ByJUDITH SEGALOFF

JULY 18, 2026 13:44

More than a century since their founding, have kibbutzim matured? Let us begin at the start.

The first kibbutz: Deganya - The mother of all kibbutzim

In 1910, before the State of Israel existed, a small band of idealistic newcomers from Ukraine and Russia established Kibbutz Deganya beside the Kinneret. The founding group of 10 men and two women secured land via the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund. They focused on grain growing (the name Deganya derives from dagan, or grain), vegetables, and simple irrigated farming adapted to the warm climate.

The early settlers came from the nearby Kinneret farm. Together they built a system that delivered economic success and profit right away, even under tough conditions, which helped spread the kibbutz idea. Earnings stayed collective. Members pooled work and returns from harvests and basic animals. The Zionist farming group stressed self-reliance and Jewish labor.

That pioneering site stands today as proof of the vision that helped shape modern Israel. One hundred and sixteen years later, roughly 259 secular kibbutzim and 24 religious ones continue as emblems of history and examples of communal strength now.

Kibbutzim arose as a distinct Israeli answer to nation-building demands. Early settlers aimed not only to clear swamps and work the soil but also to guard new borders and shape a fresh Jewish society.

Deganya and Kinneret came first, noted Neri Shotan, CEO of the Kibbutz Movement Rehabilitation Fund, part of the larger Kibbutz Movement founded in 2000. Born and raised on a kibbutz, he is the grandson of those who helped start Kibbutz Shefayim in 1927.

Many kibbutzim began and stayed on the borders as a Zionist method to mark the edges of the future State of Israel, he said.

Arthur Ruppin, a German-born Zionist leader, sociologist, and lawyer, aided the purchase of about 3,000 dunams (around 750 acres) of undeveloped land in the area from local Arab owners for KKL-JNF to create Deganya. He then gave the pioneers a trial lease on part of this JNF land to try the collective farming approach. Ruppin lies buried in Deganya Alef in honor of his work. He prepared the way for many early kibbutzim.

Deganya now holds over 650 residents. Its first work was purely agricultural (grain, basic farming that grew into irrigated crops like bananas, avocados, and dates, dairy, and poultry), but it expanded to back Toolgal, a plant making industrial diamond tools that served as a key income source for years with strong exports.

Deganya Alef was privatized in 2007. Members could then seek their own jobs off the kibbutz. They could own homes and cars and earn varying incomes, with a social safety net for aid. This move from strict collectivism to a more market-based system kept community bonds and supported economic stability.

Deganya also launched tourist sites: a museum, a chocolate shop, and escape rooms.

The classic kibbutz model

When you picture kibbutzim, you may see friends harvesting grapefruit by day and sharing meals with family or in a large dining hall with others at night, saying goodnight to children between school and bath time and returning them to the children's houses for sleep.

Indeed, the original setup, shaped by classic socialism, demanded that all property, income, and resources be held collectively, with members giving all earnings to a shared fund. Distribution followed egalitarian lines from each according to ability, to each according to need, offering equal support for food, housing, education, healthcare, and more, no matter the role or output.

Work was set by the kibbutz, at times with rotating tasks. Children grew up together in separate houses, daycare came free, and choices came through democratic votes in general meetings. No private ownership existed for homes, cars, or large assets.

The kibbutz movement shows true democracy in action, said Jonathan Dekel-Chen, a history professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, now visiting at Columbia Universitys School of International and Public Affairs. He lives at Nir Oz, which faced heavy damage from the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attack. He is also the father of returned hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen. His work covers the kibbutz movements history, Zionism, rural groups, and modern Israeli society.

Kibbutzim run via an internal democratic system that sets community policies, rules, and budgets. This works through group talks and votes, with choices based on majority rule and the idea of one person, one vote.

When asked why he picked Kibbutz Maagan Michael, Eli Sharfstein said: We came to Maagan Michael because my wife Poli found work here as a music teacher. We first meant to stay only a year or two but later chose to remain and join as members.

Maagan Michael ranks among the largest kibbutzim, yet also the most scenic and finest. We have not privatized; we stay a collective kibbutz, though some services like the dining hall, electricity, and water have shifted to private hands.

About 30 or fewer kibbutzim still follow the classic cooperative model, under 15 percent in many counts. Experts expect this share to shrink further, below 10 percent.

Renewed kibbutz models

The original kibbutz setup proved unworkable for most groups. Large debts from 1970s growth, 1980s high inflation and bank troubles, falling farm profits, and the expense of universal services drove big changes.

