Kfar Blum ( Hebrew : כְּפַר בְּלוּם , lit. Blum Village) is a kibbutz in the Hula Valley part of the Upper Galilee in Israel . Located about 6 km (4 mi) southeast of the town of Kiryat Shmona , it falls under the jurisdiction of Upper Galilee Regional Council . In 2022 it had a population of 771.
98-841: Kibbutz Kfar Blum was founded in November 1943 by the Labor Zionist Habonim (now Habonim Dror ) youth movement, adjacent to the Palestinian village of Al-Salihiyya . The founding members of the kibbutz were primarily from the United Kingdom , South Africa , the United States and the Baltic countries. The kibbutz was named in honor of Léon Blum , the Jewish socialist former prime minister of France who
196-609: A Jewish state would be created by simply appealing to the international community or to powerful nations such as the United Kingdom , Germany , or the former Ottoman Empire . Rather, they believed that a Jewish state could only be created through the efforts of the Jewish working class making aliyah to the Land of Israel and raising a country through the creation of a Labor Jewish society with rural kibbutzim and moshavim , and an urban Jewish proletariat . Major theoreticians of
294-418: A book about his experiences. We were happy enough working on the land, but we knew more and more certainly that the ways of the old settlements were not for us. This was not the way we hoped to settle the country—this old way with Jews on top and Arabs working for them; anyway, we thought that there shouldn't be employers and employed at all. There must be a better way. Though Baratz and others wanted to farm
392-403: A center for outdoor recreational activities including walking , hiking , kayaking , rafting and bird watching . The kibbutz has a regional school, a sports arena and a hotel. It was also home to Hapoel Galil Elyon , a top division basketball team, which in 1993 became the first club from outside Tel Aviv to win the championship. Between 1969 and 1993, Kfar Blum was home to 24 years of
490-681: A chance to expand through new members and inexpensive labour, but it also meant that Ashkenazi kibbutzim would have to adapt to Jews whose background was far different from their own. Until the 1950s, nearly all kibbutzniks were from Eastern Europe, culturally different from the Jews of Morocco , Tunisia , and Iraq . Many kibbutzim hired Mizrahi Jews as labourers but were less inclined to grant them membership. Ideological disputes were also widespread, leading to painful splits, sometimes even of individual kibbutzim, and to polarisation and animosity among members. Israel had been initially recognized by both
588-545: A left wing and a right wing. In 1919 the right wing, including Ben-Gurion and anti-Marxist non-party people, founded Ahdut HaAvoda . In 1930 Ahdut HaAvoda and Hapoel Hatzair fused into the Mapai party, which included all of mainstream Labor Zionism. Until the 1960s these parties were dominated by members of the Second Aliyah. The Left Poale Zion-based party ultimately merged with the kibbutz-based Hashomer Hatzair ,
686-479: A middle-class lifestyle. With time, the kibbutz members' sense of identification with the kibbutz and its goals decreased. This process originated from personal frustrations among the kibbutz members as a result of internal processes, from the growing stratification and inequality due to the growth of capitalistic practices, and a generation born and raised in the kibbutzim that did not necessarily inherit their parents’ fiery ideological and motivational drive to “settle
784-457: A more prominent military role. Rifles were purchased or manufactured and kibbutz members drilled and practiced shooting. Yigal Allon , an Israeli soldier and statesman, explained the role of kibbutzim in the military activities of the Yishuv : The planning and development of pioneering Zionist were from the start at least partly determined by politico-strategic needs. The choice of the location of
882-444: A percentage of their reparations. Reparations that were turned over to the collective were used for building expansion and even recreational activities. The split between different factions within the kibbutz movement evolved between 1948 and 1954, when finally three kibbutz federations emerged, each aligned to a different Labour party : Ihud with Mapai , Meuhad with Ahdut HaAvoda , and Artzi with Mapam . Kibbutzniks enjoyed
980-567: A place for themselves, they prioritized national solidarity over international. The Bar Goria and Hashomer were Jewish self defense organizations to protect Jewish communities who were settling in Palestine. The Bar Giora was the first, and later absorbed into Hashomer. Their establishment was in response to Arab nationalism, that they believed would ultimately lead to clashes with the Palestinian Arabs. They believed that they were
1078-488: A preparatory mission to be carried out by an elite vanguard of pioneers; he developed a theory after the revolution of 1905 that indicated how inevitable Palestinian colonization by the Jewish masses was. Another Zionist thinker, A. D. Gordon , was influenced by the völkisch ideas of European romantic nationalism , and proposed establishing a society of Jewish peasants. Gordon made a religion of work. These two figures (Gordon and Borochov), and others like them, motivated
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#17328017128431176-685: A pro-Soviet foreign policy – but which also at the time (like the USSR) strongly supported the new state of Israel. Wallace went down to defeat, winning no states. Two Zionist labor parties were established in Palestine in late 1905 (the Second Aliyah) by party organization veterans in the pale of settlement , one socialist who was the Jewish Social Democratic Labour Party in Palestine rooted in Poale Zion ;
