I am going to be a______

[AXWhoah]

DeltaBetaBaby, you said something about the North suburbs...of what? Chicago? I have friends from places like Highland Park and Deerfield, and yeah they're jewish (they're AEPi). But are those the types of places you're talking about? Anyway though on my campus AEPhi is the jewish house, almost all of the women are jewish, they call each other JAP's and stuff. And AEPi is the jewish frat on campus and I know for a fact that all of them are jewish. Just my two cents....

[deltajas]

Hey there
I really have to agree with delta baby. While I am sure all campus chapters are different, I go to school in NY, we have SDT and Aephi. They refuse to let anyone into their sorority if they are not Jewish. You could be the prettiest, nicest girl ever, but if you are not a "jap" you don't have a chance. I have a lot of friends in these houses and that does not even matter.
It's funny when I read all these posts about the South going on looks, grades, personality etc. Well you girls would be very surprised at the girls up North who are cut, over ones who are picked, it is almost ridiculous.
Im not saying all Aephi or Sdt chapters are like this, but it sure is here

[kimmykimmy]

At my school, SDT, AEPhi, Phi Sigma Sigma and DPhiE were the "Jewish Houses." But then again, where I went to school we have a large Jewish population.

Then, in my sorority, our nationals wanted to keep those who keep kosher out of our sorority and we were beyond appalled. We had a large jewish population too buti t was never an issue. I am not jewish and nationals really offended me when they said that perhaps those girls that are "too jewish" don't belong in our sorority.

I don't know what the population is in my sorority now and I am sure it doesn't matter because a great girl is a great girl. Period.

[deltajas]

Kimmy I could not agree with you more.
A great girl is a great girl, Jewish, catholic, aethiest, whatever. I think that is ridiculous of your sorority to do as well. I don't understand why in this date large organizations still place selection or denial based on religion. A person's religion is not a determinant of their true personality. In my sorority, we have Jewish, catholic, baptist, and muslim. We base our selections on personality, and never bring up religion. It just upsets me that certain houses at my school only take Jewish, or in your schols case non Jewish. Yes we have a huge Jewish population too, but I think it is ridicukous that girls going through rush are told by certain Jewish houses that they would fit in better with a non jewish group. I think sororities should be fined for this, bc that is discrimination.

[KillarneyRose]

At my school, we had SDT and AEPhi. All the sisters of SDT were Jewish but I'm not sure if that is because they wouldn't bid someone who wasn't Jewish or if that is just how it turned out. AEPhi was pretty mixed, religion-wise

[UKAXO]

Originally posted by kimmykimmy

Then, in my sorority, our nationals wanted to keep those who keep kosher out of our sorority and we were beyond appalled. We had a large jewish population too buti t was never an issue. I am not jewish and nationals really offended me when they said that perhaps those girls that are "too jewish" don't belong in our sorority.

.

I am so disappointed (well I really don't know WHAT word to use here) when I hear of our Nationals behaving like this!

They are there to set an example for collegiate members, and this is the best they can do?

Honestly, I just DON'T understand a representative from HQ saying "we only want the gorgeous/nonJewish/Jewish/whatever women to join our group"...

What kind of role models are these people, anyway??

[carnation]

I think I can shed some insight on this. Back in the seventies, some Jewish members of a few of the national Christian-based sororities, including mine, felt that all references to Christ and Christianity should be taken out of the rituals, including initiation. There was a terrible stink at our convention and the resolution was voted down but healing took awhile. Ditto for the other groups.

I would assume that the nationals in question are trying to prevent another such occurrence...I'd hope that they're not discriminating to be ugly. Like someone just said here, a great girl is a great girl!

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally posted by AXWhoah
DeltaBetaBaby, you said something about the North suburbs...of what? Chicago? I have friends from places like Highland Park and Deerfield, and yeah they're jewish (they're AEPi). But are those the types of places you're talking about? Anyway though on my campus AEPhi is the jewish house, almost all of the women are jewish, they call each other JAP's and stuff. And AEPi is the jewish frat on campus and I know for a fact that all of them are jewish. Just my two cents....

