The Kibbutz Concept

Definition
Kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism A member of a kibbutz is called a kibbutznik Contemporarily farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises In recent decades, many kibbutzim have been privatized and changes have been made in the communal lifestyle.

History
In 1927, the United Kibbutz Movement (HaKibbutz Hameuhad) was established In 2010, there were 270 kibbutzim in Israel. Their factories and farms account for 9 percent of Israel s industrial output, worth $8 billion, and 40 percent of its agricultural output, worth over $1.7 billion The first religious kibbutz was Ein Tzurim, founded in 1946.

Advantages of the Kibbutz

In the children s homes, nurses took up the role of taking care of the children This was in good faith, to liberate women and promote gender equality

Disadvantages
kibbutzim tended to be male-dominated with significantly more male members hence women felt discriminated against Individual member had to be approved by the committee in order to make any purchase from the canteen There was no specialization since one would work one week in the farm, the next in the factor and so on

Decline of Kibuttizm
The privatization processes and the adoption of non-cooperative beliefs in all of the Israeli society, affected the moral and structural support of kibbutzim, and with the years penetrated the new generations of the kibbutzim The kibbutzim had a rural patterns of settlements, while over the years the Israeli society began adopting urban patterns of settlements The collapse of the Communist block resulted in the weakening of Socialist beliefs around the world, including in the kibbutz society. The kibbutzim weren't capable of dealing with the increase in the standard of living in order to keep the communal values relevant, which eventually led to the changes in patterns of life of many members which harmed the relevancy of the communal framework which was not adapted to this.

..continued
The original concept of the kibbutzim was based on self-sacrifice therefore after the pioneer period the linkage between the kibbutz members decreased, due to the decline in the pioneering spirit and the decline in the importance of the self-sacrifice values.

References
Peres, Judy. In 50 years, kibbutz movement has undergone many changes. Chicago Tribune, 9 May 1998. Rayman, Paula. The Kibbutz Community and Nation Building. Princeton University Press, 1981. p. 12 Reuven Shapira - Academic Capital or Scientific Progress? A critique of studies of kibbutz stratification.Journal of Anthropological Research, 61(2005): 357-380 Reuven Shapira - Communal decline: The vanishing of high-moral leaders and the decay of democratic, high-trust kibbutz cultures. Sociological Inquiry, 71(2001): 13-38 Scharf M. "A Natural Experiment in Childrearing Ecologies and Adolescents Attachment and Separation Representations", Child Development, January 2001, vol. 72, no. 1, pp. 236 251(16).