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From the AEPhi website:
AEPhi was founded by seven Jewish women at Barnard College on October 24, 1909. Only one of the founders, Helen Phillips, lived in the dormitory on campus and it was her longing for companionship that proved to be the impetus.
"It was her idea and her persistence more than anything else that brought Alpha Epsilon Phi into existence," one founder wrote. "I sometimes think that some of those ties were more necessary to Helen than to the others in this group because Helen had no mother and no sisters or brothers, and to her a group of adopted sisters was more of a need and had more significance." The seven founders were Phillips, Ida Beck, Rose Gerstein, Augustina "Tina" Hess, Lee Reiss, Rose Salmowitz and Stella Strauss.
My understanding is that an additional driving force behind these women's decision to create a new sorority, is that they wanted the bonds of sisterhood, but had difficulty joining the existing sororities at Barnard because they were Jewish (whether they were actively discriminated against on the basis of religion, or just didn't feel comfortable with sororities whose ideals and rituals were rooted in Christianity) - so they founded their own.
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AEΦ ... Multa Corda, Una Causa ... Celebrating Over 100 Years of Sisterhood
Have no place I can be since I found Serenity, but you can't take the sky from me...
Only those who risk going too far, find out how far they can go.
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