Pi Alpha Tau () sorority was a national, Jewish women's sorority operating in the United States between, approximately, and .
History Pi Alpha Tau sorority was established for Jewish women at Hunter College, a unit of the City University of New York. pp.14 and.317 The exact founding date of the sorority is uncertain: The Oracle of Adelphi College () gave the date as , while the edition of The Oracle gives it as ; Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities, 14th ed., (), claimed . Regardless, Pi Alpha Tau grew slowly and steadily into a national organization.
According to the 1937 Oracle, a group of girls created the new sorority on the Hunter College campus, remarking, "Sorority life was so congenial and agreeable to these modern pioneers that their associates in other college[s] were encouraged to follow the Greek letter path." Pi Alpha Tau established chapters at schools in the New York City metropolitan area, soon in Albany, and by opened its first chapter outside of the state, in New Jersey.
Further expansion outside of the New York area brought chapters at Cincinnati and Wisconsin, eventually marking a total of twelve chapters, all within the US.
The Great Depression, World War II, and the gradual Jewish integration into non-Jewish national organizations took their toll: By , Pi Alpha Tau ceased to operate as a national organization. Circumstances of its dissolution are unknown; three chapters appear to have survived into the s. The two youngest chapters, Lambda at CUNY, Brooklyn and Mu at Syracuse withdrew by or earlier to operate as locals, later creating a two-chapter sorority called Sigma Tau Delta; they opted to merge into Alpha Sigma Tau in . The Alpha chapter survived as a de facto local for over a decade, still under the name Pi Alpha Tau, opting to become a chapter of Sigma Delta Tau in .
Symbols The Pi Alpha Tau membership badge was a black enamel shield surrounded by jewels. The Greek letters, in gold, were inscribed vertically on the shield. A jewel was between the enamel and the surrounding jewel photo.The Album of Washington Square College, 1934, p. 92 Its pledge pin was a diamond divided in half horizontally into two equilateral triangles. The top half being dark colored, the bottom light colored.photo, The Badger, 1931, University of Wisconsin, p. 385.
The sorority's values, to be inferred from the Oracle article, were "high standards of scholarship and fraternity". p.89
Chapter list Following is a list of the chapters of Pi Alpha Tau.
ChapterCharter date and rangeInstitutionLocationStatusAlpha – 1960Hunter CollegeNew York City, New YorkWithdrew () Oracle yearbook, (1929). Adelphi, pp.130-131. Accessed 22 November 2021.Beta1920–192x ?New York UniversityNew York City, New YorkInactiveGamma – 1938Adelphi CollegeGarden City, New YorkInactiveDelta 1920–192x ?Brooklyn Law SchoolBrooklyn, New YorkInactiveEpsilon1925–1942University at Albany, SUNYAlbany, New YorkInactiveZeta1924–19xx ?Rutgers Law SchoolNewark, New JerseyInactiveEta1927–1941University of CincinnatiCincinnati, OhioInactiveUniversity of Cincinnati SororitiesTheta1929–193x ?LIU BrooklynBrooklyn, New YorkInactiveIota1929–1933University of Wisconsin–MadisonMadison, WisconsinInactiveKappa1929–19xx ?St. John's UniversityQueens, New YorkInactive Lambda1930–1957Brooklyn CollegeBrooklyn, New YorkWithdrew (, then ) Mu1930–1957Syracuse UniversitySyracuse, New YorkWithdrew (, then )
See also List of Jewish fraternities and sororities Sigma Delta Tau Alpha Sigma Tau
References
Further reading Archival record: "Pi Alpha Tau Sorority Alpha Chapter", housed in Box 19, Folder 4, Sara Delano Roosevelt Memorial House Collection, Archives and Special Collections of the Hunter College, City University of New York. Source for Harriet Brown's historical summary, undated.