An urban kibbutz (, ''Kibbutz Ironi'') is a form of
kibbutz
A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...
located within an existing
city
A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
. There are currently just over 100 in
Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
, totalling around 2,000 members.
Although there were attempts to form urban kibbutzim in the early 20th century, their success was limited and most failed. The idea was revived in the 1970s when they were established as co-operative communities by former kibbutz members and
Nahal graduates. They were created as a way of retaining the kibbutz lifestyle whilst moving into mainstream society,
[ but more recently have been seen as a way of combatting social problems; in ]Haifa
Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...
the city council asked members of the HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed youth group to form an urban kibbutz in the Hadar neighbourhood in order to work with at-risk children.
Some standard kibbutzim such as Mesilot began as urban kibbutzim. The urban kibbutz in Gedera was the first Ethiopian kibbutz in the country.
List of urban kibbutzim
*Beit Yisrael in Gilo, Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
References
External links
Beit Yisrael Official Website
{{Israeli administrative jurisdictions
Urban culture
Types of populated places