MembersInterview: Date With a Real Kibbutz

Israel Today interviewed Yoav who has been volunteering at Kibbutz Samar in the far south of Israel. He volunteered after finishing Israeli high school, as a way to give of himself and mature as an independent adult. Kibbutz Samar is near Eilat on a narrow desert plain at the southernmost part of Israel, dominated by the jagged dark mountains of nearby Jordan and cliffs ascending to the Negev desert in the west. The kibbutz grows date palms and is one of the last few Israeli kibbutz cooperatives that still operates on a fully collective, internally-socialist model of joint ownership (“from each according to his ability; to each according to his need”).

Israel Today asked Yoav about his experiences and especially his insider’s view of the socialist experiment of kibbutz life.

Israel Today: Why did you volunteer all these months?

Yoav: It was a way to be part of something bigger than just earning money for myself. I felt I was helping keep...