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Bnei Shimon Regional Council

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The Bnei Shimon Regional Council ( Hebrew : מועצה אזורית בני שמעון , Mo'atza Azorit Bnei Shim'on , lit. Regional Council 'Sons of Shimon'), is a regional council in the northern Negev in the south of Israel . Most of its territory lies north of Beersheba and the rest bounds Beersheba on the west and east sides as well. The eastern border of this territory straddles the Green Line . It is named after the tribe of Shimon which had been allotted this region according to the Book of Joshua (19:1-9).

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67-517: There are 13 communities, including seven kibbutzim , four moshavim , and two new rural towns. Four of the communities (three kibbutzim and one moshav) were established in the founding of the ' 11 points in the Negev ' in 1946. The rest of the kibbutzim and moshavim were set up after the establishment of the State of Israel. Kibbutzim Moshavim Community village The following institutions operate within

134-418: A book about his experiences. We were happy enough working on the land, but we knew more and more certainly that the ways of the old settlements were not for us. This was not the way we hoped to settle the country—this old way with Jews on top and Arabs working for them; anyway, we thought that there shouldn't be employers and employed at all. There must be a better way. Though Baratz and others wanted to farm

201-677: A chance to expand through new members and inexpensive labour, but it also meant that Ashkenazi kibbutzim would have to adapt to Jews whose background was far different from their own. Until the 1950s, nearly all kibbutzniks were from Eastern Europe, culturally different from the Jews of Morocco , Tunisia , and Iraq . Many kibbutzim hired Mizrahi Jews as labourers but were less inclined to grant them membership. Ideological disputes were also widespread, leading to painful splits, sometimes even of individual kibbutzim, and to polarisation and animosity among members. Israel had been initially recognized by both

268-651: A concept that divided Jews into "white, black and yellow" metaracial categories. His variables, later to prove influential in Israel, were worked out over a classification between Ashkenazim , Sephardim , Babylonians, and "special types" who didn't fit into the former categories, namely such as Yemenites and Bukharans . He performed skull measurements and believed Ashkenazi Jews, whom he regarded as superior to, for example, Yemeni Jews, themselves comprised various racial subclasses, according to nasal structure. Despite these variations in their respective historic communities, Ruppin

335-690: A loan for Ahuzat Bayit , later Tel Aviv , and acquired land on the Carmel , in Afula , in the Jezreel Valley , and in Jerusalem . Ruppin was instrumental in shaping the nature of Jewish settlement in Palestine and in changing the paradigm of settlement from those of plantation owners and poor laborers to the collective and cooperative kibbutzim and moshavim that became the backbone of the state-in-the-making. He catalyzed

402-479: A middle-class lifestyle. With time, the kibbutz members' sense of identification with the kibbutz and its goals decreased. This process originated from personal frustrations among the kibbutz members as a result of internal processes, from the growing stratification and inequality due to the growth of capitalistic practices, and a generation born and raised in the kibbutzim that did not necessarily inherit their parents’ fiery ideological and motivational drive to “settle

469-453: A more prominent military role. Rifles were purchased or manufactured and kibbutz members drilled and practiced shooting. Yigal Allon , an Israeli soldier and statesman, explained the role of kibbutzim in the military activities of the Yishuv : The planning and development of pioneering Zionist were from the start at least partly determined by politico-strategic needs. The choice of the location of

536-444: A percentage of their reparations. Reparations that were turned over to the collective were used for building expansion and even recreational activities. The split between different factions within the kibbutz movement evolved between 1948 and 1954, when finally three kibbutz federations emerged, each aligned to a different Labour party : Ihud with Mapai , Meuhad with Ahdut HaAvoda , and Artzi with Mapam . Kibbutzniks enjoyed

