For many decades kibbutzim in Israel have aspired to embody principles of a Utopian community. Members live in such community out of their free will with knowledge of other life options and the possibility to leave whenever they wish and all members of that community satisfy all their needs in a sustainable way. They maximise the expression of their human potential and live in a community of equality among the members, according to their unique human needs and potentials, in solidarity, in collaboration and fraternity, and in cooperation. The community actively uses its resources in spreading these values and characteristics into the larger society. However, starting at the end of the 1980s, the kibbutzim experienced a deep economic and ideological crisis. Two major outcomes of that crisis signalled the beginning of the demise of the kibbutz phenomenon: (a) a large wave of emigration for other ways of life by members, particularly the young; and, (b) abandonment by most kibbutzim and their members of the basic principles of conduct that stemmed from the kibbutz values. The article explores the causal processes that undermined the kibbutz model. I conclude that the abandonment of kibbutz values is the major cause. At the end I draw lessons for the survival of intentional communities like the kibbutz.
AdarG.GoldembergH.LeviatanU. (2005). Health systems in kibbutzim. Institute for Kibbutz Research, Univ. of Haifa, 189a (Hebrew).
2.
CohenE. (1966). Progress and communality: Value dilemmas in the collective movement. International Review of Community Development15-16, 3–18.
3.
DarY. (1998). The changing identity of kibbutz education. In LeviatanU.OliverH.QuarterJ. (Eds), Crisis in the Israeli kibbutz: Meeting the challenge of changing times (pp. 57–72). Westport, CO: Praeger Publishers.
4.
DonY. (1988). Industrialization of rural collectives. Aldershot: Gower Publishing Group.
5.
GluckY. (1998). Individual needs and public distribution in the kibbutz. In LeviatanU.OliverH.QuarterJ. (Eds), Crisis in the Israeli kibbutz: Meeting the challenge of changing times (pp. 119–30). Westport, CO: Praeger Publishers.
6.
HarelY. (1993). The new kibbutz. Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House (Hebrew).
Kibbutz Industrial Association (1976–2009), Annual reports.
9.
LeviatanU.CohenJ. (1985). Gender differences in life expectancy among kibbutz members. Social Science and Medicine21(5), 545–551.
10.
LeviatanU.Cohen-MansfieldJ.Jaffe-KatzA. (1986). Life expectancy of Kibbutz members. International Journal of Aging and Human Development23(3), 195–205.
11.
LeviatanL. (1998). Identification of adolescents (kibbutz-born) with kibbutz values. Unpublished final paper at the end of twelfth grade, Ein Hamifratz (Hebrew).
12.
LeviatanU. (1982a). Counterbalancing the ill effect of hierarchy—The case of the kibbutz industrial organization. Journal of Social and Biological Structures, 5(2), 141–159.
13.
LeviatanU. (1982b). Higher education in the Israeli kibbutz: Revolution and effect, Interchange, 13(1), 68–82.
14.
LeviatanU. (1996).Tendency for negative self selection among youth in the kibbutz, Shorashim10, 38–45 (Hebrew).
15.
LeviatanU. (1998a). Second and third generations in—Is the survival of the kibbutz threatened? In LeviatanU.OliverH.QuarterJ. (Eds),Crisis in the Israeli kibbutz: Meeting the challenge of changing times (pp. 81–96). Westport, CO: Praeger Publishers.
16.
LeviatanU. (1998b). Aging—The kibbutz experience. In LeviatanU.OliverH.QuarterJ. (Eds), Crisis in the Israeli kibbutz: Meeting the challenge of changing times (pp. 131–46). Westport, CO: Praeger Publishers.
17.
LeviatanU. (1999). Contribution of social arrangements to the attainment of successful aging—The experience of the Israeli kibbutz, Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences54b(4), 205–213.
18.
LeviatanU. (2003a). Leadership, P–E fit, and organizational commitment—A causal flow: The case of Israeli kibbutzim. In EckardsteinD.V.RidderH-G. (Eds), Personnel management in non profit organisation (pp. 141–162).
19.
LeviatanU. (2003b). Is it the end of Utopia? The Israeli kibbutz at the twenty-first century. Center for Study of Co-operatives, University of Saskatchewan.
20.
LeviatanU. (2006). Importance of values in determining organizational commitment of kibbutz members to their kibbutz,Social Issues in Israel1, 128–151(Hebrew).
