My uncle, my mother's youngest brother, lived with his
family in a kibbutz. As a child I loved spending the holidays there, and announced
to my parents that I planned to move to the kibbutz and go to high school
there. They did not dismiss the idea a priori, but as I grew older I realized
that my father would never agree. At the time I didn’t know why, it was only
much later that I understood
Until the 1980s the kibbutzim (plural for kibbutz) had a
critical role in the political and social life in Israel. Many were affiliated
with different socialist movements or parties, and had a significant
representation in the Israeli parliament –the Knesset.
In order to educate the next generation and to draw them
closer to the kibbutz way of life, the
kibbutzzim movements founded youth movements all around the country.
Most of them had ideological agendas and
often the leaders in charge were on a
yearly mission from their kibbutzzim. Off the top of my head I can recall at
least 8
active youth movements in the 1960s, and out of those only one or two
were apolitical.
At that time there
was no money available for enrichment programs, so most children attended the
free activities of the youth movements.
Through those activities children, grade 5 and up experienced survival skills
in nature, went on over-night trips, and spent a week at a kibbutz during the summer.
My best friend, whose parents were members of the Communist
Party, invited me once to her youth
movement. I had a great time; the program was interesting and the counselor and
the children were welcoming. I wanted to join, especially since I heard that
they would be spending the summer
holiday at a camp at the Crimea peninsula (how topical). In the late sixties
nobody travelled abroad. But since my father objected to mixing political
ideology with educational activities, I never went there again.
He also disapproved of political ideology as a way of life,
and naturally was suspicious of the
kibbutzzim. Today many people admit that this experiment was problematic
at best, but at the time my father's position was not at all common. He
disliked the communal dining room where
the kibbutz members congregated 3 times a day, frowned upon the
communal laundry and questioned the merit of the education system--the boarding
schools like houses where children in the kibbutz led their life separately from
their parents.
Had he chosen to voice his opinions my father would have
been an unpopular guest in my uncle's kibbutz; and as he loved my uncle he kept
quiet. Still my father never forgave that kibbutz for taking too long to admit and condemn
Stalin’s atrocities in the 1950s (especially in the case of the Doctors’ plot).
At the time there was a heated debate about this issue, and for him believing
the Soviet position and blindly obeying party line epitomized everything that was wrong with the Kibbutz.
He felt that this way of life could cause people to lose their ability to think
for themselves and ultimately to compromise their personal integrity.
Individualism and free thinking were essential for my
nonconformist father. When I asked him once why he preferred to read a popular
newspaper and not the excellent Ha'aretz, he answered that he read a newspaper
only for the facts, he didn't need the interpretation. Furthermore, he declared
that he refused to let Ha’aretz "tell him what to think."
In recent years Haaretz has been airing the commercial: “The
Paper for Thinking People," whenever I hear it on the radio I smile and
answer: “apparently not for all of them.”