1274-636: A religiously inspired movement sparked by outbreaks of anti-Semitism and to create a rich, diverse intellectual lineage important to the movement today. In Israel, Labor Zionism has become nearly synonymous with the Israeli peace camp . Usually, Labor Zionist political and educational institutions activists are also advocates of a two-state solution , who do not necessarily adhere to socialist economic views. Kibbutz A kibbutz ( Hebrew : קִבּוּץ / קיבוץ , lit. ' gathering, clustering ' ; pl. : kibbutzim קִבּוּצִים / קיבוצים )
1372-404: A role in defining the borders of the Jewish state-to-be. By the late 1930s, when it appeared that Palestine would be partitioned between Arabs and Jews, kibbutzim were established in outlying areas to ensure that the land would be incorporated into the Jewish state. In 1946, on the day after Yom Kippur , eleven new "Tower and Stockade" kibbutzim were hurriedly established in the northern part of
1470-471: A servant of Zion. Ready to do everything, not bound to do anything. I have only one aim – creation. Trumpeldor, a Socialist Zionist, died defending the community of Tel Hai in the Upper Galilee in 1920. He became a symbol of Jewish self-defense and his reputed last words, "Never mind, it is good to die for our country" (En davar, tov lamut be'ad artzenu אין דבר, טוב למות בעד ארצנו), became famous in
1568-470: A soldier his esprit de corps, a doctor and an engineer, their special inclinations. A generation of iron-men; iron from which you can forge everything the national machinery needs. You need a wheel? Here I am. A nail, a screw, a block? – here take me. You need a man to till the soil? – I’m ready. A soldier? I am here. Policeman, doctor, lawyer, artist, teacher, water carrier? Here I am. I have no form. I have no psychology. I have no personal feeling, no name. I am
1666-562: A steady and gradual improvement in their standard of living in the first few decades after independence. In the 1960s, the kibbutzim standard of living improved faster than Israel's general population. Most kibbutz swimming pools date from the 1960s. Kibbutzim also continued to play an outsize role in Israel's defence apparatus. In the 1950s and 1960s many kibbutzim were in fact founded by an Israel Defense Forces group called Nahal . Many of these 1950s and 1960s Nahal kibbutzim were founded on
1764-399: A sub-component of the Israeli economic crisis of the 1980s ). During the 1980s, following the peak of the kibbutzim crisis, many people started leaving their kibbutzim, and there was considerable tension due to the economic situation. In order to cope with the situation, some kibbutzim began to change in various ways. The changes that occurred could be divided into three main types: Since
1862-491: A white tablecloth and fine food and work was not done on Saturday if it could be avoided. Only later did some kibbutzim adopt Yom Kippur as the day to discuss fears for the future of the kibbutz. Kibbutzim also had collective Bar and Bat Mitzvahs for their children. Kibbutznikim did not pray three times a day like their parents and grandparents, but would mark holidays like Shavuot , Sukkot , and Passover with dances, meals, and celebrations. One Jewish holiday, Tu BiShvat ,
1960-482: Is also considered to be one of the early icons of the Labor Zionist movement in Palestine. When discussing what it is to be a Jewish pioneer, Trumpeldor stated: What is a pioneer? Is he a worker only? No! The definition includes much more. The pioneers should be workers but that is not all. We shall need people who will be "everything" – everything that the land of Israel needs. A worker has his labor interests,
2058-501: Is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture . The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania . Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises . Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism . In recent decades, some kibbutzim have been privatized and changes have been made in
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#17328017128432156-514: Is crushed, the legs fail, the head hurts, the sun burns and weakens," wrote one of the pioneers. At times, half of the kibbutz members could not report for work and many left. Despite the difficulties, by 1914, Degania had fifty members. Other kibbutzim were founded around the Sea of Galilee and the nearby Jezreel Valley . The fall of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I , followed by
2254-479: Is “the most fundamental revolution in Jewish life” and stresses the revolutionary aspect of Zionism. In The Making of Modern Zionism: The Intellectual Origins of the Jewish State , he believes it as a permanent revolution that aims for a radically different and more just society in Israel after creating a new normative and public focus for Jewish Existence. He is out to challenge Zionism's consensus view as
2352-606: The 1929 riots , there was a rise of Arab nationalism and resistance to Zionism. As a result, the Passfield White Paper was published, indicating a withdrawal of support of the Zionist cause. The combination of these tensions increased the necessity of having a concrete plan and Zionist ideology to follow. As a competing ideology with Revisionist Zionism , Labor Zionism gained popularity. The General Zionists began to lean towards Labor or Revisionist Zionism. During
