Kvuzat Orev members down on the educational farm in New York from left to right:
Daniel Roth, Tal Beery, Karen Isaacs, Eugina (Jane) Manwelyan, Michal Jalowski and Yotam Marom in the West 26th Street offices of Givat Haviva, the Kibbutz Movement and Hashomer Hatzair where they work in various capacities for those organizations.
Michal’s duties include managing the office, Yotam has his head down working on educational projects and Tal amongst other things is in charge of Shomria camp. Karen coordinates the North American and Israel programs, Jane alumni outreach and Daniel senior leadership.
Karen and Jane are also responsible for the marketing and processing of applicants for GIVAT HAVIVA’s up and coming MASA TO THE EAST innovative 5-month Arabic – Middle East studies program.
ALL WE ARE SAYING IS GIVE US A CHANCE
They live together, work together but not necessarily see each other all the time. ‘They’ are a dynamic group of six young adults who are basically in the throe of creating something rather special, an urban kibbutz or ‘kvutza’ – in New York!
The Big Apple of the year 2000 plus is hardly the location one would expect to meet a group of young adults convinced they are on the right path to doctoring some of societies more blatant ills but there they are, Kvutzat Orev – pioneers in the city.
If you were to visit a suite of offices in a tall building half way down West 26th Street most days of the week you would bump in to a few of the somewhat yuppified pioneers of the new millennium crouched over their computers or sitting in the coffee room deep in discussion.
More than likely that the conversation would be dealing with one of the many educational projects that the 3 guys and 3 gals are all involved with connected to the Hashomer Hatzair movement – the second home for the American and Canadian urban commune family movement alumni.
Could also be that they are discussing something mundane such as who is responsible for what in their collective home - an apartment across the Brooklyn bridge - or just still peeling off layer after layer of old hat ideology and idealism to see what really sits at the core of the Big Apple and their quest for targeting and developing the most effective activism to bring about positive change.
Kibbutz conjures up a picture of wide expanses of field crops, citrus orchards and a few hundred head of milk cows. In latter years one should remember to bring in industry – mainly plastics – and blossoming tourist industry in to the kibbutz equation.
People living and working in kibbutzim in the days of yore were somewhat uniformed in appearance, men kitted out in blue work shirts, matching trousers and sported either a blue or khaki triangular shaped wide brimmed hat perched on their heads.
The kibbutznik in the Big Apple is still sticking to blue in a big way. Blue jeans. Gone is the triangular shaped hat, the ‘kova tembel’ but they are mightily proud of their Hashomer Hatzair blue shirt with the criss-cross white tie at the neck – like the one nailed to the office wall on West 26th Street.
Of course, forget the wide-open agricultural spaces and dairy cows.
What does the new kibbutz pioneer out and about in New York share in common with their Israeli counterparts of yesteryear who drained swamps, built roads and new communities and battled malaria-spreading mosquitoes?
The new men and women of the blue cloth with a socialistic, humanistic and collective approach to life do not have to fight off long gone diseases their peers had to struggle with in the 1920s and 1930s bogged down in the Hula, Jezreel and Hefer valley regions of Israel. Any swamps that might have been around in the Big Apple at that time would have long been drained and probably boast buildings stacked sky high already.
Kvuzat Orev however are taking upon themselves to do battle royal with sickness, illness, disease or whatever label we apply to modern day maladies that are included in the package deal known as social injustices.
Looking for a meaningful way to live their lives as individuals in a supportive group with common goals seems a tall order to tackle nowadays, especially when the majority of the almost 300 kibbutzim in the State of Israel have been slowly rejecting so many of the basics in latter years.
In the past the kibbutzim were invigorated with groups such as Kvuzat Orev joining their ranks in Israel but since the beginning of the fall from collective grace in the 1980s more and more kvuzot (groups) have formed throughout Israel, settling in low socio-economic areas and utilizing their education, talents and sense of ‘tikkun olam’ to bring about positive change for the weaker elements in Israeli society.
Kvuzat Orev is still formulating the collective plan of action as to how they can bring about a mini-revolution to the tenements of Brooklyn and elsewhere.
In the meantime they have their heads down promoting and organizing many different educational projects.
Canadian born Daniel Roth and his older brother Adam grew up in the Hashomer Hatzair movement as did their parents. An intense young man, Daniel is a stalwart of the movement and firm believer in the collective way of life and readily admits that in latter years the Hashomer Hatzair movement has seen much upheaval as the ideology as a movement for youth and possible movement for life has gone under the magnifying glass.
Kvutzat Orev spent a year together in Israel before setting up their Crown Heights home. Whilst in Israel they were involved in very innovative and demanding projects in development towns and Israeli Arab villages. For much of that time they were based at Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek one of the flagship kibbutzim of the Hashomer Hatzair movement founded in the 1920s and where Daniel has close family.
Whether they make aliya or decide that one needs to work toward repairing the ills of the world from New York, one thing is certain – the folks of Kvutzat Orev are definitely a beacon of hope for the future – theirs and ours.
By Lydia Aisenberg
