Page 4 - C.A.L.L. #45 - Summer 2019

Paris Kibbutz

By Léa Schwartz

How did it all start?

It all started sitting around the dinner table, a depressed Jewish mother regaling my years

spent on a kibbutz; they were the happiest years of my life. I had waited all of my 18 years
to go and live where it seemed happiness was possible. It was 1983. The life I discovered on
kibbutz went beyond my wildest dreams. Naturally, not everything was perfect, but I could
see that in this way of life, most difficulties could be overcome.

My personal life unpredictably brought me back to France. I left Israel, but not the idea of
the kibbutz. To this day, I’m convinced that this way of life is exportable, that it is a
solution for both developing and developed countries, everywhere that is facing enormous
human and ecological difficulties.

I have been working tirelessly since 1995 trying to create a
kibbutz-inspired way of life. I am a psychotherapist by
profession, and I run projects in the psycho-socio-educational
field – helping our members to avoid psycho-social and economic
suffering. In 2017, I met Claude Berger who for 20 years, in his
publications and at conferences, has been talking about the
urban kibbutz in Israel, and how they are working towards a
more just and fulfilling society for both its members and for the
surrounding environment. With his help, and with some other

The main kibbutz building friends, I founded the "Paris Kibbutz" in January 2018, a non-
is an old guest house where profit organization whose goal is to promote a lifestyle inspired
the famous painter Lautrec by the classical kibbutz and the urban kibbutz: the "rurban
once stayed kibbutz". The first “rurban kibbutz” was founded in March 2018.

What is a « rurban kibbutz » ?

The “rurban kibbutz”, as its name suggests, is a geographically dispersed community: some of
its members live in rural areas while others live in urban areas. Thus, the rurban kibbutz
offers its members the advantages of both the rural kibbutz and the urban kibbutz:

1 / The advantages of the rural kibbutz : located in the countryside, the rurban kibbutz
offers experiences close to nature, whether it’s during daily life, weekends, or longer
holidays. In the rurban kibbutz, we look after our houses, our gardens and our grounds. We

build, repair, plant, harvest etc. In doing so, the rurban kibbutz pursues the Jewish ideals of
working the land - for a life close to nature – and not just in the Land of Israel. This
proximity contributes to the flourishing of Jewish identity as much as to the celebration of
all that has been "divinely" created.