Are All The Kibbutzim The Same?

Virtually, the nature of the kibbutzim’s concept, is what really makes them change every single day. As Roni Molho, the Volunteer Leader in Lahav, noticed: “The second day in the first kibbutz was totally different than the first day’’. In a time period of about one hundred years (the first ever was Degania, back in 1909, right after the Second Aliya), many of the kibbutzim followed different routes, to end up today in several different categories of modus vivendi, with many common elements, yet a lot of substantial differences in function.

In brief lines, we are in position to count five main categories of kibbutzim today:

• Traditional: Still not privatized, remaining quite close to the initial concept, with a common dining room and laundry, solidarity among its members, economicaly independent, with a quite introvertive mentality and partly isolated from the rest of the israeli society. About 50% of the 265 kibbutzim, all over Israel, are like this. Kibbutzim Lahav and Sde Boker are typical examples of this category.
• Private: After the new law which was implemented recently by the Israeli goverment, many kibbutzim decided to follow the path of privatization, to gain more money and make sure that they’ll survive. “Pay ‘n’ go” system in the dining room, or privatization of some sectors, eg. farms, gym, cafeteria etc. are some of the changes which can be found in them. This kind is about 20% of all the kibbutzim. Kibbutz Gesher Haziv is a representative for the privatized ones.
• Religious: We could call them “kibbutz – monastery”, as only religious jewish people are allowed to visit or stay there, while religion and study of the Torah is on the fiscal point of their communal life. There are about 16 Haredi Kibbutzim all over the country, which (like the traditional ones) keep the initial concept alive and they are absolutely successful and wealthy, as there is a strong element that connects their residents and leads their efforts to succeed – that is religion, of course.Typical example is the Kibbutz Yavneh, cradle of Religious Kibbutz Movement.
• Successfull: Those are the kibbutzim that had been transformed successfully into big farming and dairy production units, offering hotel accomodation, novelty cultivations, expertized in several fields, new business, start-ups etc.. They remain significantly wealthy and they keep the initial concept, as the money are enough to assure all kinds of “shared comforts” for their residents. Yotvata and Baram belong to this category.
• Fade away’s: Mostly the small ones and geographically isolated, about 20-30 all over the country, which are about to fade away or be privatized, with the second option seemingly more possible. Some of them host not more than 10-15 families and they face the fear of poverty in the very near future. The idea of “joining forces’’ among them, to help one another to survive, is another option. Kibbutz Krammin, next to Lahav, is an example of this category.

A guess for their future? The most possible for the kibbutzim is to end up in 3 big categories: A) Successful ones: A good business will never stop working B) Private ones: When this is unavoidable or when traditional values are not enough to keep them going C) Religious ones: That’s the most sure guess of all – faith is the strongest clue in human history.

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