a fantastic book which has to do with understanding other people's stories. let's just jump right in and ask you, what led you to this and tell us the background. >> i think your assessment is exactly right. we don't converse anymore and we have lost that as a art of conversation. the political rhetoric on both sides dominates conversations. this is a conversation about human beings and an ethical issue. for me, it started years ago in childhood and adolescence. in 2004, when i made my first visit to eastern chad and the

refugee camps, right as they were coming over. and in those camps, i would say it is when you nt start stors. ng to threfugee i saw the best of humanity and the worst of humanity. many subsequent trips. years later, and looking at this world we are living in, we often forget there are people involved and that's what led to this book. >> so you use this wonderful term, real people and it occurs to me that listening and carrying has more to do with just the words you hear, it has to do with the person in front of you and how you read them and taken their entire being. i'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about what that was like for you and what about that was stimulating to you to understanding and hearing the stories as opposed to an article . what is it about being with

another real human being and about listening and hearing?>> i love being with people and technology is great, but there's nothing like being with another person because there is more than words. anything i have done and throughout the years, i tried to be fully present. for my book, i taped the interviews because i didn't want to be preoccupied and i can't read my own handwriting anyway. it means being fully present in bearing witness to another person's life. it's a privilege when people share their story with you. the most difficult times when they have hope and when they got a break and when someone was there for them. it is really going out of yourself into their story and not framing, but let it just poor out of them and really take it in. >> shall we jump in? is there a

section of a story? >> all of these people. we will take a woman who lives in houston now and she is iraqi and she is a religion that ny people know about. she talks about living in a rack at the time of hussein. in this passage, what i have done here as i have highlighted their words because it's their stories and i'm just the conduit. so, she shares. we all lived in fear of what he might do it any time. he kept the iraqi people from the world and anyone who was a dissenter was killed. what hints about that line is you can read that line and just go on. in this country, we can dissent and in many parts of the world, dissenting equals being killed and we have had a

little of that in this country too. it is an exception and not the rule, but it was the rule in iraq. and then she talks about, and this is what moves me, her ground father talked about the value of education and stories. >> so when i reached high school, my father and grandfather thought it was time i start to read books. i had three or four that were in english and the first i read was gone with the wind and then i read it again in arabic because i was afraid i might miss something. then love in the time of cholera by marquez and i read that four times. she said that marquez transforms me from the reality of my daily life. she goes on to say, i wanted to learn everything and educate myself about the western world. so, i studied the art and movies. then she said the following to me, she said, by doing all this reading and by learning, my

friends called me the imaginary girl because i was always telling them stories of other cultures and he rose and the stories transforms me. >> wow!, we're going to take a quick break and thank you for the story. please join us back here on mosaic.

good morning and welcome back to mosaic. i am rabbi eric weiss. we are looking at a wonderful book called refugees in america. stories of courage, resilience and hope. in a moment we will ask you to read another snippet of a story, but we are talking about an iraqi woman and i wondered if you could take a moment to explain. >> we have little familiarity here with the agent religion here. they are monotheistic and they believe in the sun as a source of life and inspiration. they do not go to services on a weekly basis, but they have their own way of praying and how they treat people. they are

really into valuing human interaction with respect and dignity and all of that. we remember back to 2014 when they were trapped on mounts and jar and attacked by isis which we believe was genocide. they were 40,000 or 50,000 trapped and they were and circled around the mountain. there were many that were able to escape and they continue to be persecuted. >> i think there are zero asked wrens? >> yes, that is correct. the oldest person in my book is a holocaust survivor. literally, there are people from different countries and different ages and it's an unbelievable story and there are themes of resilience, courage and hope but this one gets to me. this woman was fierce and she spent decades in schools talking about the holocaust. she shared living in a bunker

for three months in a warsaw ghetto. she would sneak out, when she could. she was a young teenager. so, she shares the following. >> at that time, i was eating leftovers from trash cans. there i was with a teenager with no violence for years. my father heard that somebody, somewhere illegally had apples for sale. he wanted in the worst way an apple for me and he never came back. all i know is i lost my father because of an apple. every time i eat an apple, i remember him. >> here is a person who takes an experience like that and she is an optimist about life and deeply aware of current events and involved in the current situation. sadness, she views her dad in a positive way and she loves

apples and her nickname is the apple lady. >> this story reminds me of something i was thinking about as i read your book. in some cases, the person telling the story has told the story repeatedly and in some cases they are part of a group that goes to an education setting and the story is told as historical record with historical significance. in some cases, the first time someone tells their story and the first time that someone reads or hears the story is through your book. i want to ask you what is the juxtaposition of the stories that are repeatedly told and stories told for the very first time? >> three out of the 11 do speak often about their stories and that's not an accurate representation. fuger

speaking about it and they don't want their children to know the heartache and the hurt.>> one said to me, no one has asked about my . for those people, this was cathartic that they shared it and were willing to have it in a book and now their children are seeing it and it has a great impact on them. to me, it emphasizes how important it is that we ask each other about our stories. we can talk more when we get back about the effect of silence and the effect of not asking or even knowing to ask? join us back here in just a moment here on mosaic.

