New York Post Op-Ed: I’m a Jewish Alumna of Christian Colleges —Where I Found a Safe Home, by Sara Garfinkle (B.A. 2020, Hillsdale; M.P.P. 2022, Pepperdine):
“But you’re Jewish!”
Other than “Why?” this is the most common reaction when I share that I attended a Christian college.
Actually, I attended two.
Recent events on college campuses have invited me to reflect on my own college experience — and what it could have been had I attended another school. …
Hillsdale and Pepperdine regularly invited Jewish guest speakers, for whom students filled lecture halls and commencement spaces to the brim. …
Jewish students are not safe on many college campuses.
At my Christian colleges, I not only survived, I thrived. …
To sit with friends, to learn, to eat, to pray in many languages, to eat some more — what a perfect thing to do with the freedom that Hillsdale so ardently defends.
In many American universities, students abuse that freedom. …
I came home to Southern California for graduate school at Pepperdine University, another Christian college.
Here too, professors encouraged me, classmates supported me, and campus administration stood steadfast against antisemitism. …
As other colleges’ alumni tore down pictures of hostages, spreading hate disguised as justice, Hillsdale and Pepperdine alumni texted, called and sent letters with one message: We love you.
College friends who had not heard from me in months offered to shelter my family if we faced local evil.
To my Christian college classmates: Thank you, and I love you too.
Like Hillsdale taught me, I am going to pursue the good.
And as Pepperdine taught me, I am going to lead by example.
I thank you both.
And I thank all those colleges that have cultivated communities wherein thinking is free, liberty is treasured, and Jewish students are safe.
