“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. You may pre-order the book through Napa Bookmine: elayna@napabookmine.com.

68.5 million individuals have been forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of
persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations.
We are now witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record.
(UN Refugee Agency)

The plight of refugees is a major global crisis. One person was displaced every two seconds in the past year. (www.Actionagainsthunger.org)  The vast majority of the countries hosting refugees are among the world’s least developed. Refugee status is rarely temporary. More than half the refugees around the globe are under the age of 18, even though children make up 31 percent of the world’s population. 

Description of Evening
This evening brings together a refugee and resettlement expert, medical workers who work in refugee camps, and an engaged audience.  Presentations will overview the refugee crises and recent accounts of the refugee camps in Lesbos, Greece and the Mexican Border. A light dinner will be served and audience members will engaged in round-table discussions of the refugee crises and potential actions.  

Alicia Svigals, the world’s foremost klezmer fiddler and founder of the Klezmatics, teams up with Uli Geissendoerfer, jazz and world music pianist/composer, to bring life to the lost melodies from the early 20^th-century fieldwork of Ukrainian Moshe Beregovski – and to re-imagine them into something new and alive to pass along future generations of listeners and players.

Series Event #3:

Series Event #2:

Children are very susceptible to interfering stimuli or distractions. This 2 hour program is designed for understanding the costs and potential solutions of distraction for our children and parenting. This is a highly participatory Town Hall that will include: 1) Overview of distraction: costs and benefits, 2) Discuss how distractions impacts children, 3) Examine potential solutions to reducing distraction and enhancing attention, and 4) Engage parents in round table discussion regarding issues and solutions.

Spanish Translation Available Upon Request

Presenters:
Mara Adelman, Ph.D. (Professor emeritus, Seattle University)

Dana Cope, M.Ed. in Innovative Learning, President of Cope consulting LLC

For more information click here.

Journalist and author Michael Scott Moore traveled to Somalia on a grant from the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting to research a book on piracy. He was abducted by a local gang of pirates in January 2012 in the town of Galkayo and held as a hostage for 977 days. The gang holding Moore subsequently demanded $20 million for his release.

American officials and the German Foreign Ministry collaborated on negotiations with the pirates until Moore was freed on September 22, 2014. It took 977 days for Moore to be released after a $1.6 million dollar ransom was paid.

Join us as Moore talks about his experiences and his just-published memoir, “The Desert and the Sea,” that recounts his harrowing ordeal amid topics such as foreign policy, religious extremism and the costs of survival.

Moderated by Rabbi Niles Goldstein, this is the first in a series of three personal and professional conversations with men and women from around the country who have pursued careers and lived lives that are noteworthy and unconventional in ways not typical of the mainstream.

World class vocalist and Grammy-nominee Perla Batalla shares an intimate evening of songs and stories dedicated to her friend and mentor, Leonard Cohen.