This is the Forward’s coverage of the kibbutz movement and kibbutzim which are collective communities traditionally based around agriculture in Israel.
Kibbutz
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Community The kibbutz is Israel’s original start-up
Born out of necessity as well as ideology, the first kibbutz, Degania, was established in 1910. The ideology consisted of a blend of socialist thinking and class struggle with Zionism. A communal lifestyle made it possible to cope with the challenge of developing an agricultural economy in a harsh environment. Still, kibbutz life is not…
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Community Israeli And Aboriginal Australian: An Odyssey Of Self-Discovery
A version of this article originally appeared in Plus61J, an Australian-Jewish publication. Growing up in a Jewish household in suburban Sydney, Australia, Denise Langman always knew she was adopted. Her parents made no secret of the fact they first met her as a 10-month-old at the Scarba Welfare House for Children in Bondi, a Victorian…
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Culture Why The Idea Of An Egalitarian Kibbutz Was Always A Myth
The Mystery of the Kibbutz: Egalitarian Principles in a Capitalist World By Ran Abramitzky Princeton, $29.95, 360 pages It’s funny to think of kibbutzim as an experiment in radical social equality, since they excluded nonskilled and non-Ashkenazi Israeli Jews. That paradox is not totally lost on Stanford University economist Ran Abramitzky, who writes, in the…
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Fast Forward Can Marijuana Be Cash Cow For Israel’s Kibbutzes?
(JTA) — KIBBUTZ ELIFAZ, Israel (JTA) – By all accounts, Eilon Bdil has no personal interest in marijuana. But as the business manager of Kibbutz Elifaz, he’s a big believer in the herb. Bdil sees medical marijuana as a unique opportunity to revive his remote Negev community. “This cannabis gold rush has to pan out for…
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Food Masada And My Morning Meal, Israel Day 6
I earned my breakfast this morning, because this morning I set out at 4 a.m. with my son Teddy and two friends to hike up the winding Snake Path to the top of Masada. It was a 17-minute drive from our hotel at the Ein Gedi kibbutz on the Dead Sea to the base, and…
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Fast Forward Faux Brooklyn Brownstone Rises 6,000 Miles Away in Only All-Chabad Kibbutz
(JTA) — In an otherwise deserted field at the center of this rural Israeli village, a Brooklyn brownstone presents an incongruous sight. If it looks like it would fit perfectly in Crown Heights, that’s because it already does. The three-story apartment house topped by three gables is a brick-for-brick reconstruction of 770 Eastern Parkway, the…
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Opinion Bernie Sanders Should Embrace His Kibbutz Past — Not Shrink From It
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders must have cringed when the name of his mystery kibbutz finally came to light last week. Almost as soon as the world found out where he had volunteered after finishing his undergraduate degree in 1963, blogs started up the spin machine with the intent of tagging Sanders as a “Marxist…
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News Does Bernie Sanders Still Champion Values of His Israeli Kibbutz?
(JTA) — Every morning, Bernie Sanders would wake up at 4:10 a.m. to pick apples and pears. Leaving the cabin he shared with a few other American college student volunteers, Sanders would have a quick bite of bread before heading out to the orchard. After 2 1/2 hours of work, he and the other 20 or…
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Fast Forward Why some Satmar Hasidic leaders endorsed Zohran Mamdani as mayor, stunning many Jewish voters
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News How Mamdani became New York’s next mayor, with Jews divided between fierce opposition and fiery support
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Opinion I’m an Israeli who lives in New York. Here’s why I’m voting for Mamdani
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Culture Mamdani quoted Eugene Debs in his victory speech — there’s a long Jewish history there
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Fast Forward Pelosi won’t seek reelection, ending the pioneering congresswoman’s decades of Jewish outreach
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