Cynthia working on Kibbutz Sa'ar 1976

My life in Israel in 1976 was quite different from the life I had left behind in the US and extraordinarily different from life in Israel today.  Communal farming communities known as kibbutzim were the mainstay of the economy.  To live on the kibbutz and work the land was seen as one of the most patriotic duties, right after serving in the Army.  While the hippies in the US talked about getting back to the land, the Israelis had been doing just that since the first kibbutz was formed in 1909.

Kibbutz Sa'ar was home to about 150 adults and about the same number of kids.  My friend's house consisted of three rooms, a combined living room and Pullman kitchen, a tiny bedroom, and a bathroom. These accommodations were posh compared with the tents they had originally lived in when they founded the kibbutz in 1948.  Children lived separate from their parents in children's houses complete with bedrooms, a kitchen, bathrooms, a classroom, and several women to oversee their daily life. As a volunteer worker, I worked six hours a day and in return got a room that I shared with another volunteer, meals, cigarettes, and chocolate. Outside the kibbutz most Israelis lived in small one- and two-bedroom apartments in the small towns. Private houses were rare. 

Our kibbutz owned one black and white television for the entire community, and it was housed in the member clubhouse. Volunteer workers like me didn't have access to it.  My news came from the radio, not even a transistor radio, but a big old thing with tubes in it! Our kibbutz had only two telephones: a pay phone located on the porch outside the kibbutz office and a phone inside the office for the members to use. I telephoned my parents from the pay phone once or twice a year to let them know I was okay.

None of the members owned cars. A small fleet of five cars and ten farm trucks was available for members' personal use on a sign-up basis.  In general, Israelis were lucky enough to own a car, so there wasn't much traffic. Also Israel had no freeways and maybe one four-lane road.  I traveled the entire country and reached even the most remote village by bus.  One train ran from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv and then north along the coast.  The train had wooden benches, and I swear it had been a troop train from the British mandate period predating the 1948 War of Independence.  Hitchhiking was the norm for everybody, soldiers, businessmen, shoppers, teenagers, and travelers like me.  We would stand on the highway, usually near a bus stop, and put our hand out. A passing car would pick up as many passengers as there were empty seats, giving priority to soldiers who were usually trying to get home on leave or back to their base.  I never worried or felt unsafe hitchhiking in Israel in those days. 

Dome of the Rock Mosque on the Temple Mount

Wherever I traveled, famous religious and historical places were right before my eyes, but unless I had a guide, or a very good guide book, I wouldn't have known what I was seeing. Signage was rare and visitor centers were non-existent.  By 1976 Megiddo had been fully excavated, but in Jerusalem excavations were just beginning.  At that time Jerusalem had been united under Israeli control for only nine years.  In trying not to destroy any of the Old City, the Israelis fought hand-to-hand combat against the Jordanians to capture the Old City in the Six-Days War of 1967.  Excavating in Jerusalem was, and remains, especially controversial because the Jewish Temple Mount lies beneath the Dome of Rock Mosque and Al Aqsa Mosque, which remain under the control of the Islamic Wafq authorities.  Many of the best archeological sites we saw last month were yet to be uncovered in 1976. 

On my previous trip to Israel in 2000, I saw many changes in the country, but nothing like the enormous changes I saw this time on our tour!  The Israeli economy is booming and their standard of living is on a par with ours in the US. High tech is now Israel's number one industry, followed by agriculture, and then tourism.  Everyone right down to the kids has a cell phone, computer access is available everywhere, and  TVs and big screens are the norm.  The cities have grown with condos and private houses sprouting up.  At one time I knew just about every hotel in Israel-not anymore!  Beautiful luxury hotels, many with spas, abound in Tel Aviv, Tiberius, Haifa, Jerusalem, and the Dead Sea area.

The rural life of the communal kibbutzim has transformed too, with many now embracing industry, high tech, and privatization.  My once poor little kibbutz is now flush with wealth from their partnership in an irrigation company with worldwide distribution. On the kibbutz children no longer live in separate houses but live in larger "villas" with their parents, and yes, everyone has a car!

No shortage of cars, minivans, or SUVs means traffic is heavy, especially in the cities.  Freeways traverse the country from north to south, trains are modern, and light rail is being installed in Jerusalem down Jaffa Road to the Old City.  More light-rail lines are slated to go around the Old City. (If they can do it in Jerusalem, oh why can't we get it finished here in Seattle?)

Maybe the reason I am so in love with Israel is that it is like reading a good mystery that never ends.  Each time I visit Israel I discover another set of clues to the intrigues of the past. I hope you will join us next time and discover a few pieces of the puzzle for yourself!

Cynthia