Page 18 - C.A.L.L. #27 - Summer 2006

KIBBUTZ SHORTS

Coexistence and Tropical Fruit

In the Arava (the southernmost and extremely dry part of
Israel) a new project was launched recently: a joint program,
mainly for Jordanian farmers, led by expert Israeli Kibbutz
members, for growing tropical fruit for the European market.
This project facilitates close cooperation between farmers of
both sides of the border, but also trains many of the
Jordanians for growing quality products for choosy
customers on the continent. Most Kibbutzim in the Arava
concentrate on organic food, which attracts more and more
customers in the country (and for export, too).

Activism in the Community

The older students of the Tzafit high school on Kibbutz Kfar Menachem have
volunteered this year to work and play with the students of a school for
orphans in a nearby township. They bring with them to those disadvantaged
kids not only assistance in their studies but mainly close person-to-person
contact, and - through games, singing and dancing - a host of emotional and
spiritual experiences. The effect on the "tutors" would seem no less important:
the deepening of their involvement in wider Israeli society, which Kibbutz
children are often lacking.

Bob Hoskins on Kibbutz Tzafit High School

When the British character actor Bob Hoskins visited Israel, he insisted on touring
Kibbutz Zikim, and it turned out that he remembered every comer of that place where
he spent time (and worked hard in the cowshed) some decades ago. But the Kibbutzniks
did not recognize him right away: they remembered a young man with a head full of
flowing locks.

A Response To Kibbutz Changes

"For us veterans it is very hard to go through all those
partings from what used to be basics of Kibbutz life:
three (free!) meals a day in the common dining room,
the weekly General Assembly, the Kibbutz laundry,
young foreign volunteers, weddings to which all of us
were invited as well as joint festivities", wrote one
woman at Kibbutz Bet Keshet. "Most of us miss these
parts of community life badly and we remember them
with much longing. But this seems to be the price we
have to pay for the changes in Kibbutz life, which we
ourselves decided upon. Is this really the much-hoped-
for progress? We'll have to recognize that the future is
Kibbutz General Assembly back in the day!
here, occurring now ... ".

1
1818
188