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The Kibbutz Between Dialogue and Dilemma

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The dilemmas of communal living: an ongoing story of Israel’s kibbutzim.
  • 30 September 2026
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The history of Israel’s kibbutzim is characterised by a series of dilemmas: equality versus efficiency, inclusion versus exclusion, and idealism versus survival. While communities around the world are searching for alternatives to individualistic capitalism, the kibbutz offers something rare: the story of ordinary people building a just society over many generations. Kibbutz insider Muki Tsur and sociologist Sibylle Heilbrunn don’t just write about community life, they practice it on paper. Through an open, unresolved, and often uncomfortable dialogue, they engage in a joint thought process devoted to the kibbutzim’s conflicts and dialogues, thus reflecting the kibbutz ethos.
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Price: $48.00
Pages: 260
Publisher: transcript publishing
Imprint: transcript publishing
Series: Culture and Social Practice
Publication Date: 30 September 2026
Trim Size: 8.86 X 5.83 in
ISBN: 9783837678574
Format: Paperback
BISACs: HISTORY / Social History, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Jewish Studies, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economics / Theory
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»This book does what the kibbutz itself has always aspired to do: bring different voices into honest, sustained dialogue about what it means to share a life. Tsur’s insider depth and Heilbrunn’s sociological precision produce something neither could have written alone: a nuanced portrait of communal resilience that speaks directly to anyone grappling with the challenge of building solidarity in fragmented times.«

Sibylle Heilbrunn works at the Fritz Bauer Forum in Bochum, a space for democracy, diversity and human rights, where she organizes a project fostering German-Israeli dialogue on political responsibility and democratic resilience. She also serves as a visiting professor at Touro University Berlin. She earned her PhD in organizational sociology from the University of Haifa in 1999. From 2014 to 2024, she was dean of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee. Her research explores entrepreneurship through critical theory and intersectionality, focusing on inequality, marginalization, and social positioning, with particular attention to refugee, migrant, and women entrepreneurs.

Muki Tsur is a member of Kibbutz Ein Gev and lectures in pre-military preparatory programs and in frameworks for lifelong learning and senior education. The historian, writer, and educator is an honorary doctorate recipient of the Open University of Israel and has held public positions in his kibbutz, Ein Gev, and within the kibbutz movement. He has authored and edited numerous books and studies on the history of practical Zionism, the kibbutz movement, and Hebrew culture. His research focuses on collective memory, social and kibbutz identity, and key figures in the history of settlement and Israeli society.