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עמוד:24
Friends Across the Sea Forum Jeremie , France : Hi , my name is Jeremie and I’m from France . I’m only just joining the forum because I’ve had trouble with my computer . I really like what you’ve written so far . There were a lot of things that I didn’t know before . Hadas and Jonathan , I had a look at your family trees . Where did you get so much information about your relatives ? I’m having a really hard time finding out about my family . Saba Raba – – Great Grandfather Hadas , Israel : Hi Jeremie , bonjour ! Did I get that right ? I’ve always wanted to go to France ! In answer to your question , my great grandfather , Saba Raba * Eliahu , loves to tell stories about his life before he arrived in Israel , but I had to interview him more formally to make my family tree . Saba Eliahu was born in Morocco and he lived there until he was 40 . When he describes his life in Morocco , he gets this look on his face , like he’s in another world ... Jeremie , France : My parents’ grandparents were also from Morocco ! But they’re not alive any more , so I can’t ask them about their lives there . Could you tell me a little more about what life was like in Morocco when your great grandfather lived there ? Hadas , Israel : Sure ! Saba Eliahu lived in the Mellah in Fez . That’s what they called the Jewish neighborhoods in Morocco . They were very crowded with narrow , winding alleys . Because of the overcrowding , diseases spread quickly . One of his brothers and two of his sisters died from an epidemic when they were very young . My great grandfather , like his father , was a goldsmith who made jewelry . ( My grandmother has some amazing necklaces !) He told me that he had a very large family and all of his relatives lived in the Mellah where everyone knew everyone . When he was little , the Jews and their Muslim neighbors got along well , but as soon as the State of Israel was established , there was a lot of hostility toward the Jews and Saba Eliahu decided to move to Israel with his family . Actually , it had always been his dream to make aliyah . Jeremie , France : I think that my great grandfather must have immigrated to France around the same time . Was the move to Israel easy for your great grandfather ? Hadas , Israel : Not at all ! Israel was a very young and poor country then . He and his family were sent to temporary transit camps , along with hundreds of other immigrants ( thousands of Moroccan Jews arrived in Israel at this time ) . It was an especially cold winter and they lived in tents ! Later , they moved to Jerusalem . It was really hard for the adults to adjust , but the kids managed to adapt more easily , and soon they were just like everyone else . OK , enough from me ! It’s someone else’s turn to tell their story .
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