Cultural Heritage in the Kibbutz: Values, Assets and Attitudes

For nearly a century, the kibbutz — an Israeli communal settlement form based on total cooperation and equality in production, marketing and consumption — was part of the Israeli legacy, reflected by its many historical assets and cultural landscapes. The rural crisis of the mid-1980s and early 1990s in Israel has endangered these unique landscapes. This paper aims to present the findings of a pilot study intended to serve as the basis for broad research that seeks to examine the attitude of he kibbutz population to its values and heritage assets, the options for developing the cultural heritage assets and ways of integrating these in the kibbutz renewal process. Presentation of the findings is intended to identify the direction of the research and using it to examine the validity of the methodology chosen for a broad study focused on this issue which deserves more attention.