At present (2008) there are 256 Kibbutzim in Israel (including 16 “religious kibbutzim”). Most of them are located in peripheral areas, from the most northern tip of the State to as far as the Deep South (Arava). Some-total of registered Kibbutz population amounts to app. 106,000 people, of whom a total of over 20,000 are children under the age of 18. One ought to notice that after almost two decades of an economic and social crisis in most sections of the Kibbutz Movement, resulting - among others- in a sharp decline of Kibbutz population, the last few years are indicating a fresh and a new trend. Many Kibbutzim report of growing numbers of youngsters – singles and families – seeking to join Kibbutzim, either as permanent members, or as non-member inhabitants. The main obstacle to a more speedy response to this potentially promising trend is lack of housing for absorption.

Kibbutz enterprises view the Kibbutz Industries Association as the central focus of information and an objective body towards all members. We act as a broker to bring together investors and enterprises and we accompany the negotiations and handle the procedures where necessary. There is enormous interest in our corporation from both potential investors and the kibbutz enterprises themselves

In the past 40 years, 400,000 (!) youngsters from all five continents have spent some of the most memorable days of their lives as volunteers in Kibbutzim in Israel. Hundreds of them have stayed on the Kibbutz and are now proud members.

 

The Givat Haviva Institute, founded by the HaShomer HaTzair Movement, educates and acts to promote the values of equality and human dignity.
Givat Haviva implements activities to develop the experience of equality between Jews and Arabs living in Israel...

The crisis of the 1980s was both structural and related to values, its consequences discernible in all structures and spheres. Briefly and in general, the changes, still in progress, are essentially a transition from a collectivist, cohesive society with a high level of social and ideological commitment to an individualistic one in which the bond between members and their mutual responsibility is growing steadily weaker.
By Eli Avrahami, Kibbutz Palmachim, Yad Tabenkin Research Center.

A kibbutz (Hebrew: קיבוץ; plural: kibbutzim) is an Israeli collective community. Although other countries have had communal enterprises, in no other country have voluntary collective communities played as important a role as kibbutzim have played in Israel, indeed, kibbutzim played an essential role in the creation of Israel.