Page 12 - C.A.L.L. #47 - Winter 2020/2021
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pioneering today, it is done in the ceremonies to welcome children born into
neighborhoods, in the schools, in renewing the community and celebrate the start of
a sense of what it means to belong to a elementary school, and they all contribute
society, a nation.” to an emergency fund for members who
find themselves in need.
Someone who joins an urban kibbutz, he
says, does this “because they feel a strong Among their civic projects was the
sense of belonging and attachment – their establishment of Beersheba’s first
personal life and life as part of a society cooperative nursery school.
are one.”
Bella Alexandrov, a trained social worker,
About 30 miles from Beersheba, near the describes herself as someone who never
border with Gaza, is Sderot, the most planned to live in Beersheba after arriving
frequent target in the country for Hamas there from Latvia as an 8-year-old. She
rockets. Its urban kibbutz is also run by still remembers the shock when her family
Dror Israel. moved into one of its poorer
neighborhoods.
Harel Felder, who grew up in Hod
Hasharon, outside Tel Aviv, has been a “I thought about Israel as a place where
member for nine years. It took time for his bananas and coconuts fell from the trees,
parents to understand this was his life, and and I arrived and saw an ugly neighborhood
despite the rocket attacks, and the town’s with drug addicts and trash in the streets
struggling economy, and living with nine and I did all I could to leave,” she says.
housemates – this was and will continue to
be his home. But a few years ago she heard about Kama,
and after sharing a Friday night Shabbat
“I feel like this is where I am working for meal she became intrigued, ended up
the future of my friends and the future of joining, and eventually took over as
my country,” he says. director for Eretz-Ir, the urban
collectives umbrella. Recently it has been
Different models, same goal focusing on how to develop employment in
In a high-rise apartment building in periphery areas.
Beersheba lives the “Kama” group, a
community that was established 17 years “There is momentum, people are seeking
ago. It has evolved from young single communities, and the state understands
people living in various apartments to 15 the importance of having a strong
families with young children living on periphery, so more state money is being
several floors of the building and in a few allotted to these initiatives,” she says.
homes nearby.
For her, being part of Kama is deeply
The adults work mostly as educators or fulfilling. “We talk about leadership, about
social workers. Sabbath dinners are eaten social change, but being a member gave me
together, there are weekly meetings to a feeling of connection I never had
discuss issues and update each other on before.”
their lives, members created their own
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