Fraternity History

Alpha Epsilon Pi, the international Jewish fraternity, was founded in 1913 at the New York University School of Commerce against the backdrop of the forthcoming First World War. The fraternity was initially established to provide Jewish college men an opportunity to join a brotherhood of men with similar religious backgrounds when other organizations discriminated against their beliefs.

Alpha Epsilon Pi began when a group of eleven Jewish students at NYU decided to form a new fraternity on the basis that it was good for students, and that it could strengthen the character of student life at the university. When Charles C. Moskowitz, a skilled basketball player, transferred from City College of New York to NYU in 1912, his excellence in athletics was highly sought after by one of the fraternities at NYU. Moskowitz rushed this fraternity and was given a bid to become a member, but when he asked if bids could be extended to some of his close Jewish friends, he was told that the bid was for him alone. He met with his Jewish friends, and they decided to form a new Jewish fraternity that would allow in young Jewish men who had been excluded by the other fraternities at NYU.

The eleven founding members were: Isador M. Glazer, Herman L. Kraus, Arthur M. Lipkint, Benjamin M. Meyer, Hyman Schulman, Emil J. Lustgarten, Arthur E. Leopold, Charles J. Pintel, Maurice Plager, David K. Schafer and Charles C. Moskowitz; Moskowitz was chosen as the fraternity’s first president. Several of its founding members became distinguished citizens in the university and national communities. Most notably, Charles Moskowitz became the president and treasurer of MGM Studios.

After several months of meetings, the fraternity decided that it would obtain official recognition from the university. A letter was sent to the Dean of the School of Commerce, and on November 7, 1913, Alpha Epsilon Pi was officially established as a fraternity at NYU.

The difficult task ahead for the fledgling fraternity was the recruitment of new members to ensure its survival for generations of Jewish men to come. Alpha Epsilon Pi became a true national fraternity when contact was made with a group of men from Cornell University in 1917. The men from Cornell had created a small local fraternity there, which was incorporated into Alpha Epsilon Pi as the fraternity’s second chapter.

When the United States entered into World War I in 1917, Alpha Epsilon Pi had only initiated just over 50 members. Almost every member joined the United States military during the war, which caused the fraternity to become nearly inactive during the war. After the war, expansion continued until nearly 30 chapters nationwide had been established in 1941. The onset of World War II again halted expansion as several of its members were called to duty. At the conclusion of World War II, the fraternity regained momentum and reopened its inactive chapters while recruiting hundreds of new members.

Today, Alpha Epsilon Pi is one of the leading fraternities in the world.

The preceding write-up was adopted from aepi.org.

Chapter History

The Mu Upsilon chapter at University of Minnesota was initially charted in 1949 before closing in the early 1970s due to the Vietnam War. The Mu Upsilon chapter was recolonized in 2002, before rechartering in 2004.