603-453: A role in defining the borders of the Jewish state-to-be. By the late 1930s, when it appeared that Palestine would be partitioned between Arabs and Jews, kibbutzim were established in outlying areas to ensure that the land would be incorporated into the Jewish state. In 1946, on the day after Yom Kippur , eleven new "Tower and Stockade" kibbutzim were hurriedly established in the northern part of

670-509: A steady and gradual improvement in their standard of living in the first few decades after independence. In the 1960s, the kibbutzim standard of living improved faster than Israel's general population. Most kibbutz swimming pools date from the 1960s. Kibbutzim also continued to play an outsize role in Israel's defence apparatus. In the 1950s and 1960s many kibbutzim were in fact founded by an Israel Defense Forces group called Nahal . Many of these 1950s and 1960s Nahal kibbutzim were founded on

737-448: A sub-component of the Israeli economic crisis of the 1980s ). During the 1980s, following the peak of the kibbutzim crisis, many people started leaving their kibbutzim, and there was considerable tension due to the economic situation. In order to cope with the situation, some kibbutzim began to change in various ways. The changes that occurred could be divided into three main types: Since

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804-460: A transformation which, he thought, accounted for the later ‘greed’ prejudice attributed to Jews. Ruppin considered assimilation as the worst threat to the existence of Jews as people, and argued for a concentration of Jews in a common area, to be realized by the settlement of Palestine, where they would be protected from the assimilationist tendencies in Europe, as he explained in his book The Jews of

871-491: A white tablecloth and fine food and work was not done on Saturday if it could be avoided. Only later did some kibbutzim adopt Yom Kippur as the day to discuss fears for the future of the kibbutz. Kibbutzim also had collective Bar and Bat Mitzvahs for their children. Kibbutznikim did not pray three times a day like their parents and grandparents, but would mark holidays like Shavuot , Sukkot , and Passover with dances, meals, and celebrations. One Jewish holiday, Tu BiShvat ,

938-497: Is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture . The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania . Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises . Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism . In recent decades, some kibbutzim have been privatized and changes have been made in

1005-504: Is crushed, the legs fail, the head hurts, the sun burns and weakens," wrote one of the pioneers. At times, half of the kibbutz members could not report for work and many left. Despite the difficulties, by 1914, Degania had fifty members. Other kibbutzim were founded around the Sea of Galilee and the nearby Jezreel Valley . The fall of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I , followed by

1072-509: The Second Aliyah planned to become farmers; almost the sole career available in the agrarian economy of Ottoman Palestine. The first kibbutz was Degania Alef , founded in 1910. Some founders of the Kibbutz movement in Israel were influenced by the ideals of Ancient Sparta , particularly in education and communal living. Yosef Baratz , one of the pioneers of the kibbutz movement, wrote

1139-645: The Slánský trial in which an envoy of Hashomer Hatzair in Prague was tried. Another controversy involved the Reparations Agreement between Israel and West Germany . Should kibbutz members turn over income that was the product of a very personal loss? If Holocaust survivors were allowed to keep their reparation money, what would that mean for the principle of equality? Eventually, many kibbutzim made this one concession to inequality by letting Holocaust survivors keep all or

1206-657: The Syrian tank advance into the Galilee with Molotov cocktails . Maagan Michael manufactured the bullets for the Sten guns that won the war. Maagan Michael's clandestine ammunition factory was later separated from the kibbutz and grew into Israel Military Industries . The establishment of Israel and the flood of Jewish refugees from Europe and the Arab world presented challenges and opportunities for kibbutzim. The immigrant tide offered kibbutzim

1273-725: The United States and the Soviet Union . For the first three years of its existence, Israel was in the Non-Aligned Movement , but David Ben-Gurion gradually began to take sides with the West . The question of which side of the Cold War Israel should choose created fissures in the kibbutz movement. Dining halls segregated according to politics and a few kibbutzim even had Marxist members leave. The disillusionment particularly set in after

