Late this afternoon, we learned of the “Islamophobia, Antisemitism, and Religious Literacy” event to be hosted at Lowell House on March 21. This topic is an important one to address, but the event itself was finalized and announced without our Center’s review and approval. The composition of the event is not in keeping with the principles of civil disagreement we uphold at the Center, which demand representation from multiple perspectives, particularly on contentious issues of the moment. We have made clear that we cannot co-sponsor or support this event as it currently stands.

The Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics has, throughout its history, been a place where tough but respectful discussions can take place, and we pride ourselves on exploring difficult conversations in broad, nuanced, and sensitive ways. In that spirit, we are reaching out to our Fellow who is organizing this event with the offer to co-sponsor a different house event that meets our standards for support.

In these moments of high tension, we hope everyone will join us in seeing this situation as an opportunity to learn, to improve, and to reassert our collective commitment to open and civil dialogue.
 
Sincerely,
Eric Beerbohm, Director