Not many people know what a kibbutz is and still less a moshav! A kibbutz in Hebrew means "group", "communal settlement", "gathering" or "clustering". In today's democratic Israel, it is a voluntary community of people who live and work together in a non-competitive manner. Their aim is economic and social independence, based on communal ownership of property, social justice and equality. A moshav in Hebrew means a "village" and is a cooperative community. While the kibbutz is a collective ownership, the moshav can have individual but equal size ownership in the cooperative. The first kibbutz was called Degania in 1909 in the southern end of the Sea of Galilee. The first moshav was established in 1921 in the Jezreel Valley and was called Nahalal.
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| Degania Alef - the first Kibbutz started in 1909 |
This way of life has created a new social system in Israel by which much of the Israeli economy functions. These kibbutz and moshav are agricultural, factories that manufacture a wide variety of products, run guesthouses, hotels and tourist places. There are hundreds of moshavim and kibbutzim dotted across the 27,700 sq.km territory of the nation of Israel.
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| Nahalal - the first Moshav established in 1921 |
This system has attracted volunteers from all over the world. They come to participate in this unusual system of cooperative work ethic and stay for between three to nine months on a volunteer visa given by the Israeli government. It is hard work to labour in these places but also there is the uniqueness of living and working alongside people from diverse cultures. It is an inexpensive way of seeing the country and experiencing this unusual style of community living.
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