1340-525: The grain trade . Nonetheless, he was able to complete his studies in law and economics, and came second place in a prize competition established by the Krupp Steelworks concerning the uses of Social Darwinism in industry. While at the university, Ruppin accepted the crude racial views of his age, including the idea that Jews were an inferior race, whose liabilities as a group could only be overcome by assimilation , outbreeding with Germans and Slavs. By

1407-541: The "birthday of the trees" was substantially revived by kibbutzim. All in all, holidays with some kind of agricultural component, like Passover and Sukkot, were the most significant for kibbutzim. Religious kibbutzim were established in clusters before the establishment of the State, creating the Religious Kibbutz Movement . The first religious kibbutz was Ein Tzurim , founded in 1946. Arab opposition increased as

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1474-429: The "collaborative model" ( הזרם השיתופי ). There are now three kibbutz compensation models. 1) The traditional collective kibbutz/kibbutz shitufi , in which members are compensated equally, regardless of what work each member does; 2) the mixed model kibbutz/kibbutz meshulav , in which each member is given a small percentage of his or their salary along with a basic component given equally to all kibbutz members; and 3)

1541-554: The "peace camp". The party paper Al HaMishmar (On the Watch) presented this view. Kibbutzim were run as collective enterprises within Israel's partly free market system. Internally kibbutzim also practiced active democracy, with elections held for kibbutz functions and full participation in national elections in which the members generally voted along the lines of the kibbutz movement ideology. Jewish religious practices were banned or discouraged in many far left kibbutzim. Kibbutzim were not

1608-530: The 1917 Balfour Declaration and the wave of Jewish settlers to Palestine began to tilt the demographic balance of the area. Arabs responded with bloody riots in Jerusalem in 1920 , Jaffa in 1921 and in Hebron in 1929 . In the late 1930s, Arab–Jewish violence became virtually constant; the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine is also known as the "Great Uprising" in Palestinian historiography. Kibbutzim began to assume

1675-403: The 1930s and 1940s. In 1922, there were 700 people living on kibbutzim in Palestine. By 1927, the number had risen to 2,000. When World War II erupted, 24,105 people were living on 79 kibbutzim, comprising 5% of the Jewish population of Mandate Palestine. In 1950, the figures went up to 65,000, accounting for 7.5% of the population. In 1989, the kibbutz population peaked at 129,000. By 2010,

1742-629: The Institute for the Research of the Kibbutz and the Cooperative Idea believes that by the end of 2012, there will be more kibbutzim switching to some alternative model. First Aliyah immigrants were largely religious, but those of the Second Aliyah were mainly secular. A Jewish work ethic thus replaced religious practice. Berl Katznelson , a Labor Zionist leader articulated this when he said "Everywhere

1809-457: The Jewish labourer goes, the divine presence goes with him." The first kibbutzim were founded in the upper Jordan Valley , the Jezreel Valley and the Sharon coastal plain . The land was available for purchase because it was marshy and malaria-infested. The Zionists believed that the Arab population would be grateful for the economic benefits that developing the land would bring. Their approach

1876-712: The Modern World (1934). He was also a proponent of pseudoscientific race theory. Arthur Ruppin was born in Rawicz in the German Empire (today in Poland). The family moved to Magdeburg when he was 11, and there followed a period of slow decline in the family's prosperity. At fifteen, his family's poverty forced him to leave school, where he was regarded as an extremely gifted pupil, in order to work to support them. Though he disliked commerce, he proved to be an extremely able merchant in

1943-627: The Nations"). The USSR voted at the UN for establishment of Israel. Stalin became hostile to Israel after it became apparent that Israel would not turn communist, so the USSR began serving diplomatic and military interests of various nations in the Arab world . This caused major crises and mass exit in both Kibbutz Meuchad and Kibbutz Artzi kibbutzim, especially after the 1952 Rudolf Slánský Prague show trials in which most of

