Page 9 - C.A.L.L. #31 - Spring 2009

Zendik Farm

Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads

I live in a commune in the north of Israel, in an intimate group which is part of an

urban kibbutz of educators, and like a good socialist and a curious traveler, my trips
usually involve visiting other communities that offer modern alternatives to the crazy
lifestyle around us. My last trip to the US of A took my weary feet to West Virginia!
Finally I found myself gallivanting around the USA; exploring the varied states and
meeting people of America. This time I will share one experience: Zendik Farm in
West Virginia.

I'd been cooped up in a car for 9 hours all by myself, so the moment I arrived at the
artist 'ecolibrium' Zendik farm, I jumped out of the car, climbed up a tree to release
that pent up energy, slept for three hours, got up, went running in the forests (did I
mention I'm a bit hyper active?), looking down at the ground to be careful to avoid
stepping on any bear traps, and obviously being cautious from bears coming out of the

woods - it was still quite a scenic and an enjoyable run.

There are all sorts of interesting communities in West Virginia - maybe because of
the fact that in rural areas you can legally build whatever and however you want with
no hassles or bureaucracy. I know of Zendik Farm, Gesundheit institute and a Neo-
Nazi commune (that I didn't go to visit, I figured they wouldn't welcome me there so

warmly, or maybe they WOULD welcome me too warmly). You can find beautiful and
loving communities very near to very racist and scary ones - and there is probably
much more to the communal
scene in that area that I don’t
even know about.

I will try to summarize Zendik
Farm in my own words - which
will probably do an injustice to
the Zendik philosophy, and not
everybody on the farm will
totally agree with my
description and choice of

words, but…

Zendik Farm is named after
Wulf Zendik the artist and philosopher. Wulf and his wife Arol were the founders of
this adventure back in the 1960's. Zendik, influenced by many different theories and
philosophers, created their own terminology. For example:

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