by David Leach | May 25, 2011 | autoethnography, Julia Chaitin, Kibbutz Urim
One of the things I love about researching a book or an article are the serendipitous encounters and discoveries along the way. One good example: last year, on my research trip to Israel, I made plans to visit Kibbutz Urim, in the Negev Desert, on the slightest of...
by David Leach | May 20, 2011 | Hyrax, Kibbutz Shamir, Rock Rabbit, Shamir Optical
Life as a kibbutz volunteer was sustained by a variety of necessities: cold beer, free cigarettes, chocolate from the shop, all-you-could-eat chicken and rice, bad Jordanian TV, a weekly movie in the sports hall. Mostly, though, we thrived on gossip, rumour and...
by David Leach | May 18, 2011 | Druze, Kibbutz Shamir, Majdal Shams, The Shouting Fence, The Syrian Bride
It’s not every day that the village of Majdal Shams gets mentioned on the front page of Canada’s national newspaper. (Actually, other than this Monday, it’s probably been never.) Oddly enough, I was thinking a lot about Majdal Shams last week, even before the news...
by David Leach | May 13, 2011 | dishwashing machine, Kibbtz Shamir, kibbutz secretary
I had come to Kibbutz Shamir for what I knew would be a working vacation, and so, after a free day to tour the community and get oriented to my new living arrangements, I was assigned my first work shift. Like every fresh arrival, I began behind the controls of the...
by David Leach | May 13, 2011 | Arna's Children, FreedoM Theatre, Jenin, Juliano Mer-Khamis, Kibbutz Ramot Menashe
The pen, they say, is mightier than the sword. Except when it isn’t. We like to assure ourselves that the subtle power of creative expression is greater, in the long run, than the more overt force of physical, mortal violence. But two tragedies in the last month—each...
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