Eventually they arrived and we drove together to a collective farm (
Kibbutz).
Ein Shemer is a collective farm settled by 30 Polish people in the 1920s. We wandered around their rubber factory until we stumbled upon someone who directed us to the tourist office. The locals were unprepared for tourists but eventually found someone to give us a tour of their museum, dairy farm, and residential areas. In the office I met my first cousin's former-neighbor and close friend who grew up next door to my cousin. I have 53 cousins here.
Our docent explains each founder of the kibbutz
The museum was interesting because of all the stories it prompted from the tour guide.
But having read a lot about that era in this region there was not much new information for me. I was surprised that the rest of the adults, all of whom I consider very well-read and intelligent, knew so little about the
second wave of zionism (Herzl era) or all of the deals proposed by the British and U.N. that were refused by all 22 Arab states and accepted by Palestine (now Israel) prior to 1947.
We also heard this young kibbutznik's views on the radical changes in traditional Kibbutz culture and customs: Zero personal property ownership (pure socialism), children's houses for removing parental social biases, job rotations, farming-first economics, etc. In the 21st century all of their 19th century theories about culture, social psychology, economics, human nature, education, etc. have been debunked. So the collective farms are changing everything now. Members own personal property. They can even buy their own homes. Kids stay with their parents at night. Farming is shrinking as fewer people are needed for more output and margins are thin. We loved her stories of growing up in a children's house, color-wars, pranks, etc. Fantastic!
The tractor tour was boring.
After the visit we had ice cream at a strip mall, drove home, and came back to the beach to escape the heat. We went for a walk because of the jellyfish on the beach. The loud screams of children who get stung by the dense bloom of jellyfish keep us from swimming in the warm Mediterranean.
I cooked us a Vegan dinner -- we re-heated the dal from yesterday and it was better today (softer).
At dinner my daughter explained to me how the neo-socialist movement has morphed recently to accommodate young people and why the
united movement of collective farms is still true to their original socialist values despite all these radical changes. I need to talk with her more.
After dinner we watched the sun set into the water. It was spectacular.
photos are still uploading, will be at:
