Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Our Hearts Invented a Place: Can Kibbutzim Survive in Today's Israel? by Jo-Ann Mort, Gary Brenner ISBN: 0-8014-3930-2 Publisher: Cornell University Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (1 review)
Rating: 4
Summary: The kibbutz's dream has changed
Comment: In the month of December, the United Kibbutz Movement formally adopted a new definition of what constitutes a kibbutz. On a "renewed" kibbutz, the movement decided, the cardinal principle of "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" would no longer necessarily guide the members. Instead, differential wages were allowed and a policy of home ownership, where the members' homes are listed legally in their own name, was pursued.
This sea change in kibbutz ideology did not occur overnight, but was actually the result of kibbutzim struggling to transform and adapt as Israeli society itself changed. Since before Israel's founding, the kibbutz had represented Israel's spirit and unique nature, but from a socialist, left-wing perspective. In the past several decades, Israel became a free-market economy, and the kibbutzim had no choice but to alter their dream in order to survive.
In their book Our Hearts Invented a Place: Can Kibbutzim Survive in Today's Israel? (Cornell University Press, October 2003), authors Jo-Ann Mort and Gary Brenner tell the story of the kibbutz's changeover and struggle for survival. The authors do this by comparing three distinct models of change exemplified by different communities:
Gesher Haziv - a kibbutz that has decided to pursue privatization.
Hatzor - a kibbutz that diversified its economy while creating a social safety net for its members.
Gan Shmuel - a community that is attempting to hold on to the traditional kibbutz model.
By conducting interviews with the members of these three communities, the authors sought to "capture a snapshot of the vast - and rapid - changes taking place on the kibbutzim today."
These changes, which fundamentally changed Israel's unique social experiment, were essential to the future of many of the nearly 260 kibbutzim around the country, home to some 120,000 citizens. Many of the communities are deeply in debt, and have been forced to sell ownership of their factories and agricultural lands in order to stay afloat.
As one kibbutz member told the authors, "The founders [of the kibbutz] had a dream, which they fulfilled a hundred times. The current generation must alter that dream in order to survive."
The history of the kibbutz within the political framework of Israel's story can be a dry account not easily understood. The authors wisely decided to present their treatise on the changing kibbutz based primarily on interviews with the kibbutz members themselves. The alternative viewpoints expressed, both for and against communal change, accurately reflect the internal struggles within the kibbutz today.
 |
Title: The Liberated Bride by A.B. Yehoshua, Hillel Halkin ISBN: 0151006539 Publisher: Harcourt Pub. Date: 03 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
 |
Title: The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz ISBN: 047146502X Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
 |
Title: Mystics, Mavericks, and Merrymakers: An Intimate Journey Among Hasidic Girls by Stephanie Wellen Levine ISBN: 081475192X Publisher: New York University Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
 |
Title: Still Life with Bombers : Israel in the Age of Terrorism by DAVID HOROVITZ ISBN: 1400040671 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 02 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
 |
Title: Real Jews: Secular Versus Ultra-Orthodox: The Struggle for Jewish Identity in Israel by Noah J. Efron, Noah Efron ISBN: 0465018548 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 27 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