2010-504: The Negev to give Israel a better claim to this arid, but strategically important, region. The Marxist faction of the kibbutz movement, Kibbutz Artzi, favoured a one-state solution over partition, but advocated free Jewish immigration, which the Arabs opposed. Kibbutzniks fought in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War , emerging from the conflict with enhanced prestige in the nascent State of Israel. Members of Kibbutz Degania were instrumental in stopping

2077-520: The Present " ( Die Juden der Gegenwart in German), especially in its second, largely-amended, edition. Ruppin accepted the idea of a division of humankind into three important races of humans, the "white", "yellow" and "black" and considered Jews to be part of the "white" race (page 213–214), and within this "race", which Ruppin divides in "Xantrochroe" (light colored) and "Melanochroe" (dark colored), to be part of

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2144-470: The accused and executed party functionaries were Jews and the 1953 Doctors' plot in Moscow of mostly Jews. Nonetheless many kibbutzim cancelled Purim celebrations when Stalin collapsed on March 1, 1953. Despite Communist atrocities and increasing state antisemitism in the USSR and its satellites many in the far left kibbutz movement, like Hashomer Hatzair (The Young Guard) viewed Stalin with awe and leader of

2211-496: The agricultural sector and industrial sector. As such, Chayuta Bussel states: "Communal education is the first step towards woman's liberation." Arthur Ruppin Arthur Ruppin (1 March 1876 – 1 January 1943) was a German Zionist and one of the founders of the city of Tel Aviv . Appointed director of Berlin's Bureau for Jewish Statistics ( Büro für Statistik der Juden ) in 1904, he moved to Palestine in 1907, and from 1908

2278-452: The arrival of the British, brought with it benefits for the Jewish community of Palestine and its kibbutzim. The Ottoman authorities had made immigration to Palestine difficult and restricted land purchases. Rising antisemitism forced many Jews to flee Eastern Europe. To escape the pogroms , tens of thousands of Russian Jews immigrated to Palestine in the early 1920s, in a wave of immigration that

2345-486: The boundaries of the Bnei Shimon Regional Council: 31°27′N 34°46′E  /  31.450°N 34.767°E  / 31.450; 34.767 This geography of Israel article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Kibbutzim A kibbutz ( Hebrew : קִבּוּץ / קיבוץ , lit.   ' gathering, clustering ' ; pl. : kibbutzim קִבּוּצִים / קיבוצים )

2412-482: The common treasury. If a member received a gift in services—like a visit to a relative or a trip abroad paid for by a parent—there could be arguments at members' meetings about the propriety of accepting such a gift. Up until recently, members ate meals together in the communal dining hall. This was seen as an important aspect of communal life. When the first children were born at the kibbutz there were inevitably some ethical dilemmas that needed to be solved. One of these

2479-680: The communal lifestyle. A member of a kibbutz is called a kibbutznik ( Hebrew : קִבּוּצְנִיק / קיבוצניק ; plural kibbutznikim or kibbutzniks ), the suffix -nik being of Slavic origin. In 2010, there were 270 kibbutzim in Israel with a total population of 126,000. Their factories and farms account for 9% of Israel's industrial output, worth US$ 8 billion , and 40% of its agricultural output, worth over US$ 1.7 billion. Some kibbutzim had also developed substantial high-tech and military industries. For example, in 2010, Kibbutz Sasa , containing some 200 members, generated US$ 850 million in annual revenue from its military- plastics industry . Currently

2546-543: The commune at Sejera , and helped building the first kibbutz – Degania , as well as helping to support and organize Kinneret , Merhavia and other settlements. Later, he supported Yehoshua Hankin in his purchases of large tracts of land in the Galilee . Ruppin was among the founders of the Brit Shalom peace movement , which supported a binational state , but left Brit Shalom after the 1929 Hebron massacre . Thereafter he

