The AEPi antisemitism toolkit is the fraternity’s latest effort to prepare Jewish students and administrators for the new academic year, aiming to protect campuses from rising hate and strengthen student leadership.

Recently, several Jewish organizations, some of which are partner organizations to AEPi, released statements to the press with their demands to higher education institutions. Others retorted, saying that the demands were not strong enough.

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Alpha Epsilon Pi has been involved specifically in the higher education space and has always been engaged with Jewish communal issues as well as issues of higher education. On campus, these are intrinsically linked for Jewish students.

In the last few years, many in our community have learned about this link the hard way. Time, place and manner restrictions on speech are enshrined in student codes of conduct; they became a topic of conversation when anti-Israel encampments took over quads in the spring of 2024. In addition, verbiage contained in academic freedom policies governs the conduct of professors and enshrines a Jewish student’s right to defend Israel or cite Israeli sources in their papers. And technology policies often ensure that universities hold student groups and students accountable for online bullying or incitement.

But this is not new for AEPi.

As a college fraternity that develops leadership for the Jewish community, we not only work with chapters but engage in direct programming and advocacy. That works to create an environment conducive to Jewish students’ success on campuses. We have been engaged and warning about college antisemitism as this monster has shifted forms from antizionism and BDS toward classic outright Jew-hatred and now to a very scary alignment of both. Throughout the last 25 years, AEPi has implemented a critical three-pronged strategy. We appreciate the efforts of our colleagues from the many Jewish and campus-Jewish organizations joining in to raise the alarm about these issues, but we urge our peers to engage on campus and in higher educational forums with us through these three critical approaches.

First: We must build strong Jewish students. We can never let others derail us from our core missions. For AEPi, it is “developing leadership for the Jewish community,” but we know that this is just part of the mission of the Jewish people for millennia. We know the value of our youth. As it is said by the prophet, “Your elders shall dream dreams, and your youth shall see visions” (Joel 3:1). We may dream of what the world should be or could have been, but it is the young Jews who will make it into what will be.

Because of our program at AEPi, we see brothers develop the skills and aptitude required to push back against antisemitism. Whether standing in the quad waving an Israeli flag, speaking out at student or municipal government meetings or leading the largest Jewish organizations in the country, you will find AEPi brothers on the front lines of this battle. Undergraduate brothers demonstrate their Jewish pride every day in a multitude of different ways. They plan and execute tens of thousands of campus programs each year. Last November, nearly 100 chapters gathered to simply have Shabbat dinner together. The “Shabbat Across AEPi” initiative is particularly poignant, as it demonstrates that AEPi undergraduates are not going to succumb to fear and intimidation tactics.

Last fall, on the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, AEPi chapters participated in the “Strength Through Service” initiative. It encouraged chapters to get together and devote time to tikkun olam as a way of rededicating themselves to our Jewish values and traditions. Even in the world’s darkest days, AEPi brothers committed themselves to creating and finding light together as strong Jews. What a perfect lesson for students to be teaching the world!

Second: We must build community, not just Jewish community. When you want allies, you must exert effort to build relationships because relationships. Too many of our Jewish organizations scream into an echo chamber, but AEPi is a Jewish organization that reaches out far beyond the Jewish community. Last school year, more than 5,000 campus programs organized by AEPi chapters included non-members and non-Jews. Philanthropy events, community service opportunities, professional development programs, and, of course, our social events collectively accounted for 2.9-plus million touchpoints.

Why is this important? A 2023 publication from ADL found that “people who believe a higher number of anti-Jewish tropes tend to: 1) know little about Jews, Judaism, and Jewish history; 2) not have any relationships with Jewish people and/or describe their past experiences with Jews negatively; 3) not think that Jews face hostility or danger in the United States today; and, 4) show a general disposition toward conspiracy theory thinking.”

On a national level, we work alongside our non-Jewish peer Greek life organizations and university colleagues. We form incredible friendships and invest in their success. It is important to point out that AEPi has been a consistent stakeholder in these institutions and has operated on their campuses for 110 years. After Oct. 7, when campuses erupted, our colleagues called to check on our students, gave us audience and helped us to reach their members with our messages.

Third: We advocate. We do not limit advocacy to demand letters or publicity stunts. We engage deeply in the work required to keep all students on campuses safe.

I sent an email to more than 500 campus administrators (university presidents, student life officers, directors of Greek life, etc.) in the summer of 2023—three months before Oct. 7—discussing several safety issues. Among them was a warning of the possibility of outside agitators coming on campus, disguised as members of groups like Students for Justice in Palestine, fomenting unrest and making Jewish student life dangerous. Unfortunately, that warning proved to be eerily prophetic. In the wake of Oct. 7, AEPi has sent messages to administrators when the Jewish community is aware of increased threat levels or heightened political tensions to be better prepared to act in the moment. Our emails are not just hollow messages; they come with tangible requests and tangible offers of assistance in working toward common goals.

We also show up to conferences with timely resources to help higher-education administrators at all levels acquire education and learn best practices.

AEPi is the only national Jewish organization that regularly attends student affairs conferences, which allows us to meet with campus security and police departments; hold meetings with DEI officers; see vice presidents of student affairs; consult on policy with university general counsels; and discuss bias with those who study higher education. One of the best conferences last year was the Association of Student Conduct Administrators (ASCA), where we engaged in discussion about free speech, free association, time/place/manner restrictions, campus conduct and Title VI rules and investigations.

By engaging, we can advocate within institutions’ administrative offices on subjects such as equal treatment for Jewish students and ensuring that an institution’s protocols are followed equally, no matter which side of an argument one might be on. (This subject, for example, was one of particular importance during the heyday of the tent encampments on campuses, which were almost always in conflict with university regulations, and which were routinely ignored by university administrators due to fears of backlash.)

One of our most successful endeavors in the past three years has been the offer to meet with campus administrators for “off the record” conversations. Administrators can consult with their Jewish colleagues at AEPi without judgment and in a safe space. They ask tough questions and get answers and perspectives from those with critical knowledge of legal, academic and institutional issues specific to the higher education space. These meetings also commonly allowed administrators to ask us to help them understand how anti-Israel activity was considered antisemitism by Jewish students.

As a result of these conversations, pragmatic changes were made to student codes of conduct and administrators were better equipped to handle these issues, dramatically increasing safety for all students.

Moving forward, we plan to tackle difficult discussions on:

• Tackling the senseless unavailability of Federal Nonprofit Security Grants for Jewish student organizations, where most of the campus programming happens, including Jewish fraternities and sororities.
• Ensuring that student safety and security policies and practices incorporate Jewish constituents’ concerns.
• Developing academic standards that eliminate bias.
• Including Jewish issues and narratives in DEI programs.
• Implementing more stringent and equal enforcement of student codes of conduct.
• Enforcing technology and social-media bullying policies.
• Resourcing and training for campus law enforcement.
• Developing transparency policies regarding campus safety and campus law enforcement.
• Adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.
• Protecting Student Rights (Speech, Assembly, Association, due process).

AEPi applauds its partner organizations in the Jewish world that are now advocating for Jewish students. The fraternity encourages others to join our efforts to do the difficult work within the infrastructure of higher education to clear a better path and, at the same time, encourages others to demonstrate the courage and provide the voice—on campus—that will resonate.