ABSTRACT
The kibbutz movement suffered economic and morale difficulties that gave its members a feeling of failure and fragmentation. Government measures of 1985 meant to curb galloping inflation brought about a crisis severe enough to pose a threat to the very existence of several kibbutzim. The history of the development of the kibbutzim is the history of the depletion of the community's reserves of social capital. The special characteristic of social capital, on the community level, makes it possible to resolve the apparent conflict between the good of the individual and the good of society. Every kibbutz faced the question of whether it has the inner strength needed to overcome the crisis, that is to say whether the community is capable of mobilizing its members for the good of the community and to their mutual advantage. Community resilience includes the following: resistance; endurance; mitigation; and recovery.
