Alpha Omega (fraternity) explained

Alpha Omega (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ΑΩ, sometimes English: AO), is a professional Jewish dental fraternity. It was founded in Baltimore, Maryland in 1907 by a group of dental students originally to fight discrimination in dental schools. The headquarters is currently located in Clarksville, TN.

Objectives

The objectives of the fraternity are to promote the profession of Dentistry; to establish, foster and develop high standards of scholarship, leadership and character; to inculcate a spirit of fellowship amongst all its members; to create and bind together a body of professional people, who, by scholarly attainments, faithful service and the maintenance of ethical ideals and principles, have achieved distinction; to honor achievement in others; to strive for breadth of vision, unity in action and accomplishment of ideals; to commend all worthy deeds, and if fraternal welfare demands, to call and counsel with its members; to accept, sponsor and develop the cultural and traditional achievements of our faith; to build within our fraternity a triangle, the base of which is Judaism, the supporting sides, professionalism and fraternalism.

Achievements

In 1953, the fraternity founded The Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Dental Medicine in Jerusalem. The fraternity also founded The Tel Aviv University School of Dental Medicine, now called the Goldschleger School of Dental Medicine, in Tel Aviv, Israel. It continues to raise funds through campaigns and grants from its various foundations to provide continual support for both schools.^{[1] [2] [3]}

History

• 1907: At the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in Philadelphia, a group of students joined to create an organization called Ramach, the predecessor to Alpha Omega
• 1907: A similar group with similar objectives known as Alpha Omega was organized in Baltimore. These two groups joined as the Alpha Omega Fraternity in 1907
• 1912: First Alpha Omega Fraternity Convention was held in New York with 40 men in attendance
• 1916: Constitution and bylaws were adopted
• 1916: First alumni chapter was established in Philadelphia - prior to that Alpha Omega was made up of student chapters
• 1917: First issue of the Alpha Omegan was published
• 1921: Pi Student Chapter was formed in Toronto thereby expanding Alpha Omega into an international scope
• 1924: First non-US alumni chapter was founded in Toronto
• 1932: (October 7), merger with Alpha Zeta Gamma completed with chartering of Alpha Kappa and Alpha Lambda.
• 1936: Alpha Omega establishes the Achievement Medal. Given to an individual outstanding in Dentistry or its allied sciences, in recognition of his or her professional contribution. Alpha Omega has honored many giants in the field of dentistry and medicine, which included Albert Einstein, Jonas Salk, Charles Best, Harry Sicher, D. W alter Cohen, Ronald Goldstein, Gordon Christensen and most recently R. Bruce Donoff, Dean of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine
• 1941: Alpha Omega donates a mobile dental ambulance to the Royal Canadian Dental Corps
• 1942: Three additional mobile dental ambulances were donated to the United States Army
• 1946: Alpha Omega commitment in the creation of a dental school in Israel serves as impetus for the formation of its first chapters outside of North America
• 1948: With the creation of the state of Israel Alpha Omega donated materials, including hospital and field equipment, as well as qualified teachers to help train Israeli personnel. Estimated value of the materials, service and equipment sent to Europe and Israel exceeded over $500,000
• 1949: Alpha Omega Biological Laboratory at Brandeis University established - first corporate gift received by this newly established first Jewish-sponsored non-sectarian college
• 1950: Headquarters relocated to New York City from Philadelphia
• 1952: Founded the Hadassah, Hebrew University School of Dental Medicine (interim provisional school)
• 1952: Harry Jolly of Canada becomes first non US president of Alpha Omega
• 1953: Hebrew University Hadassah School of Dental Medicine, founded by Alpha Omega was formally dedicated in Jerusalem - Alpha Omega's contributions to date over $1.5 million
• 1954: Israeli chapters chartered in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa
• 1963: First European chapter established in Paris
• 1965: Pegasus Chapter Puerto Princessa City Palawan Philippines
• 1967: Bicol Camarines sur Philippines Chapter UNC
• 1969: The US Alpha Omega Foundation incorporated in the state of New York as a tax-exempt, nonprofit organization
• 2015: Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ΑΩ in partnership with Henry Schein launched the Alpha Omega Henry Schein Cares Holocaust Survivors Oral Health Program

Alpha Zeta Gamma

Alpha Zeta Gamma was a Jewish Dental Fraternity that officially merged with Alpha Omega on .

