Alpha Omega (fraternity)

Alpha Omega (ΑΩ, sometimes AO), is an international professional Jewish dental fraternity. It was founded in 1907 in Baltimore, Maryland, by Jewish dental students. In 1932, it merged with Alpha Zeta Gamma, a similar organization. It is a former member of the Professional Fraternity Association.

In 1907, a group of Jewish students at the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania created a professional organization called Ramach.Its name referred to the 248 parts of the human body. After the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery closed in June 1909, Ramach moved to Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia in October 1909.

In the fall of 1908, Jewish students from three dental schools in Baltimore, Maryland established Alpha Omega, a professional dental fraternity.Under the leadership of Max W. Belzer, the students formed the fraternity because, as Jews, they were not offered admission to other campus fraternities. Alpha Omega Dental Fraternity was chartered in the State of Maryland with sixteen founding members in 1908 or 1909.

Alpha Omega's founders were Max W. Belzer, N. M. Bercovitz, Charles Cohen, S. Feldstein, Abraham Goberman, J. M. Gordon, Max Kahn, D. Levin, L. Levy, Maurice D. Liftig, M. Meyerson, Samuel M. Neistadt, David S. Robinson, William H. Rosenfeld, M. Sholkin, Jacob Solomon, and P. Steiner. Belzer was the fraternity's first president.

After learning about Ramach, Alpha Omega initiated a correspondence with the other fraternity. In 1909, Kahn and Neistadt traveled to Philadelphia to resolved any differences, so that the two groups could merge. Alpha Omega and Ramach merged to form the Alpha Omega Fraternity on December 20, 1909. Its purpose was "to promote the highest ethical standards of the dental profession, further the causes of Judaism and to promote Fraternalism".

Additional chapters were established at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine in 1910, Tufts University School of Dental Medicine and New York University College of Dentistry in 1911, followed by the Harvard School of Dental Medicine in 1912. Alpha Omega held its first convention in 1912 in New York City, with forty men in attendance.

Alpha Omega established its first alumni chapter in Philadelphia in 1916. The fraternity became international in 1921 with the formation of a chapter at the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto.

In November 1931, Alpha Zeta Gamma, a similar organization, invited Alpha Omega to send representatives to meet with the Supreme Council of Alpha Zeta Gamma to discuss a merger. 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 January 18, 1932 meeting of the Chicago Dental Society, a joint banquet of Alpha Omega and Alpha Zeta Gamma showed positive sentiment on both sides. On September 17, 1932, the merger contract was signed and the merger was official. On October 7, 1932, the Alpha Zeta Gamma chapters at Chicago College of Dental Surgery (Loyola of Chicago) and Northwestern were installed as chapters of Alpha Omega.