Kibbutz Degania courtesy Israel Tourism and Creative Commons.
Israel’s cultural psyche is deeply grounded in the idea of group endeavors. The country’s pioneering founders, steeped in socialist ideals, created collectives known as kibbutzim and moshavim, whose communal efforts in agriculture and industry helped build the nation.
“Israel’s cultural psyche is deeply grounded in the idea of group endeavors”
The kibbutz is a collectively owned and run community where responsibilities and benefits are shared by all members. The traditional moshav is a different model of communal system: a collective of individually owned farms, benefitting from economies of scale through shared equipment and services. Even as the kibbutzim and moshavim have adopted new structures and strategies to survive, most of the nation’s agricultural ventures and successes are still their domain.
