Newspaper Page Text
Vol. XLV
The Southern Israelite
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry - Established 1QOt \,,« J uio'no
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Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, April 10, 1970
Changing Campus Social Scene:
Merger of ZBT and PhiEp Frats
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By Adolph Rosenberg
Winds of campus change have settled upon the Jewish scene
at about 160 college campuses in the U. S. and Canada with
reverberating upheavals into literally thousands of American homes,
leaving as one major result the
merging of two major fraterni
ties.
Officials of Zeta Beta Tau fra
ternity and Phi Epsilon Pi fra
ternity this week issued a public
statement about their merger
infS*one central organization.
The corporate name of the new
organization continues under the
banner of Zeta Beta Tau Frater
nity, Inc.
The consolidation is effective
on all American and Canadian
college campuses where the fra
ternities maintain chapters apd
colonies.
While an element of choice
seems available hs an alterna
tive undergraduate groups main
tain the option of either merging
locally or remaining separate
chapters under the merged fra
ternity.
Change in Greek-letter iden-
ity will have major implications
particularly at the University of
Georgia and at Georgia Tech, for
instance, where Phi Epsilon
Chapters have existed for more
than half a century, establishing
traditions and bonds for several
generations of students.
Huge real estate facilities, each
estimated in the vicinity of
$100,000, are involved in the fra
ternity shift and such stagSfeing
on-and-off-campus continuity for
members as to be impossible to
Seattle U.
Dismisses
Rabbi
SEATTLE (JTA)—An Ortho
dox rabbi was dismissed from
the staff of Seattle University, a
Jesuit institution, leaving it
without Judaica courses for the
first time in nine years. The Ad
ministration said Rabbi Arthur
A. Jacobovitz’s courses in Jew
ish history and Jewish theology,
which had run from 1961
through last term and were to
be resumed this September,
were being dropped because of
a 20 percent budget cut, even
though he had been earning
only $500 a term since 1962. The
cancellation was made despite
Rabbi Jacobovitz’s willingness to
teach without pay, as he had
done his first year at the univer
sity. The school explained that
teaching gratis was contrary to
its policy.
Although there are only seven
or eight Jewish students at the
3,000 student, largely Catholic,
partially Protestant institution,
Rabbi Jacobovitz — whose pro
gram of three courses was re
duced to two last fall—has had
far more than that rally to his
cause in the wake of his dis
missal. A petition signed by over
1,100 students—more than voted
in last month’s campus elections
— urged his reinstatement,
charging that “discontinuing the
rabbi’s services would exclude
representation of Jewish
thought” on the campus. The stu
dents noted that the university
persident had recently found
Rabbi Jacobovitz “a competent
teacher, a good scholar and an
asset to the university.” The
rabbi also serves as director of
the off-campus B’nai B’rith Hil-
el Foundation at the University
of Washington.
immediately evaluate on these
two canalises alone.
Southern campuses where
“Zeeb” or “Phi Ep” chapter
members are located include:
Alabama, Duke, North Caro
lina, Georgia, Georgia U., Geor
gia Tech, Kentucky, Louisville,
Maryland, Memphis State, Miami
U., South Carolina U., Richmond,
Tampa, Tennessee, Texas, Tn-
lane, Vanderbilt, Virginia and
Washington & Lee.
The final merger is a part of
the changing picture which
about 1 a decade ago witnessed
Phi Ep absorption of Kappa Nu
and a year ago Zeta Beta Tau
consolidation of Phi Sigma Del
ta fraternity.
Reasons for the massive con
solidation were listed by Atlanta
fraternity leaders as having gen
esis in the changing pattern of
student life. They add up to the
basic denominator that Jewish
fraternities, as all others, are
“in trouble.”
Financial conditions are a ma
jor part, it was indicated, since
it is becoming increasingly diffi
cult to maintain fraternity fa
cilities on campuses in view of
Atlanta
Federation
Campaign
Pledges
Reach
$3,100,000
Stories on page 10 & 11
the upgrading of dormitory and
apartment facilities now avail
able.
Students who once could find
.better diving conditions at the
“frat house” now are becoming
more and more aware that they
can move into apartment com
plexes with swimming pool and
athletic facilities not available
heretofore on “Fraternity Row.”
These provide more unfettered
restrictions than those which th6
fraternity must maintain on its
own grounds.
Where once the home-type
meal atmosphere was a major
factor, aside from the advantages
of fraternity life, thiTSfudent
may now in some instances even
reside in co-ed dormitories, prob
ably much more to their adven
turous liking.
In the main the stronger finan
cial assistance possible by a
strong major fraternity outfit
can assist struggling chapters
which find the going rough to
make ends "meet.
Another factor in the merger
is that some students are not
completely satisfied with the
heretofore “non-involvement” of
the Greek-letter men in the cam
pus and so-called student unrest.
We are waking up to the need
for more involvement of this
type, one fraternity leader no
ted, but “it is late and it may be
too late.”
Here is the formal announce
ment.
Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity, in
ternational intercollegiate men’s
organization, and Phi Epsilon
Pi Fraternity, Inc. have an
nounced that the memberships of
their respective fraternities have
Continued on page 5
Kasakov
At Fathers Request
NEW YORK (JTA)— Yasha
Kasakov, the 23-year-old Rus
sian-born Israeli, ended an eight-
day hunger strike he staged near
the United Nations to dramatize
the plight of his family and
other Soviet Jews. He said he
called off his action at the urging
of his father, Joseph, who had
telephoned from Moscow to the
Israel Mission at the UN asking
officials to appeal to his son to
end the fast
After hearing that anneal di
rectly from Ambassador Yosef
Tekoah, Israel’s chief renresen-
tative at the UN, the youth an
nounced, at a sidewalk press
conference in a pouring rain, that
he was ending his hunger strike
and entering a hospital for a
medical checkup before return
ing to Israel. He said he hoped
his 200-hour vigil opposite UN
headquarters would prompt So
viet authorities to grant mem
bers of his family exit visas
they have long sought to join
the youth in Israel. His immedi
ate family consists of his mother,
his father and a brother and
sister.
The youth was allowed to leave
the Soviet Union a year ago. He
migrated to Israel where he en
rolled as an engineering student
at the Haifa Technion. He said
that his father, an engineer, lost
his job after petitioning Soviet
officials for exit visas. The fa
ther was one of 18 Moscow Jews
who recently wrote to the So
viet Foreign Ministry, asking
Jewish emigration rights. Ac
cording to the youth, his father
was then singled out by the So
viet press for harrassment. After
the youth started his hunger
strike, his father sent another
letter to Soviet leaders, saying
his son’s act was not directed
against the Soviet Union but one
started out of desperation.
In Brief...
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Defense
Minister Moshe Dayan, gave a
sympathetic hearing to Arab
farmers in the Jordan. Valley
who protested that anti-terrorist
measures taken by Israeli forces
in the occupied territory pre
vented them from working
their land. But Gen. Dayan told
them. "If I must choose between
ensuring the security of human
life and the continuity of agri-
culural work, I shall chose the
former.”
COPPENHAGEN (JTA)— Jew
ish students, protesting the
treatment of Jews in Russia, held
a 12-hour torchlight vigil in
front of the Soviet Embassy* here
and then paraded through the
city. There were about 250 par
ticipants. The demonstrator!
tried to present the Russian Am
bassador with a copy of a letter
written by 18 Jews from the
Soviet Georgian Republic de
manding the right to emigrate
to Israel. The Ambassador re-
Arabs Take Over Church
Jewish ‘Defensers’ Get in Act
NEW YORK (JTA)— A con
frontation between Arab and
Jewish militants at Judson Mem
orial Church in Greenwich Vil
lage was subdued by the police
before their anger could erupt
into violence. The Arabs, who
described themselves as “Pales-
tinian refugees’” staged a six-
hour demonstration in the church
urcmuii's PR6-PASswt^cieM*«€
disrupting service to protest
what it called its pro-Israel
stance.
Their self-styled leader, John
Lawrence, head of the anti-Is
rael group FAIR (Federated
Americans Against Imperialism
and Racism), said they sought
to expose alleged attacks on pro-
Arab groups in the city by
“Jewish vandals, Jewish racists
and their criminal supporters,”
as well as Israeli “murder of
Arab children and women.”
On hearing of the demonstra
tion, members of the Jewish De
fense League converged on the
site. According to the Rev. How
ard Moody, senior minister of
the church, they ordered him to
clear the Arabr out in two hours
or they would take unilateral
action.
Rev. Moody told the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency he refused
to accede to their demands, and
instead spoke with the Arabs,
who, he reported, had been
duped by Mr. Lawrence. "They
wanted their complaints (about
Israel) to be heard and we heard
them,” he said. After that “there
wasn’t any problem.” Mr. Law
rence had apparently selected
the Judson church as a symbol
of Protestant pro-Israeli policy.
“He claims I’m pro-Israel, which
I am,” Rev. Moody commented.
Earlier in the day, the JDL
held memorial services in front
of the United Arab Republic
Mission to the United Nations,
on behalf of civilian victims of
“Arab terrorism during the past
century.”
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The
American Jewish Committee
proposed a "massive campaign*
to increase citizen participation
in the electorial process with the
specific goal of 100 million voters
in the 1978 presidential elections.
Its recommendations included
the extension of voting rights to
18-year-olds. The plan was un
veiled at a meeting of the
AJCommittee board of Gover
nors here. It was presented by
AJCommittee president Philip
E. Hoffman to Leonard Garment,
special White House assistant,
for submission to President
Nixon. The campaign aims too
increase the number of persons
involved in both the electoral
and political processes, to up
grade the equality of voter par
ticipation and to broaden and
strengthen the enforcement of
laws relating to voting.
NEW YORK (JTA)—The pub
lication of the first extensive
body of instructional material on
Jews and Judaism to be prepared
especially for Christian parochial
schools was announced by thfi
Anti-Defamation League of B’nai
B’rith. Entitled ‘Image of the
Jews: Teachers Guide to Jews
and their Religion” its purpose,
according to the League is “to
help the individual (Christian)
teacher by providing a basic
fund of information and by of
fering a systematic approach to
the approach to the stpdy of the
Jewish religion.” Citing the man
ual as part of ADL’s efforts to
aid in Christian-Jewish dialogue,
Benjamin R. Epstein, national
director of the League, said that
"among Christians as among
Jews, the lack of knowledge of
the -others’ religion, attitudes,
life style and intentions is ap
palling ... It is hoped that this
study of Jews and Judaism will
lead to greater harmony, better
understanding and improved re
lations between members of the
(different) faiths.” \
I <( If .