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middle of a conversation about his book about courage, resilience and hope, in their own words. if you would like more information about refugees in america, go to refugees in america.com. that is refugees in america.com. welcome back lee. we were talking about all of the different stories and i am so interested in one of the words in the subtitle of your book which is hope. it is from one of the folks in the book and i was hoping you would take a moment to read about what he said. >> hope is important to add it in life. they lose hope and here there is terrible brutality and that

the states. he gave the graduation speech at the university of san not an easy r but hope is the oxygen of my life. i have hope in humanity. it is so simple but so true. how do i find hope and what is the source of that for me? why do we give up hope. it reflects everyone else i have met. >> you bring a cup big question about every faith tradition and that is hope and their theological structures. often

we think of hope is something in our own lives. we will look at what hope is for these lives. >> what is true of every refugee i have met, or for the most part, they have respect for the stories of you and me and all the viewers. everyone has a story. there's are dramatically different because they have suffered tremendous hardship. but, from them, i have gained insights about how to live life and how to not take education for granted, or every day for granted. i find in judaism, the reminder for me on my favorite prayer is

the one that allows me to go to bed in peace. i translated the following way. allow me to put my head on the pillow tonight in peace and be at peace with what i . then the part of hope is, allow me to wake up tomorrow renew to life and relationships again. that's a whole prayer and these peop that one has to have strength and resilience and one has to have courage. we can all shape a life that we want. one thing they all share in common is they all talk about that they have been lucky. i add, they knew what to do with their life and did not squander it. they walked into it and went with it. >> you remind me that and i think in every faith tradition, part of the business of theology and faith traditions has to do with the cultivation of hope. we are in the business

of hope and maybe that is the rationale of the faith tradition to be involved with the issues of refugees and cultivating hope and the issues of catg when they take a leap of faith. teaching them the language and the system and helping them to understand a culture because it's a way of cultivating hope. i just wonder if that resonates with you about this topic? >> very much. there is a deep connection. there are many stories and a number of great writers out there. in the stories, we learn about others'' lives. we have empathy and compassion as we are motivated to help people like refugees and better ways than we are helping them now. also, it connects deep inside of us. what is that refugee experience that is lost?

loss of home, loss of country, loss of language, loss of the marriott already, everything -- familiarity, everything. >> hope is precarious in many ways and i think there are some people who say they actually do not get to choose the way their lives go. i think some part of the way that hope functions is you discover a place of hope you did not know existed. i wonder how you think about the human struggle where people come to a point of no hope? i don't have a choice about whatever it is.>> i really get it. i think that even when we have a little window that you can find something to be hopeful about. because in judaism, for all human beings, there's always the possibility. i have it's very dear friend

with als. i recently talked with him and we had a discussion about the bucket list. all the things i want to do. he has reshaped how he is grateful for life and all the things he did on the bucket list that he dreamt about. he shaped his bucket list now to be realistic for what it means to have als and be confined to a wheelchair. i think part of it is being realistic about hope. i can't hope to go play professional baseball, but can i hope to be more appreciative of what i have in life? so, what do we hope for and about? if it is realistic, god willing, with the light -- right support, it is with the stories that we read that can inspire us. stories saved her life and took her out of that village on the horrors.

there is hope out there somewhere. >> thank you for getting to the complexity and this is one of the ways that converts to hope and other things of the human experience. we are going to take another break and come back to mosaic in just a moment.

good morning and welcome back to mosaic. we are in the middle of a wonderful conversation with levi about his book, i met -- refugees in america with her wonderful stories of resilience, courage and hope. i am sure people have a story would like to do this kind of treatment with people they know. can you talk a little bit with people about how you found a publisher to get this book published? >> it's a long journey and you need to have a lot of patience which all refugees have. you need a lot of patience to do a book and this was harder than i thought. not only was i reflecting stories, i had to work carefully with the ones that i wrote their stories to make sure they were happy.

i'm not writing a book of fiction or an academic book, it was people's lives at stake and i wanted to make sure i got it right. then i hoped to get an agent in new york and then the agent shops the book. rutgers university expressed interest and finally that worked out. then, from the time they accept it, and from the time it is published is a year. why did it take so long? it just does. you have to have a lot of patience and i was lucky to get an agent and a good publishing house. >> host: in the context of the book itself, is this context of a history or oral history? >> it's in the category of human rights and maybe oral history. there are a variety of categories dealing with human rights. >> interesting.

>> host: i wanted to ask a couple of quick questions because we are almost at the end of our time together. we talked about people who tell their stories regularly and those who told their stories for the first time. i wonder if you could tell me a little bit about what that break from the silences like? maybe even the consequences, in a good way, that could impact the first time of telling the story and really in such a documented and public way? >> for the person telling the story, as they got more into it and we spent hours upon hours together, the more i think they felt empowered that someone was listening and caring about their story. with their families learning about it for the first time that mom or dad went through this. you know, i think some families wanted to tell me earlier and some have a better lens and i can think of two women in particular with the mother's

story and all she experienced in what she had provided for the children. the impact is now only in folding and the impact just came out and we learn a lot about that. >> so, what you hope people will get from the book itself? >> my hope is people listen to these stories as a starting point of reframing the conversation about immigration reform. but, you have to start by a human story and connecting it to you. for me, eric, it's the following. we've it danced medically and with talent technology and scientifically, etc. what gives me hope is that at times we have advanced. when i listen to other human beings who share this, i gain hope in the human story and in the resilience and in the courage the people have. >> thank you so much for your

conversation about the book. we would like to encourage you to read this book and more importantly to take the time and listen. thank you for being with us here on mosaic. ♪ you know when you're at ross and that cute dress gets even cuter? yes. or when you can say yes... to both? (smiling) sure. or when you find that brand at that price? are you kidding me? yeah. that's yes for less. and that's what ross always has in store. whoa. (sighs) yes... oh, yeah. it feels even better when you find it for less. at ross. yes for less.

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