Page 23 - C.A.L.L. #33 - Winter 2010/2011

Here we publish a report by Bill Metcalf about the recent International Communal
Studies Association (ICSA) Conference held in Israel this summer. This article was
originally written for Communities Magazine.

Early Monday, 28 June, about 130 ICSA members assembled at Emek Yezreel College,
Israel, for our tenth conference. We had come from Norway, Australia, Spain, Canada,
Germany, New Zealand, Italy, Mexico, Poland, USA, UK and, of course, Israel.
The boring process of registration and orientation was frequently interrupted by warm
greetings from old friends and colleagues – and soothed by excellent coffee and cakes.
ICSA President, Professor Michal Palgi, had arranged everything so efficiently that we
were soon doing what we all do so well: talking and listening about a wide range of
communal studies issues.

We spent our first day in one of two parallel sessions with titles ranging from
“Cooperatives” to “Women’s Changing Perceptions of Motherhood”. In the evening, our
ICSA conference was officially opened, after which awards were bestowed upon
Professors Donald Pitzer and Yaacov Oved, the founders of ICSA in 1985. Awards were
also bestowed on ICSA past Presidents, Professor Pearl Bartelt, Dr Saskia Poldervaart,
Dr Bill Metcalf, Professor Tim Miller, Professor Dennis Hardy and Dr Michal Palgi. A
Special Service Award was presented to Ruth Sobol, our long-serving and universally
respected administrator. Ruth has a special place in the heart of every past president.
Yaacov Oved, Bill Metcalf and Dennis Hardy then formed a panel and briefly addressed
members, recounting humorous accounts of their experiences with ICSA over the past
25 years. After so much talk we were relieved to be entertained by members of the
Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, and a witty video presentation.

Then, at long last, we sat down to a superb dinner with excellent wine, and were able to
catch up with old friends and make new ones.

The second day, perhaps due to the effects of all that excellent wine of last night,
started off slowly, again with parallel sessions. Titles ranged from “Facing the Challenges
of Ecology” to “Kibbutzim & Higher Education” and “Conflict & Participation in
Partnerships”. We then went to Merhavia, a very important historical site, where we
toured the grounds, and were entertained by ‘Shani’ an excellent Arab-Jewish girls’ choir.
We dined outside in Merhavia’s courtyard. The food was not so good as the first night
nor was the wine either as good or as plentiful — so we went home with clearer heads.
The final day of our conference again saw us in sessions with titles ranging from
“Leadership and Political Thought” to “Judaism & Communes” and “Old Dreams — New
Horizons? Kibbutz Women Revisited”. Anton Marks and Jan Bang led an innovative session
devoted to Community Story Telling, which was enthusiastically received.

The conference concluded with a plenary session “The Relevance of the Communal Idea in
Today’s Society”, chaired by Professor Eliezer Ben Raphael. Panelists Yaacov Oved, Bill
Metcalf, Jan Bang, Nomika Zion and Graham Meltzer pointed out ways that communal
ideas are more relevant than ever in our contemporary world. By then, however, most of
us were just about talked (and listened) out.

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