Kenneth Stern is the executive director of the Justus & Karin Rosenberg Foundation, which works to combat hatred and anti-Semitism. The views expressed in this commentary are solely his.

(CNN) The Daily Stormer, a website led by neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin, recently announced a plan to march heavily armed in Whitefish, Montana -- hometown of white supremacist Richard Spencer -- as part of their campaign against residents whom they call "criminal Jews."

The march was scheduled for this upcoming Monday, Dr. Martin Luther King Day -- which they called "James Earl Ray Day" to honor King's assassin.

I was 15 when King was gunned down in Memphis in April 1968. The next day at school, a teacher asked my class, "How many of you would have marched with Dr. King if he were still alive?" Most of us raised our hands. "He was alive yesterday," he retorted. "How many of you marched with him then?"

No one responded. I have never felt more a hypocrite than at that moment. If King were alive and someone asked him what to do about Whitefish, he would likely have underscored the lesson my teacher intended -- we're all responsible for each other, and that hate unchecked will surely grow.

Whether the march will occur on Monday or not is unclear -- some white supremacists have threatened to show up Monday anyway, without a permit. Yesterday the organizers, whose application for a permit for the march was deemed incomplete by the city manager, announced they were rescheduling the march, "probably for some time in February, and the march will be bigger and have more guns and special guests than we originally planned."

Their campaign of hate is about more than the march itself. These neo-Nazis have also directly targeted Jews in the Whitefish area, putting their home and email addresses, phone numbers and pictures (including of a Jewish child) online, asking supporters to "Hit Em Up." They've also targeted human rights activists who came to the Jews' defense.

Photos: The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. Photos: The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was best known for his role in the civil rights movement and nonviolent protests. His life's work has been honored with a national holiday, schools and public buildings named after him, and a memorial on the National Mall in Washington. Take a look back at the late civil rights leader's defining years. Here, King speaks in Washington in 1968, the year he was assassinated. Hide Caption 1 of 22 Photos: The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. King outlines boycott strategies to his advisers and organizers on January 27, 1956. Seated are the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, left, and Rosa Parks, center, who was the catalyst for the protest of bus riders. Hide Caption 2 of 22 Photos: The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. King sits for a police mugshot after his arrest for directing a citywide boycott of segregated buses on February 24, 1956. Hide Caption 3 of 22 Photos: The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. King stands in front of a bus at the end of the Montgomery bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, on December 26, 1956. Hide Caption 4 of 22 Photos: The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. King speaks during the Prayer Pilgrimage near the Reflecting Pool in Washington on May 17, 1957. Hide Caption 5 of 22 Photos: The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. Accompanied by his wife, Coretta Scott, King leaves Harlem Hospital after being stabbed near the heart on September 20, 1958. The near-fatal incident occurred when he was autographing copies of his book at a Harlem bookstore. Hide Caption 6 of 22 Photos: The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. King delivers a sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta in September 1960. Hide Caption 7 of 22 Photos: The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. King, his wife and children, Yolanda, 5, and Martin Luther III, 3, play the piano together in their living room in Atlanta in 1960. Hide Caption 8 of 22 Photos: The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. Moderator John McCaffery, left, segregationist editor James J. Kilpatrick and King debate segregation in New York on November 11, 1960. Hide Caption 9 of 22 Photos: The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. King addresses a crowd of demonstrators outside the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in Washington on August 28, 1963. He delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech to more than 250,000 people. Hide Caption 10 of 22 Photos: The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. President Lyndon B. Johnson talks with King and civil rights leaders at the White House. On July 2, 1964, Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law. Hide Caption 11 of 22 Photos: The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. King speaks with Malcolm X at a press conference on March 26, 1964. Hide Caption 12 of 22 Photos: The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. In 1963, King became the first African-American to be named Time magazine's Man of the Year. Hide Caption 13 of 22 Photos: The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. King receives the Nobel Prize for Peace from the president of the Nobel Prize committee, Gunnar Jahn, in Oslo, Norway, on December 10, 1964. At the time he was the youngest person to win the prize. Hide Caption 14 of 22 Photos: The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. King and his wife lead a black voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, on March 30, 1965. Hide Caption 15 of 22 Photos: The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. King addresses civil rights marchers in Selma in April 1965. Hide Caption 16 of 22 Photos: The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. Mississippi patrolmen shove King during the 220-mile "March Against Fear" from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi, on June 8, 1966. Hide Caption 17 of 22 Photos: The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. King signs the Degree Roll at Newcastle University after receiving an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree, in Newcastle, England, on November 14, 1967. Hide Caption 18 of 22 Photos: The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. King and comedian Bob Hope, right, talk at John F. Kennedy International airport in New York on November 14, 1967. Hide Caption 19 of 22 Photos: The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. Ralph Abernathy, Jesse Jackson and others stand on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, pointing in the direction of the gunshots that killed King, who lies at their feet. Hide Caption 20 of 22 Photos: The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. King's body is pictured on April 8, 1968, following his murder in Memphis. His wife, Coretta, led a silent march of 50,000 people through the streets of Memphis before making a televised speech at his funeral. Hide Caption 21 of 22 Photos: The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. The statue of King is pictured at a memorial in August 2013 in Washington, as thousands of people gathered to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. Hide Caption 22 of 22

