If you share my view of the appalling debate around the proposed Islamic Community Center in Lower Manhattan, check out this post over at TaxProf. A number of law professors are organizing a campaign to donate funds to the Park 51 Islamic Center as a form of both symbolic and material opposition to the tidal wave of intolerance that undergirds much of the opposition to this project. The call for donations suggests that gifts start at $18 – or the numeric value of the Hebrew word "chai" (the image in this post), which means "life." (Jewish donors often give gifts in multiples of $18 in acknowledgement of this fact.)
The organizers state:
We decided against a joint letter because we thought it might invite endless debate over the text and more important, because we feared it would get lost in the blaring voices now shouting all around us. What we have decided to do instead is to collect pledges of financial support for the Islamic Center, wherever its promoters wish to place it. We thought action here would speak louder than words.
If you find this intolerance intolerable, now is an excellent time to speak out – in dollars, words, or any other modality that can cut through the noise.
Thank you for this great initiative!
Thanks so much for posting this Dan. I hope to sign up although (of course) I'm not a law professor.
Everywhere , spring brings the blessed reassurance that life goes on , that death is no more than a passing season .
nothing is impossible for a willing heart.good!