Alpha Zeta Gamma was founded at the Chicago College of Dental Surgery in 1910 with their Alpha chapter there and chartered in the State of Illinois on . Additional chapters were at Northwestern (Beta) in 1914(?), Illinois (Gamma), Western Reserve (Delta) in 1912, Maryland (Theta) in 1921, Harvard (Eta), Pittsburgh (Kappa) in 1922 and Tufts (Phi) in 1923. Alumni Clubs were Illinois Alumni Club, Alpha Zeta Gamma Study Club of Chicago, The Boston Alumni Club and the New York Alumni Association.

A fire at the National Office in 1925 destroyed many early records. In November 1931, an invitation was extended to Alpha Omega to send representatives to meet with the Supreme Council of Alpha Zeta Gamma. With the merger viewed favorably, Alpha Omega invited representatives of Alpha Zeta Gamma to their 1931 convention in Buffalo, New York. Terms of the merger were approved at the convention by Alpha Omega and one week later by the Supreme Council of Alpha Zeta Gamma. At the meeting of the Chicago Dental Society, a joint banquet of Alpha Omega and Alpha Zeta Gamma showed positive sentiment on both sides. On the merger contract was signed and on, the Alpha Zeta Gamma chapters at Chicago College of Dental Surgery (Loyola of Chicago) and Northwestern were chartered as chapters of Alpha Omega.