2450-773: The General Jewish Labour Bund in Central and Eastern Europe, which opposed the creation of a Jewish state or emigration to Palestine. The leadership of the Jewish left in the U.S. was drawn only from two distinct sources: the internationalist and cosmopolitan line of thought of the founding fathers who arrived in the 1880s, and some former members of the General Jewish Labour Bund who left the Russian Empire after 1905 and saw no contradiction between socialism and nationalism within
2548-538: The Histadrut . The Haganah , the largest Yishuv paramilitary, was a Labor Zionist organization. It occasionally participated in military action (such as during The Saison ) against certain radical right-wing Jewish political opponents and militant groups, sometimes in cooperation with the British Mandate administration. Moses Hess 's 1862 work Rome and Jerusalem: The Last National Question argued for
2646-710: The Israeli Labor Party , became strong advocates for relinquishing the territory won during the Six-Day War. By the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, this became the central policy of the Labor Party under Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres . What distinguishes Labor Zionism from other Zionist streams today is not economic policy, an analysis of capitalism, or any class analysis or orientation, but its attitude towards
2744-481: The Israeli–Palestinian peace process with modern Labor Zionists tending to support the Israeli peace camp to varying degrees. This orientation towards Israel's borders and foreign policy has dominated Labor Zionist institutions in recent decades to the extent that socialist Zionists who support a Greater Israel ideology are forced to seek political expression elsewhere. In Israel the Labor Party has followed
2842-771: The Jewish Labour Movement in the United Kingdom. Youth and students are served through Zionist youth movements such as Habonim Dror , Hashomer Hatzair and college-age campus activist groups such as the Union of Progressive Zionists of the U.S. and Canada. Shlomo Avineri , member of the last Labor government, Israeli political scientist, Professor of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who has written on Hegel and translated some of Marx’s early writings recognizes that Zionism
2940-654: The Jewish diaspora . Labor Zionism was one of the most mainstream forms of Zionism prior to and following the establishment of the State of Israel. Labor Zionism was responsible for the creation of institutions in Israel that exist today, such as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The predecessors of the IDF began as underground militia groups to protect Jews during the Second Aliyah in 1904. A majority of
3038-516: The Kfar Blum Festival , a chamber music festival that is held in mid-summer. This week-long event has grown to become the premier chamber music festival in Israel, drawing 15,000 visitors in recent years. Labor Zionism Labor Zionism ( Hebrew : תְּנוּעָת הָעַבוֹדָה , romanized : tnuʽat haʽavoda ) or socialist Zionism ( Hebrew : צִיּוֹנוּת סוֹצְיָאלִיסְטִית , romanized : tsiyonut sotzyalistit )
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3136-527: The Poale Zion , the Labor Zionist Party, held a conference and published writing that addressed the question of Jewish defense, nationalism, and Marxism, all of which seemed to contradict. They resolved that their current conditions necessitated defense in order to solidify a place for Jewish workers, because that was being threatened. In addition, they claimed that their defense was not of private property, but of their nation. In order to establish
3234-459: The Second Aliyah planned to become farmers; almost the sole career available in the agrarian economy of Ottoman Palestine. The first kibbutz was Degania Alef , founded in 1910. Some founders of the Kibbutz movement in Israel were influenced by the ideals of Ancient Sparta , particularly in education and communal living. Yosef Baratz , one of the pioneers of the kibbutz movement, wrote
3332-662: The Slánský trial in which an envoy of Hashomer Hatzair in Prague was tried. Another controversy involved the Reparations Agreement between Israel and West Germany . Should kibbutz members turn over income that was the product of a very personal loss? If Holocaust survivors were allowed to keep their reparation money, what would that mean for the principle of equality? Eventually, many kibbutzim made this one concession to inequality by letting Holocaust survivors keep all or
3430-674: The Syrian tank advance into the Galilee with Molotov cocktails . Maagan Michael manufactured the bullets for the Sten guns that won the war. Maagan Michael's clandestine ammunition factory was later separated from the kibbutz and grew into Israel Military Industries . The establishment of Israel and the flood of Jewish refugees from Europe and the Arab world presented challenges and opportunities for kibbutzim. The immigrant tide offered kibbutzim
3528-696: The United States and the Soviet Union . For the first three years of its existence, Israel was in the Non-Aligned Movement , but David Ben-Gurion gradually began to take sides with the West . The question of which side of the Cold War Israel should choose created fissures in the kibbutz movement. Dining halls segregated according to politics and a few kibbutzim even had Marxist members leave. The disillusionment particularly set in after
3626-829: The "List for the Land of Israel", but failed to cross the electoral threshold. Prior to the 1973 elections , it joined the Likud and won 39 seats. In 1976 it merged with the National List and the Independent Centre (a breakaway from the Free Centre) to form La'am , which remained a faction within Likud until its merger into the Herut faction in 1984. Other prominent Labor Zionists, especially those who came to dominate
