I'm now finishing up five months on the kibbutz Maagan Michael, so I figured I'd write a little about what kibbutzes and this place are all about.
A kibbutz is a collective community, or commune. The idea is that everything is shared. Everybody gets free housing, food, health care, and education and is guaranteed employment. However all the money you make goes to the kibbutz, and everyone gets paid the same, depending on the size of your family. It's voluntary, and you have to apply to become a member. They're generally small, with Maagan Michael being the largest at 1400 people. Maagan Michael today is very different from how it was back in the day. In 1949 when Maagan Michael was founded, the kibbutz was a tool for survival and people lived without electricity or running water. There was nothing in terms of modern convenience. Now this place has a feel of a beach vacation resort. Back then they were carving out a new way of living in a brand new country. Now they enjoy a chill, stable life where everything is taken care of. Back then the focus was self-sacrifice for the community and the country, while today it seems that the focus is on living a good life as an individual or family, with the kibbutz system as a means for achieving that through shared work. The ideology is gone, but they've got a good life with the system they have, so they keep it going.
The first kibbutz was founded in what is now Israel and was then part of the Ottoman Empire in 1909. Conditions were really tough, so some people decided that it would be easier to survive if they formed communities where everybody worked together and shared everything. By the 1960's kibbutzes had a higher standard of living then the rest of the country. In the 1980's the kibbutzes in Israel had a crisis and by now many of them have been privatized, and are no longer communes. Maagan Michael is the richest kibbutz in Israel, and has maintained many of the attributes of kibbutzes such as a shared dining room and shared education. Most of Maagan Michael's wealth comes from Plasson, a plastics factory on the kibbutz, which has sales of $100 million a year. The CEO gets paid the same as any other worker.
I came here to do a program called "Ulpan" where I spend five months here working and learning Hebrew. I work half time at the petting zoo and half time with at an after school clubhouse with 10-11 year old kids. At the zoo, I feed all the animals and clean up, which usually involves large amounts of animal shit. But it's awesome. My job with the kids involves playing with them and doing different activities. I'm really gonna miss the kids. There are about 90 people on the program from about 26 countries.
Some pics from the petting zoo:
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Part of my job is being a chef:
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My mom came to visit!
It's weird that in two weeks I'll be done here, because I've really gotten used to the place. I wouldn't want to live here - I need to live in a city. But it has definitely been a very interesting chapter in my life.
