Why Is Sheldon Adelson’s Jewish Fraternity AEPI Expanding To Israel?
Image by Nikki Casey
By Nathan Guttman November 22, 2017
AEPi, known as the “Jewish” fraternity,” is expanding to Israel, and it’s not an obvious move.
The group which recently chartered its third full fledged branch in Israel, is trying to establish a role for fraternities in a country where Greek Life is not part of the Israeli students’ experience and where fraternities and sororities are virtually unknown.
Haaretz reported that the third and newest AEPi branch will be located at the Tel Aviv University, Israel’s largest academic institution. Others are already active at the Interdisciplinary Center in Hertzeliya, known for its significant English-speaking student body, and at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
“I’ve had people telling me for years that we couldn’t make this happen in Israel,” AEPi executive director Andrew Borans told Haaretz. “It turns out they were all 100 percent wrong. The kids starting university in Israel need to feel that they belong just as much as kids in the United States.”
While officially apolitical, AEPi relies on donations from mega-donor Sheldon Adelson and other Jewish Republican contributors. The fraternity also played a role in blocking the liberal lobby J Street from joining the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish American Organizations. Recently, AEPi was hit with financial turmoil that led to the resignation of two senior officers in the group.
Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Dive In
-
Fast Forward Trump administration can deport Mahmoud Khalil for undermining U.S. foreign policy on antisemitism, judge rules
-
Fast Forward Is the Passover Seder Zionist?
-
Fast Forward David Sassoon, the Jewish royal designer who dressed Princess Diana, dies at 92
-
Fast Forward For a second straight Passover, Jews mark Festival of Freedom while hostages remain in Gaza
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion My Jewish moms group ousted me because I work for J Street. Is this what communal life has come to?
- 2
Opinion I co-wrote Biden’s antisemitism strategy. Trump is making the threat worse
- 3
Opinion Stephen Miller’s cavalier cruelty misses the whole point of Passover
- 4
Film & TV How Marlene Dietrich saved me — or maybe my twin sister — and helped inspire me to become a lifelong activist
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture Jews thought Trump wanted to fight antisemitism. Why did he cut all of their grants?
-
Opinion Trump’s followers see a savior, but Jewish historians know a false messiah when they see one
-
Fast Forward Trump administration can deport Mahmoud Khalil for undermining U.S. foreign policy on antisemitism, judge rules
-
Opinion This Passover, let’s retire the word ‘Zionist’ once and for all
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.