Kibbutz

    Our program has a ‘TA’, who functions as such, but also effectively as our camp counselor/friend/supervisor.  We’re all pretty affectionate toward Ori, a history Ph.D. in his late thirties. He comes across as a history student- bookish, quiet, a little out of touch. He’s pretty qualified for this position in that he is studying Israel, and also grew up here, on a kibbutz in fact. Growing up on a kibbutz seemed pretty exotic to me, but slowly I’ve been able to reconcile it with Ori’s seeming normality.

    Kibbutzim are Israel’s famous collective farming communities, often cited as a working successful example of communism. They initially combined Zionism and socialism, forming a sort of utopia associated with the nascent Jewish state. In my last post I wrote a bit about the idea of the ‘New Jew,’ and how that tied in to the formation of kibbutzim and the new state.

    In many cases, kibbutzim took communism to an extreme. Not only were work and possessions shared, but parenting and effectively every other aspect of life as well. From birth, children lived in the children’s house, where they were cared for by nurses. For a couple hours every day children and parents visited for ‘quality time’, but all actual parenting was done by nurses. In a practical way, this system makes a lot of sense- it’s more efficient to take care of all the children together, and the important task of raising children would be left to those specially trained. Adults could continue to be most effective in their work, and children would be completely equal and grow up 100% community-minded. Economically it was better as well, because adults continued to live in their ‘room’ (literally that – just a bed and a couple chairs; dining and bathrooms were also communal), while the extra space required for taking care of children was combined in one place.

    Like most aspects of communism, it worked best in theory. Kibbutzim often succeeded economically and were a source for adept soldiers, but were not completely able to achieve their goals of complete equality or to cope with reality. Children brought these problems to light, as even in early childhood they exhibited the egotism their parents tried so hard to leave behind. Kids would leave the children’s house at night to go see their parents, who were required to bring them back, where the nurse would reprimand them. Specific attachment was shown to be inherent and unavoidable. Over time the suffering of mothers, particularly, came to light as other changes in kibbutzim were made. In a complete overhaul of the way kibbutzim work, they are now largely privatized with the communal aspects toned down. Children thus live with their families, who have more agency in their own lives, and economically kibbutzim are privatized. Many aspects are still communal, but in a way that feels like a senior citizen community: dues are paid (often in the form of work), for the benefit of a closed community with shared dining hall, pool, schools. Kibbutzniks own their own houses, property, and individual identity.

    Our class visited one such kibbutz this weekend, the one on which Ori grew up. Our class slept in the children’s house, now used not for housing but as a nursery school. We had Shabbat with some Americans enlisted in the Israeli army, ate dinner in the common dining hall, visited the kibbutz pub. In the morning Ori’s father, still living on the kibbutz, gave us a tour and told about the history. He was instrumental in many of the modernizations that took place. He said “The minute my first son was born, I became an opponent of the children’s house system.” It was an interesting moment to be able to glimpse this aspect of Ori’s childhood, also a tangible shift in the history of Israel.  

    The verdict was that a kibbutz is now overall nearly identical to summer camp. Largely a change for the better, the series of modernizations nonetheless stripped kibbutzim of their unusual and almost charming character. They still have a strong sense of community, and certain protection from world events (we were there the weekend of nakba day, and heard nothing about it), but lack the all-encompassing order that existed previously. Ori’s father summed up the common point of view by combining an assured conviction that the changes were necessary with a perceptible nostalgia for decades past.