[3] Phi Sigma Delta was founded at Columbia University by a group of Jewish students who previously "seemed unable to find [a] proper opportunity for the campus fellowship they were seeking.".

[2] The founding meeting was held on November 10, 1909, at Maxwell Hyman's house at 22 Mount Morris Park West in New York City.

[5] By September 1911, the group secured a two-room suite chapter home in Hartley Hall, a dormitory on the Columbia campus.

[5] One of the milestones of the fraternity came in 1934 when Phi Sigma Delta began a program to shelter German student refugees at various chapter houses around the country.

[3] As America entered World War II, the national manpower drain led to a standstill in the fraternity's expansion program.

[5] Negotiations were successfully concluded in 1969 for Phi Sigma Delta to merge into the rapidly expanding Zeta Beta Tau fraternity.