Welcome to the Greater Long Beach
and West Orange County Jewish Community

With a Jewish Community of nearly 20,000, the Greater Long Beach area
has become a thriving metropolis and a significant part of the philanthropic landscape.

Learn more about what we do in our community and all across the world.

July 1, 2022

From the Desk of Zach Benjamin

CEO, Jewish Long Beach & Alpert JCC

This weekend, most of us will pause to celebrate American independence, enjoying the company of family and friends, perhaps visiting places that fill our spiritual tanks, and likely overindulging in grilled foods and other pleasures of a holiday weekend. Yes, we live in somewhat fraught times, with the national conversation on rights and liberties currently playing out with exceptional gravity. Nonetheless, it is deeply important that we acknowledge how fortunate we are to live in a society that allows us freedom of movement and that largely enables us to pursue life, liberty, and happiness in the manner that fulfills us as individuals and provides our children with a breadth of opportunity limited only by their imagination.

Independence Day carries particular significance for Jewish Americans. This is due in part to the fact that, as a people, Jews have spent so much of our existence in bondage or under existential threat, as well as to the fact that we have thrived in almost every society that has welcomed us. American Jewry is likely the most representative example of this phenomenon in the history of the Jewish Diaspora. Indeed, from Haim Solomon to Steven Spielberg, Jewish Americans have made indelible contributions in the sciences, business, economics, the arts, academia, civic leadership, and a broad spectrum of other disciplines at a volume that far outpunches the weight class of our relatively miniscule population. Read More.