Younger members wanted personal options, careers, and wealth, causing talent loss and fading ideals. Communal child raising lost favor, older populations strained resources, and strict rules blocked new recruits.

When kibbutzim privatize, members gain individual pay, private home ownership, and job choice; the kibbutz keeps collective hold of land, factories, and main assets, plus shared spots like pools, parks, and dining halls. The kibbutz offers a social safety net for pensions, schooling, and hardship aid and keeps democratic rule through member votes.

Community life, festivals, mutual help, and a deep sense of connection stay key. The mixed approach joins individualism with the kibbutzs core ideas of cooperation and shared duty, letting kibbutz life continue. As second- and third-generation members chose to stay, neighborhoods expanded to fit varied ages.

Adele Raemer, a longtime Nirim resident who moved from New York in the 1970s, came to Israel from the Bronx and, after army duty, fell for a kibbutz native and the family-like feel where everyone knows and aids each other at Kibbutz Nirim, among the Gaza border sites.

When she shared news of her pregnancy in 1980, her parents also moved to Israel, and after her father died, her mother joined the kibbutz. The kibbutz sent Adele to train as an English teacher.

In 2011, we saw that new families did not want to join as the kibbutz had run before, Raemer noted.

Todays privatized or renewing kibbutz model lets members keep most personal pay from jobs inside and outside the group, allowing people to build real wealth, own homes, and enjoy better living standards and financial gains.

Today we have 229 members, she said. There are 145 children and 101 residents, including retirees, volunteers, plus nurses, doctors, and other staff, and Torenu, young adult professionals living in border areas as support.

After Oct. 7, the government put up 32 new houses. The kibbutz itself built five or six houses for families with government help, she added.

People come here for the community, the quality of life, the idea of caring for neighbors and aiding each other. There are special workshops for retirees, and we have built a community inside the kibbutz. I did not arrive with peers or a garin; I have been alone the whole time, but we now have a small support network inside the kibbutz. I want to keep giving back to the kibbutz through this group, she said.

Raemer described the 2011 change in her community: Whatever money you earned went into the kibbutz fund. They deducted any bills you owed, and we paid quite high taxes we had agreed on to support health and education.

Despite shifts in how things run, values stay central. We are still very socialistic, she said. Mutual responsibility is the core.

Raemer, who raised four children on the kibbutz and taught for 38 years, noted both the benefits and limits of the old system, free schooling and healthcare alongside curbs on personal options.

Communities form a vital part of Jewish life everywhere. While Jews often seek communities, Dekel-Chen said a range of differences exists between a regular Jewish community and a kibbutz.

The kibbutz was built as a core part of the Zionist movement, he explained. Before it is a community or alongside being a community, it is also a working body focused on land settlement, and not just any land, but the land of Israel specifically.

He said the kibbutz idea was made for creating a Jewish state.

When it was first imagined, nobody knew exactly what that state would look like. Any Jewish town or mostly Jewish town, or wherever a more religious Jewish community exists, will have certain Jewish services. But a kibbutz is much, much more than that, he shared.

Of course, it is a community, but it is a working community. So its purpose is to be a functioning economic body as well. But initially, it focused on land settlement and agriculture. When David Ben-Gurion spoke of making the desert or the Land of Israel bloom, he meant the kibbutzim.

That was their role: to build an agricultural base that could feed a country being formed and create food security for that country being formed, he explained.

Kibbutz in the city

Another mix of the classic kibbutz model is the urban kibbutz. In urban kibbutzim (kibbutz urbanim), finances are more open and less collective than in traditional rural ones, yet keep strong communal parts. In some models, members keep most or all of their pay from outside jobs and pay monthly dues or a share of income to cover shared costs such as housing aid, group meals, education, culture, welfare, and upkeep.

The kibbutz often owns or helps with housing, offers partial group meals (especially on Shabbat), and holds a mutual aid fund for hardship. A safety net backs education, childcare, healthcare, and crisis help, with budgets set democratically.

In short, it is a hybrid: you earn and handle your own money like in the city, but add to and gain from a supportive community setup. This makes urban kibbutzim appealing and lasting for working professionals who seek community without full financial collectivism. Plans differ by the kibbutz.

This flexible model gives purpose, a sense of belonging, and work-life balance for idealists looking for meaning beyond material things. Examples include Kibbutz Mishol in Nof Hagalil and others in Sderot, Beit Shemesh, Nahariya, and Tel Avivs suburbs.

The kibbutz philosophy stressed shared work over religious practice, though a parallel religious kibbutz movement took its own path. Unlike the more individual moshavim, where families often kept private plots, kibbutzim pooled resources under a stronger collective agreement.