Activities of the Kibbutz Festival and their contribution to Israeli culture

This study provides a perspective of the cultural-historical role of fostering agricultural festivals in rural communities, and the revitalization of the Jewish calendar holidays in propensity to historical, educational, social, and cultural contexts. Its main goals are to shed light on how the kibbutz festival institutes – the Folklore and Festival Institute at Kibbutz Ramat-Yochanan, and the Institute of Kibbutz Festivals (Shittim Institute) at Kibbutz Beit-Hashita – contributed to the renewed Jewish-kibbutz culture, and to the portrayal of the evolvement of the kibbutz festival and holiday. This research investigates the goals, content, and methods that characterize the field and set it apart from other fields. It does not address the festivals per se (as celebrated in the kibbutzim), but how they were fostered by the institutes.

This is a historical ‘multiple/collective case study’, which uses historical and educational research tools and methods. The research is based on data collected from a variety of sources, including documents and interviews with key figures in the institutes during the 1954-1996 period. At its center are case studies of the two institutes in the early years. The first stage – case studies and their comparison – is anchored in methodological analysis by ten aspects (Dror, 2010) of initial and secondary materials about the institutes and their activities. Following the findings of stage one, the second stage – cross analysis – was performed to generalize and interpret the institutes’ activities. The generalization of the institutes' activities was based on Even-Zohar's cultural Polysystem theory, while focusing on cultural planning. Later on, Rakefet Sheffy evolved his theory to deal with canon processes.

This research presents three integrative issues at the heart of the institutes’ culture planning processes, as part of the transition from spontaneously inventing tradition to inventing it institutionally. These issues are the issue of continuity, innovation, and consolidation of tradition; the issue of unity and uniqueness; and the issue of center and periphery. The attempt to deal with these three issues reflects the uncertainty involved in institutionalizing the Hebrew kibbutz culture, as well as defining the kibbutz community itself. In addition, to understand the institutes’ activities in a procedural manner, axes were created to describe continuums between spontaneous incidences and institutionalization processes over the years.