From the earliest days of Deganya in 1910, the kibbutz has been a dynamic ever-changing society. Already in 1912, one of the members said on returning after a long absence: "Deganya isn't what it used to be". Nevertheless, every alteration in the way of life - from a radio in each member's room to the abolition of the communal showers - was seen by some as the beginning of the end. In recent years the rate of change has risen dramatically, in the direction of more privatization, in the great majority of the kibbutzim. Indeed, several kibbutzim have decided to relinquish their communal lifestyle almost completely. This change is quite complicated because "kibbutz" has legal status in Israel.

A new booklet, The Changing Kibbutz, by kibbutz member and Yad Tabenkin research fellow, Eli Avrahami, clearly illuminates these developments. The following extracts briefly outline the subject.

"Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, the Kibbutz is reexamining values and ideas, changing its way of life and renewing itself as a community based on the principles of cooperation. The Kibbutz that enters the 21st century is very different from the one founded at the beginning of the 20th."

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The kibbutz in its classic form - or more correctly, "forms" - was largely held together by the following:
"Factors of solidarity and social cohesion of Kibbutz society:
  Economic - Common and equal ownership of the means of production and consumption;
 Social - Communal meeting - expressed in the communal kibbutz dining hall; at holidays, in the community for assemblies of celebration and mourning, work teams, committees and general meetings, in the clubroom and the common neighborhood landscape.
 Psychological - Social confidence stems from emotional support that society offers in difficult times; involvement in family celebration or personal achievement; identification from membership in strong local and national systems; self-esteem and prestige which emanate from the Kibbutz as a pioneering elite in Israeli society;
 Organizational - Belonging to a nation-wide movement that seemed all powerful, providing political and material support through its independent economic systems, by means of connections with national and governmental political systems;
 Ideological - Socialism and pioneering Zionism; the ideology of the "camp" that strives for a new social order; the "camp" that realizes universal and national values.
 Projects (task fulfillment, stemming from ideology) - The kibbutz is an intentional community, which aims at fulfilling goals for the good of society in general. As such it considers itself to be a serving elite, and is regarded as such from many in the surrounding society."


In the dining room at Kibbutz Tzora
(with thanks to Chaim Gan)

"In all these areas great changes have occurred; all point to evidence of weakened social solidarity and cohesiveness, as evidence by the following results:

 Accelerated privatization in consumption -- that is, each member handling his/her own consumption budget -- not only frees the individual from exaggerated dependence on committees and institutions, but also to a large extent frees society from its responsibility to each individual within the society. The threat to common and equal ownership of means of production, even if not yet realized, contributes to individuals' feelings of uncertainty as to their economic future.

 Instead of socializing within the general community, members are enclosed within enlarged apartments that are better furnished and more comfortable than the community halls. The dining hall, also due to privatization, no longer functions as an integrative factor, while family meals, to a large extent take the place of the communal meal. In many kibbutzim, communal gatherings on holidays have become rare and family celebrations frequently do not include the entire kibbutz. Opening educational institutions to children from the surrounding region, who only come during class hours, influences the character and scheduling of holiday celebrations in the children's homes: parents cannot always participate because these events no longer take place during evening, hours but during the day when parents are at work. The clubhouse has been replaced by the pub, also open to outsiders, where Kibbutz members pay almost the same as outside guests; thus they no longer feel entirely "at home".

 The Beit Oren Affair -- in which the kibbutz movement stopped its financial support to a kibbutz in severe economic and social crisis and suggested that veteran members leave -- was most devastating to the feeling of social confidence and economic security. The lack of real financial arrangements within the debt settlement with the government and banks amplifies anxiety, especially amongst older members, regarding their material future.

The psychological strength, which in the past was nurtured by the feeling of belonging to a successful group of high quality, a serving elite recognized as such by most of the population, suffered when the Kibbutz became an interest group. The group has lost its own sense of prestige. The message conveyed is that the pioneer is in fact a "sucker"; it has brought down the "esprit de corps".

 The nation-wide Kibbutz movements have lost their position as a focus for economic aid, ideological guidance and political brokering. The financial funds and other economic organs of the two large movements collapsed. Reduction in the power of these institutions began with the change of government of 1977, when government policy deprived the movements of their function as agents for channeling resources to individual kibbutzim. This undermined relations between the movements as suppliers of resources -- financial, means of production and manpower -- in return for ideological loyalty of its member kibbutzim.

The movements also lost much political power due to the personalization of the political system in Israel, which spread among the Kibbutz political representatives, too. Loyalty to a patron or to camp outside the movement replaced loyalty to the movement. Regional organizations based on a clearly local interest, replaced the movements as the source of assistance, guidance and ideological inspiration.

These factors caused deep organizational changes with loss of the sense of belonging to a large, supporting and prestigious camp, both among the kibbutzim and their members.

 The pursuit of personal economic success replaced faith in a just society. International ideological changes have not by-passed Israel. The collapse of what was called the "communist world" created an atmosphere of victory for capitalism and the market economy. Neo-liberalism has descended on the industrialized and developed world arm-in-arm with egocentric individualism. In Israel the two systems have emphasized the individual, without collective responsibility; a festival of consumption accompanied the illusion that the pioneering era is over. The Zionist outlook on nationality and liberal Judaism were replaced by a trend toward traditional religion and ultra Orthodox fundamentalism. This atmosphere has penetrated the Kibbutz enclave and shaken the assurance of its members in the ideal of pioneering Zionism and a socialist society; in other words, it affected faith and confidence in the Kibbutz way of life. Thus a component of social cohesiveness in each kibbutz crumbled, and a cornerstone of solidarity was lost.

 When enthusiasm for the idea of a serving pioneering elite weakened, and its status eroded both in its own eyes and those of the surrounding society, the Kibbutz became less involved in projects for the common good. Thus, to a great extent, the Kibbutz is no longer regarded as an unselfish intentional community.

Of all the basic components of solidarity and social cohesiveness that weakened and unraveled, ideology is perhaps the most significant. In the past, ideology had created a value superego which developed a code of behavior, and a code of ethics that fed additional value to ideology."


Housing at Kibbutz Bror Chayil
(by courtesy of the Yad Tabenkin Archives)

"The great test of the Kibbutz in the coming years is not whether it will overcome the crisis -- some say it has already done that -- but whether it will emerge stronger, better adapted to new environmental conditions, and able to confront the social, economic and technological challenges of the 21st century."

Some of the Changes in Kibbutz Living
 27 kibbutzim have joined the Communal Stream of kibbutzim, which have decided against radical changes in kibbutz living. For various reasons, not all strongly communal kibbutzim have joined this body.

 The Communal Circle of Kibbutzim, with a hundred members, includes those kibbutzim which, while changing, are committed to keep to the basic principles of kibbutz living.

 The following figures, covering some of the major changes, were collated by Shlomo Getz, of the Institute for Research on the Kibbutz and the Cooperative Idea. They cover 222 kibbutzim, 84% of the total number. Since then, January 2002, more kibbutzim have carried out such changes.

The Change% of Kibbutzim
Payment for meals 72
Closing the dining room 9
Payment for electricity82
Payment for laundry 43
Privatization of health services 32
Renting out empty apartments 84
Building a neighbourhood for non-members 26
Differential salaries 27
Linkage between personal budget and hours worked 23
Payment for overtime 36
Partnership with outside capital 35
Regular voting by ballot box 67
Work outside organized as a branch of the kibbutz 43