The kibbutz experiment at 100

ABIGAIL KLEIN-LEICHMAN ISRAEL21C

The young pioneers who banded together on kibbutzim in early 20th-century Palestine are the stuff of legend. Set on the task of nation building amid extreme deprivation and danger, they forged a unique culture that came to define the state of Israel as a place where hard-working youth danced horas amid miraculously verdant fields. Later, kibbutzim experienced an identity crisis, but rather than throw in the towel, they’ve been adapting a next-generation structure to better match the needs of 21st-century life.

One hundred years from the founding of Kibbutz Deganiah Alef, near the shores of Lake Kinneret, the first of these socialist communities, Israel is celebrating the achievements of a movement that spawned some of the state’s most famous soldiers, politicians, authors, musicians and artists – and, now, some of its most successful industries. In many of today’s 273 kibbutzim, backbreaking farm work has been replaced with sophisticated industry and the development and use of cutting-edge agricultural technologies.

Muki Tsur, former secretary of the kibbutz movement and its unofficial historian, describes the kibbutz as “a human adventure” of mostly European Jewish young immigrants. They shouldered the monumental responsibility of secretly re-creating a sovereign Jewish homeland right under the noses of the Turks and then the British who ruled over Palestine during that early period.

Every pre-state kibbutz was an independent community that had to find its own approach to culture, politics, economy, immigration and language. “Each was a laboratory where all these questions had to be asked,” Tsur explained. “Not necessarily to be resolved, but to be asked. The kibbutz had to be a laboratory on one hand and a place to live on the other.”

The overriding goal was to assure each member equitable ownership of the joint venture, with equal income, benefits, expectations and voting power. “I describe it as a very developed welfare state,” said Shlomo Getz, director of the Institute for Research of the Kibbutz and the Cooperative Idea (IRKCI) at the University of Haifa. “When you pay your taxes [on a kibbutz], you know where they go and you help decide how the tax money is spent.”

Lacking much in the way of resources, these pioneers maximized the work potential of each member and provided for everyone’s needs. Usually, that meant the women worked alongside the men, but, contrary to popular belief, this was not the main reason kibbutzim innovated the controversial practice of housing and raising children apart from their parents.

“Babies’ and children’s houses were not invented out of ideology but out of necessity,” said IRKCI’s Prof. Michal Palgi and co-author, with Shulamit Reinharz, of One Hundred Years of Kibbutz Life: A Century of Crises and Reinvention, due out in July. “In the beginning of the 20th century, kibbutz members lived in tents in remote places, and there were frequent attacks on the kibbutz communities,” Palgi explained. “They had to find the safest place for their children, so they made them real houses situated at the centre, with the parents around them in tents, in order to keep them protected.”

In order to make sure kibbutz children would be cared for by certified professionals, in 1939, the movement founded the Kibbutzim College of Education to train preschool and school teachers. This once avant-garde institution, which emphasized nature studies as part of a holistic education, is still educating Israeli educators – not just from kibbutzim – today.

Palgi pointed out that kibbutz parents spent much “quality time” with their children, for an hour each morning and four hours in the afternoon. Parents put their little ones to bed in the children’s house and checked on them before they turned in for the night. Many kids even had an intercom to reach his/her parents if necessary.

Even so, the idea fell out of favor and, by the late 1980s, kibbutzim were closing the children’s houses and transitioning to standard family-style living arrangements. However, many kibbutzim still provide separate housing for member children who are over 18 years of age.

Israel’s most famous general, Moshe Dayan, was born on Kibbutz Deganiah Alef in 1915 and symbolized a generation of kibbutz-bred military heroes. Defence was always part and parcel of life on kibbutzim, which often doubled as army bases during the War of Independence since the vast majority are strategically located around Israel’s periphery. “If you look at the border areas, they are marked by kibbutzim,” Palgi said. “They really were a tool, in many ways, in the creation of the country. And they are still essential to maintaining the country’s borders.”

Kibbutz members historically volunteered for elite military units, especially the air force, at disproportionate rates. The same held true in the Knesset. During the first decade of statehood, at least 25 of the 120 Knesset members were kibbutzniks even though they comprised just five percent of the general population.

Getz noted that Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, joined a kibbutz when he was already in his late 60s, well aware of the strong symbolic correlation between leadership and kibbutz membership.

The collectives also bred extraordinary creativity. One of Israel’s most well-known songwriters, David Zehavi, was born on Kibbutz Na’an in 1910. The Israel Prize-winning Gevatron Chorus was founded on Kibbutz Geva around 1948 and is still performing today. Kibbutz culture is a strong influence in the literature of prominent Israeli authors such as Meir Shalev, Amos Oz and Uri Orlev.