2613-615: The customary Hebrew word for husband ba'ali (lit. "my master"). The children slept in children's houses and visited their parents only a few hours a day. There were also differences in religion. Kibbutz Artzi and United Kibbutz Movement kibbutzim were secular , even staunchly atheistic , proudly trying to be " monasteries without God". Although most mainstream kibbutznikim also disdained the Orthodox Judaism of their parents, they wanted their new communities to have Jewish characteristics nonetheless. Friday nights were still Shabbat with

2680-522: The early 1900s, however, he began to think of himself as a Jew and take a more positive view: Jews could be regenerated not by outbreeding with Slavs and Germans, but rather by reconstituting themselves as a separate nation, as Zionism proposed. As he confided to his diary at this time, Zionism or complete assimilation: tertium non datur . Ruppin joined the Zionist Organization (ZO, the future World Zionist Organization – WZO) in 1905. In 1907 he

2747-680: The eighth Zionist Congress . He opened the Palestine Office of the Zionist Organization in Jaffa , with the aim of directing the settlement activities of the Zionist movement. His work made Practical Zionism possible and shaped the direction of the Second Aliya , the last wave of Jewish immigration to Palestine before World War I . Ruppin became the chief Zionist land agent. He helped to get

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2814-550: The end of the kibbutz concept. Among the communities that have recently officially ceased being kibbutzim are Megiddo in the Jezreel Valley, HagGoshrim in the Upper Galilee, Beyt Nir in the Negev, etc. These processes have created the "renewing kibbutz" ( הקיבוץ המתחדש )—a kibbutz settlement pattern not fully based on the original values of the kibbutz. Kibbutzim continuing under the original kibbutz values are associated with

2881-428: The heavens.... At the center of our camp a fire burns, and under the weight of the hora the earth groans a rhythmic groan, accompanied by wild songs". Kibbutzim founded in the 1920s tended to be larger than the kibbutzim like Degania that were founded prior to World War I. Degania had had twelve members at its founding. Eyn Harod , founded only a decade later, began with 215 members. Kibbutzim grew and flourished in

2948-586: The kibbutzim are organised in the secular Kibbutz Movement with some 230 kibbutzim, the Religious Kibbutz Movement with 16 kibbutzim and the much smaller religious Poalei Agudat Yisrael with two kibbutzim, all part of the wider communal settlement movement . The kibbutzim were founded by members of the Bilu movement who emigrated to Palestine . Like the members of the First Aliyah (1881-1903) who came before them and established agricultural villages, most members of

3015-464: The land themselves, becoming independent farmers was not a realistic option in 1909. As Arthur Ruppin , a proponent of Jewish agricultural colonization of the Trans-Jordan, would later say, "The question was not whether group settlement was preferable to individual settlement; it was rather one of either group settlement or no settlement at all." Ottoman Palestine was a harsh environment. The Galilee

3082-410: The land”. Over the years, some kibbutz members established professional careers outside the kibbutz, accumulating power, privileges and prestige. The balance between individual values and values of the kibbutz began to tip, and work motivation was affected. An emphasis was placed on social compensation to encourage productivity. These processes occurred in parallel with a severe economic crisis (itself

3149-502: The latter, actually mixture from the Arab and North African peoples and other West and South Asian peoples. Ruppin believed that realization of Zionism required "racial purity" of Jews and was influenced by works of anti-semitic thinkers, including some Nazis. Ruppin personally met Heinrich Himmler 's mentor, Hans F. K. Günther , one of many racist thinkers who greatly influenced Nazism. Specifically regarding Jews, Ruppin distinguished between "Racial Jews" and "Jewish types", and drew up

3216-670: The left-wing Mapam party. In 1928, Degania and other small kibbutzim formed Hever Hakvutzot ("The Kvutzot Association"). Kvutzot were deliberately small, not exceeding 200 members, in the belief that this was imperative for maintaining trust. Kvutzot did not have youth-group affiliations in Europe. Kibbutzim affiliated with the United Kibbutz Movement took in as many members as they could. Givat Brenner eventually came to have more than 1,500 members. Artzi kibbutzim were also more devoted to gender equality than other kibbutzim. Women called their husbands ishi ("my man") rather than

