Aleph Zadik Aleph
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Aleph Zadik Aleph (AZA) is the men's order of B'nai B'rith Youth Organization (BBYO), an international youth-led high school fraternity for Jewish teens. AZA has about fifteen thousand members in chapters worldwide, including chapters in the United States, Bulgaria, United Kingdom, Israel, France, and Canada.
History
Aleph Zadik Aleph began in 1923 as a high school fraternity in Omaha, Nebraska, and was founded originally as primarily a social group. A local group of boys in Omaha began the group as a protest against the local Greek high school fraternity which did not allow Jews to become members. The young men who organized it began their own high school fraternity and decided to name it Aleph Zadik Aleph, or AZA, the Hebrew letter equivalent. The boys elected Abe Baboir as their first president and Nathan Mnookin as the advisor to the group.
A few months later, Mnookin, a local chemist, moved to Kansas City and founded a similar social group. The Omaha chapter approached Sam Beber to accept the post. Beber accepted under the condition that they continue the expansion of the order, with the goal of creating an organization of Jewish Fraternities that would stretch even beyond the United States.
On May 3, 1924, Beber called the first meeting of the International Order of the Aleph Zadik Aleph. This first meeting consisted of the Omaha and Kansas City chapters. A constitution was drawn up and the Supreme Advisory Council was created.
By April 1925, the order had expanded to include seven groups around Omaha. Sam Beber went to the national convention of B'nai B'rith, to see if they would sponsor the organization. Although there was strong opposition to the proposal at first, Henry Monsky delivered a stirring speech which led to the approval and adoption of AZA to become a part of B'nai B'rith.