To the Editor:
Lewis S. Feuer’s article about “The Quality of Life in Israel’s Collectives” (June) presents a picture that is regrettably incomplete, insofar as a quite significant aspect of kibbutz life is overlooked. The author tells us little about the religious part of the picture, as lived in those kibbutzim affiliate to either Hapoel Hamizrahi or Poale Agudat Yisrael.
For members of those religious collectives religion is more than an ornament in life or a nostalgic affair, but part and parcel of their everyday (and, of course, Sabbath) life. Those collectives (Yavne, Tirat Zvi, Hafetz Haim—just to name a few) strive, not without success, to achieve that unity of the religious and the social(ist) sphere which is one of the main aims of Judaism. There is hardly another place in the world where you will find Jewish workers discussing how to implement religious precepts in their everyday lives—or where you will find tractor drivers and gardeners attending a class after an exerting working day.
The sincere and vigorous practicing of religion by a collective settlement is more than an internal affair, and its implications might reach beyond the limits of the Jewish nation. The peoples of Asia are struggling today for a healthy development, socially and nationally; religion in Asia is a far bigger force than in spiritually disillusioned Europe or in the United States. The religious kibbutzim—quite unintentionally—are a living proof that religion and social progress can be linked up and might gain advantage from this union. They just can’t be left out when discussing the quality of life in Israel’s collectives, especially as their mode of life is considerably at variance with life in nonreligious collectives.
Perez Tuba
Tel Aviv, Israel
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