2021 Trailblazer Awards: Across Divides

This year, as last year, our Trailblazer Awards will be held online, as we focus on the work of remarkable individuals furthering NewGround’s mission, reaching across divides to build genuine relationships and deeper understanding. Please join us to honor this year's Trailblazers: Keith Ellison, Brie Loskota, and Gary Mason.

Keith Ellison is the first Muslim American to be elected to the United States Congress, serving from 2007 to 2019. As the attorney general of Minnesota, his dedicated leadership and tenacity in prosecuting Officer Derek Chauvin and the other three officers who participated in the arrest and detention of George Floyd that led to his murder brought a measure of justice to Mr. Floyd’s family and community and to the American people.

For twenty years, Brie Loskota has sought to enhance religious pluralism and community resilience across a broad range of faith communities throughout the US and around the world, and has been a leader and advisor at NewGround since our founding in 2007. She is currently the executive director at the Martin Marty Center for Public Understanding of Religion at the University of Chicago.

Rev. Dr. Gary Mason has been deeply engaged in conflict transformation, with a special focus on the Northern Irish Peace Process and Israel Palestine. He is the founder and director of Rethinking Conflict, which seeks to model the principles of the Good Friday Agreement by building peace and reconciliation at the sharper, more fractured edges of society.

Change-Maker Award

We will also honor NewGround alumna Samara Hutman with the Change-Maker Award. For the last decade Samara Hutman has been creating meaningful spaces for intergenerational dialogue with survivors of the Shoah. She is co-founder and director of the Righteous Conversations Project which, through student engagement with the past, sheds light on the work we must do to heal the broken places in our world today.

NewGround named the award after Suzy and her late husband Wally Marks Jr. z”l, who have long been one step ahead of the trends to usher us all toward a more harmonious society. Back in 2006, when Muslim-Jewish relations were at their most toxic levels, Suzy and Wally had the foresight to seed fund NewGround to equip Change-makers with the skills, resources, and relationships needed to strengthen Muslim-Jewish relations.

We invite all to RSVP, and hope you’ll consider sponsoring this year's Trailblazer as a way of ensuring that NewGround can continue strengthening the social fabric of Los Angeles when our society needs it the most. In these challenging times, it is your support that will sustain our community-building in the year to come.

With bountiful gratitude, we thank this year's sponsors:

Diamond Sponsors

Jasmine & Pervez Delawalla | Paula & Barry Litt | Nurya Shabir & Muhammad Adaya

Platinum Sponsors

Paul A. Beck | The Fakhri Family | Joshua & Lisa Hofheimer

Gold Sponsors

Darren Enenstein | The Family of Samara Hutman

Suzy Marks | MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger

Naila Osman | Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills | Sanford Weiner

Silver Sponsors

Rachel Andres & Ben Tysch | Celia Bernstein | Diana Buckhantz | Loran Calvin

Lisa & Joshua Greer | Aziza Hasan | Sean Hecht & Rebecca Weiker

Samara Hutman | Farah Khan | Edina Lekovic & Tarek Shawky

Brie Loskota & Justin Ehresmann | Drs. David Myers & Nomi Stolzenberg | Patsy & Joe Ostroy

Sandy Savett | Tzivia Schwartz-Getzug & Steve Getzug | Kashif Shaikh

Dr. Lois M Sprague, Ph.D. | Sheila Wasserman | David Weiner & Marieke Oudejans

Bronze Sponsors

Suraiya Ali | Ruth Andres | Melissa Balaban & Adam Wergeles | Hal Barron & Kathy Kobayashi

Rabbi Sarah Bassin | Reuben Benkovitz | Steve Byrnes | Rabbi Kerry & Julia Chaplin

Rabbi Ken Chasen | Arif Dhanidina | Halim & Saranya Dhanidina | Elizabeth & Glen Friedman

Asma & Irfan Furniturewala | Judy Glass | IKAR

Tobi Inlender | Ismaili Council for the Western US

Caroline Kelly | Muizz Kheraj | The Landres Family | The Loskota Family | Gregg Lynn

Andrea McNellis | Yasmyne Mohammed | Marium Mohiuddin | Shahbano Nawaz

Rachel Weber & Rabbi Ephraim Pelcovits | Jaime Rappaport Barry | Tasnim Shamji

Rabbi Ruth Sohn & Dr. Reuven Firestone | USC Center for Religion & Civic Culture | Anil Yalamanchi

NewGround Board Members

Chair: Rabbi Sarah Bassin | Chair: Nurya Shabir

Rachel Andres | Paul Beck | Pervez Delawalla | Halim Dhanidina

Adam Fakhri | Josh Hofheimer | Farah Khan | Edina Lekovic

Paula Litt | Molly Rubin | Tzivia Schwartz-Getzug | Tasnim Shamji | David Weiner

Event Committee Members

Chair: Paula Litt

Melissa Balaban | Paul Beck | Adam Fakhri | Reuven Firestone

Judith Glass | Suzy Marks | Dr. David Myers | Sandy Savett

Nurya Shabir

To pay by check or via donor-advised funds (DAF), please make checks payable to "Community Partners," and write "NewGround Trailblazer" on the memo line. You can recommend a grant from a donor-advised fund (for which no goods or services will be received in exchange). Please email us to let us know a check or DAF is on the way so that we can get you onto the sponsor list! Email: Ben@muslimjewishnewground.org

Mail checks to:

Community Partners, P.O. Box 741265

Los Angeles, CA 90074

NewGround: A Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change, fiscally sponsored by Community Partners, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Your contribution is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. Federal Tax ID #: 95-4302067