Association representing agricultural collectives.
The kibbutz movement (Ha-Tnuʾah Ha-Kibbutzit Ha-Meuhedet; acronym, TAKAM) is an association comprising three of the four federations of agricultural collectives in Israel that operated in Palestine before independence, including Hever Ha-Kvutzot, Ha-Kibbutz Ha-Meuhad, and HaKibbutz Ha-Artzi. The consolidation of the separate kibbutz federations, to an extent, reflected both bureaucratic realignments since the 1948 independence of Israel and the changing balance of political party power in the election arena.
The kibbutz is a socialist community without private ownership and was first improvised in 1909 at Degania, in Ottoman Palestine, by young Jewish immigrants devoted to the establishment of a highly egalitarian society. Theirs was a small agricultural community, concentrating on a single crop. After World War I, immigrants from Europe and Russia brought ambitious schemes for an organization based on the Bolshevik Revolution, postulating that Palestine might only be developed by an all-embracing commune of Jewish workers. In 1921, they founded the first large kibbutz in the Jezreel valley at Ein Harod, with a diversified crop base and, eventually, with industries.
In 1924, a third form of collective was founded at Beit Alpha, by Ha-Shomer Ha-Tzaʾir (Young Guard), rooted in egalitarian principles and the possibilities for self-fulfillment in a small community. An association of religious (Orthodox Jewish) kibbutzim, Ha-Kibbutz Ha-Dati, has not affiliated with the all-embracing kibbutz movement federation.
Bibliography
Drezon-Tepler, Marcia. Interest Groups and Political Change inIsrael. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990.
— DONNA ROBINSON DIVINE
