Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.

Read the Original Article Here

College campuses today can whiplash many young Jews with two seemingly contradictory big ideas: the importance of openness, equality and non-discrimination; and the importance of taking pride in and asserting the values that stem from one’s own cultural background.

An investigation by the Forward in September demonstrated that the tension between these two principles was nowhere more evident than in Jewish fraternities. And the largest of those fraternities, AEPi, has been at the nexus of this tension.

By its own self-description, AEPi is a “Jewish fraternity, though nondiscriminatory and open to all who are willing to espouse its purpose and values.” But with increasing frequency AEPi’s national office has been pressuring its house chapters on campuses around the country to reject non-Jews who want to rush the fraternity, and even get rid of some they have accepted. In one case, at The Ohio State University, the national office forced the AEPi chapter to eject a popular young Korean student it had already taken in.

The fraternity’s national office appears concerned first and foremost with maintaining an enduring sense of Jewish cultural cohesion for its young members amid a situation in which other once-Jewish fraternities have simply dropped their Jewish self-identity. But young Jews on campus are left confused at the mixed message they are getting not just from their campuses but the AEPi’s own mission statement.

What do you think?

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

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 credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link 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.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.