The Birth of AZA--As I Remember It by Sam Beber first 40 d, Founder of AZA 1964 BBY0 An idea, like any seed, takes root or dies for a variety of reasons. Cer- tainly one of the most important is the timing in which it is planted. In 1924, most young Jews in the U.S. were the children of immigrants who made their living in this strange, new land by working as long as 16 hours a day. That didn't leave much time for child psychology seminars. They housed, and fed, and clothed their children--and loved them, but that wasn't enough. Outside the home was a Christian world where virtually all school clubs, fraternities and sororities banned Jews. In half-hearted retaliation, or, in other cases, out of pure, deep hunger for social contact with other human beings, some formed class or neighborhood groups. Most lasted until the first order of inexpensive stationery was exhausted. With nothing in Jewish life to appeal to or inspire young people, "mene, mene, tekel, upharsin' the handwriting on the wallof the palace at the time of Belshazzar's feast--might well have been painted on every synagogue wall. It was important, I thought, that each new, .more Americanized generation understood why they should be proud of the Hebrew rituals, traditions and philosophy men have preserved for 4,000 years. Thus begins a tale. Once upon a time takes us back almost 40 years. One of those small, social groups of Jewish boys in Omaha in the early 20's--I was an cb- server, not a member, because by then, I was an old man in my early :O's--called itself the AZA. The letters, meaning nothing, had been selected to make it sound like a Greek letter fraternity. When a change of jobs took the group's adult advisor, chemist Nathan Mnookin, back to his native Kansas City, AZA withered. Asked to be Advisor This club sent a committee to see me. They asked if I'd be their new advisor. They came at a fortuitous moment. I had been puzzled and hurt during my adolescence over the number of Jewish boys who had drifted from our priceless Jewish heritage. I had resolved that I would try to do something about this. My dream was to organize a national boy's fraternity--no just a local club--not just a social fraternity-- but one that would have a program with Jewish values. I wanted to start a national organization of clubs with everything that made Greek letter fraternities glamorous--ornately titled officers, symbolic rituals, initiation ceremonies, secret handshakes, jeweled membership pins, a written consti- tution, national tournaments in basketball, debating and oratory, and a regular program for bringing in new young members to replace the older ones reaching the 21 year age limit. Each club would be granted a charter by the group of adult advisors to be called, in gloriously technicolored language, the Supreme Advisory Council. In order to give the new club some stature as the nucleus of a national organ- ization--and even more important, some funds--) suggested that it seek sponsorship by an adult national Jewish group, and offered to attempt to interest the B'nai B'rith.