Page 17 - C.A.L.L. #33 - Winter 2010/2011

Welcome to “Kibbutz Shorts”,

where we discover what’s new
on the Kibbutz in an update
KIBBUTZ SHORTS
from around Israel.

Compiled mainly from the

Kibbutz weeklies by Yoel Darom,
Kibbutz Kfar Menachem

A Whole Century Long

This is a very special year for many of us: dozens of festivals, story-telling, film shows and
exhibitions, memorials and all kinds of artistic performances, and of course lots of soul-
searching and festive speeches given up and down this country to celebrate a Hundred Years
of Kibbutz. It was in 1910 – before the First World War – that a group of 6 people (5 men
and one woman) said: we are fed up with working for others, we shall prove that a group of
workers is able to do their jobs without the constant interference of managers and
organizers. They did, and did well, and with much courage and a profound Socialist drive, with
deep conviction that they were laying the foundations for a homeland for Jews all over the
world – became the first Kibbutz. They named themselves Degania, a field flower, some new
people joined them in the hottest corner of this country, but when they counted 16 members
and a small group of youngsters came to join them, they refused: if this Kibbutz is going to
realize its vision to fulfill the place of the "New Family", we cannot grow without limits, and–
split into two. Now we have Degania A and Degania B, but in course of the century both
Kibbutzim grew far away from the New-Family concept and each of them holds today a few
hundred members and children (fifth generation).

Are We Still A Kibbutz?

During the last 10-20 years, while many Kibbutzim went through the difficult period of
planning and implementing deep changes in their life, many said: this is definitely the end of
the Kibbutz. Finito! They - most of them of the older generation – fought a courageous
battle against the new trends, but in most Kibbutzim they had to retreat under the pressure
of the majority who went along with the "modernization" of the collective, reciting an old
truth: this is not a new-trend revolution, the Kibbutz has introduce changes in his life from
the very beginning! In its first years, when ideology was still burning hot, most of them
decided at one stage to sew personal clothes for each, men and women, after the initial
period where everyone got his/her clothes dealt out to them every Friday ("the eve of
Shabbat"). Some considered this as "the beginning of the end of the collective", and that
was the war cry, too, when the first little electric kettles appeared and so on every few
years.

But now, the changes many Kibbutzim underwent, turning more and more areas of collective
life over to private responsibility, this fearsome prophesy is becoming much more real. BUT –
remember that most of these "New Kibbutzim" guard some of the old important principles:
taking care of "special cases" (children as well as adults), holding well-organized activities

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