Among graves, Dutch teens build bridges
| FEATURE |
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AMSTERDAM — On a chilly Sunday morning, a group of Dutch teenagers gather in an overgrown patch of land in east Amsterdam to work on a unique project: cleaning up a 300-year-old graveyard.
But the volunteers involved in restoring the Zeeburg Jewish cemetery are more than just beautifying: drawn from the city’s Jewish and Moroccan Muslim residents, they are building bridges between two divided communities.
“Come on guys, lets get going!” volunteer Alfie de Vries, 13, urges his friends Jonas Poolman and Max Zegerius as they grab garden rakes and a spade to join some 30 other teenagers hacking away in a nearby clearing.
With help from Ahmed Bularoez, 21, they pull down branches and clean up strands of dead grass to reveal a grey stone slab with an inscription in Hebrew and the Star of David on it..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20111201com7.html
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