Settlement clustering on a socio-cultural basis: The bloc settlement policy of the religious Kibbutz movement in Palestine

From the end of World War I, the kibbutz began to play a central role in Jewish agricultural settlement in Palestine. By the time the state was established, nearly 150 kibbutzim dotted the landscape. One of the settlement bodies involved was the Religious Kibbutz Movement, founded in the 1930s, which declared from the outset that its kibbutzim would be organized in clusters. This policy was the product of unique socio-cultural factors (such as the need for religious schooling), and had two components: (a) the territorial component, i.e. the siting of at least three kibbutzim in geographical proximity; and (b) the collaborative component, i.e. the creation of cooperative frameworks that would serve the entire bloc. While it appears that the first component of this bloc settlement policy was fully realized, the second was implemented only in part. Economically, the religious kibbutzim found themselves in partnership with non-religious kibbutizm because of the advantages of belonging to larger regional organizations. At the same time, the religious kibbutzim made their participation conditional on religious observances such as closing down factories on the Sabbath, which was not the case before their involvement. That the secular kibbutzim gave in to these demands illustrates the power enjoyed by the religious kibbutzim as a bloc. Thus, on one hand, the policy of settlement clustering served the needs of the religious settlers in the spheres of education, culture, mutual aid, and the furtherance of common interest, and on the other, it contributed to the dissemination of religious values in the wider community.