The Hula Valley extends into the northernmost reaches of Israel, what’s often called the “finger of Galilee”, and borders Lebanon and the Golan Heights. It’s a stunningly beautiful landscape of rolling hills, swamps drained and tilled into lush fields and orchards,...

When my DVD copy of the documentary Kibbutz arrived in the mail late last year, I was so busy that I didn’t have time to put it into a player for a couple of weeks. When I did, I was disappointed that it had gotten damaged during its journey from Israel to the West...

I just read two interesting, if very different articles, that touch on the hopes and fears of living on kibbutzim near the turmoil of the Gaza Strip. The first (called "Fear in a Little Bit of Heaven") is by a South African journalist touring through Israel, who...

I often describe myself to my writing students as a "magaholic": as a former editor, frequent contributor and devoted subscriber (I'm pushing 20 subscriptions), I love the combination of information, opinion, imagery and personal storytelling that a good magazine can...

 Degania: The First Kibbutz Fights its Last Battle is a documentary with a definite point of view—the film’s bittersweet subtitle should make that clear—like a Michael Moore film without the presence of the lumbering U.S. agent provocateur. It is also a...

If you see just one movie about the kibbutz, it ought to be Inventing Our Life: Kibbutz—The Fourth Generation. (I'm not saying you should just watch one kibbutz movie; in fact, I've seen five in the past few months, with two more on the way—but I realize everyone may...