By Amichay Findling
Visiting friends at the Kibbutz
Last April, Ann Arborites enjoyed the heart-warming music of “Hashyara Project”, a band visiting town to commemorate and celebrate with Israel’s Memorial and Independence Days (Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzmaut). While most community members met these visitors solely as musicians, I had the opportunity to spend time with them and get to know a group of deep-thinking educators, with values and practices deeply rooted in Israel’s Zionist Labor movement mentality and culture.
Following the warm connections formed during their visit to Ann Arbor, I was delighted to have an opportunity to meet some of them – Gilad and Assaf—while visiting their kibbutz during a trip I took to Israel this summer.
Travelling through the beautiful green hills of the Lower Galilee, a steep road led me to Kibbutz Eshbal, home to Dror Israel’s first “Educators’ Kibbutz.” At the kibbutz, where I met Gilad and Assaf, I visited a variety of projects: a boarding school for at-risk youth, a Hand in Hand bilingual Jewish-Arab school, a therapeutic horse stable and dog kennel, greenhouses, and communal housing – all scattered on a top of a lush hill overlooking the surrounding valleys and the cities of Sakhnin and Karmiel.
Dror Israel’s Radical Educational Mission
So – what is Dror Israel and what is an “Educator’s Kibbutz?” Two great questions.
Though the names are similar, Dror Israel is not to be mistaken for “Habonim Dror,” a Zionist youth movement that has deep roots in Ann Arbor’s Jewish community. Dror Israel is composed of graduates of the Habonim Dror and HaNoar Ha’Oved (Habonim’s Israeli movement) youth movements who choose to dedicate themselves to educational and social change in Israeli society. In practice, Dror Israel is the management and leadership of the youth movement, as well as a living laboratory for radical educational experiments and practices. Members of Dror Israel are educators –both formal (teachers and school principals) and informal. They found schools and run a network of nine “Social High Schools” across Israel’s socio-economic periphery. They develop their own “social pedagogy” and manage and develop the programs of the HaNoar Ha’Oved youth movement, expanding it into Arab communities and educating some of Israel’s most impoverished communities about Zionist and liberal values.
The social pedagogy of Dror Israel centers on the belief that education and society are deeply interconnected, framing learning as a tool for driving democratic and egalitarian change. Instead of focusing solely on academic testing, Dror Israel’s approach transforms the traditional classroom into a cooperative group that practices self-governance and mutual responsibility. It emphasizes authentic dialogue between educators and students, combines critical thinking with a shared vision for a better world, and directly bridges theory with community action. Ultimately, it empowers young people to become active citizens who take direct responsibility for their surroundings and proactively work to fix societal flaws.
They do not only develop ideas but also practice this way of life in their “Educators’ Kibbutzim,” a new form of collective living adapted from traditional kibbutzim into more flexible, small-scale communal egalitarian communities. Members of Dror Israel live in such kibbutzim scattered around Israel, mostly within cities, where they serve the community’s educational needs and manage the youth movement and other educational projects. Today, around 1,300 educators live in 16 of these kibbutzim positioned throughout Israel’s social and geographical periphery.
Each kibbutz consists of about 30 to 100 members who live a highly cooperative lifestyle. They practice a collective economy where members pool their income—mostly earned from teaching, social work, and community projects—into a shared fund. This fund covers living expenses, housing, and mutual care for all families and individuals in the group, ensuring total economic equality regardless of an individual’s specific job role.
The kibbutzim operate as participatory democracies. Members hold regular meetings to make communal decisions regarding their shared budget, lifestyle choices, and educational missions. This structure acts as a living laboratory for the democratic values they teach to youth in their schools and youth movements.
Local ties
As mentioned, HaBonim Dror has been deeply rooted in Ann Arbor’s Jewish community for decades. With both the Camp Tavor summer camp and a local offshoot that ran regular activities from the 1990s until COVID, generations of HaBonim Dror Ann Arborites went to Israel for gap years with Dror Israel, made aliyah into the Educators’ Kibbutzim, and participated in the movement’s programs. Currently, at least 2 Ann Arbor natives are active with Dror Israel: Phia Blumenthal, who resides in Dror Israel’s Kibbutz in Mizpe Ramon, and Yelena Adelman, currently active at Kibbutz Eshbal’s boarding house for at-risk youth, after having previously served in Dror Israel’s international relief efforts for Ukrainian Jews.
I believe that any Ann Arbor resident with strong ties to Camp Tavor and HaBonim Dror would find interest in connecting with the current mission and activities of “Dror Israel,” as I have witnessed during my visit to the kibbutz. But most of all, it is amazing how quickly we just became friends.
For additional details about how to connect with and support Dror Israel’s important educational mission, please email amichay@jewishannarbor.org