W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 1977 Ideology and Change in the Kibbutz Jeffrey Jay Wilhelms College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the Jewish Studies Commons, and the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Wilhelms, Jeffrey Jay, "Ideology and Change in the Kibbutz" (1977). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539625005. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-3raw-gh18 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. IDEOLOGY AND CHANGE IN THE KIBBUTZ it A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of Sociology The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Jeffrey Wilhelms 1977 APPROVAL SHEET This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts LUthor Approved, July 1977 Dr. Lawrence S. Beckhouse R . ' Waynb Kemodle Dr. Marion G. Vanfosse DEDICATION This paper is dedicated to the memory of my grand f ath e r. iii • TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION. ..... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. v ABSTRACT........... • © • B • vi INTRODUCTION..... 66ee9*ecc ee & 2 CHAPTER I. THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 6-C eO»GQC 3 CHAPTER II. THE ORIGINS OF THE KIBBUTZ MOVEMENT... 16 CHAPTER III. ASCETICISM AND SIMPLICITY............ 28 CHAPTER IV. AGRICULTURE, INDUSTRY, AND HIRED LABOR ^7 CHAPTER V. EQUALITY. ........ ............ ....... 64 CHAPTER VI. COMMUNAL LIVING ....................... 82 CHAPTER VII. PROGRESS AND COMMUNALITY: CRISIS IN THE KIBBUTZ. ___ ........ 105 BIBLIOGRAPHY ___ ____________________ 110 VITA........... ................................ 118 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my appreciation to my wife, Linda, and to my parents, whose encouragement made this manuscript possible. I also wish to thank. Dr. Lawrence S. Deckhouse, Dr. R. Wayne Kernodle, and Dr. Marion G„ Vanfossen for their patient guidance and criticism. ABSTRACT We seek to understand the relationship between the evolving society and the evolving ideology of the kibbutz movement, In the middle stands the kibbutznik who, through a process of ideological reformulation, attempts to maintain a sense of consistency between the ideology and the real kibbutz world, while at the same time attempting to. maintain the internal consistency and integrity of the ideology itself. On the one hand, the kibbutz is committed to moder­ nity in its technological and economic organization and, on the other hand, to primitivity in its social relations. The problem facing the kibbutz is simply that it has embraced two fundamentally contradictory value positions--progress and communality--and yet its survival and integrity depend to a great extent on how successfully it maintains the com­ mitment to each. The whole process of ideological elaboration, or reformulation, is an attempt to render compatible these di­ vergent trends. Under the economic conditions of progress, however, the kibbutz cannot maintain the commitment to com- munality in precisely the same way it did in the early days of settlement. IDEOLOGY AND CHANGE IN THE KIBBUTZ INTRODUCTION This paper examines the ideological development of the kibbutz.movement. There are three major hypotheses concerning this development. First, ideology impacts upon itself and upon social structure and, in turn, is impacted upon by social structure. Second, in the course of ideological development, the original values have been continuously reinterpreted so as to preserve the integrity of the kibbutzim as a unique and highly successful socialist movement which has remained true to its ideals. This whole process may be called ideological elaboration. Third, the individual kibbutzim have always been dedicated to economic progress--progress both of the movement itself and of the Jewish people as a nation--and therein lies the crisis in the kibbutz and, specifically, the problem facing ideological elaboration. CHAPTER I THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS In attempting to understand the relationship between kibbutz Ideology and kibbutz society the ideas of Karl Marx, Max Weber, Karl Mannheim, and Maurice Cornforth were impor­ tant frames of reference. Karl Marx Vs analysis of the existential determination of ideas dates back to early criticism of his teacher, Georg Hegel. Marx observed that "it has not occurred to any of these philosophers to inquire into the connection of German philosophy with German reality, into the relation of their criticism to their own material surroundings" (1930:6 ). Marx maintained that ideas were historical and transitory products and were no more eternal than the relations which they expressed. With this response to Hegel, Marx focused upon the role of social position, particularly class position, in the formulation of ideas. To Marx, Ideas were the intellectual manifestation of underlying economic interests, reflected through the prism of social class. It was from these inter­ ests that ideas gained their source and meaning. We must go astray, he suggested, if we 4. * detach the ideas of the ruling class from the ruling class itself and attribute to them an inde­ pendent existence, if we confine ourselves to saying that in a particular age these or those ideas v/ere dominant, without paying attention to the conditions of production and the producers of these ideas, and if we ignore the individuals and the world conditions which are the source of these ideas (1964:79-80). Marx stated further that the manner in which individ­ uals relate to the means of economic production, and to each other in the process, constitutes the real foundation, or the infrastructure, upon which the cultural superstructure of society is built. In the social production which men carry on they enter into definite relations that are indis­ pensable and independent of their will; these rela­ tions of production correspond to a definite stage of development of their material powers of produc­ tion. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society--the real foundation, on which legal and political super­ structures arise and to which definite forms of social consciousness correspond. The mode of pro­ duction of material life determines the general character of the social, political, and spiritual processes of life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their conscious­ ness (Marx; 1964:51)* Simply put, "determinate individuals* who are productively active in a definite way, enter into...determinate social and political relations" (Marx; 1964:74). It is interesting to note that in his earlier writings Marx was insistent on the priority of economic factors; however, later writings represent a substantial compromise on this point."*" 5 The political, legal, philosophical, literary, and artistic development rests on the eco­ nomic. But they all react upon one another and upon the economic base. It is not the case that the eco­ nomic situation is the sole active cause, and that everything else is merely a passive effect. There is, rather, a reciprocity within a field of economic necessity which in the last instance always asserts itself (Marx; l'962s 30*0* Marx went on to say that ...the ultimately determinant element in history is the production and reproduction of real life. Hence if somebody twists this into saying that the economic element is the only determining one, he transforms that proposition into a meaningless, abstract and senseless phrase. The economic situation is the basis, but the various elements of the superstruc­ ture... also exercise their influence upon the course of the historical struggle and in many cases prepon­ derate in determining their form (1962:488). In the Marxian formulation, bourgeois ideology was conceived to be a distorted, falsified and therefore invalid defense of their privileged social and economic position. 1. "Similarly, Marx has been proved wrong on almost every single count on which he made a prediction specific enough to be tested: the revolution did not occur in highly industrialized, but rather in industrially "backward," countries; it did not bring about the classless society, nor did it eliminate internal conflicts and contradictions; and the middle class did not diminish in a process of polariza­ tion, but instead increased steadily; and so on. On the other hand, the proposition that the "final" causes of social change lie in the economic sphere is untestable. Since no empirical specification for the concept "final" has been provided, any impetus originating in the economic sphere can be viewed as a final cause, whereas any impetus originating in another sphere may be viewed as nonfinal. Moreover, when he predicted the fading away of the state in a class­ less society, Marx, like Spencer, did not specify the con­ ditions or time at which he expected this to come about. Consequently, this thesis, too, is untestable" (Etzioni; 1964:8). 6 . Marx’s own ideas, on the other hand* were held to be unbiased and factual statements of a class, the proletariat, with no privileged social or economic position to defend. It is at this