Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity (AEPi) launched its Toronto Alumni Club at a brunch on June 20. The inaugural event coincided with the 25th anniversary of the fraternity in Ontario.
Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity alumni meet at an AEPi brunch. At top is Andrew Farberman, an alumni from the University of Ottawa and Neil Grunberg, an alumni from McGill University, with daughter Rory. [Cara Edell photo]
Since opening at the University of Western Ontario in 1985, AEPi has grown to become Canada’s largest fraternity.
With more than 400 active members at campuses across the country and an alumni base approaching the thousands, the inception of the Alumni Club will facilitate networking between members, while providing a support structure for current undergraduate chapters.
“Sunday’s brunch was an amazing success, with over 60 alumni attending, and on Father’s Day no less,” said Noam Berlin, an AEPi alumni from McMaster University who helped organize the event. “It marks the largest start of an Alumni Club in AEPi’s 97-year history.”
A short program during the brunch included messages from representatives of the Canadian AEPi chapters, as well as a raffle of prizes donated by esteemed alumni. AEPi’s executive director, Andrew Borans, along with international president, Mark Schiff and Supreme Exchequer Larry Leider, were present to officially start up the club.
Open to any alumni of any AEPi chapter, the club will provide social and business networking opportunities, engage in international philanthropies and help undergraduate chapters in the surrounding area.
It will also be an opportunity to reconnect with old friends, make new ones and get involved in the creation of the first AEPi Alumni Network in Canada.
“The Alumni Club will provide a job and mentor bank for the undergraduates who will soon be looking for jobs and a network for current alumni to exchange information on jobs as well share information on Jewish life, family life, community events and travel,” said Borans.
In addition to uniting alumni members, the brunch commemorated the fraternity’s first ever large-scale collaboration with UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. In a short ceremony during the brunch, Borans and Schiff presented federation officials with a cheque for over $12,000 to go towards the organization’s fundraising campaign for the federation’s Walk With Israel.
“Our mandate as a Jewish organization is to develop leaders for our community,” said Berlin. “AEPi has become a unique outlet to engage the best and brightest Jewish leaders on university campuses.”
While the Toronto Alumni Club was being created, Berlin said, a small group of undergraduates and alumni led by Joshua Rosen, Jesse Cohen and Aryeh Sand from the University of Toronto chapter, found another avenue for the leadership skills they had learned in the fraternity.
“Since AEPi has historically been a strong supporter of many local and Israeli causes, Walk With Israel struck us as a unique opportunity to fuse two of our main focuses into a large event that will help us strengthen ties with the Jewish community.”
Like B’nai Brith, Chabad, Gift of Life and Hillel, Borans said, Federation is one of AEPi’s partner agencies.
Borans said AEPi has “incredible Canadian alumni,” including former Liberal MP Herb Gray; two of Israel’s Canadian ambassadors, Hiam Divon and Alan Baker; as well as the immediate past president of B’nai Brith International, Moishe Smith.
For Berlin, being an AEPi alumni “means you’re a strong, passionate Jewish adult that is able to lead both Jewish and secular communities to greater things. The sense of dedication felt [at the brunch] was something I always spoke of, and seeing it with my own eyes was truly fulfilling.”
