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The Kibbutz has Returned	| More
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By Gavri Bargil View Comments

Over the past decade, this sense gathered momentum in public opinion and was reinforced by various reports in the media to the effect that the kibbutz had reached the end of its path, another steep cost of the global village in which we live.
Nevertheless, this turns out not to be the case. Very far from the public eye and from the press that follows it, a dramatic revolution has taken place over the last decade, during which the kibbutz idea recreated itself and was adapted for the 21st century.
Today, as the end of the first decade of the 21st century approaches, the kibbutz is once again becoming a key and influential factor in Israeli society and in shaping the State of Israel.
Over the last year the turnover of kibbutz industries totaled $8 billion, around 11 percent of the total industrial manufacturing turnover in Israel. Kibbutz agriculture, which represents 35 percent of all agricultural endeavors in Israel, generated an annual sales turnover of $1.5 billion. Kibbutzim’s share of Israel’s gross national product (GNP) is currently six percent, and this is case given that the kibbutz population represents 1.7 percent of the total population of Israel.
If in 2000 half of the kibbutzim faced the threat of closure, today only 30 kibbutzim still face financial insecurity and all the rest are on the road to stability and growth.
Along with the financial stability, demographic stability has also come and over the last three years more the number of new members accepted in the kibbutzim has exceeded the number of those leaving. If over the years, most kibbutzim did not gain new members and the only changes registered were the number of people leaving, in the last year, there were many kibbutzim that accepted dozens of new members.
When taking into account that 75 percent of the kibbutzim in Israel are located in the periphery and are along the state’s southern and northern borders, this signifies a dramatic recovery with major implications for the State of Israel’s most important interests.
How did this happen? What happened within the kibbutzim that enabled this dramatic turnaround?
Over the last decade the kibbutzim underwent a series of structural changes that together generated this revolution and prompted the dramatic recovery. The basic values upon which the kibbutz was built were preserved but their implementation has changed and has been adapted to the changing times. The reinvigorated thinking and the attempt to build the kibbutz in such a way that will lead to economic improvements and again attract young people led a more suitable balance of the values on which the kibbutz was built.
Firstly, the management culture was changed. In the past, the kibbutz social and commercial decisions were all made with the full participation of the entire membership, an expression of the equality, which was perceived as a supreme value of the kibbutz, but today there is a complete separation between business dealings and community affairs.
The community continues to be run in full partnership with the entire membership when making decisions; but the business aspects are determined according to standard professional criteria in the world at large.
The job market has changed as well. In the past all kibbutz members worked in the kibbutz framework and based on the kibbutz’s needs, but today, kibbutz members learn a profession and 35 percent of them work in free professions outside the kibbutz. This change is part of the balance attained between the value of work and the value of a livelihood and the desire for self-fulfillment, in contrast to the past, when everything was done in accordance with the needs of the collective.
Another change was the acquisition of personal security for kibbutz members. In the past it was common practice for a kibbutz member not to have personal possessions because everything belonged to the collective. In the wake of the shifts in the kibbutz, there is now a practice of guaranteeing an individual pension for every one and in some kibbutzim member’s home have also been registered in their names.
The primary change that affected the kibbutz was the switch from full equality to basic equality. In the past, the kibbutz strived for all equality among members, but today there is a connection between livelihood and a kibbutz member’s ability to earn, and the budget he receives at the end of each month. This process was embarked on by levying higher internal communal taxes on those with large salaries and in order to prevent the creation of gaps within the community. All of this was done while creating a security net that guarantees that no member of the community will fall and that even someone who cannot earn an adequate living for whatever reason will be able to receive a supplement from the communal funds collected from the internal taxation of members.
The new kibbutz has preserved the basic values that built the kibbutz almost 100 years ago, but it achieved a more appropriate balance among those values. If in the past, there was little room for the individual’s will versus the will of the collective, today there is more space for the individual and the family alongside the communal space.

The kibbutz of the 21^st century is not the same kibbutz of 100 and 50 years ago, but it still is way of life that can serve as an example of a just society with equality and solidarity, more than other society in the Western world.

