Page 35 - C.A.L.L. #36 - Summer 2013

standards of living began to diverge In later years the dining room closed
when members could bring in outside
money and outside contractors to begin
changing their houses. Today, with a
total change from income sharing to a
private economy, some people on Gezer
live in large villas, while others still live
in the old style basic housing. But to be
fair, even today, the rich are hardly
rich, and the poor are not so badly off.
Even with larger groups, the tendency
was for smaller subgroups to establish
themselves. My own experience of
kibbutz life was that meal times were
very important for getting things
sorted out prior to actual decision
making meetings. We all ate together in
the dining room. On Kibbutz Gezer we
were well over a hundred people. On
some kibbutzim there were up to two
thousand people eating together.
Whatever the size, the natural thing
was to relate to the people at your
table. Breakfast and lunch tended to be
with your workmates, we started work
before breakfast, and usually went down
to eat as a group. Around the table it
was natural to chat about work things,
and the end of the meal was often a
quick round of who does what for the
rest of the day.
On the other hand, supper on the
kibbutz tended to be eaten with your
personal friends, but not so much with
your family. Once the kids were old
enough, they wanted to eat together as
a group, not be stuck with boring old
grown-ups. One of the regular topics of
talk around the table were the issues of
the day, what kind of choices were
facing the community, and what our
response was to be. Here issues were
thrashed out, opinions were exchanged
and weighed up, and individuals often
began to form their own responses.
35
and families were forced to eat at home
separately. Sometimes smaller groups
would get together to eat, these were
often splinter groups who gathered
together round an idea or an issue, and
there was not the same opportunity to
meet people you disagreed with.
Whether this was a contributory factor
to the conflicts that developed at that
time is hard to say objectively, but my
feelings at the time, and these are
reinforced by later reflection, were
that there was a loss of unity. One of
the comments that I hear from my
friends still living there is that the
sense of community has been lost since
the dining room closed.
Coming back to kibbutz is like coming
back to the mother ship. Whichever way
you cut the cake, the fact remains that
the kibbutz experiment in communal
living was the largest and longest and
deepest attempt at alternative
th
intentional community in the 20
century. To have been a part of that
experiment was a privilege, an honour,
and a learning experience like no other.
Jan Martin Bang grew up in England
where he was active in the Cooperative
and Trade Union Movements in the 70’s.
He moved to Israel in 1984 and was a
kibbutz member for 16 years. Since
1993 he worked on environmental
projects within the Kibbutz Movement.
In 2000 he moved to Solborg Camphill
Village in Norway with his family, where
they lived for 8 years. He now lives next
to Solborg, edits the Norwegian
Camphill Magazine and still retains
strong connections to the community.
He is President of the International
Communal Studies Association and has
written 5 books on community and
ecology.