The Transformation of the Kibbutz: From a Classless to a Class Society

Is a class society developing in the kibbutz? This has created an ongoing discussion at least since 1951. Eva Rosenfeld (1983) argued in 1951 that there existed a special type of social stratification in the kibbutz that had not created a class society. Pavin (1996) presented a thorough review of the research completed on this subject. He concluded that all scholars who dealt with the issue of class society in the kibbutz examined the differential access to resources in the kibbutz society to different members or groups of members in the kibbutz. The conclusion of this research review was that social stratification could be found within the kibbutz but there did not exist social classes. In other words, the kibbutz kept its nature as a “classless” society (Talmon-Garber 1970; Kressel 1976; Ben-Rafael 1986; Pavin 1986). ¹ Theoretically, these findings were corroborated in studies dealing with the issue of social stratification in the Socialist states (cf. Wesolowski and Kolankiewicz 1979). ²