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Comments
September 2nd, 2008 - 14:07:57 Back to top^ By Adam Paz I agree with Sam Kelman and Yoel Magid on their views of potential issues that the kibbutzim face. I think Gavri Bargil owes it to himself and his readers to address the concerns raised in the above comments in a follow-up piece. Thank you.
July 21st, 2008 - 13:24:09 Back to top^ By Ian Gold I believe that a rebirth of the Kibbutz movement in Israel is essential for the future strength of the nation. It has been ignored by right wing governments for far too long leading to a disconnection with secular Jewish youth worldwide . The Birthright Israel program does not have the same ability to attract the range of young people as the Kibbutz volunteer. The Kibbutz was also able to attract large numbers of non-Jews some of them from influential backgrounds such as the son of one time British PM Harold Wilson, which left them with a lasting affinity to the state of Israel. Is it any wonder why support for Israel has dropped when the only real link that Israel had with international youth has declined? It is my opinion it is vitally important that all Israeli governments should financially support kibbutzim and in particular boost the volunteer program.
April 23rd, 2008 - 16:51:00 Back to top^ By sam kelman Thanks for an interesting and (for me at least) an encouraging article. However, I would like to hear some more specifics: eg examples of the balance between individual rights and collective ones what is the progression in the taxation system i.e how much do the higher earners pay and what is guaranteed to all members, both of working age and retirement age examples of social decisions vav business decsions e.g who choose who goes on for higher education and where does the money come from. Thanks in advance for answering these questions. Sam Kelman, 7th workshop; chicago Habonim and now in Cleveland
April 23rd, 2008 - 16:50:20 Back to top^ By David Leichman Thank you for this optimistic, positive and encouraging article. The ability to make these changes is the secret of our continued success. The definition and values of kibbutz must be determined by those who choose to live in it at any specific time. These changes are happening because it answers the needs and the desires of those of us who choose to live on kibbutz today. Kibbutz, like Judaism has constantly changed in order to live in a changing world. There are those who claim that with these changes it is no longer kibbutz, just as there are those who say that if a woman is a rabbi it is no longer Judaism. We should be liberal and give these people the right to be wrong! Kol Hakavod to Ameinu for sharing this with us. David Leichman Kibbutz Gezer
April 23rd, 2008 - 16:49:51 Back to top^ By Jackie Porter I am really happy to see the Kibbutz revival. It needs to be better publiciized so as to off-set the view that the "kibbutz is dead" in the Jewish community.
April 23rd, 2008 - 16:47:13 Back to top^ By Yoel Magid Whille I am sure that Gavri is right that many kibbutzim are in better shape than they were a few years ago, it's always a good idea to keep numbers and statistics in the proper perspective. 1. How much of the billions Gavri mentions is a result in the 20% drop in the dollar with respect to the shekel? Has kibbutz industry really grown so much, or has its dollar value increased because of the strength of Israeli currency? 2. Kibbutzim are a lot like the rest of the world -- a large part of the total gross product is concentrated in the hands of a few. If we take the top/richest 10% of the kibbutzim out of the equation, what, then, is the gross product of the other 90%? We know the answer in the US, and the answer on kibbutzim is very similar -- the rich are doing very well, but most are very poor. 3. According to Gavri, 1.7% of the Israeli population is on kibbutz. This is probably a deceptive number: how many of these are members of kibbutzim and how many are residents paying rent to the kibbutz? The presense of hired workers living on kibbutz and people renting houses or land from the kibbutz has been a great help economically to kibbutzim, but it shouldn't be used to create the impression that the number of members on kibbutz has increased dramatically. 4. The ideological crisis on kibbutz has resulted in many not so happy statistics: how many kibbutz children opt out of the army, how many refuse (perhaps for legitimate political reasons) to volunteer for elite units in the army/air force compared to the past when kibbutz children were an incredibly dominant and important part of the IDF. As a former kibbutznik, I would be happy if everything Gavri wrote were true, but I am sorry that part of his argument is sleight of hand statistical gamesmanship with the numbers. I think that the changes on kibbutz have been necessary for survival of the community, but, at some point, Gavri and others will have to decide if the name kibbutz is relevant for most of what used to be kibbutzim: today, we have many former kibbutzim that are surviving, some thriving,as rural communities with a minimum of the kinds of cooperation and sharing that was part of the kibbutz movement for so long. It won't help them in the future if we call them by a name that no longer has relevance for them. And 30 of these communities struggling to survive is still a very high number. Gavri doesn't tell us the sad statistic on how many kibbutzniks are living below the poverty line in Israel.
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