Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity (AEPi), the world’s leading Jewish college fraternity, has raised $66,811 for the Israel Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) through the fraternity’s annual Mensch Madness bracket challenge. This year’s total is the largest amount raised in the 10-year history of the program.
AEPi’s Mensch Madness Official Bracket Challenge combines the excitement of the annual NCAA college basketball tournament with the competitiveness of pitting campuses across the globe against one another. The AEPi chapter that raises the most money wins a prize, as does the individual submitting the winning bracket.
More than 1,200 brackets were submitted this year, raising in excess of $65,000. AEPi at Indiana University won this year’s competition, raising $14,273, the most ever by a single chapter.
Other top finishers were American University, Elon University, California State University-Northridge, the University of Pittsburgh and The Ohio State University. The undergraduate raising the most money was Harrison Berg from Kansas University.
Mensch Madness was spearheaded by Ethan White, AEPi’s Howard M. Lorber Director of Jewish and Leadership Programming. Corporate sponsor of this year’s Mensch Madness tournament was College Fresh.
“During these most difficult of times for Jewish students on college campuses, demonstrating the importance of tikkun olam, Repairing the World, to our communities, has never been more crucial,” said Rob Derdiger, AEPi International’s CEO. “Our Brothers are standing up to antisemitism and anti-Israel hate by doing what we, as a community, do best: doing good for the world. I’m very proud of the effort our students put in this year to raise these funds and I congratulate our Brothers at Indiana University for their winning effort.”