History

A message from Shoshana Zeldner, one of our founding mothers:

“I always knew that I would never join a sorority unless it was a Jewish one. I actually was a little bummed that U of O didn't have one because I had a hard time finding a group of friends those first few months of college. So, after I established myself, found my friends, and was able to pursue my own interests, I decided that I wanted to leave something here for others who would follow me. This was something I would have wanted when I was a freshman."

"During the spring of 2003, I tried contacting several Jewish sororities and found out how much work starting a chapter was actually going to be. In the fall of 2003, with the help of one of the sororities I had contacted, I immediately began scouting out women to help me on my quest. The first week of school I met women at Hillel events and held an information session at Hillel. Over twenty women attended. But, from that large group, a small number of us stayed on to make the sorority become a reality."

"With the help of Jeramie Bloom, Marie Hanawalt, Yelena Buzinover, Jess Mauer, Rachel Weintraub, and Eugenia Turov, Sigma began. We comprised the executive board and slowly began accumulating more members. It took a lot of hard work for us to get where we are today and we couldn't have done it without any one of us. After such successful recruitments in the past two years, I know that all of us are seeing our hard work turn into something bigger than we may have initially envisioned. We are so excited to have so many women involved and look forward to welcoming more sisters into our sorority and continuing our growth and development as a sisterhood in the coming years!”

University of Oregon | University of Oregon Greek Life | Oregon Hillel
Alpha Epsilon Pi - Upsilon Omega Chapter | Jewish Federation of Lane County