Refugees in America

LEE T. BYCEL is a humanitarian activist, Rabbi, teacher and author, who serves as the Sinton Visiting Professor of Holocaust, Ethics and Refugee Studies at the University of San Francisco.  He has visited refugee camps in Darfur, Chad, South Sudan, Rwanda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Haiti. He has written extensively about the plight of refugees, and has secured much needed funding for medical clinics in refugee camps.    DONA KOPOL BONICK is an esteemed portraitist and artist whose photographic career spans three decades. The photography director for the inaugural BottleRock music festival, her works have appeared in many books, art museums, and private collections.ISHMAEL BEAH whose work has been published in over 30 countries, is the New York Times Bestselling author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, Radiance of Tomorrow: A Novel, and Little Family: A Novel.

• Foreword by Ishmael BeahIntroduction1          Meron Semedar, EritreaHope Is the Oxygen of My Life2          Noemi Perez-Lemus, GuatemalaChildren Who Returned from a Walk through Hell3          Asinja Badeel, Iraq and the YazidisThe Imaginary Girl4          Deng Ajak Jongkuch, South SudanHe Threw Garbage on Me5          Sidonia Lax, PolandThe Apple Lady6          Malk Alamarsh, SyriaThe Walls Have Ears7          Vanny Loun, CambodiaA River of Memories8          Darwin Velasquez, El SalvadorBlind but the Heart Can See9          Kien Ha Quach Thien, VietnamThe Life Before and the Life After10        Wilita Sanguma, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)They Bombed My Church on Christmas Day 199811        Jawad Khawari, AfghanistanEmpty WallsAcknowledgmentsIndex

