Page 18 - C.A.L.L. #31 - Spring 2009

KIBBUTZ SHORTS

The World Crisis Hit Us Too

Many Kibbutzim established, during the last decades, industrial
enterprises, and some of them are flourishing and bring in a decent
profit, much more than any agricultural branch could dream of. These
luckier Kibbutzim could now enlarge the old flats where the old-timers
lived for many years in very crowded conditions and build new houses for
Kibbutz sons and daughters who want "to come home". But the economic
world crisis hit out on all sides, including some Kibbutzim who now have
to cancel or at least minimize their plans and demand patience from all
concerned. Further proof that we are an integral part of the world.

My Baby…

Brachah remembers the days (actually: the many years) of the
exaggerated worry over the babies' health and welfare, whom the young
mother handed over to the Metapelet (nurse, caretaker) as soon as she
came home from hospital, in her Kibbutz Mishmar Hanegev (like in nearly
all other Kibbutzim). This was not only an ideological principle: the
members' housing was so poor, lacking the most essential facilities, that
only the Kibbutz baby house could provide the children with all the
necessary care and equipment. But, the "professional" nurses were so
devoted to their task, sensing that the full responsibility for the children's
welfare rests on their shoulders, that Brachah's Metapelet did not let her
bathe her baby. She explained and demonstrated carefully all necessary actions to be taken, but
all this remained theoretical: day after day Brachah had to watch, from a safe distance of two
meters, her baby taken all care of by "the expert". Only after six whole weeks of the "learning
process" she was declared "ripe" for independence and had her little one handed over to her to
wash and dry, now recognized as a fully qualified mother.

As we all know, this way of communal child-raising ceased to exist in all Kibbutzim, in many only
after lengthy and heated discussions, and today the baby comes home to its parents, who get full,
constant and adequate guidance from the nurses. A parent (most often the mother) can even
decide not to return to work (do without full wages) and keep her child at home for a longer
period. As all deep-going changes in the way-of-life, there are some who regret this "move
towards normalcy", others who are happy with this "proper" family life, in spite of the additional
burden which it heaps on the parents.

They Too Came To The Kibbutz

Israel, thanks to her geographical location, is the main
thorough-way for millions of birds from Europe to
Africa (for the winter) and back in the spring, and has
therefore become a paradise for birdwatchers from all
over the world. Of course, they are all on their way
and don't breed here. One day a wounded female
stork came down at Kibbutz Tirat Tzvi (near the Jordan
Valley) and was unable to go on, even though devoted
Kibbutz members built a nest for her on top of a high
streetlamp. A male came along, made his home in the
new nest, but could not get her up and stayed single,
too. The following year a new female stork came along, fell in love with the male (or his nest) and
now they have there what is extremely rare in Israel – a full stork family. Congratulations!

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