Alpha Omega International Dental Society

Alpha Omega is the oldest international dental organisation. It was founded in 1907 by a group of Jewish dental students in Baltimore and Philadelphia, originally to fight the discrimination against Jews that pervaded American dentistry at the time.

That discrimination was felt above all in admissions to dental schools and in the professional associations, holding back the growth of Jewish dentists in the profession. The founders set out to raise awareness of it and to reverse it — in student admissions and in the dental associations alike.

Alpha Omega pursued its goals through three pillars: Professionalism, Fraternalism and Judaic Values. Jewish values gave the fraternity a moral code on which it grew and spread through Jewish communities around the world, until it came to be seen as the voice of Jews in dentistry. Today Alpha Omega is non-sectarian: although we have a Judaic heritage, we welcome members of all faiths and backgrounds.

With the founding of the State of Israel, Alpha Omega’s goals widened. The fraternity was deeply involved in establishing the Hebrew University–Hadassah School of Dental Medicine in Jerusalem in 1953, and the Maurice and Gabriela Goldschleger School of Dental Medicine at Tel Aviv University in 1972. Chapters were founded in Jewish centres in Canada, South America, Europe, Israel, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Alpha Omega’s headquarters are in Rockville, Maryland.