Author of "The 57 Bus" to Speak May 18th at Jewish Long Beach Dinner

Jewish Long Beach’s Women’s Philanthropy is hosting author Dashka Slater at the 26th Annual Arlene Solomon Visions fundraiser at 6:00 pm on May 18th, 2023. This is the first time since 2020 that the event will be held in person. The group is celebrating the strength and resilience of all women to raise money for program services and other philanthropic endeavors serving women including advocacy efforts, leadership development, and programs for children, families, and seniors.

The keynote speaker is Dashka Slater, a New York Times best-selling author, an award-winning journalist, and an activist who speaks out against all forms of hate and discrimination. In 2015, Slater wrote an article for the New York Times about a heinous crime that took place on the 57-bus route in Oakland, California. She later expanded that article into a young adult book. While The 57 Bus is a thought-provoking account of a juvenile crime and the American justice system, it addresses global themes like discrimination, gender, race, class.

Growing up in an assimilated Jewish family with a father who has a background in sociology, Slater states, “I was raised to understand that people don’t exist in a vacuum. We are all part of a family, a community, a society, and an environment that shapes who we are and how we see the world.”

Slater shares that people do not fit neatly into the boxes that society tries to place them, and that the world is not a place for binary thinking.

Arlene Solomon Visions dinner will be held at the Alpert JCC on the Weinberg Jewish Long Beach Campus. Entrance is $65.00 per person, donations welcomed. All attendees will be able to pledge to the 2023 Jewish Long Beach Annual Campaign, and support women and teens in need by contributing donations to the feminine hygiene products drive for the Women’s Philanthropy Dignity Project.

RSVP by Wednesday, May 10th by visiting JewishLongBeach.org/Visions or email Susan Paletz at Spaletz@alpertjcc.org or call (562) 426-7601 ext:1012.

Known as “Your Center for Life,” The Alpert JCC provides a gathering space in which all are welcome to pursue early childhood education, after-school programs, fitness programs, aquatics activities, and summer camp, as well as to engage in Jewish life, culture, and education.

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