3724-556: The "birthday of the trees" was substantially revived by kibbutzim. All in all, holidays with some kind of agricultural component, like Passover and Sukkot, were the most significant for kibbutzim. Religious kibbutzim were established in clusters before the establishment of the State, creating the Religious Kibbutz Movement . The first religious kibbutz was Ein Tzurim , founded in 1946. Arab opposition increased as
3822-429: The "collaborative model" ( הזרם השיתופי ). There are now three kibbutz compensation models. 1) The traditional collective kibbutz/kibbutz shitufi , in which members are compensated equally, regardless of what work each member does; 2) the mixed model kibbutz/kibbutz meshulav , in which each member is given a small percentage of his or their salary along with a basic component given equally to all kibbutz members; and 3)
3920-558: The "peace camp". The party paper Al HaMishmar (On the Watch) presented this view. Kibbutzim were run as collective enterprises within Israel's partly free market system. Internally kibbutzim also practiced active democracy, with elections held for kibbutz functions and full participation in national elections in which the members generally voted along the lines of the kibbutz movement ideology. Jewish religious practices were banned or discouraged in many far left kibbutzim. Kibbutzim were not
4018-635: The 17th Congress in 1931, a vote would take place on whether or not the Zionist Congress would pursue the 'ultimate objective' platform of the Revisionist Zionists. During the 16 days of debate, a message was sent from Palestine, relaying the message of fear of an Arab pogrom if the 'all or nothing stance' of the Revisionist Party went through. This resulted in the rejection of the proposal. After two years of campaigning,
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4116-536: The 1917 Balfour Declaration and the wave of Jewish settlers to Palestine began to tilt the demographic balance of the area. Arabs responded with bloody riots in Jerusalem in 1920 , Jaffa in 1921 and in Hebron in 1929 . In the late 1930s, Arab–Jewish violence became virtually constant; the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine is also known as the "Great Uprising" in Palestinian historiography. Kibbutzim began to assume
4214-403: The 1930s and 1940s. In 1922, there were 700 people living on kibbutzim in Palestine. By 1927, the number had risen to 2,000. When World War II erupted, 24,105 people were living on 79 kibbutzim, comprising 5% of the Jewish population of Mandate Palestine. In 1950, the figures went up to 65,000, accounting for 7.5% of the population. In 1989, the kibbutz population peaked at 129,000. By 2010,
4312-662: The American Class, an academic-year-long program for an annual cohort of 15 to 30 U.S. and Canadian 10th-graders. Founded by Kfar Blum member Pinchas Rimon, American Class participants lived with kibbutz teenagers, held kibbutz jobs, were “adopted” into kibbutz families, and attended school in a classroom of the Emek Hahula High School . Since 1985 Kfar Blum has been the site of the annual Voice of Music Festival in Upper Galilee , also referred to as
4410-580: The Great Depression were attracted to socialism echoed through the liberalism of Roosevelt New deal. Beth Wenger , illustrates the reactions of Jewish women to the economic downturn, their contribution to the family economy, and the general tendency to adhere only to the style of a wage-working husband in the American middle class. Deborah Dash Moore concludes in her book "At home in America",
4508-666: The Histradrut. The middle class's shortcomings emerged from the lack of any existential need to formulate an alternative to the ideology of the workforce. In the 1930s for Jews living in a restricted manner facing various assimilation issues as well immense poverty in the United States, the Labor Zionism movement influenced some of their socialist ideals that some of them had hoped to live in. Jews in New York, during
4606-591: The Institute for the Research of the Kibbutz and the Cooperative Idea believes that by the end of 2012, there will be more kibbutzim switching to some alternative model. First Aliyah immigrants were largely religious, but those of the Second Aliyah were mainly secular. A Jewish work ethic thus replaced religious practice. Berl Katznelson , a Labor Zionist leader articulated this when he said "Everywhere
4704-464: The Israeli government to keep and populate all areas captured in the war. Among the public figures in this movement associated with left-wing nationalism were Rachel Yanait Ben-Zvi , Yitzhak Tabenkin , Icchak Cukierman , Zivia Lubetkin , Eliezer Livneh , Moshe Shamir , Zev Vilnay , Shmuel Yosef Agnon , Isser Harel , Dan Tolkovsky , and Avraham Yoffe . In the 1969 Knesset elections it ran as
4802-524: The Jewish labourer goes, the divine presence goes with him." The first kibbutzim were founded in the upper Jordan Valley , the Jezreel Valley and the Sharon coastal plain . The land was available for purchase because it was marshy and malaria-infested. The Zionists believed that the Arab population would be grateful for the economic benefits that developing the land would bring. Their approach
4900-608: The Jewish state” states there was a close relationship with Arthur Ruppin, a Zionist historian and leader who, though in theory advocating capitalist agriculture, refused to entrust market forces with the production of agricultural settlements. Already in the 1920s the Labor movement disregarded its socialist roots and concentrated on building the nation by constructive action. According to Tzahor its leaders did not "abandon fundamental ideological principles". However, according to Ze'ev Sternhell in his book The Founding Myths of Israel ,
