Our Crest encompasses symbols from each of our merged organizations, representing our Brotherhood of Kappa Nu, Phi Alpha, Phi Sigma Delta, Phi Epsilon Pi, and Zeta Beta Tau.
The "Credo" of Zeta Beta Tau
Our Four Tenets:
Intellectual Awareness
Social Responsibility
Integrity
Brotherly Love
ZBT National History
ZBT was founded in 1898 by Robert J. H. Gottheil as a youth Zionist society. The formation of this society, which included Jewish men from several New York City universities, was due to the exclusion of Jews from other fraternal organizations.
In 1903, ZBT officially became a Greek-letter fraternal Organization taking on the designation of Zeta Beta Tau. Since then, Zeta Beta Tau, as well as, other Jewish fraternities have thrived across the country.
In 1954, at our National Convention, delegates amended our constitution, rituals, and internal procedures to remove any form as sectarianism as a need for membership of our Fraternity. Since then, Zeta Beta Tau has and will be open to recruiting and initiating men of good character, regardless of religion, race, or creed who accept our principles.
In 1969, four national Jewish fraternities joined our brotherhood when Phi Sigma Delta (Phi Alpha merged in 1959) and Phi Epsilon Pi (Kappa Nu merged in 1961), both merged into Zeta Beta Tau. This made our fraternity, both then and now, a brotherhood of Kappa Nu, Phi Alpha, Phi Sigma Delta, Phi Epsilon Pi, and Zeta Beta Tau.
In 1989, Zeta Beta Tau made the decision to abolish the practice of pledging in an effort to eliminate hazing from within our walls. In the pledging practices place, ZBT developed a Brotherhood program to welcome new members to the fraternity. Zeta Beta Tau was the first nationally recognized fraternity to abolish pledging, and many others have followed us.