Mike Pence to speak at Grove City College conference on antisemitism

Former Vice President Mike Pence will travel to Grove City College next month to deliver the keynote address at The Institute for Faith & Freedom (IFF) 2024 Conference “Confronting Antisemitism,” campus officials announced Wednesday.

He will speak at 11 a.m. Thursday, April 11 in Crawford Hall Auditorium.

In announcing his appearance, the college described Pence as one of America’s foremost Christian political leaders. Prior to serving under President Donald Trump from January 2017 through January 2021, Pence was a member of Congress and served as governor of Indiana.

He spoke at the college’s commencement in 2017.

The IFF is the school’s conservative think tank and its conference is expected to bring together conservative thought leaders. Planners said they are expected to discuss the roots and disturbing resurgence of antisemitism since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the war in Ga , the planners added.

The event is being organized as scores of Israeli and other hostages are still being held by Hamas from that attack, and as diplomats and others seek a ceasefire to ease a growing humanitarian crisis developing among Palestinians amid Israeli strikes inside Gaza.

Israel has put the death toll in its country from the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas at about 1,200; Health officials in Gaza have put the Palestinian death toll from Israel’s campaign in Gaza at approximately 30,000.

The war and its deepening human toll have reverberated globally, and in the U.S., it has spawned protests in numerous cities nationwide and and on college campuses.It has left campus leaders among others struggling to balance rights and concerns of groups on both sides of the volatile conflict.

“We are thankful for the opportunity to hear from Vice President Mike Pence on this critically important topic. He has been very vocal in confronting antisemitism, and we are pleased to welcome him to campus,” Grove City College President Paul J. McNulty ’80 said.

“Serving in the Trump administration, he was part of significant U.S. actions that brokered the first peace deal in the Middle East in 25 years, the Abraham Accords.”

“In many quarters, Israel found itself not a source of sympathy, a victim, but a focus of anger and accusations, IFF Senior Director Robert Rider said. “Protests erupted in many countries, including the United States, often directed at Israel rather than Hamas. Most disturbing, there has been an eruption of protests against Israel on college campuses…”

Grove City is a comprehensive Christian liberal arts college with approximately 2,300 students, according to 2022 data, the most currently available from the U.S. Department of Education,