4998-524: The Jews to settle in Palestine as a means of settling the national question . Hess proposed a socialist state in which the Jews would become agrarianized through a process of "redemption of the soil" that would transform the Jewish community into a true nation in that Jews would occupy the productive layers of society rather than being an intermediary non-productive merchant class, which is how he perceived European Jews. Ber Borochov , continuing from
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#17328017128435096-427: The Labor Zionist movement included Moses Hess , Nachman Syrkin , Ber Borochov , and Aaron David Gordon ; and leading figures in the movement included David Ben-Gurion , Golda Meir , and Berl Katznelson . Labor Zionist parties, most notably Mapai and its successor, the Israeli Labor Party , dominated Israeli politics during the state's first three decades. Before 1914, the growing alienation from Bolshevism on
5194-494: The Labor Zionist party won the election to have leadership of the Zionist Congress at the 18th Congress in 1933. By the 1930s, the Labor Zionist movement had substantially grown in size and influence, and eclipsed "political Zionism" both internationally and within the British Mandate of Palestine . Labor Zionists predominated among many of the institutions of the Yishuv , particularly the trade union federation known as
5292-564: The Middle East argues that Einstein was a Cultural Zionist who supported the idea of a Jewish homeland but opposed the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine "with borders, an army, and a measure of temporal power." Instead, he preferred a bi-national state with "continuously functioning, mixed, administrative, economic, and social organizations." In the November 1948 presidential election Einstein supported former vice-president Henry A. Wallace 's Progressive Party , which advocated
5390-643: The Nations"). The USSR voted at the UN for establishment of Israel. Stalin became hostile to Israel after it became apparent that Israel would not turn communist, so the USSR began serving diplomatic and military interests of various nations in the Arab world . This caused major crises and mass exit in both Kibbutz Meuchad and Kibbutz Artzi kibbutzim, especially after the 1952 Rudolf Slánský Prague show trials in which most of
5488-456: The Negev to give Israel a better claim to this arid, but strategically important, region. The Marxist faction of the kibbutz movement, Kibbutz Artzi, favoured a one-state solution over partition, but advocated free Jewish immigration, which the Arabs opposed. Kibbutzniks fought in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War , emerging from the conflict with enhanced prestige in the nascent State of Israel. Members of Kibbutz Degania were instrumental in stopping
5586-421: The accused and executed party functionaries were Jews and the 1953 Doctors' plot in Moscow of mostly Jews. Nonetheless many kibbutzim cancelled Purim celebrations when Stalin collapsed on March 1, 1953. Despite Communist atrocities and increasing state antisemitism in the USSR and its satellites many in the far left kibbutz movement, like Hashomer Hatzair (The Young Guard) viewed Stalin with awe and leader of
5684-402: The arrival of the British, brought with it benefits for the Jewish community of Palestine and its kibbutzim. The Ottoman authorities had made immigration to Palestine difficult and restricted land purchases. Rising antisemitism forced many Jews to flee Eastern Europe. To escape the pogroms , tens of thousands of Russian Jews immigrated to Palestine in the early 1920s, in a wave of immigration that
5782-482: The common treasury. If a member received a gift in services—like a visit to a relative or a trip abroad paid for by a parent—there could be arguments at members' meetings about the propriety of accepting such a gift. Up until recently, members ate meals together in the communal dining hall. This was seen as an important aspect of communal life. When the first children were born at the kibbutz there were inevitably some ethical dilemmas that needed to be solved. One of these
5880-680: The communal lifestyle. A member of a kibbutz is called a kibbutznik ( Hebrew : קִבּוּצְנִיק / קיבוצניק ; plural kibbutznikim or kibbutzniks ), the suffix -nik being of Slavic origin. In 2010, there were 270 kibbutzim in Israel with a total population of 126,000. Their factories and farms account for 9% of Israel's industrial output, worth US$ 8 billion , and 40% of its agricultural output, worth over US$ 1.7 billion. Some kibbutzim had also developed substantial high-tech and military industries. For example, in 2010, Kibbutz Sasa , containing some 200 members, generated US$ 850 million in annual revenue from its military- plastics industry . Currently
5978-445: The country's ruling class and political elite whereas working-class Israelis have traditionally voted for the Likud since the Begin Revolution of 1977. Labor Zionism manifests itself today in both adult and youth organizations. Among adults, the World Labor Zionist Movement , based in Jerusalem , has affiliates in countries around the world, such as Ameinu in the United States and Australia, Associação Moshé Sharett in Brazil and
