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