21.
LeviatanU. (2009). Effects of intra-community inequality in kibbutzim on their members’ well-being and health. Haifa: The Institute for Research of the Kibbutz and the Cooperative Idea, University of Haifa. (Hebrew).
22.
LeviatanU.RosnerM. (1980).Work and organization in kibbutz industry. Derby, PA: Norwood Editions. Ch. 13: ‘Resolutions’ (of Kibbutz Artzi convention about industry in 1976).
23.
LeviatanU.Am-AdA.AdarG. (1981). Aging in the kibbutz: Satisfaction with life and its determinants.Hakibbutz8, 16–60(Hebrew).
24.
LeviatanU.OliverH.QuarterJ. (Eds) (1998). Crisis in the Israeli Kibbutz: Meeting the challenge of changing times. Westport, CO: Praeger Publishers.
25.
LeviatanU.OliverH.QuarterJ. (Eds.) (1998a). Crisis in the Israeli Kibbutz: Meeting the challenge of changing times. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers. Introduction.
26.
LeviatanU.RosnerM. (2001). Belief in values and the future of kibbutzim. Haifa: Institute for Social Research of the Kibbutz, 174 (Hebrew).
27.
MelmanS. (1971). Managerial vs. cooperative decision making in Israel. Studies in Comparative International Development, 6(3), 17–32.
28.
PalgiM. (1994). Attitudes toward suggested changes in the kibbutz as predicted by perceived economic and ideological crisis.Journal of Rural Cooperation22(1–2): 94–113.
29.
PalgiM. (1998). Organization in kibbutz industry. In
LeviatanU.OliverH.QuarterJ. (Eds),Crisis in the Israeli kibbutz: Meeting the challenge of changing times (pp. 41–56). Westport, CO: Praeger Publishers.
30.
PalgiM.OrchanE. (2011). Annual survey of kibbutz members. Haifa: Institute for Social Research of the Kibbutz and the Cooperative Idea, 196 (Hebrew).
31.
PalgiM.ReinhartS. (Eds) (2011). One hundred years of kibbutz life. New Brunswick (USA) and London (UK): Transaction Publishers.
32.
PavinA. (1998). The governmental system of the kibbutz. In
LeviatanU.OliverH.QuarterJ. (Eds), Crisis in the Israeli kibbutz: Meeting the challenge of changing times (pp. 97–110). Westport, CO: Praeger Publishers.
33.
PavinA. (2008). The Kibbutz movement, facts and figures. Efal: Yad Tabenkin. (Hebrew).
34.
QuarterJ. (1984). The development of political reasoning on the Israeli kibbutz. Adolescence. 19, 569–593.
35.
RachmaniM. (2007). Different patterns of contributors to organizational commitment in the kibbutz population as a function of different conditions of socioeconomic inequality. M.A. Thesis, Dept. of Sociology, University of Haifa (Hebrew).
36.
RosnerM. (1971). Hierarchy and democracy in kibbutz industry. Givat Haviva: Institute for Social Research of the Kibbutz (Hebrew).
37.
RosnerM. (1998). Work in the kibbutz. In
LeviatanU.OliverH.QuarterJ. (Eds), Crisis in the Israeli kibbutz: Meeting the challenge of changing times (pp. 27–40). Westport, CO: Praeger Publishers.
38.
RosnerM.Ben-DavidJ.OvnatA.CohenN.LeviatanU. (1990). The second generation—The kibbutz between continuity and change. New York: Greenwood Press.
39.
RosnerM.GetzS. (1994). Towards a theory of changes in the kibbutz. Journal of Rural Cooperation22(1–2), 41–62.
40.
RosolioD. (1999). The system and the crisis: Crises, settlements, and changes in kibbutz movement. Tel-Aviv: Am-Oved (Hebrew).
41.
TalmiM. (1993). MishmarHaEmek during the eighties. MishmarHaEmek Edition (Hebrew).
42.
TannenbaumA.RosnerM.KavicB.VianelloM.WeiserG. (1974). Hierarchy in Organization. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
43.
VallierY. (1962). Structural differentiation, production imperatives and communal norms. Social Forces, 40(3), 234–242.
44.
WeberU. (1992). Innovate—The kibbutz confronting its future. Tel Aviv: HaKibbutz HaMeuchad (Hebrew).
