A totally honest thread...from long long ago

[UGAalum94]

The groups that were traditionally Jewish at UGA when I was there did recruitment with everybody else, but since both NPC groups were under official campus total, they both probably had COR events too. (And I think most if not all of the NPC has Jewish members and both "Jewish" groups had some non-Jewish members.)

It wouldn't surprise me if "Jewish Rush" was kind of a mythological name that crept up at UT to describe COR events that happened later in the year that would have been targeted at Jewish friends from home. It sounds bad, but in practice was probably pretty effective.

Lady Longhorn, do you really think that anyone would remember who wore a cross? The whole thing (wearing religion items not from your faith to intentionally mislead) sounds kind of nutty, I agree. But if a PNM was willing to misrepresent her faith to up her recruitment odds, I'm guessing she wasn't particularly devout to being with.

[LadyLonghorn]

The PNM in that other thread had a whole lot of other issues. I think the mods deleted it because it got ugly.

I am still trying to wrap my mind around someone wearing a blatant and revered symbol of another religion as some sort of secret message during recruitment. I can understand the fear of being dropped because a group assumes you will want a specific house when you want to keep an open mind, but it seems so extreme to do something like this. I'm not saying it doesn't happen ever (because, let's face it, a lot of weird stuff happens during recruitment!), but I have never heard it mentioned in any recruitment conversations I have had with members of my GLO and my friends in other sororities.

I would really have to second guess a new sister's honesty about everything if she's started out a lifetime relationship doing something like that. I mean, what does she say? "Hey, y'all, I know I was wearing a cross during recruitment, but guess what? Now that I'm a new member, I can tell you I really am Jewish and just faked being Christian so you wouldn't assume I wanted to go XYZ. So I can't go out tonight because it's Shabbat." I just can't fathom it.

[ellebud]

BTW, no "controversy" felt here. I truly believe in an open honest and respectful discussion about this (and other topics) And in this thread all the above criteria has been, in my humble opinion, met.

[ellebud]

To LadyLonghorn and Breathtesgelatin:

My family and I went to UT for an atheletic event. Did a little sightseeing on campus and around Austin. We really had a wonderful time. One thing that struck us was the friendliness of Austin-ites. Lost? Ask anyone and they'll help. In a restaurant waiting for a table? People strike up conversations...we actually helped some people who were coming to Los Angeles for a vacation. The University was amazing...we drove through it and we very impressed. Went shopping on the Drag...but since we're from SC we didn't buy any Longhorn stuff...lol.

[libelle]

I have not heard of PNMs wearing a cross to appear nonJewish. I am appalled.

But I have heard of members of religious minorities being encouraged to wear a cross or Star of David to signal a chapter's openness during recruitment. For eg an AEPhi at my school wore a cross during recruitment to suggest that Christians could be a member if they wanted to be. I was encouraged to wear my Star of David to signal that we welcomed Jewish members. Not all sororities were so open at my U. back in the 80s.