Tracy Slater

@tracyslater.bsky.social

1475 Followers 1629 Following

Nonfiction writer; B&N Discover Great New Writers Pick; New book: Together in Manzanar: The True story of a Japanese Jewish Family in an American Concentration Camp; Work in NYT, WashPo, WSJ + more; www.tracyslater.com

Tracy Slater Lectures on The Kobe Passage: Jewish Refugees in Japan and the Hidden History of the Holocaust’s Most Surprising Escape
The Kobe Passage: Jewish Refugees in Japan and the Hidden History of the Holocaust’s Most Surprising Escape. Signup & more info @ https://archives.jdc.org/the-kobe-passage/ Friends who have asked about the new project: I’m hugely excited—& nervous! —for my first chance to talk about this publicly. This is a warm welcome to mark your calendars for this free online talk, May 4, 7pm ET/May 5, 8am Tokyo. With enormous thanks to the generosity of the JDC Archives, whose 2025 Sorrell and Lorraine Chesin/JDC Archives Fellowship funds my initial research into this fascinating historical chapter, as part of their fantastic initiative "Across Oceans, Across Cultures: Jewish Refuge in East Asia and the Role of JDC."
Discussion of the book "Together in Manzanar: The True Story of a Japanese Jewish Family in an American Concentration Camp," with author Tracy Slater, in conversation with Carmel Tanaka of the Jewpanese Project, at the Miles Nadal JCC, 750 Spadina Avenue in downtown Toronto 7-9pm. Co-sponsored by Toronto Holocaust Museum and the multicultural initiative Jewish&. Pre-registration requested at https://app.amilia.com/store/en/miles-nadal-jcc/api/Activity/Detail?activityId=ydzD13D
Graphic with list of forthcoming events, highlighting next one, happening in 2 weeks: Monday, October 20, 2025, 7-8pm ET, Morrisontown Jewish Center & the Morristown & Morris Township Library of New Jersey (online) Reading, discussion, and Q&A about the only Japanese Jewish family in a WWII US concentration camp for Japanese Americans, based on the book Together in Manzanar. Co-sponsored by Morristown Jewish Center Beit Yisrael Adult Ed, Gottesman RTW Academy, National Council of Jewish Women - West Morris Section, Or Hadash, Pine Brook Jewish Center, Temple Beth Am, & Temple Shalom. Free & open to the public, but pease register here to get zoom link.
Picture with an email about the book Together in Manzanar. Text added: "Do readers know how awesome they make writers feel when they send emails like this one? And so good to see the reference to the wonderful Naomi Hirahara's books, too. My email back included: 'I've read this and Hirahara's others; She's a treasure!'"
"When the discussion about the west coast Japanese American community began…it was a discussion of what to do about immigrants, and it very quickly morphed into a discussion about…a whole category of people living in the US, and citizenship quickly became irrelevant. And that is a real warning we need to heed today."
Catalog page from Japanese American National Museum, showing Together in Manzanar along with other items for sale
Photo credit: “Japanese Americans making camouflage nets,” Dorothea Lange Collection, Courtesy of National Archives & Records Administration, Object id: ddr-densho-151-410, Densho.org