April 18 is a day of celebration for Zeta Beta Tau fraternity. Twenty men are now the founding fathers of the returning MU chapter.
Jason Peiser, who is now the chapter president, said he wanted to be in a Jewish fraternity and decided to reach out to national ZBT leaders. This resulted in the colony’s return to MU and the initiation of the ZBT Brotherhood.

“It was an incredible feeling to finally get initiated with my brothers,” Peiser said in a news release. “After all this work and effort we’ve put into bringing the Omega Colony back, I’m beyond excited that it’s finally official.”

ZBT Vice President Internal Paul Kodner was one of the members trying to bring ZBT back to MU. He kept in touch with the national chapter after seeing a flyer. Kodner said it was most interesting to hear the alumni speak at the initiation about what ZBT meant to them.

“They gave us a lot of advice on how to grow the chapter,” Kodner said. “They also said that no matter what they tell us, this is ours to do whatever we want to do with it. They continually thanked us for bringing it back.”

ZBT Secretary Ryan Baris said he was skeptical at first during the process of [bringing ZBT back to MU](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2011/6/14/zbt-will-vacate-house-make-room-fiji/).

“ZBT has tried to come back plenty of times since the ’90s, when it left,” Baris said. “But then I went to the meetings, got to meet everybody and saw that it was looking really good. So, I decided to get on board.”

Baris said he had a lot of personal motivation to bring ZBT back after hearing how respected the fraternity was in the ’80s.
“My dad always told me what it was like to be a ZBT,” Baris said. “The way he talked about it and how big the fraternity was kind of motivated me to bring it back that much more because of how great it was back then.”

Donile also said being founding fathers, their connection with one another is a lot stronger, because they “will have to build ZBT up from the ground and put (their) trust in each other.”

One of ZBT’s goals has always been to promote upstanding members, and the brotherhood wants to get rid of the fraternity stereotype and be known as “gentlemen.”

“This isn’t a frat,” Baris said. “It’s a fraternity. We’re not just trying to be the prototypical party guys who make bad decisions. We want ZBT to be able to influence MU and the surrounding community and have a positive impact.”

In addition to creating upstanding men, another goal of ZBT is to support the Jewish students, Kodner said.

“What I learned was that some Jewish men do not come to Mizzou because there is no ZBT,” he said. “Granted there is another Jewish fraternity, but by having ZBT here, it could potentially increase the Jewish culture on campus.”

Although ZBT is a Jewish fraternity, ZBT Provost Tyler Ingram said their fraternity is unique because it is open to men of all backgrounds.

“We are also open to people who are not Jewish as well,” Ingram said. “We still have our beliefs, but we’re not exclusive at all and I think that’s important.”

One of the biggest differences between ZBT and other fraternities is that they have been a non-pledging fraternity [since 1989](http://www.zbt.org/home.html), according to their website. ZBT Risk Manager Vincent Donile said it did away with hazing and knocked down the barriers between the pledge classes.

“It brought the brotherhood together, and once they had brotherhood, all the other attributes like social responsibility, brotherly love, intellectual awareness and integrity came together and made them stronger,” Donile said.

ZBT’s plan for next year is to be involved with events and have a presence on campus. ZBT Development Director Jacob Manello said that despite the fact that the initiation ceremony is over, they are recruiting even now.

“ZBT alumni and consultants said that if a small group or even one individual wanted to be in ZBT and were approved, they would do it all again,” Menello said.

Although ZBT does not currently have an official house, they have the money from their old house, which they sold years ago, to buy one in the near future.

“We want to be recognized with every other fraternity on campus even though we don’t have a house,” Menello said. “I feel like we can still prove ourselves that we’re there standing and strong.”

Most of all, ZBT would like the MU community to be aware of them presently and in the future.

“Look for us next year,” Kodner said. “We plan to come back in a big way.”