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Despite efforts to change with the times, kibbutzim appear to be losing their youth to temptations of the city. Could this trend lead to the demise of the kibbutz movement? 2 boxes at end of text.
Changes from socialist ideologies to capitalist tendencies can be illustrated by simply comparing grandfather and grandson.
Yisrael Carmon, 77, came to Palestine in 1940, helped found Kibbutz Kfar Menahem, served a prison term for Palmah activities and lives on the kibbutz today. Of his three children, only one daughter remains on the kibbutz. Her son - Carmon's 17-year-old grandson, Matan Lapidot - has announced his intention to leave the kibbutz after his army service. Lapidot says the only way to be truly successful is to leave the kibbutz.
Carmon remembers as a teenager in Montreal learning about the Jewish homeland, hearing about Herzl, Weizmann and the Balfour Declaration and feeling that the idea of being a pioneer appealed to him. He came to Palestine at the age of 24, believing that kibbutz fulfilled his ideals of cooperation, equality and control of destiny while building a national homeland.
He settled on a hill and lived in tents with 60 other young people who began building Kfar Menahem with their own hands.
"It was very hard work - from sunrise to sunset - and tensions sometimes ran high, but my ideologies didn't change," Carmon recalls. "I was very proud to bring about a change in Jewish life, despite the pain in my back and the fatigue. I was out to see this project succeed because our aim was to feed the population of this country."
Lapidot is worlds away from his grandfather in terms of ideology. "You can't get ahead here. For me to improve my standard of living I have to leave. I want a bigger house, my own car, and other things. No matter how hard I work, I'll never be able to get those things on kibbutz," Lapidot says.
He plans to finish his army service, travel abroad, and then maybe return to the kibbutz for a year to work and save money for university studies the kibbutz will partially fund. After university, he wants to move to Tel Aviv. To date, he has no specific career...