I’m A Jewish Alumna Of Christian Colleges —Where I Found A Safe Home

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. 

• Neta Sade, An Israeli Student’s Journey of Resilience and Support at Pepperdine
• Neta Sade, A Student Perspective: We Must Stand with Israel