Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Facebook CEO’s College Nickname Revealed

Turns out Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has a notorious collegiate past that doesn’t only have to do with creating the social networking site Facebook. Gawker reported recently that, before he dropped out of Harvard to launch his multibillion dollar endeavor, Zuckerberg was an officer at the reputationally Jewish Fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi. He even had a nickname. What was it, you ask. Slayer. (You read right.) Apparently the moniker had more to do with his role of money manager for the fraternity than for his way with the ladies.

Zuckerberg’s old college dormmate Rebecca Davis O’Brien went on to explain in an article published recently on the Daily Beast:

To his friends at AEPi … during freshman year, Mark (or “Zuck”) was known by his frat name “Slayer.” In his capacity as AEPi’s Exchequer, I’ve been told by fellow AEPi pledges, Zuckerberg systematically hunted down dues. Later, once Zuckerberg left Harvard, he would return for career recruiting events, and stop by AEPi parties with a supply of booze. This hardly seems like the kind of guy who would found a website to impress or get even with people in final clubs.

“The Social Network,” as you already know from the movie previews that have saturated your late-night television programs, tells the story of the founding of Facebook and Zuckerberg’s battle against the culture that excluded him, including Harvard’s final clubs.

A message from our CEO & publisher 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 editorial@forward.com, 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.

Exit mobile version