Seattle Special Event:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7VNoZVe6CA
Jewish Peoplehood Crisis: A Call for Conversation
Town Hall Seattle 7/14/13 6:30pm  RSVP: levylecture@gmail.com

Serendipity

Why would a laboratory scientist write on the topic of hatred? Why shift from forty-five years of “hard science” to what is at best “soft science”?
It had little to do with science. I was “drafted” to take on this endeavor a couple of years ago, through an unexpected set of circumstances. I had just given a public lecture and as I was leaving, I was approached by a young rabbi who introduced himself and very politely asked whether I would be willing to prepare a lecture on the topic of “baseless hatred,” and to deliver it in his community. The young man knew that he was making an odd request, but his poise and earnestness provided much of the missing context. I responded politely that although the linkage between neuropharmacology and baseless hatred is distant, I would take his request under consideration...
...I researched the topic and eventually prepared a fifty-minute presentation...
The reaction to the lecture was overwhelming: somehow, it seemed that the topic had hit a sensitive nerve in several audiences. CDs and DVDs of the lecture were prepared and they quickly ran out. My wife, who had witnessed the reactions of various audiences, decided that I had a responsibility to write the lecture material in a formal fashion.