Fraternity

It's 1961 on the campus of a New England university. Sam Katz, a freshman student, aspiring football player, and a Jew is being rushed by Delta Phi Delta, one of the oldest national fraternities in the country (with its origin in the Deep South). Sam is told by Don Curtis, the fraternity's president, that the brotherhood wants to challenge the fraternity's anti-Semitic traditions and needs Sam's commitment to pledge in order to set the challenge in motion. By doing so Don is putting himself in direct conflict with the national organization and the venerable chapter advisor, Noel Richards, who is intent upon maintaining the Delt status quo as a Christian fraternity. Sam's roommate, Eddie Solomon, is appalled that Sam would consider joining and argues that Sam is just being used as a "token Jew" so the Delts can appear in compliance with the university's growing anti-discriminatory policies toward fraternities. Betsy, Sam's new love interest, who herself may have a problem with being Jewish, is considering running for class president to improve the treatment of women on campus. Sam's growing guilt and confusion concerning his own identity as a Jew causes him to rethink his decision to pledge. But his continued attraction to the fraternity, especially after the Delt brotherhood unanimously votes him in, leads Sam finally to join. With Betsy's encouragement and Don's ultimate success in convincing Noel that the Delts must change in order to survive, Sam, in a historical moment, is initiated into the fraternity. In 1961, John F. Kennedy's influence on the youth of America triggered an activism that inspired college students to believe that they could truly make a difference. The college campus served as a laboratory for questioning the efficacy of prevailing social, cultural and political thought. It is against this backdrop of activism and the beginning of momentous change in America that Fraternity, inspired by real events, takes place.