As every good AEPi Brother knows, our founder, Brother Charles C. Moskowitz, was an excellent basketball player during his days as an undergraduate student at NYU. So, it seems fitting that the fraternity he founded bases its biggest annual international philanthropy event around that pastime.
This is the 11th year for the Mensch Madness Philanthropy program and, over the years, more than $100,000 has been raised for AEPi’s Repair the World Fund, which supports Jewish and Israeli causes to reinforce the Jewish ideal of Tikkun Olam, repairing the world. In 2025, the three beneficiary organizations from AEPi’s Repair the World Fund are NECHAMA, Israel ParaSport Center, and Chai Lifeline.
So far, this year’s Mensch Madness competition has been mostly a two-chapter race between the brothers of our Upsilon Beta colony at the University at Buffalo and the brothers of the Epsilon Phi chapter at Elon University. Two schools separated by 654 miles but united in their desire to raise money for important causes and to take home the coveted Mensch Madness trophy.
“We’re going to take that top spot pretty soon,” said Eli Kinel, Buffalo’s chapter president. (Since this conversation, they have squeaked out a small lead over Elon). “We had a chapter meeting and talked about how important this is, how huge it would be towards our goal of getting chartered. Every single person in our chapter had bought in and is working on this by texting friends and family and getting them to buy brackets and donate.”
Brothers from the Upsilon Beta colony in Buffalo
“I’d love to talk smack to Buffalo. We are ready for a big push at the end so we can stay on top. We have a lot of guys who really care about raising this money and doing good. We had all of our brothers come to the house and told each guy to send a text to 15 friends and 15 family members,” said Carson Pron, Elon’s chapter president.
Epsilon Phi brothers at Elon University
One thing the two chapters do agree on is that raising money for these important causes makes a difference. “A lot of our guys are really excited about getting involved with these organizations. We’re really excited about doing good…and winning,” said Brother Pron.
“We want it really bad, and we want to do good for the world. We’re so fired up to raise as much as possible,” said Brother Kinel.
This Sunday – March 16 – is Selection Sunday! If you’ve purchased brackets, please make sure you log back into the website and fill out your brackets to have a chance at a great prize.
The Mensch Madness competition is open to everyone and continues until tip off of the first game in the field of 64 – at 11:59 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Go to menschmadness.aepi.org to buy a bracket, make a donation and select your chapter. You don’t have to choose between Elon and Buffalo! Vote for your alma mater, local school or favorite team.
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