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#17328017128436076-557: The customary Hebrew word for husband ba'ali (lit. "my master"). The children slept in children's houses and visited their parents only a few hours a day. There were also differences in religion. Kibbutz Artzi and United Kibbutz Movement kibbutzim were secular , even staunchly atheistic , proudly trying to be " monasteries without God". Although most mainstream kibbutznikim also disdained the Orthodox Judaism of their parents, they wanted their new communities to have Jewish characteristics nonetheless. Friday nights were still Shabbat with
6174-437: The end of the kibbutz concept. Among the communities that have recently officially ceased being kibbutzim are Megiddo in the Jezreel Valley, HagGoshrim in the Upper Galilee, Beyt Nir in the Negev, etc. These processes have created the "renewing kibbutz" ( הקיבוץ המתחדש )—a kibbutz settlement pattern not fully based on the original values of the kibbutz. Kibbutzim continuing under the original kibbutz values are associated with
6272-455: The establishment of the first Jewish collective settlement , or kibbutz , Degania Alef , on the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee , in 1909 (the same year that the city of Tel Aviv was established). Deganiah, and many other kibbutzim that were soon to follow, attempted to realize these thinkers' vision by creating communal villages, where newly arrived European Jews would be taught agriculture and other manual skills. Joseph Trumpeldor
6370-448: The first line of defense against Arab dissent, and wanted to establish a working class in Palestine. Hashomer then became the Haganah, which was the first official military organization in Israel, which was then turned into the IDF. From its first meeting, the majority of the members of the Zionist Congress were considered General Zionists , who did not have specific political leanings or an agreed upon plan for Zionism . However, after
6468-486: The general path of other governing social-democratic parties such as the British Labour Party and is now fully oriented towards supporting a capitalist model, and some factions support centrist policies akin to the Third Way , though in the 2010s it has returned to a more social-democratic outlook under the leadership of Shelly Yachimovich and Amir Peretz . The Israeli Labor Party and its predecessors have ironically been associated within Israeli society as representing
6566-454: The generation influenced by such socialist ideals reconstructed Jewishness, molded it to suit a middle-class American mode, adapted it to the rigors of urban life, imbued it with Jewish feelings learned from their immigrant parents, and added it to the Jewish history chain. Following the 1967 Six-Day War several prominent Labor Zionists created the Movement for Greater Israel which subscribed to an ideology of Greater Israel and called upon
6664-428: The heavens.... At the center of our camp a fire burns, and under the weight of the hora the earth groans a rhythmic groan, accompanied by wild songs". Kibbutzim founded in the 1920s tended to be larger than the kibbutzim like Degania that were founded prior to World War I. Degania had had twelve members at its founding. Eyn Harod , founded only a decade later, began with 215 members. Kibbutzim grew and flourished in
6762-429: The immigrants at the time were influenced by socialist ideals, because of the Marxist ideologies spreading throughout Russia. Additionally, the First Aliyah was met by backlash because of the Rothschild family’s funding of the settlements. The settlements were criticized by Nachman Syrkin and Ber Borochov , two of Labor Zionism’s founders, because Arab labor was preferred over Jewish labor. They believed that this
6860-486: The kibbutzim are organised in the secular Kibbutz Movement with some 230 kibbutzim, the Religious Kibbutz Movement with 16 kibbutzim and the much smaller religious Poalei Agudat Yisrael with two kibbutzim, all part of the wider communal settlement movement . The kibbutzim were founded by members of the Bilu movement who emigrated to Palestine . Like the members of the First Aliyah (1881-1903) who came before them and established agricultural villages, most members of
6958-412: The labor leaders had already abandoned socialist principles by 1920 and only used them as "mobilizing myths". The middle class allowed itself the freedom to stand aside and avoid any involvement in the political life of the Yishuv and the Zionist movement because the nationalist socialism in Palestine served to protect the private sector, They never felt the need for a single political system parallel with
7056-470: The land themselves, becoming independent farmers was not a realistic option in 1909. As Arthur Ruppin , a proponent of Jewish agricultural colonization of the Trans-Jordan, would later say, "The question was not whether group settlement was preferable to individual settlement; it was rather one of either group settlement or no settlement at all." Ottoman Palestine was a harsh environment. The Galilee
7154-410: The land”. Over the years, some kibbutz members established professional careers outside the kibbutz, accumulating power, privileges and prestige. The balance between individual values and values of the kibbutz began to tip, and work motivation was affected. An emphasis was placed on social compensation to encourage productivity. These processes occurred in parallel with a severe economic crisis (itself
7252-733: The left-wing Mapam party. In 1928, Degania and other small kibbutzim formed Hever Hakvutzot ("The Kvutzot Association"). Kvutzot were deliberately small, not exceeding 200 members, in the belief that this was imperative for maintaining trust. Kvutzot did not have youth-group affiliations in Europe. Kibbutzim affiliated with the United Kibbutz Movement took in as many members as they could. Givat Brenner eventually came to have more than 1,500 members. Artzi kibbutzim were also more devoted to gender equality than other kibbutzim. Women called their husbands ishi ("my man") rather than
