THE KIBBUTZ AND THE AMERICANS

Not long ago I visited a certain monastery; and there the guide told us that, though he had been at the monastery for thirty years, he had, as yet, not heard the voices of most of the monks. I have been silent till now, and this is my last chance to have my voice heard. I have been here for several months and I've learned a great deal, including Hebrew. In speaking now. I'm sort of paying my debt to the movement and to the chaverim who invited me to attend this seminar. But the truth is that there were more fundamental reasons which caused me to ask for the floor this evening.

In our time the new aliya from America will become an important factor in the discussion of most of our vital problems. Unfortunately, the impact of this aliya has not been too great, since it has been so small in numbers. But it represents a much stronger and important force for us, for the entire yishuv, especially for the working part, than its numbers indicate.

Last year a hundred Americans came to Eretz Israel. I have no idea how many of you are aware of this fact. I don't know whether the figure is impressive. But what is important is that the bulk of these Americans went to various settlements in preparation for life on a kibbutz, kvufza, or woshav ovdim. I wish to point out that we in America prepare the movement members for all forms of labor settlements.

Now I would like to express my reaction, as an American, to some of the questions that were discussed here. It seems to me that, were we to extract the essence of what has been said here, we would find that it fits within the framework of the problem of freedom for the individual. At any rate, an American who comes here to settle in a kibbutz will see most of these problems in this light. He feels more tangibly the restrictions imposed upon his capacity to act as a free individual. I know that there are many refutations to this argument, but I think that only veteran members of the kibbutz are able to provide these answers.

A new person, especially a person who comes from America, saturated as he is with the complexes and contradictions of American culture, is caught between the will to act according to ideology and the force of habit of behavior. He will feel, as I still feel, that the main difficulty lies in the limiting of individual freedom in the kibbutz. For the first time in his life, he is unable to decide on any issue, great or small, by himself—without the approval of two hundred or more souls. They have to decide on all his affairs.

I don't know which things are trivial and which are important, what is petty and what is vital—there is much which defies definition. I know that, for some of these little things, people, with the possible exception of those living on the kibbutz, are prepared to kill and to steal. It is difficult to tell a man what is of lesser or greater consequence. Nevertheless, he must appeal in all these matters to members of the kibbutz for a decision. This is the main difficulty, a problem to which I have, as yet, found no solution. I fear that, perhaps, there is none.

Other problems which plague us originate from the very simple fact that the kibbutz is a very small body. There are important sociological laws which are applicable to all social forms, even those that follow the collective pattern. The fact that the Kibbutz, moshav) and kvutza are very small and limited groups in size explains, in my opinion, many of the difficulties expressed at this seminar. I know that, for an American youth, who comes from New York City or Chicago or Los Angeles, this is an important fact to which he must adjust. For him the pangs of integration into a small social unit are more severe than the adjustment to collectivism.

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It may be impudence on my part, but I would like to ask you something. Much has been said here about uniting the kibbutz movements. All of you who are sitting here have come from different forms of settlements. Yet you have discussed frankly this question of unification and have felt no tension arising from this diversity. Therefore I would like to ask: Why is it so difficult to unite the various movements? And 1m not merely asking a rhetorical question. I know that disunity has caused great difficulty within the movement in America. We here all know that the unification would facilitate our educational activity.

Before I came to Eretz Israel I did not understand the division of the movement. I still don't. And here I've seen really astounding cooperation between the different elements. Now, when I write and try to explain these things to the movement in America, I will not know what to say. I will write that everybody sat together and enjoyed one another's company, learned much from each other; then they all scattered, each to his own tent. I would also like to ask why the youth should not undertake for itself this task: to do away with the factionalism which causes such serious derangements in our work and to bring about the unification of our movement.

ARI LASHNER