1 Million Euro ECTR 'Kantor Prize For Secure Tolerance' Attracting Strong Interest From European & North American Academics

LONDON, October 30, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The 1 Million Euro 'Kantor Prize For Secure Tolerance', launched in March 2018 by London-based philanthropist Moshe Kantor, is attracting strong interest from academics in Europe and North America. The initiative was launched earlier this year at a roundtable event organized by the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation (ECTR), of which Moshe Kantor is President.

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The 'Kantor Prize for Secure Tolerance' will be given to groups or individuals who will demonstrate creative and unique ways of balancing the universal right to tolerance with the need to effectively combat security challenges presented by our increasingly globalized societies.

Applications are currently being accepted by the ECTR and further information as to how to submit to the grant can be found at http://ectr.eu/.

The nominations review and the selection of prize recipients will be carried out by the ECTR's Academic Advisory Group, led by John Gray, and including eminent academics and intellectuals including Antony Beevor, Timothy Snyder, Bernard-Henri Lévy and Aleksandr Dynkin.

Moshe Kantor has repeatedly warned that Europeans have increasingly felt "vulnerable and insecure". Adding "We urgently need new thinking for a diverse society, accepted not only by leaders of the free world but also by civil society. This new thinking must trigger new legal initiatives - outlawing not only extremist acts, but also verbal intentions".

Former British Prime Minister and ECTR Chairman Tony Blair said at the launch event that it was "essential we don't sit back and let extremism and intolerance become an accepted part of our public discourse." He added that "co-existence is a vital universal value in a world where people of different cultures and religions mix, both on and offline. Freedom of speech must be protected. But people also have a right to feel safe in their homes and communities."

About the ECTR 

The ECTR is an opinion-making and advisory body on international tolerance promotion, reconciliation and education, and fosters understanding and tolerance, educates towards reconciliation, facilitates post-conflict social apprehensions, monitors racism, antisemitism and xenophobia and proposes pro-tolerance initiatives and legal solutions. Among its prominent members are Tony Blair, ECTR Board Chairman, Jose María Aznar, former Prime Minister of Spain, Göran Persson, former Prime Minister of Sweden, VairaVike-Freiberga, former President of Latvia and Rita Süssmuth, former Speaker of the German Bundestag. Founding member of the ECTR was the late Vaclav Havel, one of the principal leaders of the democratic transformation in Central Europe. 

www.ectr.eu

SOURCE European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation (ECTR)