3283-435: The mid-1990s, the number of kibbutzim making significant changes in their lifestyle has continued to grow, while the resistance to these changes has gradually decreased, with only a few dozen kibbutzim still functioning under more traditional models. It is important to note, however, that each kibbutz has undergone different processes of change. There are many people, outside and inside the kibbutzim, who claim these changes bring

3350-688: The number decreased to about 100,000; the number of kibbutzim in Israel was 270. In 1927, the United Kibbutz Movement was established. Several Hashomer Hatzair kibbutzim banded together to form Kibbutz Artzi . In 1936, Socialist League of Palestine was founded, and served as an urban ally of HaKibbutz HaArtzi. In 1946, HaKibbutz HaArtzi and the Socialist League combined to form the Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party of Palestine which in 1948, merged with Ahdut HaAvoda to form

3417-514: The only contemporary communal enterprises: pre-war Palestine also saw the development of communal villages called moshavim . In a moshav , marketing and major farm purchases were collective, but other aspects of life were private. In 2009, most votes from kibbutzim went to Kadima , Labor , and Meretz . The principle of equality was taken extremely seriously up until the 1970s. Kibbutzniks did not individually own tools, or even clothing. Gifts and income received from outside were turned over to

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3484-577: The precarious and porous borders of the state. In the Six-Day War , when Israel lost 800 soldiers, 200 of them were from kibbutzim. The prestige that kibbutzniks enjoyed in Israel in the 1960s was reflected in the Knesset . Though only 4% of Israelis were kibbutzniks, kibbutzniks made up 15% of Israel's parliament. As late as the 1970s, kibbutzim seemed to be thriving in every way. Kibbutzniks performed working-class, or even peasant-class, occupations, yet enjoyed

3551-460: The renewing kibbutz/kibbutz mithadesh , in which a member's income consists solely of their individual income from his work and sometimes includes income from other kibbutz sources. According to a survey conducted by the University of Haifa 188 of all kibbutzim (72%) are now converted to the "renewing kibbutz" model, which could be described as more individualistic kibbutz. Dr. Shlomo Getz, head of

3618-489: The session would begin with a group dance. Remembering her youth on a kibbutz on the shores of the Kinneret , one woman said: "Oh, how beautiful it was when we all took part in the discussions, [they were] nights of searching for one another—that is what I call those hallowed nights. During the moments of silence, it seemed to me that from each heart a spark would burst forth, and the sparks would unite in one great flame penetrating

3685-399: The settlements, for instance, was influenced not only by considerations of economic viability but also and even chiefly by the needs of local defense, overall settlement strategy, and by the role such blocks of settlements might play in some future, perhaps decisive all-out struggle. Accordingly, land was purchased, or more often reclaimed, in remote parts of the country. Kibbutzim also played

3752-540: The southern end of the Sea of Galilee near the Arab village of Umm Juni/Juniya. These teenagers had hitherto worked as day laborers converting wetlands for human development, as masons, or as hands at the older Jewish settlements. Their dream was now to work for themselves, building up the land. They called their community " Kvutzat Degania" (lit. "collective of wheat" or "community of cereal grains"), now Degania Alef . The founders of Degania endured backbreaking labor: "The body

3819-631: Was buried in Degania Alef . In terms of historic origins, Ruppin believed that early Jews were a non-Semitic agricultural people, living in the Land of Israel up to the destruction of the First Temple . Thereafter they began to intermarry with the surrounding Semitic peoples and thereby compromised and weakened their racial purity. It was the infusion of "Semitic blood", he held, that "seduced" Jews from working land and, instead, led them to concentrate on commerce,

