Description:

"Trouble in Utopia: The end of Socialism in an Israeli Kibbutz (1975-2020)”, with Omri Senderowicz

The Israeli kibbutz was one of the most radical socialist experiments of the 20th century.  Its unique egalitarian, collectivist social institutions captivated social scientists and reformers for decades. However, in the early 2000s, following a long economic and ideological crisis, the socialist experiment of the kibbutz came to an end. Market mechanisms were introduced, property was privatized and many collective institutions were dismantled. The case of the kibbutz offers a discussion of two questions central to the history of late-modernity: why and how did the socialist experiment fail? What does it mean for a society to transition from socialism to capitalism? The talk will introduce kibbutz life, discuss some of the dead-ends encountered by its socialist experiment, and analyze the changes in contemporary kibbutz society following decollectivization in the 2000s. 

Omri Senderowicz is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Jewish Studies Department at the University of Kansas and an Israel Institute Teaching Fellow. He holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology and History from the University of Michigan, where his dissertation focused on the end of socialism in an Israeli kibbutz. His research interests include the study of post-socialism, the anthropology of ethics, interpersonal conflict, and ethnic politics in Israel. At the University of Kansas, he teaches courses on the history of Israel and Zionism, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and sociocultural anthropology.