Kibbutzing around

I spent the past weekend on the kibbutz where my cousins Naomit and Rami live. I've heard a bit about kibbutz life, particularly from a philosophical standpoint, but had never experienced the realities of daily. (I still haven't really but at least now have a sense for what it looks like on the weekend.)

Kibbutz life is pleasant, simple, easy, and straightforward. People have nice (though hardly extravagant) places to live, good, fresh food to eat, a comfortable, low-stress, pastoral lifestyle, and a friendly, close-knit community to rely upon. The community in particular is really central to kibbutz life, as all residents work together, live together, eat together, celebrate together, and share all their property. Except for that very last bit, it reminded me of life in rural America.

Naomit and Rami were wonderful hosts. They gave me my own room, showed me around the kibbutz, took me to Rosh Hanikra, old Akko, and the kibbutz's farms, and sent me home with a large bag of corn that Rami and I picked from the stalk earlier today. Their English is better than they let on, but I was relieved to find in Rami an Israeli whose English was worse than my Hebrew.

My bottom line impression is this: If you're a kid, or an adult who highly values community to the extent that you prefer sharing property to individual ownership, a kibbutz may well offer an ideal lifestyle option for you. If, on the other hand, you think that a place like Harvard Business School would be a fun place to spend two years, you probably won't appreciate everything a kibbutz has to offer. 'Nuff said?