When I dropped out of college to live and work in a socialist commune in Israel, it was mostly to escape a broken heart back home. My memorable experiences as a volunteer on Kibbutz Shamir profoundly shaped how I think about the value of community and inspired me to become a writer. It took me another 20 years to unite these passions by returning to Israel to learn about the past, present, and future of the legendary kibbutz movement—and share my journey of discovery with readers in Chasing Utopia.
I wrote
Chasing Utopia: The Future of the Kibbutz in a Divided Israel
Asking me to pick my favorite Amos Oz book is like asking me to pick my favorite child: they are all uniquely wonderful. Still, this book best captures the gossipy joys and frustrations of life on a frontier kibbutz.
At age 15, Oz left his home in Jerusalem to become a member of a socialist commune in the countryside and later described his life there as the “ultimate university of human nature.” I love how his wry early novel transforms one imaginary kibbutz into a microcosmic mirror in which we can all see our own petty vanities.
"A generous imagination at work. [Oz’s] language, for all of its sensuous imagery, has a careful and wise simplicity." —New York Times Book Review
Situated only two miles from a hostile border, Amos Oz’s fictional community of Metsudat Ram is a microcosm of the Israeli frontier kibbutz. There, held together by necessity and menace, the kibbutzniks share love and sorrow under the guns of their enemies and the eyes of history.
"Immensely enjoyable." —Chicago Tribune Book World
The kibbutz where I once lived had been founded by hardcore Romanian Marxists, so decades later, I was shocked to learn its factory was listed on the NASDAQ exchange. The work of Stanford economist Ran Abramitzky helped me to make sense of the causes and effects of the 100-year-old kibbutz movement’s turbulent evolution from hard socialism to soft capitalism.
This book distills his academic research into clear and readable prose (rare for an economist!), illustrated with anecdotes from his extended family’s kibbutz experiences.
How kibbutzim thrived for much of the twentieth century despite their inherent economic contradictions The kibbutz is a social experiment in collective living that challenges traditional economic theory. By sharing all income and resources equally among its members, the kibbutz system created strong incentives to free ride or--as in the case of the most educated and skilled--to depart for the city. Yet for much of the twentieth century kibbutzim thrived, and kibbutz life was perceived as idyllic both by members and the outside world. In The Mystery of the Kibbutz, Ran Abramitzky blends economic perspectives with personal insights to examine…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
One of the treasures in my large collection of kibbutz books is a signed edition of this dreamy memoir by Yael Neeman. In-person and in print, she is wise, funny, observant, and prone to memorable metaphors.
I savoured every word (in Sondra Silverston’s wonderful English translation) of her poignant and often ironic reflections about growing up in the most controversial experiment of the kibbutz movement: the collective “children’s house,” in which kibbutz kids slept apart from their parents to be raised by nannies in mini-communes of their own.
The kibbutz is one of the greatest stories in Israeli history. These collective settlements have been written about extensively over the years: The kibbutz has been the subject of many sociological studies, and has been praised as the only example in world history of entire communities attempting, voluntarily, to live in total equality. But there's a dark side to the kibbutz, which has been criticized in later years, mainly by children who were raised in these communities, as an institution which victimized its offspring for the sake of ideology.In this spare and lucid memoir, Neeman--a child of the kibbutz--draws on…
Full confession: I only picked up this novel in my attempt to read every book with “kibbutz” in the title. Lucky me!
I became a fan of Michael Ohayon, the moody outsider who stars in Batya Gur’s series of Hebrew whodunnits, all set in various closed societies and institutions. Ohayon is like an Israeli Inspector Rebus, and no amount of duplicity by the members at an indebted kibbutz can keep him from cracking the case.
The novel doesn’t paint a pretty picture of communal life, but I recognized many of the fatal flaws of the real kibbutz movement magnified to deadly dimensions in this slow burn of a murder mystery.
From award-winning and internationally acclaimed author, Batya Gur, comes another twisty mystery featuring charming Israeli investigator Michael Ohayon.
Michael Ohayon must once again solve a murder that has taken place within a complex, closed society: the kibbutz. As he investigates, he uncovers more and more of the kibbutz’s secrets, exposing all the contradictions of this idealized way of life.
Murder on a Kibbutz showcases once again Batya Gur’s storytelling talents in a thrilling mystery that readers will not soon forget.
Odette Lefebvre is a serial killer stalking the shadows of Nazi-occupied Paris and must confront both the evils of those she murders and the darkness of her own past.
This young woman's childhood trauma shapes her complex journey through World War II France, where she walks a razor's edge…
I get professional envy every time I read one of Daniel Gavron’s vivid collections of literary journalism. He is such an attentive observer and compassionate interviewer, and the conversations he preserves on every page bring a diverse range of Israelis to life in all their hopes and fears.
Published at the turn of the millennium, this book is a classic of kibbutz history in which Gavron, a former kibbutznik, travels to communities in various stages of decline or revival. His book inspired my own return to Israel to discover more about the uncertain future of Israel’s utopian movement. I can’t thank him enough for that.
The Israeli kibbutz, the twentieth century's most interesting social experiment, is in the throes of change. Instrumental in establishing the State of Israel, defending its borders, creating its agriculture and industry, and setting its social norms, the kibbutz is the only commune in history to have played a central role in a nation's life. Over the years, however, Israel has developed from an idealistic pioneering community into a materialistic free market society. Consequently, the kibbutz has been marginalized and is undergoing a radical transformation. The egalitarian ethic expressed in the phrase, "From each according to ability, to each according to…
When people think of Israel today, they often imagine tragic headlines and a bloody conflict without end. Yet for decades, the symbol of the Jewish state was the legendary kibbutznik, the Hebrew Marlboro Men (and Women) who drained the swamps and made the deserts bloom while living in communal outposts built on radical equality. Whatever happened to these pioneers and their dreams of a peaceable utopia in the Promised Land?
To write my book, I crisscrossed Israel on a quest for answers—and a search for hope in a divided nation.
Love and War in the Jewish Quarter
by
Dora Levy Mossanen,
A breathtaking journey across Iran where war and superstition, jealousy and betrayal, and passion and loyalty rage behind the impenetrable walls of mansions and the crumbling houses of the Jewish Quarter.
Against the tumultuous background of World War II, Dr. Yaran will find himself caught in the thrall of the…
Aury joins her sewing circle sisters on a cozy quilt retreat, expecting laughter, stitching, and a peaceful escape. Instead, a sudden storm traps them inside an old manor filled with secrets.
While exploring, they uncover a weathered diary dating back to the Civil War. Its pages reveal the voice of…
