1910 first kibbutz. A kibbutz is like a communal way of life or a new way for caring for each other. Back then there was no private property. The government was very supportive of this movement.
Today we are visiting Ami’ad Kibbutz in Northern Israel. When it formed in 1946 everyone shared 1 room. They started out by living in huts. They lived and worked on the Kibbutz. The first stone building wasn’t built until the first children were born to protect them from diseases.
There was a dining area that only adults were allowedI in and everyone shared the duty of cooking and cleaning it.
General meetings took place once a year to look at budgets and the running of the kibbutz. What was left over was divided by everyone.
Children lived together, eat together, learned together until 18 from age 0. A Carer looked after the children. 4pm each young child would go see their parents. One parent would eat while other would watch their child and vice versa until early evening when they would take the child back to the children’s house. Children’s houses were based on age and there was different ones for different age groups.
1974 the system changed. To a more family oriented and private system. Children came to live with parents now and had their own room. Houses were now private instead of communal.
Now a days everyone pays a safety tax so no one goes below the monthly income. Everyone pays a community tax as well and as a community it is decided how to spend the money. Hardly anyone works on the kibbutz now. 1990 Ami’ad started a pentention fund which is extremely rare as most Kibbutz voted this down.
Interesting thing to note is that Ami’ad came up with a system of irrigation to water crops and now that water system is known internationally and they are traded on the London stock exchange.
Because they still had agricultural on the Kibbutz and grew to many fruits one year they needed a way to make money from all the extra ones not selling so they made liquors out of them like pomegranate, passion fruit, black cherry, and dark chocolate. All of which we tried at the Winery. By far the dark chocolate was the best. The black cherry wasn’t bad either.
They also have a couple of bomb shelters just in case another war starts.
We talked with one younger 30 something Kibbutz member and he said he wished it was like it was before the changes where made and everyone shared everything.