A Night to Honor Israel
Earlier this week I attended an event called “A Night to Honor Israel.” Truthfully, the main reason that I went was to support one of my long time friends, Carver Morgan. He is an amazing person and since I met him almost 10 years ago in the mountains of North Carolina I have always admired his love for others, friendship, and standards that he holds himself too. So it was a no brainer that I would help support his event that he had been working so hard on all semester. However, once I was there and listened to all of the speakers I had a new apprecaiton and understanding of what Carver had been working on and cared so much about.
The event was a sit down dinner sponsored by CUFI (Christians United for Israel), ‘Dores for Israel, and the Vanderbilt Hillel. They had three impressive speakers who were not only inspiring but also taught me a lot about a subject that I know very little about. The speakers were Rabbi Saul Strosberg, Pastor Lyndon Allen, and Randy Neal, the CUFI Western Regional Coordinator. As a Christian and someone who tries to keep up with the news I knew some about the conflicts in Israel but I wasn’t sure about how I fit into the picture. I live in America, they live in Israel; I’m a Christian, they are Jewish. However, this event opened my eyes to how I am connected and how we should support people all over the world who need our help and connect in some way to our views on the world.
While educating me this event also showed me that it is fun and not weird to attend events put on at Vanderbilt where I may feel out of place or know nothing about the subject. No one there made me feel silly for not knowing much about the situation in Israel or put me on the stop to have a deep discussion about my thoughts on the subject. Vanderbilt is a place where you will find students who are very passionate and knowledgeable about certain issues but they also want to share their experiences with students who are clueless about them and encourage them to get involved on any level.