Kibbutzniks in the Diaspora

Part Five: Push and Pull Factors

Part Five Push and Pull Factors The major questions discussed in this book have been: What are the main factors motivating kibbutzniks to emigrate from Israel?~ How do they cope with their identity as immigrants?~ and, What causes them to remain in L.A.? The findings of my research show evidence of two opposing forces: those pushing these young people to leave Israel, and those pulling them to remain abroad. An examination of the parental home indicates some of the forces pushing towards emigration. The interviewees' life stories revealed parent -child relationships that though in some cases were affectionate, mainly were either cold or suffocatingly warm. Divorce, bereavement, and the scars of Holocaust survivors led many young people to "put some distance" between themselves and their parents. The structure of kibbutz society and its lifestyle also were a force pushing its young generation to emigrate. The interviewees complained about their parents' limited involvement in their education, about their inability to help them alleviate social pressures, and about the lack of parental support in their conflicts with their peer group, teachers, metaplot, or kibbutz committees. They also were looking for a way to make up for the lack of privacy they experienced in communal life with their peer group, and to escape their dependence on the 139 140 KIBBUTZNIKS IN THE DIASPORA group and the stigmas that were attached to them. Kibbutzniks stressed the need to change the order of priorities between the individual and the society The price they paid for trle prefereIlce assigned to the collective over the individual, which was a hallmark of kibbutz life, pushed them to emigrate to a place where the individual's needs are always placed above those of the society and a person's major commitment is to himlherself and their family Tlle interviewees wanted to get away from tIle "ankle--high uniformity " of the kibbutz educational settings, as they put it, and to develop individuality Looking back, they complained about the fact that all that w"as demanded of them was to excel at work and excel at sports, two domains that served as a measure of social success. T\for did their parents push them to fulfill their scholastic potential, as parents in a similar socioeconomic status generally would. As a result, they developed a mediocre self-image as students and the only possibility left them for social mobility was in the economic sphere. Tlleir army experiences, usually positive ones, gave many kibbutzniks a chance to re-evaluate their self-worth. But everl if they had achieved officer rank, when they returned to the kibbutz after their military service they still had to be on the receiving end of orders, and no one made an effort to assign them jobs commensurate with their aspirations and experience. These problems of fitting in to the kibbutz after fhe army were often attended by social isolation and loneliness, causing many of them to seek their future outside the kibbutz. All additional factor pushing these young people to emigrate was their disappointment with political, economic, and social trends, which greatly weakened their ties to the kibbutz. Many of the interviewees left Israel around the time of the war in Lebanon, when the rightwing Likud party was ruling and the country was on the verge of an economic crisis. Under such circumstances, the social texture is adversely affected, and those who dare, leave. Tile life stories show that despite the limited role assigned by kibbutz ideology to parents, their relative influence as forces pushing towards emigration was great. This is due more to what tIley failed to say than to what they actually said. Their children witnessed the lack of clarity in their parents' choice of a way of life alld the frustration they experienced in relation to the kibbutz system. Sometimes, the parents actually encouraged their children to make some change ill their lives, before it was too late. In this context, a contradiction in parent-child PUSH AND PULL FACTORS 141 relations on the kibbutz, which had not been noted previously, came to light. While one might have expected the parents to fervently wish their children to continue their life work, it seems they were more anxious for them to have a good, secure future. As a result, they paved the way for their children to leave the kibbutz and the country In the economic conditions of the kibbutz and of Israel...