A kibbutz is a collective community, often a farm, originally based on a cooperative system of communal participation. There are more than 200 kibbutzim (that’s the plural of kibbutz) in Israel.
Kibbutz life is different from life in other places. Every kibbutz member is given a job to do, and instead of their receiving a salary, all their basic necessities are provided. The jobs fill the needs of the community, and the playing field is equal — no job is more important than any other. Kibbutz members also often rotate jobs, so individuals get to learn new skills as they work.
But what about residents who are too young or too old to work? The community also takes care of children, the elderly, and anyone else who needs support.
Curious about life on a kibbutz? Learn more with the stories and videos in this list:
Written by Deke Moulton and published by Penguin Random House
There’s nothing Benji Zeb loves more than running free in his wolf form. No bar mitzvah prep, no anxiety, and definitely no worries about his secret crush on Caleb, the boy who used to be his best friend.
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Written and illustrated by Michelle Edwards and published by New South Books
An Israeli kibbutz is the setting for this tale, in which a man always does his best regardless of the job he is given, though he’d prefer to be working in the chicken coops.
Written by Nati Bait, illustrated by Moran Barak, and published by Hakibbutz-Hameuchad/Sifriat Poalim
It all starts with a simple chair … and before you know it, the children in this story take off on a tour of Israel. The chair becomes a car, a train, a plane — and takes off for Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Eilat, and Haifa. When you’ve got an active imagination, there are no limits to where you can go!
Written by Esty Schachter and published by Kar-Ben Publishing
Molly is nervous about leaving her friends and her beloved Bubbe to spend a month in Israel with her mom’s family. She doesn’t like change, so at first, she tries to avoid adapting to Israeli life, but slowly the country and its people win her over. By the end of the trip, she has bonded with her Israeli family and is sad to leave. This is a sweet book, full of warm family relationships and appealing detail about life in Israel in 1986.
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Written by Tami Lehman-Wilzig, illustrated by Anna Shuttlewood, and published by Kar-Ben Publishing
Israel has one of the largest populations of migrating birds, and in this story, one of them gets stuck in a net in the fish ponds on Maya’s kibbutz. Maya and her dad have to figure out how to save it!
Written by Alice Blumenthal McGinty, illustrated by Rotem Tiplow, and published by Kalaniot Books
On Sunshine Kibbutz, everyone has a job. Tractor Zack can’t plow the fields as well as he used to, and he worries that he won’t have any way to help. His friends come up with something special for him to do just in time for Shavuot, a holiday that commemorates the spring harvest and the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.
Watch
Grover Visits a Kibbutz via Shalom Sesame
What is a Kibbutz? via Unpacked
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