Evening star., 1955-05-19
ISRAEL TODAY
By CROSBY S. MOVES


HAIFA-The young man ir
the khaki shirt was very serious
And since he was an American
talking to Americans. there wa.
a small chip on his shoulder.
Sure" he was saying. "O1
course we're Socialists. The rule
here is. To each according to his
need-from each according te
his ability"
Since Karl Marx first devised
this formula. a good many
'Utopian' societies have tried to
live up to it. Few have come Sc
close to success as the people
who live the life of the kibbutz
communal village) in Israel.
Imagine a society in which
there is no such thing as private
property, where money is OF no
Importance to the individual and
where everything. from the house
you live in to the shirt on your
back, is given to you according
to your need"-up to the limit OF
the community's ability to pro.
vide it. Imagine a life in which
you had no decisions to make on
your own-except the big deci-
sion of whether to stay or leave.
For the member of a kibbutz.
excepting up with the Joneses' is
no problem. since the Joneses
have exactly the same things as
everyone else. He has no wor-
ries about keeping his job. since
his lob is assigned to him by the
work committee according to
his ability" on the principle OF
rotation in which everyone gets
his share of the dirty work. Get
ting sick or growing old in a
kibbutz is no calamity. since the
community will take care OF you
Raising a family is no strain.
since your children. from the
time they are born until they
die, will be community respon-
sibility.
No Two Alike
Each of the several hundred
kibbutzin in Israel has its own
special personality and no two
are exactly alike. There are rich
ones, where the members live in
comfortable houses. There are
poor struggling ones. where they
live in unheated shacks. There
are old, established kibbutzin OF
more than 1000 members and
brand-new ones of less than 100.
There are those which cultivate
huge tracts of fertile land, others
which own factories. guesthouses
and restaurants-still others
which depend on outside help
to keep going There are
kibbutzin where the commu-
nifty rules are applied with
puriuanical zeal and others
of which Karl Marx would
probably take a dim view. In all
Of them, you find a special kind
of person. dedicated to a special
way of life.
Take the young man in the
khaki shirt, for instance. Back
in 1948, Sheldon Spiro was %
years old. a graduate Of the Uni
versity of Minnesota. an ac-
countant with a hankering to get
into social work of some kind.
That was before he met up with
the group of about 80 young
American Zionists who wanted
to come to Israel and start their
own kibbutz. .
Today, Sheldon Spiro is called
Eshel Spiro. His address is
Kibbutz Sassa, a former Arab
village high in the hills of Cali
lee near the border of Lebanon.
Today, Mr.. Spiro isn't sure
whether he is still an American
citizen or not. Since his arrival
in Israel in 1948. he hasn't
bothered to renew his passport
and has had little contact with
American Embassy officials. You
gather, however, that he isn't
too worried. In the course OF his
stay here. Mr.. Spiro has not
entirely lost his Midwestern
accent. But he gropes for words
in English and occasionally asks
to have Hebrew term translated
for him.
Read u. S. Magazines
I'VE try not to speak English
here" he explains. But we do
have some English books in the
library and subscriptions to sew
eral American magazines"
Sitting on his cot in the one
room apartment which he shares
with his Boston-born wife. Eshel
Spiro tells of the struggle to get
Sassa on it's feet since the
American group arrived in 1949
They found it a bleak, inhospi-
table place, whose stony fields
resisted the first efforts at cul-
tivation and where the vino
which blew constantly had a way
of flattening the temporary bar
racks where the men and women
of the kibbutz lived IL to a room
"Out of the original group
about Is or 20 gave up anc
went back home" he says. Some
of them had come looking fol
adventure. Some were just
unhappy here"
Today, you still wouldn't class
Sassa as luxury kibbutz. But
the community from its sale
of fruit and vegetables net:
a gross income of about $l65, ,00(
q year. The communal buildings
the dining hall, kitchens ano
children's quarters are new anc
we'll equipped, and permanent
living quarters for most mem
bers have been completed.
Like all the others, the Spirc
apartment is furnished simply
There is a built-in closet ant
bookshelf, bed, a stool and
heating stove with kettle. There
are mat rugs on the stone floor
red chintz curtains and framed