Updates

On Sunday, February 1, 2026, join us, once again, for a timely and significant gathering at the Skirball Cultural Center for NewGround's annual Trailblazer Forum. We will celebrate 20 years of NewGround with a conversation between our two honorees, each of whom model leadership with steadfastness and compassion.

Purchase tickets for 🕯Spotlight 2025🕯 The theme for this year is Reality Check: Talking about Gaza. Join us for a special night on Monday, Sept 29 at 6:30 PM. Find the link to purchase a ticket here.

LAist spoke with NewGround Communications Director Ben Ginsburg about Palestine and Israel, and how NewGround is creating a space for education, activism, and community. 

We discussed the next book in our learning series, "The War for Kindness" by Jamil Zaki.

Join us next Tuesday at 6:30PM! OCTOBER 8 offers a look at the explosion of antisemitism on college campuses, social media, and in the streets of America, beginning the day after the October 7th attack on Israel by Hamas.

Share your story with us and let it shine at our 2025 NewGround Spotlight. The theme is Reality Check: Talking about Gaza. Join us for a special night on Monday, Sept 29 at 6:30 PM.

Our award-winning MAJIC High School Leadership program is accepting applications and nominations for the next cohort. This is an incredible opportunity for teens to build their capacity to navigate difficult conversations fraught with disagreement, develop leadership skills, and explore how to interrupt cycles of violence. Even if you missed the session, we encourage you to read High Conflict before you join us for the upcoming film sessions.

Student protests at universities across the country captured our attention in both traditional and social media. This film and the next one in our series, October 8, look at these campus protests from opposing angles. To broaden our understanding of what Muslim and Jewish communities in the US are facing, we need to understand the rhetoric of both sides of this argument. In nearly all cases, protests were much more peaceful than the media portrayed them to be. In some cases, they were most certainly not.  Even if you missed the session, we encourage you to read High Conflict before you join us for the upcoming film sessions.

Our first film, There Is Another Way, will be screened at a private home in Beverly Hills on Thursday, August 7 at 6:30 PM. Please RSVP for the address. Even if you missed the session, we encourage you to read High Conflict before you join us for the upcoming film sessions.

Through this summer and fall we're inviting you on a journey to help us all navigate the fault lines between our communities. Together, we will digest a variety of books and films that will help us explore and better understand what is at stake for Muslims, for Jews, for Palestinians and for Israelis.

The NewGround Symposium was a powerful evening: we shared hard truths, cultivated a deeper understanding of what’s at stake, and thought about how we move forward together. Experts, trusted community voices, and participants spoke about: "Jews Caught in the Middle: Anti-Jewish Bias and Hate from the Right and Left" "Finally Humanizing Palestinians & Muslims: Calling Out Anti-Palestinian Racism & Islamophobia." "Forging the Future Together" "Fishbowl (Participant) Discussion: What Are You Holding Given What You've Heard Today?"

Last month, NewGround partnered with the National Education Association (NEA) — the largest labor union in the U.S. — to gather insights from educators engaging on issues affecting Jews, Muslims, Arabs, Israelis, and Palestinians. We worked with them as part of their effort to support their 3 million members with understanding and empathy.

On Monday, our communications director Ben Ginsburg spoke on LAist's morning call-in show AirTalk to respond to the attacks in Boulder, Colorado over the weekend, and how important it is to see anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim hate, bias and violence as connected phenomena.

Our communications director Ben Ginsburg spoke on LAist's morning call-in show AirTalk to speak about how NewGround has helped people navigate conversations about the crisis in Israel Palestine over the past 20 months.

We hope you will take a moment to read this powerful article from The Guardian, written by Chris Osuh.