The Middle East/North Africa is an historic region, host to great civilizations and vastly diverse populations (Armenian, Assyrian, Bedouin, Berber, Chaldean, Coptic, Druze, Iranian, Kurdish, Levantine, Sephardic to name but a few of many), with large diaspora communities living around the world. Reminiscent of the post-9/11 era, however, Americans today are bombarded by simplistic, negative messaging about Arabs/Muslims and the Middle East. This sets us back in our mission to champion literacy about cultures of the Middle East/North Africa. It causes the level of ignorance and stereotypes to rise—in spite of the fact that Arabs/Muslims in this country are honest citizens—engineers, business people, doctors, lawyers, academics, who continue to make important contributions to the American social fabric, technology, medicine, etc.

We invite you to join us in our effort to raise the level of public discourse and the profile of the Levantine Cultural Center, as we propose to grow the center by increasing our size five-fold, which in turn will enable us to increase our programs and outreach ten-fold. Here's why we urge you to support the Levantine Cultural Center:

1. You think we should spend more money on peace, arts and education, and less on war-making;

2. You'd like to see Israelis and Palestinians find a just and peaceful solution to the conflict;

3. You are offended by the rising wave of Islamophobia in this country, and the professional "fear" industry behind it;

4. You know from experience that arts/education is a powerful and effective form of cultural diplomacy;

5. Los Angeles will benefit from a cultural and community center celebrating the Middle East/North Africa.

Together we can fight ignorance by imparting knowledge and providing arts and educational opportunities to all Americans. We invite you to join the many friends of the Levantine Cultural Center in strengthening this initiative. We must grow now. We're raising a mere $2 million to seed a new center, to expand and include many more communities and groups. If LACMA can raise $10 million to install a larger boulder on its campus ("Levitated Mass"), shouldn't we be able to come up with $2 million to present Arab/Middle Eastern arts, cultures and education?

For an overview of our proposal please consult this link to see an Executive Summary:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BxYg3GLLSdHhRGFiNXBTVVhZUnM

Immediate objectives:

1. Land an "angel" investor: someone with a well-known name, who can make a sizable donation, i.e. $250,000, $500,000 or $1 million;
2. Immediate leverage in the form of a large donation of $50,000 or $100,000, that we can then use as leverage as we meet with additional local donors;

With one or both of these in place, we will be able to raise the entire $2 million quickly, and be in a position to re-open the new center early in 2013.

We would like to meet in person with anyone who is a potential major donor, because we believe that we have a very strong case for support.

Kindly contact us at 310.657.5511.