In my senior year of high school I initiated and assembled a "Construction Work Team", aiming to develop skills in the various building trades among new Israeli high school graduates and to prove that young Jews should also take an active part in construction work, which was then traditionally an Arab work sector. My idea and call for action to create a "Construction Work Team" was also inspired by literary sources from the Second and Third Aliya (immigration to Israel) periods such as the writings of A.D. Gordon.
A.D. Gordon, the father of the "religion of labor", is synonymous with the ideal of "Hebrew labor", of conquering the Jewish homeland by physically working the land. A.D set a personal example of the pioneering ethos. I wonder what he would have said if he could have seen his name appear on the stylish menu of the Café Rishonim (Founders Cafe) restaurant at Kibbutz Degania, as "Gordon Salad." Would he have thought of it as something negative and bourgeois, or would he perhaps have considered it to be part of fulfilling his Zionist dream: the Jewish people living in the land of Israel and making its living from the land?
On TuB'Av, the Jewish "Day of Love," my family went canoing on the Jordan River. To get there we drove to the entrance of Kibbutz Kinneret, next to the Christian baptismal site Yardenit, and then went down a dusty dirt road until we reached the "Rob Roy" compound -a place that aspires to be an Indian village and where one can rent canoes. We sat in the canoe and began to paddle in the last rays of sunlight, disturbing some blue red kingfishers that had already nested down for the night.
The Jordan River has something in common with the movie star Tom Cruise: The myth is larger than the reality. Tom Cruise on screen seems to be tall, because he is handsome and an excellent actor, but in fact Cruise is a rather short man (not quite 5'6"). Similarly, a first-time visitor to the River Jordan comes with high expectations because of its mythic status, but is liable to react to the reality with surprise: "What, that's all there is?!" The river is not wide, not deep, and not very full of water. Perhaps we expect more from the river the Israelites crossed on their way to the Promised Land, and which played such an important role in early Christian history. But still, the Jordan is the best river we have. It is a great pity that the hundreds of visitors along its banks do not take better care of it.
It was twilight by the time we finished canoing. The children jumped from the canoe into the cool, greenish water and splashed around with great enjoyment. As all parents do, we had trouble getting them out of the water until I yelled, "We're going to eat at a restaurant!" That did the trick. Canoing on the river had given us all a healthy appetite. We went from the legendary river to the restaurant at the legendary Kibbutz Degania, just a few minutes from the baptismal site.
Degania was the first kibbutz--the first in Israel, and the first in the entire world. As such, it is called "The Mother of Kibbutzim." It was established in 1910 on the shores of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) by ten men and two women who were pioneers of the Second Aliya, an act that marked the start of the kibbutz movement. The founders of Degania wrote, "On 25th Tishrei 5671, corresponding to 28th October 1910, we ten men and two women came to Umm Juni... We came to establish an independent settlement of Hebrew laborers on national land, a collective settlement with neither exploiters nor exploited - a commune!"
The story of the first kibbutz is not the only one to adorn Degania. Generations of Israelis grew up on the legend from the 1948 War of Independence, of the Molotov cocktail that was thrown by a brave defender into the turret of the Syrian tank, stopping the Syrian army's advance and saving the Jordan Valley.
We parked and went out into the warm night air. The Cafe Rishonim restaurant is situated in the middle of the Founders Courtyard - several old buildings arranged in U-form with the courtyard in its center.
We sat down inside the restaurant, which opened a few years ago in one of the historical courtyard buildings. The floor tiles reveal the history of the place - they are black and brown spotted as was the kibbutz tradition and measure 20 cm by 20 cm. Such tiles are no longer seen very often. They are remnants from the days when the "balata" (tile) was simply a floor covering, not a pretentious artistic statement.
We glanced at the menu, which featured the founding heroes: "Bussel Salad", "Baratz Sandwich", and "Hayuta Health Salad" (I was pleased to see that the founding women were not forgotten). A century after they came to the harsh land and made it bloom, the pioneers of Degania have become food celebrities.
When my salad arrived, it was a perfectly seasoned kibbutz-style: olive oil, lemon, salt. The salad reminded me of the art of preparing and eating salad on kibbutz. After all, salad is the cornerstone and centerpiece of two of the daily meals: breakfast and supper, every single day of the year. The art and science of the salad has three components: chopping the ingredients to the correct size; the seasoning; and calculating the quantity of bread required to mop up the salad dressing. A kibbutznik who finishes the salad before the bread (or vice versa) has failed to calculate correctly and will have to get another slice of bread or chop up some more salad in order to correct the balance.
While mopping up the salad juices with the fresh bread of Café Rishonim, I thought about the way the first kibbutz in particular and the kibbutz movement in general has morphed from a revolutionary movement that changed the world under very trying conditions, into a pastoral community on the banks of the Kinneret with a restaurant that offers kosher dairy meals in a pleasant, air conditioned location. This is a transition that is taking place before our very eyes, from spirited, trailblazing movement into a museum exhibit - a place where we come to wax nostalgic over what once was.
In 1951, American Professor Bruno Bettelheim came to Kibbutz Ramat Yochanan to research this new species of human being, the kibbutz children. His research was published in the controversial book "Children of the Dream."
A few years ago I heard one of the veterans of the kibbutz, whose childhood was one of those researched by Bettelheim, talk about the famous professor. "So this weird American professor came to our kibbutz. He didn't speak Hebrew; we didn't exactly understand his questions. We just fooled around and joked, and afterwards he wrote it all in a book... "
In recent years we have witnessed the growth of memoirs that describe kibbutz life from various viewpoints. It seems it is still too early to analyze the kibbutz movement and its accomplishments from a historical perspective. The subject is too loaded with subjectivity, nostalgia and personal involvement.
As a third generation child of kibbutz, a descendant of the founders of two kibbutzim, it is not easy for me to witness the process that is changing the kibbutz movement, from part of our national story, to something whose best days are now history.
We children of the kibbutz were brought up with the belief of being the chosen, the torch bearers leading the camp. But perhaps finding your place in history is not such a bad thing after all - it is the nature of history and the way of the world. Even the Roman Empire did not last forever.
The kibbutz will always have a special place in the history of the Jewish nation and the State of Israel. The important question then becomes: Who in Israel will take the place of the kibbutz movement and be the new pioneer that leads the camp?
Feedback to: Melamed.sagi@gmail.com Sagi Melamed lives with his family in the community of Hoshaya in the Galilee. He serves as Vice President of External Affairs at the Max Stern Yezreel Valley College, and is the Chief Instructor in the Hoshaya Karate Club. Sagi received his Masters degree from Harvard University in Middle Eastern Studies with a specialty in Conflict Resolution. He can be contacted at: melamed.sagi@gmail.com.
It was established in 1910 on the shores of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) by ten men and two women who were pioneers of the Second Aliya, an act that marked the start of the kibbutz movement. The founders of Degania wrote, "On 25th Tishrei 5671, corresponding to 28th October 1910, we ten men and two women came to Umm Juni... We came to establish an independent settlement of Hebrew laborers on national land, a collective settlement with neither exploiters nor exploited - a commune!"
