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| | FORWARD : Forward Forum (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-04) |
 | | Within two months, I had returned to Berkeley, packed up my life into 37 cardboard boxes and was on my way to Beersheva an urban pit in the middle of the Negev Desert in southern Israel. |
 | | Here in Beersheva, on the contrary, I am surrounded by Jews indigenous to Africa and the Middle East ; from countries including Morocco, Ethiopia and Iran. |
 | | It is such a relief to see the core of my identity, cultural values and historical narrative reflected in the people around me. Amid the ugly, dilapidated buildings and piles of trash, I find more energy, warmth, closeness and belonging than I found anywhere I lived in the United States. |
| www.forward.com /issues/2003/03.01.03/oped2.html (698 words) |
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