Moshav farm at Nahalal, Israël

In northern Israel, in the fertile Jezrael plain, bordered on the east by Tiberiade Lake and the Jordan River and on the West by the Mediterranean, the first moshav were established. These collective farms, which were inspired by socialist and Zionist ideology and created during the second wave of Jewish immigration during the 19th century, played an important part in the creation of the State of Israel. Unlike the principles which prevail in the kibbutz, the moshav farmers keep ownership of their own goods, but shared labour, natural resources (water, for example), and the profits from their activities were returned to the community. The family is at the centre of the social life in these co-operative villages, where the children benefit from a free, high-quality education. However, following the economic and political crisis of the 1980s, the schools are finding it difficult to take all the children, and more and more moshav members work in non-agricultural sectors, or go to work in the nearby towns. In the current context of financial instability, globalisation and generalised liberalism, the experience of these types of collective, shared production is interesting from many points of view.