Chapters

This is a list of the chapters for Alpha Omega, in order of founding:^{[4] [5]}

Chapter	Installed Date and Range	Institution	Location	Country	Status	Reference
Ramach (see Theta-Ramach)	–	Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery (later Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia)	Philadelphia, PA	USA	Merged
Zeta (see Zeta-Mu)	–	University of Maryland	Baltimore, MD	USA	Merged
Beta		University of Pennsylvania	Philadelphia, PA	USA	Active
Gamma		Tufts University	Boston, MA	USA	Active
Iota		NYU (Square)	New York, NY	USA	Active
Delta	–19xx	Harvard University	Boston, MA	USA	Inactive
Eta Originally "Achim"		Columbia University	New York, NY	USA	Active
Theta (see Theta-Ramach)	–	Temple University	Philadelphia, PA	USA	Merged
Theta-Ramach		Temple University	Philadelphia, PA	USA	Active
Sigma	–	Jersey City College of Dentistry	Jersey City, NJ	USA	Inactive
Alpha		SUNY Buffalo	Buffalo, NY	USA	Active
Epsilon		Georgetown University	Washington, D.C.	USA	Active
Kappa (see Kappa-Nu)	–	University of the Pacific (College of P&S)	San Francisco, CA	USA	Merged
Lambda	–19xx	Oregon Health & Science University School of Dentistry	Portland, OR	USA	Inactive
Mu (see Zeta-Mu)	–	Baltimore College of Dental Surgery	Baltimore, MD	USA	Merged
Nu (see Kappa-Nu)	-	University of California at San Francisco	San Francisco, CA	USA	Merged
Xi	–	Colorado College of Dental Surgery	Denver, CO	USA	Inactive
Omicron	–	University of Pittsburgh	Pittsburgh, PA	USA	Inactive
Pi		University of Toronto	Toronto, Ontario	Canada	Active
Rho	–1968+		Minneapolis, MN	USA	Inactive
Zeta-Mu		University of Maryland, College Park	College Park, MD	USA	Active
Tau			Los Angeles, CA	USA	Active
Upsilon	–		Milwaukee, WI	USA	Inactive	[6]
Phi	–		Louisville, KY	USA	Inactive
Chi			Ann Arbor, MI	USA	Active
Psi			Columbus, OH	USA	Active
Alpha Alpha			Chicago, IL	USA	Active
Alpha Beta			Richmond, VA	USA	Active
Alpha Gamma			Indianapolis, IN	USA	Active
Alpha Delta	–	Emory University	Atlanta, GA	USA	Inactive	[7]
Alpha Epsilon	–	Washington University in St. Louis	St. Louis, MO	USA	Inactive
Kappa-Nu		University of the Pacific (College of P&S) and University of California at San Francisco	San Francisco, CA	USA	Active
Alpha Eta			Iowa City, IA	USA	Active
Alpha Iota			Kansas City, MO	USA	Active
Alpha Theta	– ?	Loyola University	New Orleans, LA	USA	Inactive	[8]
Alpha Kappa			Evanston, IL	USA	Active
Alpha Lambda			Chicago, IL	USA	Active
Alpha Mu	–19xx		Halifax, Nova Scotia	Canada	Inactive
Alpha Nu			Detroit, MI	USA	Active
Alpha Zeta	–		Memphis, TN	USA	Active
Omega		Case Western University	Cleveland, OH	USA	Active
Alpha Chi	–19xx,	Texas A&M University College of Dentistry	Dallas, TX	USA	Active
Alpha Pi		McGill University	Montreal, Quebec	Canada	Active
Alpha Sigma		Hebrew University	Jerusalem	Israel	Active
National Undergraduate Chapter	–19xx	Howard University	Washington, D.C.	USA	Inactive
Alpha Psi	–19xx	Seton Hall University	South Orange, NJ	USA	Inactive	[9]
Alpha Rho	–19xx	University of Manitoba	Winnipeg, Manitoba	Canada	Inactive
Alpha Upsilon	–19xx	University of Alabama	Birmingham, AL	USA	Inactive
Alpha Tau		University of California Los Angeles	Los Angeles, CA	USA	Active
Beta Alpha	–19xx	Meharry Medical	Nashville, TN	USA	Inactive
Beta Beta	–19xx	University of Florida	Gainesville, FL	USA	Inactive
Beta Chi	-	Harwood University	Washington, DC	USA	Inactive
Beta Delta		University of Western Ontario	London, ON	Canada	Active
Beta Epsilon		Boston University	Boston, MA	USA	Active
Beta Eta	-	UT Houston (Texas Dentistry)	Houston, TX	USA	Inactive
Beta Gamma	-19xx	University of Texas, San Antonio	San Antonio, TX	USA	Inactive
Beta Iota		University of Colorado	Aurora, CO	USA	Active
Beta Kappa	-19xx	Tel Aviv University	Tel Aviv	Israel	Inactive
Beta Lambda	-19xx	University of Connecticut	Farmington, CT	USA	Inactive
Sigma Beta	-19xx	SUNY, Stony Brook	Stony Brook, NY	USA	Inactive
Delta Rho	-	Fairleigh Dickinson University	Rutherford, NJ	USA	Inactive
Beta Upsilon	-19xx	University of Buenos Aires ?	Buenos Aires	Argentina	Inactive
Sigma Alpha	-19xx	University of the Witwatersrand	Johannesburg	South Africa	Inactive
Tau Alpha Mu	19xx ?	Nova Southeastern University	Fort Lauderdale, FL	USA	Active
Capítulo Lambda	19xx ?	University of Monterrey	Monterrey, Nuevo León	Mexico	Active
Gamma Beta	19xx ?	Midwestern University	Downers Grove, IL	USA	Active
Nu Gamma	19xx ?	University of North Carolina	Chapel Hill, NC	USA	Active
Nu Epsilon	19xx ?	University of New England	Portland, ME	USA	Active

See also

• Professional fraternities and sororities
• List of dental schools in Israel
• List of Jewish fraternities and sororities
• List of dental schools in the United States
• List of defunct dental schools in the United States

Notes and References

1. Book: Jack L. . Anson . Robert F. . Marchenasi . Baird's Manual of American Fraternities . 20th . 1991 . 1879 . Baird's Manual Foundation, Inc. . Indianapolis, IN . 978-0963715906 . V-8–9.
2. Noted, for example in this press released by the American Friends of Tel Aviv University, dated, accessed 18 May 2022.
3. Book: SDM Newsletter . December 2015 . Tel Aviv University . 18 May 2022 . PDF . The Maurice and Gabriela Goldschleger School of Dental Medicine: Founded by the Alpha Omega International Fraternity.
4. Book: Alpha Omega History. 1933.
5. Book: William Raimond Baird. Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities. 19th . 1977. Baird's Manual Foundation, Incorporated. 501.
6. The 1933 History of the fraternity has a typo on scanned p.41, where the chapter list swaps the locations of Tau and Upsilon chapters. The body text of that book confirms the correct schools.
7. Noted in Emory Magazine, in an article about Anti-Discrimination
8. Web site: Open Wide.
9. https://archivesspace-library.shu.edu/repositories/2/resources/322 Seton Hall College of Medicine and Dentistry records