Yes, the north suburbs of Chicago. Highland Park and Deerfield, among others. Ultimately, AEPhi and SDT are the most homogenous chapters on campus, because both draw women from the same couple of high schools.

[maggieaxid]

I never realized this about northern organizations. I mean, how do people go about finding out what religion you are when you rush??? i mean, is it asked, assumed???? The worst question i got during rush was "what do your parents do?"

[deltajas]

Basically it works out a few ways
Since the Jewish population is so big at our school, a lot of freshmen join the Hillel, and even the rabi hangs out with all of the greeks of PNM's. Jewish people are encouraged to join the only jewish groups. In the rush rooms girls first and last names are on their name tags so it usually pretty obvious. When I went through I most certainly had like every girl ask are you Jewish???? A lot of people actually brag about being "japs" and I am telling you the truth if you are not Jewish at my school you will have a limit to which houses you can chose from, even if your personality fits in better with a certain group say AEPhi, they basically automatically cut you. I also know first handedly of people who are in GLO's dating non Jewish people, and having the rabi being very upset about this. I think it is all fine and dandy to be religious, I just think to discriminate is unfair and I know my school's greek advisor has had several complaints in reference to this in the past couple years, bc for a while it was like if you are not Jewish you dont fit in or belong to a sorority.
By the way my father is Jewish.
But I just see the difference when the southern girls are worried about looks, personality etc, where up North from what I know here, it is all about religion, ok and maybe money

[aephi alum]

Hm. I have to say, it bothers me to hear about any GLO, and AEPhi in particular, cutting people based strictly on religion. Yes, GLOs are selective organizations by nature, and it's possible, even likely, that a religious member of religion X may be uncomfortable in a sorority whose ideals are based on religion Y - and, yes, a sorority ritual with a lot of references to Jesus would bother me as a Jew. But it still seems wrong to me to cut someone just because of religion. We never did, and my chapter is stronger for it. "A great girl is a great girl".

There is a historically Jewish fraternity on my campus (I will not name the house) that made a practice of being absolutely sure only Jewish men joined. To avoid any appearance of religious discrimination, every year they would bid a couple of non-Jewish men - but once these bids were extended, the fraternity would stop inviting them to dinners, trips, etc. and basically stop showing interest in them. These men would naturally decide to join another house that actually showed interest in them. And if anyone in the administration questioned them as to why the house was all Jewish, the brothers could innocently say, "Well, we offered bids to Joe and Bob, they're Christian, but they didn't accept them..." That always disgusted me.

[33girl]

You have to understand how bizarre it is for someone from a rural school like me to hear about "Jewish" houses. I mean, if we would have had a Jewish house on campus there would only have been about 5 people in it, because that's all the Jewish people that were there. One of my sisters was Jewish and while we do have somewhat Christian references, she never had a problem with it, or if she did, she never told us.

[Peaches-n-Cream]

While reading this thread, I recalled rush at a New York school and being asked where I lived, went to highschool, and what my family did for a living. The sisters seemed surprised that I was a city girl instead of from the suburbs, and they seemed impressed that I went to private school. When they heard that I was the daughter of a Wall Street attorney, they looked at me like I was a career opportunity waiting to happen. As a first semester freshman, I didn't know what to expect from rush, but I knew that I didn't like it and dropped those sororities. I wound up pledging a sorority that sincerely liked me and became the highlight of my college experience. BTW, that was over a dozen years ago so maybe things have changed...I hope.

Kimmy and Deltajas, if you don't mind, where do/did you attend school?

[aggieAXO]

Jewish sororities? I guess i never really heard of that before. But I guess there are not a great deal of jewish people at A&M.

BTW if a girl came in and was saying to us "I am going to pledge XYZ" we would drop them-that is very very RUDE. There were houses that I went to that i did not quitejg, fit me but I would never had said that, I politely smiled and made conversation, there is no reason to say those things to someone that is rushing you. If some of these girls only new how much we put into rush to impress them maybe they wouldn't be so complacent

[G8Ralphaxi]

It's a similar situation at the University of Florida...we have a very large Jewish student population, in comparison with a lot of other schools. I'm not sure how many out of the 45,000+ students here are Jewish, but they're very active on campus, Hillel and several other student groups, etc. We get a LOT of Jewish students from South Florida (Miami, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale) as well as a significant number that come all the way from NYC.

Several of my Jewish friends have said that their parents wanted them to come to UF specifically because of higher likelihood of meeting someone Jewish to marry. Which makes a lot of sense I guess - I know there is a lot of pressure from many parents to marry someone who is also Jewish and I can see how it's much easier at UF than some small southern college.

A E Phi and D Phi E are the "Jewish" sororities here, and TEP, A E Pi, ZBT and Pi Lam are predominately Jewish fraternities. Other houses have a significant population as well. I don't have any exact statistics, but it certainly seems that a higher % of Jewish students go greek than the rest of the UF population. Especially if they're from middle or upper class families - there's a lot of pressure.

A E Phi and D Phi E are almost totally Jewish and any "schicksa" who ends up in either house is usually half Jewish and just isn't religious or ends up inactive after about a year. Someone asked how the houses know if you're Jewish or not - most of the Jewish rushees will wear some type of jewerly that gives it away - i.e. a necklace with a star of david, or their name in hebrew. Of course if the girl's last name is Goldberg and she's petite with dark curly hair, then take a guess, right?

It's actually quite amusing sometimes to watch the two sororities here try to "profile" the rushees. They don't have time to "investigate" everyone (1000+ rushees go thru at UF every year), so after ruling out everyone who listed "such-and-such church youth choir" on their resume or wore a cross necklace (some girls do that on purpose to get dropped from those houses and help them at A D Pi, XO, etc.), some girls get past the radar. Rushees that are Italian, etc. and "look Jewish" sometimes get asked back.

When I rushed (a million years ago - Fall 1996), I really liked A E Phi - they were really fun, down to earth, and didn't seem stuck up or prissy like some other houses - they were smart a**es like I am. Plus, when I was there Round 1, it was after about 4 houses in a row that were almost all petite blondes. I'm a tall brunette so I definitely looked more like the A E Phi girls (even though I was taller than a lot of them). D Phi E had dumped me right after Round 1. Well, I got asked back to AEPhi all the way thru Round 3, just loved them, and was about in tears after listening to one of their seniors speak about the house. I hadn't really given the whole religion thing much thought until the night before when I had told a fellow rushee on my dorm floor what houses I liked best and she told me that I wouldn't fit in there because I wasn't Jewish.

So anyway, Round 3 is almost over, I was having a great time talking with the sister that was rushing me, and I told her that I just felt so comfortable there and all her sisters were so fun, etc. She just grinned and asked if I had any questions about anything. So I said something along the lines of, "I know that a lot of your sisters are Jewish, and that's cool, but I'm not - am I going to fit in here?" Can I tell you, the look on this girl's face, how quickly it changed??? She practically hisses at me "You're NOT Jewish?!?!?!?!" She was a little loud and several other rushees turned and looked at us in horror. I just froze and stuttered out "ummm, no?" like I wasn't sure myself. We just stared at each other for a couple seconds, she turned bright red (I think she was well aware that she'd been pretty rude) and then she passed me off to another one of her sisters. Guess which house didn't invite me back for Prefs???

It was kind of awkward at the time, but I'm glad it happened when it did - it would have been just awful to have a scene like that as a pledge. Apparently I had unwittingly fooled them. I'm a brunette, my personality was pretty similar to theirs, and I have a German last name. I never really thought it was a big deal. Most rushees that know what goes on will save the Jewish houses the trouble and talk about what they did for Christmas or something they did with their church so that they will be dropped. No one told me the proper procedure, so there I was, causing a minor ruckus in the middle of their Rush party.