7350-435: The mid-1990s, the number of kibbutzim making significant changes in their lifestyle has continued to grow, while the resistance to these changes has gradually decreased, with only a few dozen kibbutzim still functioning under more traditional models. It is important to note, however, that each kibbutz has undergone different processes of change. There are many people, outside and inside the kibbutzim, who claim these changes bring
7448-718: The number decreased to about 100,000; the number of kibbutzim in Israel was 270. In 1927, the United Kibbutz Movement was established. Several Hashomer Hatzair kibbutzim banded together to form Kibbutz Artzi . In 1936, Socialist League of Palestine was founded, and served as an urban ally of HaKibbutz HaArtzi. In 1946, HaKibbutz HaArtzi and the Socialist League combined to form the Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party of Palestine which in 1948, merged with Ahdut HaAvoda to form
7546-540: The one hand and the unification of the Jewish Labor Movement in Ottoman Palestine on the other hand made it possible for Zionism to gain a measure of recognition and legitimacy, particularly in the United States . The Labor Zionists differed from other labor organizations at the time since non-Zionist labor organizations were internationalist, therefore opposed to Jewish nationalism, such as
7644-514: The only contemporary communal enterprises: pre-war Palestine also saw the development of communal villages called moshavim . In a moshav , marketing and major farm purchases were collective, but other aspects of life were private. In 2009, most votes from kibbutzim went to Kadima , Labor , and Meretz . The principle of equality was taken extremely seriously up until the 1970s. Kibbutzniks did not individually own tools, or even clothing. Gifts and income received from outside were turned over to
7742-424: The other radical, Hapoel Hatzair ("The Young Worker"). Although each party formed its own newspaper, neither compelled its contributors to pursue its own line of thinking. On the contrary, Ha-ahdut (The Unity) newspaper of Poale Zion, and still more, Hapoel Hatzair, represented the highly individualistic, disorganized and even anarchic essence of the second Aliya in their pages. The Poale Zion-based party had
7840-634: The pre-independence Yishuv and for the first three decades of Israel's independence, until the late 1970s. A close relationship formed between the labor movement and the liberal leftist branch of General Zionism, and between the labor movement and the section of the Zionist leadership that bore direct responsibility for the Zionist enterprise, prior to the fourteenth Zionist Congress that met in Vienna in August 1925. Ze'ev Sternhell in his book “The Founding Myths of Israel: Nationalism, Socialism, and The Making of
7938-571: The pre-state Zionist movement and in Israel during the 1950s and 1960s. Trumpeldor's heroic death made him not only a martyr for Zionists Left but also for the Revisionist Zionist movement who named its youth movement Betar (an acronym for "Covenant of Joseph Trumpeldor") after the fallen hero. Albert Einstein was a prominent supporter of both Labor Zionism and efforts to encourage Jewish–Arab cooperation. Fred Jerome in his Einstein on Israel and Zionism: His Provocative Ideas About
8036-588: The precarious and porous borders of the state. In the Six-Day War , when Israel lost 800 soldiers, 200 of them were from kibbutzim. The prestige that kibbutzniks enjoyed in Israel in the 1960s was reflected in the Knesset . Though only 4% of Israelis were kibbutzniks, kibbutzniks made up 15% of Israel's parliament. As late as the 1970s, kibbutzim seemed to be thriving in every way. Kibbutzniks performed working-class, or even peasant-class, occupations, yet enjoyed
8134-466: The renewing kibbutz/kibbutz mithadesh , in which a member's income consists solely of their individual income from his work and sometimes includes income from other kibbutz sources. According to a survey conducted by the University of Haifa 188 of all kibbutzim (72%) are now converted to the "renewing kibbutz" model, which could be described as more individualistic kibbutz. Dr. Shlomo Getz, head of
8232-494: The session would begin with a group dance. Remembering her youth on a kibbutz on the shores of the Kinneret , one woman said: "Oh, how beautiful it was when we all took part in the discussions, [they were] nights of searching for one another—that is what I call those hallowed nights. During the moments of silence, it seemed to me that from each heart a spark would burst forth, and the sparks would unite in one great flame penetrating
8330-399: The settlements, for instance, was influenced not only by considerations of economic viability but also and even chiefly by the needs of local defense, overall settlement strategy, and by the role such blocks of settlements might play in some future, perhaps decisive all-out struggle. Accordingly, land was purchased, or more often reclaimed, in remote parts of the country. Kibbutzim also played
8428-543: The southern end of the Sea of Galilee near the Arab village of Umm Juni/Juniya. These teenagers had hitherto worked as day laborers converting wetlands for human development, as masons, or as hands at the older Jewish settlements. Their dream was now to work for themselves, building up the land. They called their community " Kvutzat Degania" (lit. "collective of wheat" or "community of cereal grains"), now Degania Alef . The founders of Degania endured backbreaking labor: "The body