“For many years, a kibbutz member who was an acknowledged writer, musician or artist would get two days a week off from his kibbutz duties to do his writing or music or art or choreography, and would be provided with all the materials he needed,” Palgi said.

As an invention of immigrants, kibbutzim continued attracting newcomers, most notably, Second World War refugees and Holocaust survivors, many of them orphaned children from the same countries the founders had come from. Kibbutzim provided fresh starts to thousands of young people, but, it should be noted that Jewish refugees from Arab lands, whose culture was radically different, were not as warmly welcomed.

The author Orlev vividly remembers coming to Kibbutz Ginegar in the Jezreel Valley at the age of 14 at the end of 1945, having survived the Warsaw Ghetto and his time in Bergen-Belsen. “After the war and the ghetto, I was so disappointed in adults who couldn’t save themselves or their children,” he said in a 2009 interview. “Suddenly I was seeing strong and healthy Jewish people who were farmers, who had weapons to guard the kibbutz. It was a new system of life.”

Today, the kibbutz movement offers programs for new Ethiopian and other immigrants, and runs cultural and educational activities for youths in Israel and abroad. Twenty kibbutzim, including some of the 16 religious ones, offer long-term visitors intensive Hebrew instruction combined with work in the orchards, barns or factories.

Hundreds of the immigrants populating kibbutzim are former volunteers. About half a million volunteers from all over the world have sampled this way of life, during summers of manual labor such as washing dishes, cleaning coops, picking crops and milking cows.

In the 1960s, many kibbutzim started mixing industry with agriculture and giving greater choices in work and compensation. But by the 1980s, the movement was floundering both ideologically and financially. This once-hallowed institution was losing its lustre and kibbutz kids weren’t returning after their army service. “Kibbutzim now are finding their way,” observed Getz. “Members want to influence their surroundings and be open to society in both directions.”

Thanks to changes implemented by the movement, more than 2,500 new members have joined or rejoined kibbutzim in recent years, bringing the total population to about 123,000 people on 273 kibbutzim. Only about one-quarter of Israel’s kibbutzim still operate in the traditional communal style, where division of income is strictly equal. A handful of others opted for the “integrated method,” where each member gets a standard base amount, in addition to payments based on seniority and on the percentage of the member’s salary or contribution to the kibbutz. Most kibbutzim adopted the “renewed” model, where higher earners receive more income, and a percentage of each member’s gross salary goes to community expenses and to supplement the income of low-earning members. Renewed kibbutzim practise various forms of privatization, with a greater emphasis on individuals and families.

Despite these changes, core principles remain. “Two characteristics make the kibbutz movement stand out,” said Getz. “Democracy – all members participate in discussions and votes – and mutual responsibility.”

Many advances in agriculture and dairy farming have come out of Israel’s kibbutzim. Drip-irrigation technology, which Israel has shared with many other countries, was innovated by Netafim, a multinational company founded at Kibbutz Hatzerim in 1965. SAE Afikim, based on Kibbutz Afikim since 1977, is the global leader in developing, manufacturing and marketing computerized systems for modern dairy farm and herd management. According to the Kibbutz Industry Association, up to 80 percent of Israel’s kibbutzim are manufacturing and marketing everything from furniture to popcorn. The most common kibbutz-made products are plastic and rubber goods, edibles, electronics, metals and machinery. Each modern kibbutz-owned endeavor has a separate bank account and board of directors.

According to Palgi, who is immediate past president of the Communal Studies Association, the kibbutz way of life is intriguing to people from around the world. “Communities from countries such as Japan, the United States and Germany have come and studied the issues involved,” she said, stressing that the concept must be adapted to suit the host country’s culture.

Tsur believes that even within Israel, the kibbutz will continue evolving. “If it’s a free society, then every generation has to reinvent the kibbutz; we don’t have a central authority to mandate what is best. Maybe there will be kibbutzim of educators, for example? Certainly it won’t be only about raising chickens.”

He added that kibbutzniks continue raising critical questions concerning work, democracy and education. “These are the big questions young people all over the world are asking,” he noted. “The kibbutz was an invention of young people and, even if today there are old people walking around on them, it is still a society that is a human adventure, that asks the questions.”

Israel21C is a nonprofit educational foundation with a mission to focus media and public attention on the 21st-century Israel that exists beyond the conflict. For more, or to donate, visit israel21c.org.

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