3886-548: Was called the Third Aliyah . Zionist Jewish youth movements flourished in the 1920s, from right-wing movements like Betar to left-wing socialist groups such as Dror, Brit Haolim, Qadima, HabBonim (now Habonim Dror ), and Hashomer Hatzair . In contrast to those who came as part of the Second Aliyah, these youth group members had some agricultural training before embarking. Members of the Second Aliyah and Third Aliyah were also less likely to be Russian, since emigration from Russia

3953-582: Was closed off after the Russian Revolution . European Jews who settled on kibbutzim between the World Wars were from other countries in Eastern Europe, including Germany . In the early days, communal meetings were limited to practical matters, but in the 1920s and 1930s, they became more informal. Instead of meeting in the dining room, the group would sit around a campfire. Rather than reading minutes,

4020-580: Was convinced that Jews were distinguished by a special biological uniqueness. Ruppin wrote that Jewish race should be "purified", and he stated that "only the racially pure come to the land." After becoming head of the Palestine Office of the Zionist Executive (later the Jewish Agency for Israel ), he argued against immigration of Ethiopian Jews because of their lack of "blood connection" and that Yemenite Jews should be limited to menial labor. After

4087-654: Was convinced that only an independent Jewish state would be possible, and he believed that the way to bring about that state was through continued settlement. He headed the Jewish Agency between 1933 and 1935, and helped to settle the large numbers of Jewish immigrants from Germany who came in that period. Ruppin exercised considerable influence in the cultural formation of East European Jews who performed aliyah and were to rise to positions of importance in later decades, such as David Ben-Gurion , Itzhak Ben-Zvi , Joseph Shprinzak , Berl Katznelson , Yitzhak Tabenkin , Zalman Shazar , and Levi Eshkol . Ruppin died in 1943. He

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4154-608: Was sent by David Wolffsohn , the President of the ZO, to study the condition of the Yishuv (the Jewish community in Palestine ), then in the Ottoman Empire , to investigate the possibilities for development of agriculture and industry. He reported on what he saw, which was distressing, and gave recommendations for improving the situation. In 1908 Ruppin came to live in Palestine by decision of

4221-545: Was simply the most logical way to be secure in an unwelcoming land. On top of safety considerations, establishing a farm was a capital-intensive project; collectively , the founders of the kibbutzim had the resources to establish something lasting, while independently they did not. Finally, the land had been purchased by the greater Jewish community. From around the world, Jews dropped coins into Jewish National Fund "Blue Boxes" for land purchases in Palestine. In 1909, Baratz, nine other men, and two women established themselves at

4288-517: Was swampy, the Judaean Mountains rocky, and the south of the country, the Negev , was a desert. To make things more challenging, most of the settlers had no prior farming experience. The sanitary conditions were also poor. Malaria , typhus and cholera were rampant. Bedouins would raid farms and settled areas. Sabotage of irrigation canals and burning of crops were also common. Living collectively

4355-608: Was that the enemies of the Arab peasants were the Arab landowners (called effendis ), not fellow Jewish farmers. Kibbutz members were not classic Marxists though their system partially resembled Communism . Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels both shared a disdain for conventional formulations of the nation state and Leninists were hostile to Zionism. Nevertheless, in the late 1930s, two kibbutz leaders, Tabenkin and Yaari, initially attracted to anarchist ideas, pushed their movements to reverence of Joseph Stalin 's dictatorship and of Stalin whom many called Shemesh HaAmim ("The Sun of

4422-408: Was that the kibbutz was striving for equality, including the equality of the sexes. Women were only seen as separate because they gave birth to children, automatically tying them to the domestic sphere . In order to liberate women and promote gender equality, they could not be tied to solely domestic duties and child care giving. The Kibbutz wanted to give women the opportunity to continue their work in

4489-577: Was the director of the Palestine Office of the Zionist Organization in Jaffa , organizing Zionist immigration to Palestine. In 1926, Ruppin joined the faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and founded the Department for the Sociology of the Jews. Described posthumously as the "founder of German-Jewish demography" and "father of Israeli sociology", his best-known sociological work was The Jews in

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