Former ADL Board Chair and Popkin Award recipient Janet Pozmantier presented the Milton Popkin Award to Rabbi Steve Gross of Houston Congregation for Reform Judaism and Shariq Abdul Ghani of the Minaret Foundation at ADL’s January board meeting.

The two faith leaders met on an educational trip and became fast friends.  Before long, their friendship resulted in the Muslim-Jewish Christmas Roundtable, a yearly meeting on Christmas Eve that brings Muslims and Jews together to break bread and foster friendships between the two faiths.  By next year, it will have grown from a small group of people representing three congregations to 20 meetings in 20 cities.   Both Gross and Ghani received the award with humility, appreciation, and hope for the future.