A Wall of Light - Edeet Ravel [70]
* Sorry it’s taken me so long to answer. My role as Secretary means I’m up to my ears in work.
Regarding your question: even on the most privatized kibbutzim there is still a sih.a at least three or four times a year because the kibbutz is a collective and there are decisions which for legal reasons must be reached at a members’ meeting. The alternative to the sih.a is different on different kibbutzim—some have a “council” of 30 members who reach decisions on collective issues; others continue to grant the main committees (Economic and Social Secretariat) the role of acting managers; and yet others allow the people who hold the positions to make decisions on their own.
At our kibbutz we have a sih.a about once a month and 30 out of 300 members show up. There is no voting during the sih.a, the voting is by a ballot box which is placed in the Dining Hall on the Friday and the Sunday after the meeting. At Galron, for example, the issues are divided into the type that are voted on during the meeting by a show of hands; those that take place during the meeting but by a ballot box in the Dining Hall; and those that are voted on by open ballot in the days following the meeting. In short, the kibbutzim are struggling with direct democracy.
All the best,
Rakefet
17. In biblical poetry, the inflected dodi means “my beloved” (see Song of Songs, 2:8). In general use, however, dod is “uncle” and dodi is “my uncle.” Naftali’s use of doda (“aunt” in ordinary usage, but borrowed here from the poem) as a pet-name is idiosyncratic. I did find a blog, however, in which an Israeli woman recalled that doda was a common pet-name among her fellow conscripts when she was in training.
18. Interview with a founder, from Snarey (1982–1983), “The Social and Moral Development of Kibbutz Founders and Sabras: A Longitudinal and Cross-sectional Cross-cultural Study,” Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (Gut-mann Library No. Sn19; Pusey Library No. HU90.11684.50), 224.
19. The Hebrew word for gizzards is kurkevan, but in colloquial Modern Hebrew the word is more commonly used to refer to bellybuttons. Because of this linguistic overlap, Dori thinks the cooked gizzards from the Kitchen are bovine navels. This may be a widespread misconception among Israeli children, especially since the Modern Hebrew slang for “bellybutton,” pupik (from Yiddish), is also used to refer to the dish.
20. Eldar members took turns patrolling the border of the settlement; all were trained to use a rifle, though the ability to aim of many members was uncertain. The Night Guard was a second guard who was stationed at the Infants’ House and who checked on the Children’s Houses at regular intervals. Night Guards at Eldar were equipped with a walkie-talkie connected to loudspeakers inside the Houses. At times, if a baby was sick or a parent insisted, the roster manager assigned Night Guard duty to the parent concerned, but as a rule, assignations were arranged in accordance with kibbutz principles.
21.
Novelist55:
Did anyone on yr kibbutz call their parents by
their first names?
Nissim73:
No.
Novelist55:
My brother told me they tried in the begin-
ning to get the kids to use first names, at least
on Shomer kibbutzim. But the kids switched
to abba [father/dad] and ima [mother/mom]
as soon as they understood what the words
meant. So the parents stopped trying. In my
brother’s group everyone switched except him.
He only switched once he got to Canada.
Nissim73:
Do you have an eBay account by any chance?
22. The line was changed for the sake of rhyme; a literal rendition would read: “We struck him/And he began to cry.” This once-popular street song was sung to the tune of the “Mexican Hat Dance.” Contributors to internet chat rooms recall several versions;