"Refugees in America is a timely, important, and deeply moving testament to the profound ways in which refugees have enriched our nation. By letting refugees tell their stories, Rabbi Lee Bycel reminds us of their humanity and our responsibilities to help them." - Former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright "Bycel’s powerful depiction of the lives of refugee families and their struggle for safety and freedom - from Iraq to Darfur - prove a testament to the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit." - Nancy A. Aossey (President & CEO, International Medical Corps) "This compelling book is a timely reminder that refugees are an indispensable part of the American nation. Their deeply affecting anecdotes of escape from terror highlight the existential motivations that continue to bring reasonable, desperate people to the United States. Readers will be inspired by the gratitude and hope in these pages." - Leon Botstein (President of Bard College) "Lee Bycel offers us a compelling and astute look into the very difficult lives of refugees. His powerful insights and the historical context he provides make this compilation of deeply moving first-person stories an excellent primer for everyone-individuals, book groups, religious study groups, academic classes-who wishes to go beyond the myths and headlines into the real world of the refugee experience.”- Rabbi David Saperstein, former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom (director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism) "Lee Bycel wrote this book to 'move readers to not only care deeply about the plight of refugees…but also deepen their resolve to help.' His touching profile of 11 refugees from around the world achieves that goal.  This is definitely a book for our xenophobic times." - Stephen A. Privett, SJ (President Emeritus, University of San Francisco, President, Verbum Dei High School) "These tales so effectively make real the multiple reasons people leave behind all that is familiar and undertake fraught journeys and face untold risks in pursuit of freedom and hope, Bycel’s gathering is a critical read for all who are grappling with the moral implications of borders and global human-rights obligations." (Booklist) "The Best of the University Press: Recommendations for Smarter Reading: In Honor of University Press Week"https://lithub.com/the-best-of-the-university-press-recommendations-for-smarter-reading/?single=true (Literary Hub) "Author Speaks About The Humanity Of Refugees" interview with Lee T. Bycel on Aspen Public Radiohttps://www.aspenpublicradio.org/post/author-speaks-about-humanity-refugees(Aspen Public Radio) "One of the main points of [Bycel]’s book is that one does not have to be a humanitarian activist to either be concerned about this issue or engaged in searching for a solution to the global crisis that displaced peoples and refugees will continue to be."  (Aspen Daily News) "Q&A with the Author: Refugees in America," by Calin Van Parishttps://marinmagazine.com/people/qa-with-the-author-of-refugees-in-america/ (Marin Magazine) "Hometown Radio 02/03/20 4p: Lee Bycel, author of Refugees in America"http://www.920kvec.com/episode/hometown-radio-02-03-20-4p-lee-bycel-author-of-refugees-in-america/ (KVEC "Hometown Radio") "Refugees’ stories illuminate universal pain of leaving home," by Robert Nagler Millerhttps://www.jweekly.com/2019/09/18/refugees-stories-illuminate-universal-pain-of-leaving-home/ (Jewish News of Northern California) "On Sukkot, think of the Kurds," by Jeffrey Salkinhttps://religionnews.com/2019/10/17/sukkot-refugees-kurds/ (Religion News) "‘Refugees in America’ focus of discussion: Humanitarian comes to Odd Fellows Hall"  by August Howellhttps://www.hmbreview.com/community/refugees-in-america-focus-of-discussion/article_1a579f98-c9d3-11e9-9e4e-379840d8001e.html (Half Moon Bay Review) "Coping with uncertainty: Insights from the real experts," by Lee Bycelhttps://napavalleyregister.com/opinion/letters/coping-with-uncertainty-insights-from-the-real-experts/article_cccd3f9d-f057-5704-9ebf-7bcd667ebdb3.html (Napa Valley Register) "Immigration Policy and the Cry of the Stranger," by Rabbi David Ellensonhttps://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/immigration-policy-and-the-cry-of-the-stranger/ (Jewish Week) "93 Best Immigration Books of All Time," recommended by by Faiza Shaheen, Danneel Harrisackles, Sherrilyn Ifill, Nafeez Ahmed and othershttps://bookauthority.org/books/best-immigration-books (Book Authority) "Refugees in America is a timely, important, and deeply moving testament to the profound ways in which refugees have enriched our nation. By letting refugees tell their stories, Rabbi Lee Bycel reminds us of their humanity and our responsibilities to help them." - Former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright "Bycel’s powerful depiction of the lives of refugee families and their struggle for safety and freedom - from Iraq to Darfur - prove a testament to the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit." - Nancy A. Aossey (President & CEO, International Medical Corps) "This compelling book is a timely reminder that refugees are an indispensable part of the American nation. Their deeply affecting anecdotes of escape from terror highlight the existential motivations that continue to bring reasonable, desperate people to the United States. Readers will be inspired by the gratitude and hope in these pages." - Leon Botstein (President of Bard College) "Lee Bycel offers us a compelling and astute look into the very difficult lives of refugees. His powerful insights and the historical context he provides make this compilation of deeply moving first-person stories an excellent primer for everyone-individuals, book groups, religious study groups, academic classes-who wishes to go beyond the myths and headlines into the real world of the refugee experience.”- Rabbi David Saperstein, former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom (director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism) "Lee Bycel wrote this book to 'move readers to not only care deeply about the plight of refugees…but also deepen their resolve to help.' His touching profile of 11 refugees from around the world achieves that goal.  This is definitely a book for our xenophobic times." - Stephen A. Privett, SJ (President Emeritus, University of San Francisco, President, Verbum Dei High School) "These tales so effectively make real the multiple reasons people leave behind all that is familiar and undertake fraught journeys and face untold risks in pursuit of freedom and hope, Bycel’s gathering is a critical read for all who are grappling with the moral implications of borders and global human-rights obligations." (Booklist) "The Best of the University Press: Recommendations for Smarter Reading: In Honor of University Press Week"https://lithub.com/the-best-of-the-university-press-recommendations-for-smarter-reading/?single=true (Literary Hub) "Author Speaks About The Humanity Of Refugees" interview with Lee T. Bycel on Aspen Public Radiohttps://www.aspenpublicradio.org/post/author-speaks-about-humanity-refugees(Aspen Public Radio) "One of the main points of [Bycel]’s book is that one does not have to be a humanitarian activist to either be concerned about this issue or engaged in searching for a solution to the global crisis that displaced peoples and refugees will continue to be."  (Aspen Daily News) "QA with the Author: Refugees in America," by Calin Van Parishttps://marinmagazine.com/people/qa-with-the-author-of-refugees-in-america/ (Marin Magazine) "Hometown Radio 02/03/20 4p: Lee Bycel, author of Refugees in America"http://www.920kvec.com/episode/hometown-radio-02-03-20-4p-lee-bycel-author-of-refugees-in-america/ (KVEC "Hometown Radio") "Refugees’ stories illuminate universal pain of leaving home," by Robert Nagler Millerhttps://www.jweekly.com/2019/09/18/refugees-stories-illuminate-universal-pain-of-leaving-home/ (Jewish News of Northern California) "On Sukkot, think of the Kurds," by Jeffrey Salkinhttps://religionnews.com/2019/10/17/sukkot-refugees-kurds/ (Religion News) "‘Refugees in America’ focus of discussion: Humanitarian comes to Odd Fellows Hall"  by August Howellhttps://www.hmbreview.com/community/refugees-in-america-focus-of-discussion/article_1a579f98-c9d3-11e9-9e4e-379840d8001e.html (Half Moon Bay Review) "Coping with uncertainty: Insights from the real experts," by Lee Bycelhttps://napavalleyregister.com/opinion/letters/coping-with-uncertainty-insights-from-the-real-experts/article_cccd3f9d-f057-5704-9ebf-7bcd667ebdb3.html (Napa Valley Register) "Immigration Policy and the Cry of the Stranger," by Rabbi David Ellensonhttps://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/immigration-policy-and-the-cry-of-the-stranger/ (Jewish Week) "93 Best Immigration Books of All Time," recommended by by Faiza Shaheen, Danneel Harrisackles, Sherrilyn Ifill, Nafeez Ahmed and othershttps://bookauthority.org/books/best-immigration-books (Book Authority)