From The Jerusalem Post
BEIT SHEMESH – Living on a quiet street in this working class town, 35 Israelis pool their salaries, meet three times a week to talk business, eat dinner together on the Sabbath and share eight cars and a washer-dryer.
They belong to an urban kibbutz – an unusual offshoot of the socialist farming communities that formed the backbone of the early Zionist movement and are considered one of the few successful experiments in communal living.
From The Daily Telegraph
THIRTY people are gathered around clipboards, discussing who will use the commune’s small supply of cars for the coming week.
Demand is high – there are only eight vehicles among 33 adults – but there are no harsh words for this is a new experiment in Israeli-style shared living. The kibbutz lives on in the imaginations of people in Europe and America, many of whom have fond memories of picking oranges during student breaks, but in Israel the kibbutzim are dying, strangled by debts and the departure of young people.
From Kibbutz Trends.
They will not believe you. They will think you are an accident. An invasion from outer space.
Or perhaps that someone is dragging you by the scruff of your neck, that it isn’t your doing. That ghosts from the past are having a go at you. Actually, your youthful spirit is irritating. Haven’t you read the sociological studies and the obituaries, haven’t you heard the compassionate sermons, haven’t they whispered in your ears that you were born too late? Don’t you know that the candle has been extinguished, the dream is over? Haven’t they taught you to dry your tears and confront the world with cheeks still wet and your fists clenched? What are you doing there in Eshbal? Now, at this stage, you dare to come and say that you want partnership, education, a social experiment?
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