ABSTRACT
The Nahal Beka caravan absorption center, located outside of Be'er Sheva, was one of the largest facilities of its kind to house Ethiopian and Russian immigrants in Israel during the early 1990s. Established as a temporary "way station" to permanent housing and absorption, the facility has been compared to the ma'barot (transit camps) created for immigrants from Arab countries who flooded into Israel during the 1950s and 1960s. This chapter presents some stories about residents of Nahal Beka that illuminate their reasons for coming to Israel, their experience of the absorption process, and their hopes for life in their new homeland. A woman described the yearnings they had had for the Holy Land and their sense of great joy upon their arrival. Inside, the caravan seemed almost empty of contents, the walls without pictures except for one clipped from a newspaper, a plain sofa next to a table with two chairs.
