Jewish fraternity at centre of dozens of St Andrews rape and sexual assault allegations

Many of the allegations, especially those dealing with Alpha Epsilon Pi, have since been removed after St Andrews University was advised about the potential legal implications of stories being publicly shared.  

The fraternity said in a statement posted online on July 3: “Earlier today, Alpha Epsilon Pi St Andrews was made aware of allegations of sexual assault, harassment and rape against multiple members of our fraternity, including incidents at chapter vents. We find the contents of these allegations abhorrent and are taking them extremely seriously.”

It claimed to have “immediately suspended those that acknowledged a role in the alleged incidents” and said it would work with police, victims and St Andrews.

The fraternity added: “As a Jewish fraternity, one of the values of our teachings we hold most important is that all human beings are fashioned B’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God. Therefore, it is wrong to treat anybody without dignity, no matter their gender, race, sexual orientation or religion. This obviously applies to sexual assault and harassment.”

Survivors questioned whether the fraternity had had no previous knowledge of the allegations, however, and claimed that the issues had been ongoing for a long time.

One Jewish survivor, speaking to the Telegraph, said: “In their statement they said they had been unaware of the accusations, but I know concretely that they knew about them.”

The alleged assault victim claimed that both she and a friend had been victim of sexual assault by fraternity members.

“As a Jewish woman and survivor, it is heartbreaking that they are representing the Jewish community in such a disgusting way,” she said.  

The fraternity has said that it had placed a moratorium on public events in order to consider safety and made a commitment to ensure that “mandatory consent and anti-rape culture education” was implemented.

St Andrews have similarly pledged that mandatory consent classes would now be held for all its 9,000 students.

The university urged victims to come forward and formally report allegations, adding that it would investigate the allegations. Police Scotland have also urged victims to come forward and report any offences.  

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also urged victims to contact police immediately and a Scottish government spokesperson said: “We would encourage anyone who has been the victim of any such crime, or has information relating to any allegations, to contact the police immediately as these are criminal matters.”

Alpha Epsilon Pi has a history of sexual assault and rape allegations and has been the subject of criminal investigations in the United States.

The US-based fraternity has bases in eight universities in the UK, as well as in Israel, France, Canada, Austria and Australia.

St Andrews University has a number of agreements with American universities and receives many American students on study abroad programmes every year.

Jewish Women’s Aid (JWA), an organisation that works with survivors of sexual and physical abuse, said in a statement that they were “aware of the allegations” and that they recommended that “allegations of criminal conduct should be reported to the police.”

JWA said that they had “liaised” with St Andrews and “relevant Jewish student organisations” to highlight the organisation’s specialise sexual violence support services.

JWA said: “We stand firmly against any and all instances of sexual violence and want women and girls in the Jewish community to know that we are here to support them if they are affected.”