Rider’s annual Unity Day event features journalist and author David Kushner

Award-winning journalist and author David Kushner will be the keynote speaker for the annual Unity Day event at Rider University on Oct. 17 beginning at 6:45 p.m. in the Bart Luedeke Center Theater. He will speak on a topic that also serves as the theme for the entire day of events, “From the Holocaust to Today: Discrimination, Marginalization and Genocide — What Do They Mean to You?” The talk is free and open to the public.

Unity Day is meant to unite students, faculty, staff and the greater Rider community through an event that celebrates the diverse elements of the University. It also raises awareness and provides education on social justice issues of the past and how they have been overcome.

Kushner has written several books that touch on themes of social justice, including Levittown: Two Families, One Tycoon, and the Fight for Civil Rights in America's Legendary Suburb and The Bones of Marianna: A Reform School, a Terrible Secret, and A Hundred-Year Fight for Justice.

"Unity Day offers a chance for students to look at issues from the past and present as they work to build a better global society for the future,” says Dr. Pamela Pruitt, director of Rider’s Center for Diversity and Inclusion.

In addition to his books on social justice, Kushner has written books on popular culture, such as Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture and Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto, as well as a memoir, Alligator Candy: A Memoir.

Kushner is a contributing editor of Rolling Stone, and his work has also appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Wired, New York and many other publications. Several of Kushner's books and articles are being developed for feature film and television.

Following the talk, visitors are invited to view a related exhibit, Power of Protest: The Movement to Free Soviet Jews, which will be on view to the public in Moore Library from Oct. 1 to Nov. 16. A ribbon cutting and reception for the opening of the exhibit will take place Oct. 1 from noon to 1:30 pm.

The traveling exhibit was previously on view at the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia. It tells the story of Jews in the former Soviet Union who wanted to emigrate but were denied permission to leave. Visitors will learn about their efforts to maintain a Jewish identity, their struggles with Soviet authorities, and the worldwide support they received.

The Center for Diversity and Inclusion at Rider University supports the University’s efforts to reach and foster the understanding and appreciation of different cultures and ways of life that are shared by diverse groups of people through programming, policies and best practices.