. I think we all knew as we said our goodbyes that this was not the group for us.

Paula M.

[33girl]

Paula, I have a question - do all the groups in your story still exist?

[SydneyK]

Great story! Thanks for sharing, Paula!

[ellebud]

Paula,

I loved your rush experience! It is amazing how the world has changed since we were in school. As I mentioned in my thread SDT is now back on the row at SC. Tomorrow night I'll be making latkes And every year I swear that I won't do it...and here I am with 10 pounds of potatoes ready to go. Happy Chanukah to all! (and since I'm married to quasi-Episcopalian I get to do Christmas as well.)

Carol

[paulam]

Originally Posted by ellebud

Paula,

I loved your rush experience! It is amazing how the world has changed since we were in school. As I mentioned in my thread SDT is now back on the row at SC. Tomorrow night I'll be making latkes And every year I swear that I won't do it...and here I am with 10 pounds of potatoes ready to go. Happy Chanukah to all! (and since I'm married to quasi-Episcopalian I get to do Christmas as well.)

Carol

I'm glad you enjoyed the adventure. I'd like to think that our generation played an important part in the changes in our society, especially for womens' issues.

I had read in The Torch that SDT reactivated Mu chapter at SC. I believe it is important to bring back chapters with history that have closed.

10 pounds of potatoes...I am impressed. I'm sure they were delicious and that there weren't any leftovers! There were none at my house. This is the only time of year I fry food...yum!

Happy Chanukah!

Paula M.
Sigma Delta Tau
ΣΔTPatriae Multi Spes Una One Hope of Many People