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NEWS ANALYSIS
The Kibbutz from page 25
JANE & LARRY SHERMAN
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iN
industrial, commercial and agricultural
activities. Today the major source of
income is Plasson, a multimillion-dollar
global plastics manufacturing corpora-
tion whose shares are traded on the Tel
Aviv Stock Exchange.
The shift reflects how kibbutzim have
deviated sharply from their socialist
roots into full-fledged participants in the
capitalist system.
As Israel's most successful kibbutz,
Ma'agan Michael has preserved a high
degree of cooperative life. At less pros-
perous kibbutzim, economic hardship
has forced privatization of elements that
once were collective.
In stark contrast to its former ideology
of asceticism, today's kibbutz is replete
with once-scorned human comforts and
privately owned gadgetry. In fact, much
of Ma'agan Michael's communal activity
is conducted online from members' pri-
vate homes, where they can reserve a car
from the kibbutz's ample fleet, submit
work schedules or receive medical test
results conducted at the in-house clinic.
The dominant ethos that character-
ized the kibbutz well into the 1970s
was that of members who were rugged
warrior-farmers strongly rooted to the
land, willing to sacrifice life and limb to
defend Israel. For a young man eligible
for military service, it was taboo not to
serve in a combat unit.
Societal emphasis and social stature
was focused more on the physical than
the cerebral. While academic study
was not overtly shunned, any pursuit
not deemed absolutely necessary for
the acquisition of skills to enhance the
kibbutz's productive operations often
elicited expressions of suspicion and
derision.
Today, however, every child of Ma'agan
Michael members is guaranteed the
opportunity to attain an academic
degree or some chosen equivalent with-
out any connection to future earning
potential. Similar developments have
taken place in virtually all of Israel's kib-
butzim.
Likud Effect
A watershed moment for the kibbutz
movement came in 1977, when a Likud
government was sworn into power for
the first time and kibbutz members
feared that their long-maligned politi-
cal opponents, whom they had labeled
as fascists, would seize kibbutz assets.
Hasty economic decisions were made
that began the chain of events that
brought many kibbutzim to the brink
of economic collapse.
Interestingly, religious kibbutzim,
which viewed Likud's ascent with far
more equanimity than their secular
counterparts and reacted with less
alarm, fared far better economically.
The importance of military service
as a social imperative declined. Service
in non-combat capacities in the IDF
— even draft evasion — were treated
with increasing tolerance.
As the kibbutz began casting off
the mantle of national leadership, the
social rewards of membership dimin-
ished commensurately. As the sense of
belonging to society's elite waned, many
members -- particularly the more
talented and younger ones — began
leaving the kibbutz for the lure of the
city. This move, once considered the
ultimate act of betrayal, became accept-
able and commonplace.
Although Ma'agan Michael largely
has been spared the detrimental impact
of this phenomenon, it devastated the
kibbutz work force and jeopardized the
future of many other kibbutzim.
If current trends continue, kibbutzim
likely will be overtaken sooner or later
by the very bourgeois materialism they
once held in such contempt.
However, this is far from inevitable.
There is sincere soul-searching going
on in Ma'agan Michael about the com-
munity's future: how to maintain social
solidarity in an age of individualism
and how to fashion the kibbutz's role in
society at large.
It is premature to write the epitaph
of the kibbutz movement. Even without
individual financial rewards, Ma'agan
Michael's members have brought
the kibbutz to the forefront of global
achievement in agriculture — particu-
larly animal husbandry, aquiculture
and orchard cultivation.
Furthermore, the continued contri-
bution of the kibbutz movement to the
Israeli military should not be underes-
timated. In my family, virtually all the
men served as officers in elite combat
units — air force, navy and special
forces. This is not unusual. In recent
military operations, kibbutz combat-
ants were among those with the highest
casualty rates — a sign that kibbutzim
still contribute in high proportions to
Israel's combat forces.
It is not at all clear where the kibbutz
will be in 2020 or what form it will take.
But those who predict its inevitable
demise may be surprised. II
Martin Sherman is a professor in security
studies at Tel Aviv University and a visit-
ing professor this year at the University
of Southern California and Hebrew Union
College Jewish Institute of Religion in Los
Angeles.