Lee T. Bycel, 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, will speak on Tuesday, November 12 at 1:45 p.m. in the Alumni Lounges (SC156) of the Robert A. Scott Student Center at Ramapo College of New Jersey about his new book, Refugees in America: Stories of Courage, Resilience, and Hope in Their Own Words. The program will be presented under the auspices of the Gross Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and is free and open to the public.

Eleven men and women (in the book that Bycel has compiled) share their extraordinary experiences fleeing oppression, violence and war in their home countries in search of a better life in the United States.

Each chapter of Refugees in America focuses on an individual from a different country, from a 93-year-old Polish grandmother who came to the United States after surviving the horrors of Auschwitz to a young undocumented immigrant from El Salvador who became an American college graduate, despite being born impoverished and blind. Some have found it easy to reinvent themselves in the United States, while others have struggled to adjust to America, with its new culture, language, prejudices, and norms.

Each of them speaks candidly about their experiences to author Lee T. Bycel, who provides illuminating background information on the refugee crises in their native countries. Their stories help reveal the real people at the center of political debates about US immigration.

Giving a voice to refugees from such far-flung locations as South Sudan, Guatemala, Syria, and Vietnam, this book weaves together a rich tapestry of human resilience, suffering, and determination.