Reflections on Israel from A Congregant in Israel!

Dear Friends,

Periodically throughout the coming months we have the special privilege to read reflections shared with us from our congregant Sarah E. Friedman who grew up at WRT, graduated in 2010 from Kenyon College, and who is presently living in Israel as part of a program of graduate study.

I have invited to be a "voice on the ground" and it seems fitting to note here that her first reflections come in symmetry with the weekly parasha, Nitzavim, which emphasizes the promise God made to our ancestors to inherit the Land of Israel.

You can follow her personal blog about her Israel experience here:  http://sarahefriedman.blogspot.co.il/2012/08/first-days-in-arava.html 

Her first WRT blog posting follows.

Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Jonathan Blake

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Sarah E. Friedman

WRT Blog – September 2012

Living Social(ist)

On the kibbutz where I’m temporarily living, everyone contributes and everyone collects. Unlike many kibbutzim that have gradually embraced capitalism in most aspects of formerly communal life, this kibbutz has adhered remarkably closely to its socialist roots. Members hold all kinds of jobs – some take care of the kibbutz cows, some are academics, some do IT work. Members have all kinds of salaries, too – but they never get a paycheck. That goes directly to the kibbutz. As the Marxists say: from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

As a product of a well-worn Scarsdale track – from Scarsdale public schools and WRT Hebrew school to a private college to a job and apartment in New York City – now in my mid-twenties, I am alternately experiencing shock and delight at this surprising system in the Jewish homeland that I’ve been raised to revere and have independently learned to struggle with and love. This will be my first blog post describing interesting or complex social and political topics I encounter in Israel over the next year.

I see the appeal of the kibbutz. It’s ease and an automatic community. Everything is included in membership: forget about filling out a 20-page application so you can shell out $30K for preschool, à la New York City – you don’t even have to cook your own food. All meals except Saturday breakfast are served in the communal dining hall. Laundry is done for you. There’s day care for babies and toddlers, there’s a pre-school, and there’s a bus to grade school. When your kids finish army service, if they return to work on the kibbutz for one year the kibbutz will pay 100,000 shekels for their college – and in Israel, that covers full undergraduate tuition plus living expenses. The kibbutz pays for computers for members and sets up pension funds for them. The kibbutz pays for one class a year at the local community center – something like pilates or music appreciation. At the kibbutz store, many items are 100% subsidized – that’s free – including toiletries and basic foods (even though, again, meals are provided). When you want to travel off the kibbutz, you can take one of the free shuttles to nearby locations, or you can sign out one of the communal cars. Many members don’t have bank accounts – just credit cards linked to the stipend the kibbutz provides (which is divided into non-transferable categories like clothing, furniture, and pocket money, and the amount of which depends on the number and age of their children). In exchange, members contribute their full salaries, regularly perform some community-serving task – such as nighttime guard duty – and fully embrace a way of life that seemingly can be both limiting and rewarding in extremes.

When the original kibbutzim were founded, the members were thinking about survival. They banded together, often not knowing anything about agriculture but figuring it out as they went along – or dying or leaving Palestine. This kibbutz was founded well after the establishment of the State of Israel and its security, and it was more about community than survival. Still, life is pretty basic. Until 1985 or 1986, the members didn’t have personal phones. There was no TV on the kibbutz until after the Gulf War. At first, members weren’t allowed to have personal bank accounts, and if they received an inheritance it went straight to the kibbutz. Now, whatever concessions to modernity have been made, the success of the kibbutz still depends both on complete communal cooperation – no taking advantage of the commons. (I expect its success is also supported by the mensches who work in lucrative careers but remain committed to the socialist concept.)

I didn’t realize how thoroughly capitalist my own mindset is until confronted by one fact, a reality that fits comfortably with the kibbutz ideology but struck me as absolutely insufferable: for members with parents and children living abroad (I’d guess that applies to about half of all members), the kibbutz will pay for a family’s plane tickets to leave Israel once in four years. The stipend is not high enough to cover a visit to the US – which averages about $1,300 for Economy – so if you want to see your parents or children more than once every four years, you better hope your parents or children are raking it in in their non-kibbutz existences. Then, if someone else buys your plane ticket, the kibbutz clock resets and you have to wait another four years before the kibbutz will pay for a trip. Not having money to visit my family abroad, no matter how hard I worked, would be a torment great enough to fully outweigh any benefits of kibbutz living. It’s a reflection of submission of your own needs to the communal good, a concept that doesn’t square well with the individualism and freedom-worshiping ethos of the United States. 

I have traveled widely and I came here with an open mind (though also with a return ticket to New York), but I never expected to feel so incredulous at a way of life I found in Israel, the most familiar of the places I’ve been. I am grateful to have a more unusual experience than I planned on. I must emphasize that the experience of living here is terrific. In describing kibbutz life and outlining the ways in which I am not cut out for it, I’m making not a value judgment – just a value assessment that I hope will be interesting to WRT members. I am open to a discourse about the merits and drawbacks of kibbutzim and about any other future Israeli issues I will write about, so please leave comments and let’s have a dialogue.