Intentional Communities and National Resiliency in Face of Covid-19
Covid-19 was an unprecedented crisis and challenge, for all nations. Many people know of Israel’s ability to cope with the first wave of Covid-19, its remarkably fast vaccination operation and it being the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer booster shot, which apparently brought the fourth wave to a halt (Summer 2021).
However, Israel experienced many difficulties in the process and the government leaned to a large extent on civil society organizations to assist with epidemiological investigations, promote the vaccination campaign and more.
This presentation will explore the role Israel’s network of intentional communities, comprising over 250 communities from all sectors of society, played during the first 18 months of the Covid-19 pandemic. It will bring first-hand evidence from the field, as well as a hard data, in order to try and provide answers to the following questions: what role did Israel’s intentional communities play in building its national resiliency in face of Covid-19? To what extent were the actions carried out by the communities effective? What lessons can we learn from the Israeli experience regarding the role intentional communities might play in preparation for future waves of Covid, and/or similar large-scale crises, including climate change?
