Eclipse of the Kibbutz

Most of Israel’s kibbutzim are no longer run as socialist settlements, and the government is even prepared to see them privatized

The kibbutz, the Israeli version of a socialist collective commune, was considered one of the great socio-economic experimental successes of the 20th century. Even if Zionism was unpopular among the left from 1967 onwards, the Israeli farming communes inspired several generations of revolutionaries, who cited the communities as living proof that communism works.

The kibbutz was initially influenced by the Soviet Union, but in recent years has adopted the Chinese model of integrating capitalism into communist values. If the macro-socio-economic communism of the USSR disappeared because it simply failed to deliver even the most basic standard of living, the kibbutz in contrast is a victim of its own success and growing affluence.

Economic equality is one thing when dividing up food, clothes, and other fundamentals. But when a kibbutz is rich, the range of consumer choices, business decisions, and lifestyles makes egalitarianism difficult to put into practice.

Change of style

Even so, the kibbutz, in one form or another, is for the time being still alive. Some 110,000 Israelis live on 270 kibbutzim (the plural of kibbutz) representing 1.4 percent of the population. This is down from a peak of 125,000 in 1990 (2.5 percent of the population).

The kibbutzim produce 40 percent of the country’s agricultural output and export US$6 billion of industrial goods a year. The vast amount of real estate that they own has enabled them to open shopping malls, gas stations, fast-food outlets, hotels, country clubs, and much more, and build homes for sale on the private market.

Kibbutz lifestyles have changed out of all recognition since 1909 when the first Russian-born pioneers established the original kibbutz at Dganya, where the River Jordan flows out of the Sea of Galilee. Within a decade there were 40 kibbutzim. These settlements enjoyed greater prosperity and social cohesion than the capitalist farms founded by the Rothschilds and other philanthropists in places like Rishon Le-Tsiyon and Petakh Tikva.

By the time the State of Israel was established in 1948 the kibbutz formed the backbone (and 6.5 percent) of Israeli society. Kibbutz members were looked up to as the social and moral ideal, not least because the kibbutzim had transformed large tracts of arid land into fertile fields. Even more importantly, the kibbutzim, which had been strategically located as pioneering outposts, were created in order to define the borders of the Jewish state.

Most of the Palmach, the elite fighting force of pre-state Israel, were kibbutz members because by definition the kibbutzim attracted people eager to defend the country’s borders from the battlefront. These combative traditions have been maintained, and most young members are still eager to volunteer for prestigious combat units.

High-tech agriculture has brought the kibbutzim financial gain.

Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications

Three Different Paths

There are three kibbutz movements in Israel today: the national religious kibbutz movement combines a communal way of life with Jewish Orthodoxy, while the other two – Meuhad and Artzi – are secular in outlook. The latter two movements split from each other back in 1951, when Meuhad members denounced Stalin as an anti-Semitic dictator while adherents of Artzi remained faithful to the USSR and the party line. The Artzi movement realized that the Soviet experiment was going wrong long before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, but it still leans more toward orthodox socialism than does the Meuhad.

From austerity to affluence

The kibbutz initially succeeded because members were motivated to work together, pool very limited resources, and, against the odds, overcome both a hostile environment and the Arab enemy.

It was in a climate of austerity that the kibbutzim laid the foundations for future prosperity. By the effective harnessing of agriculture and technology, the finest fruit and vegetables were grown, bringing premium prices on European markets. Bovine varieties were bred to produce the highest milk yields, as were chickens that laid large numbers of eggs.

But perhaps the greatest kibbutz invention was drip irrigation, developed by members of Kibbutz Netafim in the 1960s. This system uses networks of pipes that drip water onto crops or trees, thus penetrating deeply into the soil and utilising minimal amounts of water. Drip irrigation works on a time clock and can be very simple, but in recent times sophisticated options have been added, such as computer control and fertilizers.

Today Netafim has annual sales of nearly US$650 million, 2,400 employees, 13 manufacturing facilities in nine countries, 32 subsidiaries, and a strong distribution presence in more than 100 countries.

In the 1960s and 1970s austerity was gradually replaced by a more middle-class lifestyle. But a kibbutz member’s home remained a modest place, with money channeled into communal projects such as dining halls, sports and educational facilities, and cultural amenities.

Thousands of members left the kibbutzim, lured by the more individualistic lifestyle of the city. Many kibbutz children would choose not to return home after serving in the army. But there were always veteran Israelis or new immigrants eager to take their place as the new pioneers.

A kibbutz in central Israel.

Daniella Nowitz/Apa Publications

Tarnished image

It is difficult to know when the kibbutz stopped being universally admired as a place for selfless pioneers. One important date was 1977, when the Labor Party lost the reins of power. The right-wing prime minister Menachem Begin poured scorn on the kibbutzim, not least because they had traditionally given their support to Labor governments.

