Initial exploration
It was Shmuel Levin-Epstein who, at the Alpha Omega annual convention in Detroit in 1946 — the first convention after World War II — made the connection between the Israeli Dental Association and the fraternity. In 1949, at the convention in Chicago, he was awarded honorary membership, becoming the second Alpha Omega member among Israeli dentists. The first was his son, Jacob, who joined while studying dentistry in the United States.
Establishing chapters in Israel
In 1954 the Alpha Omega leadership decided to establish Regency No. 20 in Israel. Jacob Levin-Epstein was appointed its first Regent, founder and organiser.
On 29 July 1954, during a visit by International President Louis J. Galin, a reception was held in his honour at the Tourism Club in Talbiya, Jerusalem, where the members of the Jerusalem chapter were inducted. The fourteen members present were Regent Jacob Levin-Epstein; Shmuel Levin-Epstein, President of the Jerusalem chapter; and Chaim Barent, Moshe Glazman, Alexander Grossman, Benno Weissberg, Jacob Yardeni, Y. Lapidot, Yitzhak Michman, Fritz Fried, Moshe Rabinowitz, Kurt Rosenzweig, Rudy Rudberg and Eino Shaki.
On 1 August 1954 the Haifa chapter was established with nine members: H. Braunschweiger, Kurt Dankwort, David Gutman, H. Lachman, M. Chizik, Georg Winternitz, Y. Yanai (of Zichron Ya’akov), K. Zucker and A. Packel.
On 3 August 1954 a large celebration at the Zionist House of America in Tel Aviv saw the induction of B. Becker, H. Berger, M. Binur, Chaim Idels, G. Grossman, L. Hirsch, Moshe Mishori, H. Niederland, M. Salpeter, Aryeh Sarnat, Yitzhak Zeifert, Avraham Zusman, Sh. Tajer, M. Weinreb and Z. Zeidner (the list is incomplete).
Soon after chapters were founded in Israel’s three major cities, a student group began organising at the School of Dentistry in Jerusalem to provide a steady stream of new members — the Alpha Sigma chapter. In August 1959, when President David Dean visited to celebrate the graduation of the school’s first class, the student members were inducted. Alpha Sigma’s first president was Shmuel Perlmutter, and its first members included Jacob Ehrlich, Israel Giladi, Miki Helfet, Ehud Melberger, Zvika Messner, Chaim Sarnat, Nathan Portuguese and Musick Kaplan.
The story of a veteran member
Aryeh Sarnat of Tel Aviv, Regent from 1962 to 1965, recalled the early days:
“There was great enthusiasm to unite under the fraternity. As a student at the University of Illinois I had seen the fraternity and its members at work in Chicago, and I wanted to see the same spirit here. We held meetings in hotels; members’ children performed for us; we welcomed visitors to the country and felt we were contributing to the development of the dental school. Every guest from abroad stayed with me, and we felt we were forging ties with the finest Jewish dentists from the United States, Canada and Mexico. The fraternity’s motto — Judaism, Professionalism and Brotherhood — was reflected in every step we took. I came to realise, humbly, that it is not about what the fraternity gives me, but what I can do for the fraternity. Blessed is the one who experiences all this.”
The “Mashalash” project
In 1976, on the initiative of Prof. Aryeh Steier, President of the Jerusalem chapter, the “Mashalash” organisation (Volunteers for Dental Treatment Services) was founded to treat people in need. It began with 14 volunteering Alpha Omega dentists and grew to 140 in Jerusalem, treating some 2,000 people. Similar initiatives followed in Haifa and Tel Aviv; in the late 1980s the Haifa chapter adopted the Sephardic nursing home in Neve Sha’anan, providing dental care to its residents on Fridays.
Neighbourhood rehabilitation
From 1980 Alpha Omega partnered with Israel’s neighbourhood-rehabilitation project, helping establish dental clinics in Sderot, Ashkelon, Kiryat Gat, Jerusalem and elsewhere. Over about five years, some 160 volunteer dentists from the United States, Britain and France came to Israel, most for a month at a time, to treat underserved communities.
The Harry Sicher memorial seminar
Since 1992 an annual seminar has been held in memory of Dr Harry Sicher, one of the great anatomists of all time, organised each year by one of the chapters.
World conventions in Israel
The annual week-long Alpha Omega convention is usually held in North America, but since 1972 it has come to Israel several times: “Jerusalem of Gold” (Jerusalem, 1972), “Milk and Honey” (Tel Aviv, 1979), “King David” (Jerusalem, 1989 — when Yehuda Kaufman became the first International President from outside North America), the “Golden Jubilee” marking Israel’s 50th anniversary (1998), and the centennial convention in Tel Aviv in 2007, which included the dedication of two new floors at the Jerusalem School of Dental Medicine.