Jewish fraternity making a comeback to the University
After nearly a decade absence, Zeta Beta Tau plans to join the 40 greek houses
The fraternity suffered from a lack of leadership but hopes to recruit about 20-30 recruits before next academic year.
By Caleb Sommerville (Contact)
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
A Jewish fraternity is going to join the 40 greek houses already at the University in the next few years.
Zeta Beta Tau, a fraternity based in Indianapolis, Indiana, is coming back to the University after being absent for around ten years. It closed its first house in the late 1990s because of a lack of general leadership in the chapter.
ZBT was invited to start a new chapter by the Interfraternity Council and the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life in September 2007.
Associate executive director Laurence Bolotin said the fraternity had begun to receive requests to start a new ZBT chapter on campus, so it has begun to reconnect with campus and alumni.
ZBT does not have a house lined up yet, but Bolotin said that the fraternity had other priorities right away.
“Our hope would be that we can build up a strong membership base so that a house could be located in the following year,” Bolotin said.
Bolotin hopes to recruit around 20-30 “founding fathers” before the next academic year.
The fraternity was originally founded at Columbia University in New York by Richard J. H. Gottheil in 1898. It was started as the first North American Jewish fraternity, because Jewish students were often not allowed to join existing fraternities.
The KU chapter was started in the 1950s, and the strongest years here were in the 1980s, according to Bolotin.
ZBT became a non-pledging fraternity in 1989, in an effort to eliminate hazing. The fraternity was having problems with pledges being treated like “second-class citizens,” so they created the “Brotherhood Program.”
The program emphasizes earning membership every day while in the organization, as opposed to earning the membership over the course of only one semester.
“Because our founders knew what it felt like to be discriminated against, it is important to ZBT that we always provide a welcoming environment to any college male of good moral character who is passionate about our mission as a Jewish fraternity,” Bolotin said.
The fraternity also experienced a lower level of interest in the 1970s because of the Vietnam conflict and the anti-establishment feelings that were popular during that time.
Nationwide, ZBT has around 110,000 members at more than 80 campuses in both the U.S. and Canada.
There is another Jewish fraternity on campus, Alpha Epsilon Pi.
Drew Eltis, the president of Alpha Epsilon Pi, said having another
Jewish fraternity on campus was a good thing for the Jewish community.
“We’re looking forward to the growing Jewish population on campus,” Eltis said.
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