Dream Revisited and Reformulated

By Susan Cosden

From the early days of Mashabei Sadeh

Before we left for Israel I was lamenting that the Dream of Israel, the dream of Labor Zionist Israel had died. I was therefore more than delighted to begin our trip last Thursday night in the at Kibbutz Mashabei Sadeh. While the kibbutz over the years has modernized by converting the abandoned children’s houses into country lodging and having members become silk artisans, this kibbutz still greeted us with sounds and smells of cows and roosters.The dining hall was still communal and the showers still had squeegees. So began my search for the dream and reality of kibbutzim in Israel.

On Shabbat afternoon in Tel Aviv, we were shown a different view of the dream of Israel through poetry. Lisa Grant, a professor of Education at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, led our group in an exploration of cultural change in Israel as seen through poetry, with some mention of Israeli music.  Grant shared with us how through the 60’s the poetry reflected the dream of a united Israel, turning everyone into the dream of one people – a Jewish people living the socialist, agricultural, Ashkenazic dream.

The next period of poetry began to celebrate the variety of individual voices – poets such as Erez Biton originally from Algeria, Lea Aini of Ladino-speaking Salonikan ancestry and Balfour Hakak. This current period of poetry now celebrates glocalization, looking at the world/changing the world globally while acting locally. This poetry forces us to see global issues from a local perspective, including a poem called Revenge by Taha Muhammad Ali.

So while the dream of Labor Zionist was represented as the national ideal for years Israel’s culture has grown to celebrate many more voices of Israel, In fact, our entire trip has been about the various narratives of one land, the land of Israel.

Tuesday afternoon we met members of a panel discussing Bringing Change to the Galilee. It was here that I learned that at least for a few Israelis the dream of socialist Zionism, kibbutz Zionism was alive - though it had been reformulated. Many of us had the great pleasure of meeting Tamir from Kibbutz Eshbal.

This is the newest kibbutz in the country.  Rather than being created as an agricultural kibbutz, which time has proven as an unsuccessful model, this kibbutz was created as an educational kibbutz. All of its members live an egalitarian, socialist lifestyle and work as educators in school, after school settings, and youth work. On the kibbutz is a boarding school for at risk youth. Tamir spends his days working on Kibbutz Eshbal and then returns at night to Carmiel, a town in the Galilee where he and the rest of his kvutzah (a small collective), with a few other collectives are working with the town of Carmiel to form a kibbutz within Carmiel. Tamir is a product of the youth movement of HaNoar HaOved U'HaLomed - which is the Israeli counterpart of Habonim Dror, from the United States.

I learned from Tamir that not only is the dream of socialism alive for some young adult in Israel but that it is being transformed. Just like the different period of poetry that were presented to us indicated, Israeli socialism has been converted from a dream that everyone would till the land as equals to make Israel green to as equals we can practice glocalization and make the world better by educating locally and improving our local towns and cities by making change from within.

Tonight we once again explored the cultural lens of Israel. We were divided into two groups and my group had the pleasure of attending Agrippas 12 Art Gallery– an art collective created after the 2^nd Intifada to help keep art alive in Jerusalem. This non-profit organization was created to bring artists closer to the public by having the artists themselves together be the curators. Tonight’s show was a group show by artists who are both members of the cooperative and others who were invited to show with them on the subject of Bringing Meaning Out of Darkness

In their own way these artists are redefining and reformatting the Israelite socialist dream to once again practice glocalization. These men and women discussed how this studio has influenced other studios in Jerusalem and throughout Israel and how they are even about to do a collaborative showing between various galleries in other regions of Israel and the Southwest United States, They also shared with us their desire to get lesser known artisans and artisan groups’ narratives seen and counted, such as artists with autism.

Most of the kibbutzim have chosen to privatize since I last lived in Israel. However, if Israel allows Labor Zionism to be a flexible definition that changes with the nation, it may continue to transform the nation into its highest ideals.

Susan Cosden, MAJE, RJE
Director of Education
Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester