Monday, August 23, 2010

Statement about the Muslim Community Center

Dear Friends,

I am sure many of you have been following the news regarding the Cordoba Initiative’s plans to create a community center downtown. You also may have read or heard on the news that the JCC has helped Cordoba’s leaders over the last several years because they are interested in building a center modeled after ours—one that welcomes everyone, celebrates pluralism and diversity, and is a place of growth, learning, and connection. Our experience with them has been a very positive one.

The JCC has not commented, nor will we comment, on the location of the Cordoba Initiative's center. While I believe there is consensus in the Jewish community about Cordoba's right to build wherever they choose, there is difference of opinion regarding their decision to locate the center so close to Ground Zero. As a general rule, the JCC does not take stands on issues where there is not a clear community consensus.

I regret that this conversation has generated so much heat and so little light. Accusations on both sides have reached a pitch that has made it impossible for people to hear one another, which is never helpful. It is my hope that as the days get cooler, so will the rhetoric.


-- Rabbi Joy Levitt