Today we had the opportunity to interview Sharon and Jackie, two past members of the Kaleia kibbutz. Before meeting them, I had always assumed that members of a kibbutz grew up there. However, Sharon and Jackie actually grew up in Manchester, Britain and decided to join the kibbutz as an opportunity to try something new.
Since they didn’t grow up in the kibbutz they remembered life before and after, and the differences between them. They felt much more relaxed living in the kibbutz as they had all their friends around them all the time. Communal living gave them everything that they could have needed. They just needed to pitch in. Their jobs included working with cows in the middle of the night. Sharon loved these moments working as it was such a quiet and peaceful setting that felt like “heaven.”
What I felt was most interesting about our interview was how people’s core values changed after entering the kibbutz. After a year, Sharon and Jackie left the kibbutz, and once they returned they found that people had started to leave and work in Jerusalem. But what kept them wanting to return as much as they could was that life just felt simpler at the kibbutz. There was no need to have things, because having what you didn’t need wasn’t valued as much as family and service. They got paid but the money they earned was unnecessary because everything they needed was right in front of them.
I wanted to leave you with one message that they shared with us. They really wanted us to understand that you cannot believe everything you read in the news about Israel. It’s not all about violence here and there is much more to Israeli life than just war. You may have to take a deeper look to recognize this but once you do, your connection will be stronger.