Probably the query most frequently flung at me during my sojourn in our Kvutzot was : "Is a Kvutza in Eretz Yisrael really like this?" The answer was awaited anxiously, as if final judgment would be pronounced by the words "yes" or "no." Both the question and the intense anxiety for a positive answer represent, from the educational viewpoint, a triumph for our idea; therein is contained the keen desire to realize personally, in as great a measure as possible, those ideals which motivate our movement.
The differences between a Kvutza in Eretz Yisrael and our summer Kvutzot are quite evident; yet one is surprised to what a great extent the essence of Kvutza life is retained, though expressed in different forms. For what are the great values introduced by and embodied in our Kvutzot in Eretz Yisrael? The mutual relationships between haverim; the responsibility which the individual feels to the group, which makes him place all his ability at the disposal of the group without measuring how much he receives in return; the true equality which arises not from an abstract philosophical belief that all men are equal, but from a heartfelt recognition of the value of one's haverim. All these are expressed through communal living, communal labor, play, study, worry, and joy.
This attitude toward one's fellow men is the essential ethical motif in our educational program and represents the only true socialist mentality. However, attitudes and states of mind are not created by speeches and lectures and discussions. These instrumentalities are limited in scope. They can indoctrinate a theoretical acknowledgment of what should be. They cannot put what should be into being. Deeper emotions must be stirred, deeper roots must be sought, one's entire personality must be overhauled, and no number of meetings in the city can accomplish this. One can master the art of living together only by living together. That true comradeship, that true self-esteem and esteem of others, does not arise from common outlooks on the paths to be taken, but from following those paths in common.
What are meetings?
They signify that all present have come from different directions, meet temporarily, and then all return to their respective different places. In the Kvutza, one does not meet with another, one lives with another. Thus our education, which aims at creating an individual who will not only have definite ideals but also realize them, cannot be complete without the Kvutza. Sleeping with one's comrades in tents pitched with one's own hands-eating food prepared and served through one's own labor-learning some important fact about Jewish life one hour and the next chopping wood or playing ball with the same comrades-spending rainy nights on night watch, guarding the health of others-enjoying starry evenings of collective singing and group dancing the sum of all these moments which make up Camp Kvutza life is that self-discipline, self-reliance, and the consideration for the welfare of others which years of preaching could never develop.
Ben Zion Ilan 1937