Alumnae Initiation at Jewish Sororities?

[MsDGP007]

Originally Posted by AEPhiSierra

AEPhi nationally and officially considers itself a "Jewish sorority" and does not officially refer to itself as "historically Jewish". Some members describe AEPhi using the "historically jewish" label because they feel the label "Jewish sorority" can be misconstrued as saying our membership is limited to Jewish women when, in fact, this has never been a policy of our organization.

Sigma AEPi has never had a restrictive clause as far as I am aware so I don't know why they would be considered a Jewish organization more so than ourselves or SDT. (Though I am not sure how SDT currently labels themselves - any SDT's out there to clarify).

What I find, and this is not an attack on AEPi, is that AEPi has put out its own definition of how it defines itself a Jewish fraternity and then others use this definition to measure other organizations. Each organization has their own idea of what constitutes a Jewish fraternity or Jewish sorority and based on that decide if that is a label they want to apply to themselves.

Hmmm....I see what you're saying. Understand, I am not a member and you are....so you definitely have the "inside track". All I know is through all my experience with the Greek community; you know that Alpha Epsilon Pi is the "Jewish" fraternity. Whereas with Alpha Epsilon Phi and Sigma Delta Tau....well I didn't realize they were Jewish until I saw their websites (or something like that).

The following is from AEPi's national website:
Alpha Epsilon Pi, the Jewish Fraternity of North America, was founded to provide opportunities for a Jewish man seeking the best possible college and fraternity experience. We have maintained the integrity of our purpose by strengthening our ties to the Jewish community and serving as a link between high school and career. Alpha Epsilon Pi develops leadership for the North American Jewish community at a critical time in a young man's life.

The following is from Sigma Alpha Epsilon Pi's national website:
he purpose of ΣΑΕΠ is to promote unity, support, and
Jewish awareness, as well as to provide a Jewish
experience for ourselves, our members, and the
community as a whole. We are devoted to friendship,
motivation, opportunity, leadership, and well-being.


In contrast on Sigma Delta Tau's national site, there is nothing referring to "Jewish women" or anything in the purpose. In fact, the only time I see it mentioned is when talking about the history of the founders. Also with Alpha Epsilon Phi, the sorority refers to "Jewish" when talking about the founders. The following is the mission statement from Alpha Epsilon Phi's website:

The mission of Alpha Epsilon Phi Sorority is to inspire and support exemplary women dedicated to friendship and a lifelong commitment to Alpha Epsilon Phi while building on the vision of our Jewish founders.

Now I will fully admit I'm an outsider looking in here....I don't know all of the details of the mission and character of these organizations. But if I were a non-Jewish person (I'm Jewish...but not in a Jewishly-inclined organization), I would have less hesitation joining AEPhi or SDT as opposed to AEPi or Sigma Alpha Epsilon Pi (placing specific sex aside). Even though all these groups are open to members of any religion, it's pretty easy to see why some may be more appealing to non-Jews than others would be.

[LPIDelta]

Likewise, my impression of my own GLO is that DPhiE was never intended to be a "Jewish" organization--it was intended to be non-sectarian. But, because our founders were Jewish, so were many of our early members, and then most of the women in our chapters were....so I would say DPhiE might be considered "historically Jewish" although we certainly do not currently have a majority Jewish membership. And many older people who I run into that had DPhiE at their university back in the day assume that DPhiE is a Jewish sorority... and some have assumed that I am too. Maybe that is a good example of the distinction?

[33girl]

Originally Posted by LPIDelta

Likewise, my impression of my own GLO is that DPhiE was never intended to be a "Jewish" organization--it was intended to be non-sectarian. But, because our founders were Jewish, so were many of our early members, and then most of the women in our chapters were....so I would say DPhiE might be considered "historically Jewish" although we certainly do not currently have a majority Jewish membership. And many older people who I run into that had DPhiE at their university back in the day assume that DPhiE is a Jewish sorority... and some have assumed that I am too. Maybe that is a good example of the distinction?

I don't think I would ever call D Phi E a "historically Jewish" sorority. There's nothing in your founding history (as I read it online) saying that you were founded to serve the Jewish community. Your international philanthropies have nothing to do with Judaism or the Jewish community.

Whereas w/ A E Phi, their site says they were founded by "seven Jewish women" and w/ SDT, one of their philanthropies is Jewish Women International.

To me, "historically [this or that]" means that the group has a history of giving to causes affiliated with [this or that] and that they still support the [this or that] community, even if you don't now and never did have to be [this or that] to join.

[LPIDelta]

Well our website is in transition right now and we have a task force working on a written history so we may not be telling the whole story. I know that when I joined DPhiE as a colony member I had no idea of the history and we never talked about the founders being Jewish--which is something that has started to change as we try to connect tfor our members to why we were founded.

When I moved to NY there were several people that, when I told them I was a DPhiE, said, "Oh, that's the Jewish sorority". Sometimes it is perception or experience. That said, very proud of our non-sectarian heritage and that we are home for women from all kinds of backgrounds.

[Buttonz]

If you look at the SDT webpage under history, the only mention of religon is the following:

On March 25, 1917, seven young women who exemplified self-confidence and the willingness to take a chance, founded a new sorority at Cornell University. The name chosen, Sigma Delta Phi, was soon changed to Sigma Delta Tau when the women discovered the letters belonged to another Greek organization. Most of the seven had experienced the subtle, but very real, discrimination practiced against religious minorities by many Greek organizations at the time


That's it. However if you really look at our crest and study it...well....you can't mistake the Jewish symbols on there, and like it has been mentioned in this thread, Jewish Women's International is one of our philanthropies.

However, we don't call ourselves a Jewish sorority the way that AEPi called themselves a Jewish fraternity.

We are open to all members, and there are chapters that have very few Jewish women in them. It all depends where you are.