Ryan ChartrandBridget Veltri
arts@mustangdaily.net
Rosh Hashanah began at sundown on Tuesday night, signaling the beginning of the Jewish New Year and possibly a new chapter for the women of Alpha Epsilon.
The club and associate member of Panhellenic is hoping to become the first Jewish-interest sorority at Cal Poly.
Alpha Epsilon formally started last December and currently has 19 active members. They presented during the first night of formal fall recruitment, but due to their associate member status, will hold their recruitment a week after the other sororories.
Interested women can check out the group starting on Thursday Oct. 2.
“We seemed to have a lot of interest from girls at the WOW block party and farmers market, so hopefully we will have a big rush group this year,” said biology senior Jessie Singer.
Though Alpha Epsilon isn’t a full member of Panhellenic, they participate in all campus Greek events, hold weekly meetings, and perform local charity work.
“We exist and are supported by Panhellenic,” said civil engineering senior and Alpha Epsilon president Smadar Barasch. “We just want to get national status and make it official.”
This may be their year. The Panhellenic board, which is comprised of women from all the different campus sororities, will help decide, said agriculture senior and Panhellenic president Katy Westgaard.
To become official, Alpha Epsilon will need to prove to the Panhellenic executive board that it is ready. Once accepted, the girls will attempt to get backing from a national Jewish-interest sorority.
“Alpha Epsilon should be presenting and applying in December or January,” Westgaard said. “Hopefully it will get accepted by a national chapter.”
Although the women of Alpha Epsilon came together through a religious commonality, you don’t have to be a Jew to hang with this crew.
“We are a tight knit group who became friends through a common bond,” Barasch said. “We just want girls who are excited and nice; girls that are willing to take the extra time to get the sorority off the ground and get it started. We need girls that want to become leaders.”
Business senior Arielle Dekofsky’s involvement with Alpha Epsilon started long before she came to college. Her brother, Cal Poly graduate Micah Dekofsky, was a founding father of Alpha Epsilon Pi, Cal Poly’s Jewish-interest fraternity.
“I saw the comradery and brotherhood that was established though that organization,” Dekofsky said. “And I knew that there was nothing like that for girls here.”
When Dekofsky came to Cal Poly she experienced what she referred to as “opposite culture shock,” because the Jewish community on campus is so small compared to her hometown. She decided to take matters into her own hands.
Dekofsky and a couple of friends formed an unofficial club which they dubbed “Nice Jewish Girls.”
Eventually the club evolved into Alpha Epsilon.
If all goes well, perhaps by next year Alpha Epsilon will have evolved again – this time into an official sorority.