California Group Helps Young Muslims, Jews Find Common Ground

January 17, 2013

Young Muslims and Jews are making friendships through an organization that builds one-on-one relationships within the two communities. The group is called NewGround, and it is building bridges, partly through the sharing of personal stories.

A young Muslim neurosurgeon explains he was orphaned as a child and was raised by a Jewish family, who insisted he be reared in the Islamic faith. A Jewish woman spoke of her childhood memories of her grandparents, Holocaust survivors from Eastern Europe.

They are on stage for a storytelling event sponsored by the group NewGround. Off stage, an art installation helps people of both faiths view each other in a new way as they gaze at one another through holes cut in darkened boxes, seeing just a human face on the other side. A wall map of Los Angeles invites conversation, as people point out and describe their neighborhoods.

A Muslim whose family comes from Bangladesh, Tanzila Ahmed, says the storytelling event celebrates the diversity of the city.

“It is such a kaleidoscope of stories and colors and different perspectives that when you are able to get narratives from the different communities, you can actually move the community together for a cause a lot easier," he said.

Ahmed told a story about her own bi-cultural family, and says she has her own cause to promote. She works with the Asian Pacific American Legal Center to mobilize immigrant voters.