8526-578: The urban Socialist League and several smaller left-wing groups to become the Mapam party, which in turn later joined with Shulamit Aloni ’s Ratz to create Meretz . The Mapai party later became the Israeli Labor Party , which for a number of years was linked with Mapam in the Alignment . These two parties were initially the two largest parties in the Yishuv and in the first Knesset , whilst Mapai and its predecessors dominated Israeli politics both in
8624-411: The work of Moses Hess, proposed the creation of a socialist society that would correct the "inverted pyramid" of Jewish society. Borochov believed that Jews were forced out of ordinary occupations by gentile hostility and competition, using this dynamic to explain Jewish professionals' relative predominance, rather than workers. He argued that Jewish society would not be healthy until the inverted pyramid
8722-521: Was because of the capitalist organization of the settlements, and that a socialist solution would give priority to Jewish labor and lead to a successful establishment of a Jewish state. These values were implemented during the second Aliyah by using the Hebrew language, only hiring Jewish labor, and the creation of Bar Giora and the Hashomer , to work towards independence in this new land. In April 1913,
8820-554: Was called the Third Aliyah . Zionist Jewish youth movements flourished in the 1920s, from right-wing movements like Betar to left-wing socialist groups such as Dror, Brit Haolim, Qadima, HabBonim (now Habonim Dror ), and Hashomer Hatzair . In contrast to those who came as part of the Second Aliyah, these youth group members had some agricultural training before embarking. Members of the Second Aliyah and Third Aliyah were also less likely to be Russian, since emigration from Russia
8918-603: Was closed off after the Russian Revolution . European Jews who settled on kibbutzim between the World Wars were from other countries in Eastern Europe, including Germany . In the early days, communal meetings were limited to practical matters, but in the 1920s and 1930s, they became more informal. Instead of meeting in the dining room, the group would sit around a campfire. Rather than reading minutes,
9016-554: Was righted, and a substantial number of Jews became workers and peasants again. This, he held, could only be accomplished by Jews in their own country. Jonathan Frankel in his book Prophecy and Politics: Socialism, Nationalism, and the Russian Jews, 1862–1917, states that after 1905, Dov Ber Borochov, a Marxist Zionist and one of the pioneers of the Labor Zionist movement suddenly rejected voluntarism for determinism. Prior to this, Borochov regarded Palestinian colonialization as
9114-545: Was simply the most logical way to be secure in an unwelcoming land. On top of safety considerations, establishing a farm was a capital-intensive project; collectively , the founders of the kibbutzim had the resources to establish something lasting, while independently they did not. Finally, the land had been purchased by the greater Jewish community. From around the world, Jews dropped coins into Jewish National Fund "Blue Boxes" for land purchases in Palestine. In 1909, Baratz, nine other men, and two women established themselves at
9212-529: Was swampy, the Judaean Mountains rocky, and the south of the country, the Negev , was a desert. To make things more challenging, most of the settlers had no prior farming experience. The sanitary conditions were also poor. Malaria , typhus and cholera were rampant. Bedouins would raid farms and settled areas. Sabotage of irrigation canals and burning of crops were also common. Living collectively
9310-608: Was that the enemies of the Arab peasants were the Arab landowners (called effendis ), not fellow Jewish farmers. Kibbutz members were not classic Marxists though their system partially resembled Communism . Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels both shared a disdain for conventional formulations of the nation state and Leninists were hostile to Zionism. Nevertheless, in the late 1930s, two kibbutz leaders, Tabenkin and Yaari, initially attracted to anarchist ideas, pushed their movements to reverence of Joseph Stalin 's dictatorship and of Stalin whom many called Shemesh HaAmim ("The Sun of
9408-408: Was that the kibbutz was striving for equality, including the equality of the sexes. Women were only seen as separate because they gave birth to children, automatically tying them to the domestic sphere . In order to liberate women and promote gender equality, they could not be tied to solely domestic duties and child care giving. The Kibbutz wanted to give women the opportunity to continue their work in
9506-510: Was the left-wing , socialist variant of Zionism . For many years, it was the most significant tendency among Zionists and Zionist organizations, and was seen as the Zionist faction of the historic Jewish labour movements of Eastern Europe and Central Europe . Labor Zionism eventually developing local movements in most countries with sizable Jewish populations. Unlike the "political Zionist" tendency founded by Theodor Herzl and advocated by Chaim Weizmann , Labor Zionists did not believe that
9604-494: Was the focus of a widely publicized, and ultimately unsuccessful, show trial in 1942 mounted by the collaborationist Vichy regime. Agriculture ( cotton , dairy , fruit ) and light industry (metal working) have formed the primary economic basis for the kibbutz. In recent years this has been supplemented increasingly by tourism . Kfar Blum's location near the Jordan River at the foot of Mount Hermon has made it
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