Begin described kibbutz members as millionaires who sit around their swimming pools all day. It was an unfair label, but it stuck. Begin was politically exploiting the fact that kibbutzim were almost exclusively Ashkenazi, and, even at its most austere, their lifestyle was considerably more desirable than the poverty suffered by Oriental Jews in the nearby development towns.

Somewhat unfairly, in view of their prominent role in the army, the kibbutznikim were portrayed as traitors rather than patriots, because of their left-leaning political views.

It was also during this period that the kibbutzim got themselves into an economic mess, borrowing large sums from Israeli banks in the 1980s when annual inflation was triple-digit and interest rates high. The economy stabilized but the interest rates remained locked at exorbitantly high percentages.

Many kibbutzim staved off bankruptcy through loan repayment arrangements with bank and government help. And, although the kibbutzim were forced to give the government some of their land, they retained most of it, to the resentment of the disadvantaged and new immigrants.

Worker at Kibbutz Ein Gedi, also a botanical garden.

Nowitz Photography/Apa Publications

Kibbutz Dan’s restaurant serves fresh trout from local tributaries of the Jordan. Kibbutz Mizra, near Nazareth, antagonizes Israel’s religious community by rearing pigs and selling pork products.

Economic evolution

Today the nuclear family has replaced alternative social structures. Kibbutz children were once brought up in communal baby houses by educational professionals, seeing their parents only at certain times of the day, as it was believed that they should be part of the community. But these days a child’s place in the kibbutz is once more with his or her parents.

Family rather than communal living is being reinforced by the gradual disappearance of the kibbutz dining room. Some 20 percent of kibbutzim have closed their dining rooms and members eat at home; while 80 percent of the remaining kibbutzim have transformed their dining rooms into “pay as you eat” restaurants, open to the public, in which kibbutz members pay lower prices for meals. Some 82 percent of kibbutzim make members pay for all services, including laundry and electricity, while, most significantly, 51 percent of kibbutzim have instituted pay differentials in which members receive salaries related to the work they are performing. There are a handful of austere kibbutzim, such as Tzeelim in the Negev, that remain true to the socialist principles of the past, and the wealthiest kibbutzim, such as Maagan Michael near Haifa and Tzuba near Jerusalem, remain egalitarian, as members are reluctant to relinquish their share of what are in effect highly successful businesses.

Israel Shavuot ceremony at Kibbutz Ein Shemer.

SuperStock

An attractive lifestyle

From the point of view of socialist ideology, the kibbutz may not be what it used to be, but it is still a very attractive place to live. It offers a rural lifestyle, guaranteed work in a number of different professions, and comfortable living standards, including a house and garden.

It may be some time until the final nail is hammered into the kibbutz coffin. New legislation allows the kibbutzim to privatize themselves and sell their houses and gardens on the real estate market after buying their land from the government. However, the state and kibbutzim are very far from agreeing the value of the properties, so only a few kibbutzim on the Lebanese border, where real estate is almost worthless, are fully privatized.

Meanwhile, the question of whether market forces will choke out traditional idealism is a matter of fierce debate.

Finding Out for Yourself

Visitors wishing to sample life on a kibbutz or moshav can either stay at one of the many kibbutz and moshav guesthouses, or volunteer to work for a period of not less than a month. Guesthouses are often in isolated rural areas in the northern Galilee, but a few are within easy reach of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. They usually offer all the facilities of a comfortable hotel. You can make a booking through the Kibbutz Hotels Chain (tel: 03-560 8118; www.kibbutz.co.il). Prospective volunteer workers should contact Kibbutz Program Center, 6 Frishman Street/corner Yarkon St, Tel Aviv (tel: 03-524 6154/6; email: kpc@kibbutzvolunteers.org.il; www.kibbutz.org.il/volunteers).

The moshav movement

The privatization of a kibbutz would in fact turn it into a moshav (cooperative settlement). For the Jewish pioneers who wanted a less socialistic form of communal living when the earliest settlements were founded, the moshav offered a more individualistic alternative. Nahalal in the Galilee, the first moshav, was set up in 1921 by a breakaway group of settlers who were disillusioned by the socialist constraints of Dganya, the very first kibbutz. One member of this breakaway group was Shmuel Dayan, the father of Moshe Dayan, who was to become a high-profile Defense Minister and hero of the Six Day War in 1967.

In the moshav, each family runs its own household and farms its individual plot of land, but machinery is shared and marketing is done jointly. There are about 400 moshavim in Israel, but most members now work in regular jobs, renting out their land to private farmers.