Constructive Socialism and the Kibbutz

The panel discusses the unique development of the idea of constructive socialism and intentional community in the context of the Labor Zionist movement - the dominant force in pre-Israeli Zionist society in Palestine (the Yishuv) and young Israel (1948-1977). It is illustrated through the Kibbutz, that for decades perceived itself as the Zionist vanguard, while developing as an intentional community.

The panel’s lectures address the acute debate between Ber Borochov and Nachman Syrkin who defined the idea of constructive socialism in regard to the Zionist project; the crystallizing of the Kibbutz as an aspect of the extraordinary Zionist cooperative project, in the spirit of constructive socialism; and the present-day attempts by the Kibbutz to refresh its social goals after more than a hundred years, following its recovery from its existential crisis (1980s-2010s), and despite the neoliberal metamorphosis that Israel’s value infrastructure underwent. The challenge of Covid-19 is an important example of the present-day’s kibbutz self-perception as an intentional community.