As King said in 1965, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." What can any of us do to avoid being silent about this community targeted by hate? For most of us Whitefish, with a population under 10,000, is a small community far away.

First, we must avoid giving the neo-Nazis what they crave most -- attention in the form of unrest. Some have suggested a counter-demonstration whenever the white supremacists assemble. That idea is problematic. Too often violence erupts. In any event, the local human rights groups are holding their long-planned annual Martin Luther King Day events, which are all the more important this year.

Recent history yields a better approach. In the 1990s, folks in Boyerstown, Pennsylvania, faced with a Ku Klux Klan rally, tried something called "Project Lemonade" -- a technique developed by Bill and Lindy Seltzer in 1994 to counter a Klan rally in their own community of Springfield, Illinois. Rather than engage in a First Amendment debate, or stage a counter-protest, they decided to respect the KKK's free speech rights, but make the haters' speech cost them dearly -- while also helping others.

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Out of the "lemons" of racist activity in their community, they made the lemonade of support for worthy causes. They solicited donations tied to how long the rally lasted, with the funds going to programs Klan members would detest, such community projects organized to oppose hatred.

Other communities have used it successfully. It also avoids dividing opponents of white supremacy into those who support, and those who oppose, the free speech rights of the haters. So the Justus & Karin Rosenberg Foundation, which I direct, suggested this model to our friends in the human rights community in Whitefish: Love Lives Here , a local non-profit that works for inclusivity, and Montana Human Rights Network , a statewide organization with a similar mission.

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Both groups readily agreed. The Montana Human Rights Network is accepting the pledges , and will donate any funds raised for anti-hate community projects. We are proud to have made the first pledge of $10 per minute (up to a limit of $2,500). As of January 11, if the neo-Nazis march, they will have raised $800 per minute (and $51,000 if they march for 3 hours) for things they abhor, such as support for the people threatened, community education about hate and white supremacy, and increased police and community training in handling hate crimes.

Ultimately on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we hope the white supremacists stay away from Whitefish. Now they know if they march, they'll be fundraising for projects which will promote King's vision for America, not theirs.

We can try to influence what white supremacists decide to do in this way, but in the end they will either show up to march in Whitefish or they won't. What's more important is what the rest of us do to help the people targeted in Whitefish to recover and build stronger institutions to reject hatred. Those actions will continue to make a difference once the march, if it happens, is a distant memory.

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I recently spoke with a Montanan who wanted to reach out and help on the ground in Whitefish, but didn't know how. She told me she loved the Project Lemonade approach, since it "gives people something positive to do." She also appreciated that it helps the community overall, because it shows that people elsewhere care.

Project Lemonade feels more important now than ever before. As much as I'm concerned about the people in Whitefish, I'm also worried that the racist right, which feels empowered by the election of Donald Trump and the notoriety of figures like Richard Spencer, will victimize other communities if they succeed in Montana.