Kibbutz

A kibbutz (Hebrew: קיבוץ; plural: kibbutzim: קיבוצים, "gathering" or "together") is an Israeli collective community. Although other countries have had communal enterprises, in no other country have voluntary collective communities played as important a role as the kibbutzim have played in Israel; indeed, kibbutzim played an essential role in the creation of Israel.

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Combining socialism and Zionism in a form of practical Labor Zionism, the kibbutzim are a unique Israeli experiment, and part of one of the largest communal movements in history. The kibbutzim were founded in a time when independent farming was not practical. Forced by necessity into communal life, and inspired by their own socialist ideology, the kibbutz members developed a pure communal mode of living that attracted interest from the entire world. While the kibbutzim lasted for several generations as utopian communities, today kibbutzim are scarcely different from the capitalist enterprises and regular towns to which the kibbutzim were originally supposed to be alternatives.

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The kibbutzim have given Israel a wildly disproportionate share of its military leaders, intellectuals, and politicians. Though the kibbutz movement never accounted for more than 7 percent of the Israeli population, it did more to shape the image Israelis have of their country, and the image that foreigners have of Israel, than any other Israeli institution.

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Hebrew: The word Hebrew can variously mean:...

Collective: Collective can also refer to the collective pitch flight control in helicopters...

Community: A community is an amalgamation of living things that share an environment. The individual living beings can be plant or animal; any species; any size. What characterizes a community is sharing and interaction in any number of ways. In human communities, intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs ...