Book Review: Kibbutz: Venture in Utopia

Melford E. Spiro's book, Kibbutz: Venture in Utopia, is a "case study in the possibilities of social cooperation" (ix). Spiro spent eleven months in the early 1950's living among the residents of a place he refers to by the fictitious name Kiryat Yedidim, a kibbutz, or collective, in Isr'l, founded by a group of young Polish-Jewish immigrants in the early 20th century. The book examines the history of the kibbutz as well as presenting the current occupants' daily lives and philosophies in great detail. This research will summarize Spiro's book, focusing in particular on family structures and family life within the kibbutz system.

Kibbutzim (the plural of kibbutz) are cooperative agricultural villages. The word "cooperative" here is meant quite literally--in these communities, all property, with minor exceptions, such as personal gifts, is community owned. This means that even the clothes the chavarim (residents; singular chaver) wear do not belong to them as individuals. Early in the history of the settlement, in fact, this philosophy was taken to such an extreme that after laundering, clothes were redistributed by having each chaver take whatever was on the top of the pile, even though this usually meant that the clothes were too large or too small (21). Although this particular situation has since been rectified by assigning particular items of clothing to each chaver, the clothing is merely considered his or her personal responsibility, not personal property.

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ssume that children are drenched in this philosophy and perhaps adversely affected by it. Spiro discovered, however, that although the concept of "family" in the traditional sense does not necessarily exist within kibbutzim, children are considered the most valuable assets in the community, and they are raised with an abundance of love and affection. The remainder of this discussion will focus on family life and child-rearing within the kibbutz community. The original intention of the founders of Kiryat Yedidim was to completely abolish traditional notions of marriage and family (110). In practice, however, this has not been totally successful. Traditional weddings no longer exist within the community, but men and women pair off and, if they desire, are allowed to apply for housing as a couple. The granting of this housing is equivalent to community recognition of the pair's status as a couple, and for all intents and purposes, they are considered married (113). The abolition of the notion of family, however, has been more successful, at least in the traditional sense. Children are not raised by their parents; rather, they are raised communally in the care of nurses and teachers. By raising children in this way, paren

Category: Foreign - B