A kibbutz is an Israeli collective community. Although other countries have had communal enterprises, in no other country have voluntary collective communities played as important a role as kibbutzim have played in Israel, indeed, kibbutzim played an essential role in the creation of Israel. Combining Socialism and Zionism in a form of practical Labor Zionism, kibbutzim are a unique Israeli experiment, and part of the largest secular communal movement in history. Kibbutzim were founded in a time when independent farming was not practical. Forced by necessity into communal life, and inspired by their own socialist ideology, kibbutz members developed a pure communal mode of living that attracted interest from the entire world. While kibbutzim lasted for several generations as utopian communities, today kibbutzim are scarcely different from the capitalist enterprises and regular towns to which kibbutzim were originally supposed to be alternatives. The kibbutz movement, though it never accounted for more than 7 percent of the Israeli population, did more to shape the image Israelis have of their country, and the image of foreigners have of Israel, than any other Israeli institution.
Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibbutz
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1792: The New York Stock Exchange was formed. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Stock_Exchange)
1846: Adolphe Sax patented the saxophone. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/saxophone)
1902: The Antikythera mechanism, the oldest known surviving geared mechanism, was discovered in a shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism)
1943: World War II: RAF Dam Busters successfully deployed bouncing bombs in Operation Chastise. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._617_Squadron_RAF)
1995: After 18 years as Mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac was inaugurated as President of the French Republic. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Chirac)
_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:
"I had a stick of Carefree gum, but it didn't work. I felt pretty good while I was blowing that bubble, but as soon as the gum lost its flavor, I was back to pondering my mortality." -- Mitch Hedberg (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mitch_Hedberg)