In February 2018, Ari Goldstein, the president of Temple University’s AEPi chapter, locked a female student in his room, pinned her down and tried to force her to perform oral sex on him, according to her testimony at trial and several media reports.
The female student escaped, but Goldstein didn’t.
Temple removed AEPi from campus in April 2018. In October 2020, Goldstein was found guilty of attempted involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, attempted sexual assault and indecent assault. He was sentenced to 3.5-7 years in state prison. He also had to register as a sex offender for life.
Unlike Goldstein, though, Temple AEPi does not have to carry around the stench of the incident for life. The chapter is now back on the North Philadelphia campus, though it is not recognized by the university.
A group of young Jewish men with no connection to Goldstein or the house from 2018 restarted the chapter, according to Jonathan Pierce, a national spokesman for AEPi. The students called the national organization a year and a half ago. Ever since, AEPi has helped them spread the word to other Temple students.
Temple AEPi has 21 brothers today. It also has a house in North Philadelphia. The brothers hang out, go to Shabbat dinners together and collaborate with Temple’s Hillel and Chabad organizations. After Oct. 7, they raised money for the Israel Defense Forces and United Hatzalah, the emergency medical services organization.
“The actions of one person shouldn’t represent a national fraternity with over 100 years of history,” said Pierce, the president of Pierce Communications in Albany and an AEPi alum (Vanderbilt chapter).
“We believe strongly that AEPi provides a very distinct set of opportunities for Jewish men on college campuses,” he added. “To develop their leadership skills, to train them to become better leaders, to make them better advocates for the Jewish community and Israel.”
Pierce said the national AEPi organization found Goldstein’s actions abhorrent. He also said AEPi cooperated with law enforcement and “moved quickly to remove the chapter.”
When some of the current brothers reached out, the national organization moved just as quickly to help the chapter relaunch.
“There’s no litmus test. Are you going to behave appropriately?” Pierce explained. “So, we worked with them. We do what we can to watch over them.”
There have been no issues, according to Pierce. The chapter has also grown.
“We’re confident that there are a lot of good men who can benefit from an AEPi fraternity,” Pierce said.
Nate Weinberg, 21, was not part of the relaunch. He joined during the fall 2023 semester.
He initially resisted when a representative from the national organization reached out on Instagram.
“I was not really big into the fraternity scene,” he said.
But then Sam Fogel, who was part of the relaunch, reached out to Weinberg to ask him to attend fall rush. Weinberg knew about the Goldstein incident, so he texted a friend.
“Are you going?”
The friend was.
Weinberg asked if he could tag along.
During rush, they attended a “hummus and hang.” They also shook the lulav and etrog at the house since it was Sukkot. On Friday night, they went to dinner at Rabbi Aron Katz’s house. Katz is the program director of MEOR, a Jewish outreach organization at Temple.
Weinberg just connected with the brothers, he said.
“You talk to one of the guys, and you talk to a different guy. You’re from the same area. You have some of the same connections. You know this person; I know that person,” he explained. “That’s been really comforting, especially in the aftermath of Oct. 7.”
Weinberg, an Abington native, had a bar mitzvah but was not religious growing up. Now he goes to Shabbat dinner. The public relations major is also going to serve as public affairs representative for Hillel this fall.
“I did not have much connection to my Judaism before,” he said.