Voluntary collective communities in Israel, begun at Degania in 1909-10, in which members traditionally shared income and property equally and decided policy in a general assembly. Since the 1980s crisis most have adopted differential pay and other privatising reforms.
Degania on the Sea of Galilee is generally counted as the first kibbutz: a 1909 trial farm at Umm Juni was followed in October 1910 by the Hadera Commune, which made it a permanent settlement. Most kibbutzim were founded in the 1930s-40s. Traditionally they had no private property, equal sharing of income, communal dining, collective production and no hired outside labour; a general assembly of members elects officers and approves the budget. After the 1985 debt crisis, many kibbutzim moved enterprises to boards, privatised consumption and, from the mid-1990s, adopted differential market-based salaries with a safety net. Observers disagree about whether such communities remain kibbutzim in the original sense.
Kibbutzim were central to Zionist settlement and Israeli society; in 1995 there were 268 kibbutzim with about 120,000 members (Abramitzky). Many have since shifted from equal sharing to differential pay, while keeping a safety net.
Degania, on the Sea of Galilee, is generally regarded as the first kibbutz; sources date it to 1909 (a trial farm at Umm Juni) or 1910 (the Hadera Commune that settled in October and made it permanent).[1][2][3]
Traditional kibbutzim practised equal sharing of income, no private property, a noncash economy, communal dining halls, communal production and no use of hired outside labour; a general assembly of members decided policy.[1][2]
After the 1985 debt crisis most kibbutzim reformed, and between 1995 and 2011 more than 75% of Israel's 248 nonreligious kibbutzim adopted safety-net budgets with differential market-based pay; some observers regard such kibbutzim as barely recognisable as kibbutzim.[1][2]