Moshav

Moshav
Moshav Zekharia

Moshav (מוֹשָׁב, plural מוֹשָׁבים moshavim, lit. settlement, village) is a type of Israeli town or settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists during the second aliyah (wave of Jewish immigration during the early 20th century). A resident or a member of a moshav can be called a "moshavnik" (מוֹשַׁבְנִיק).

The moshavim are similar to kibbutzim with an emphasis on community labor. They were designed as part of the Zionist state-building program following the Yishuv ("settlement") in the British Mandate of Palestine during the 20th century, but contrary to the collective kibbutzim, farms in a moshav tended to be individually owned but of fixed and equal size. Workers produced crops and goods on their properties through individual and/or pooled labour and resources and used profit and foodstuffs to provide for themselves. Moshavim are governed by an elected council (Hebrew: ועד‎, va'ad, lit. committee). Support of the community was done through a special tax (Hebrew: מס ועד‎, mas va'ad, lit. committee tax). This tax was equal for all households of the community, thus creating a system where good farmers were better off than bad ones, unlike in the communal kibbutzim where (at least theoretically) all members enjoyed the same living standard. Many moshavim still exist today.

Contents

Different types

There are several variants, of which the most common are:

  • Moshav ovdim (Hebrew: מושב עובדים‎, lit. workers' moshav), a workers cooperative settlement. This is the more numerous (405) type and relies on cooperative purchasing of supplies and marketing of produce; the family or household is, however, the basic unit of production and consumption.
  • Moshav shitufi (Hebrew: מושב שיתופי‎, lit. collective moshav), a collective smallholder's settlement that combines the economic features of a kibbutz with the social features of a moshav. Farming is done collectively and profits are shared equally. This form is closer to the collectivity of the kibbutz: although consumption is family- or household-based, production and marketing are collective. Unlike the moshav ovdim, land is not allotted to households or individuals, but is collectively worked.

History

The first moshav, Nahalal, was established in the Jezreel Valley (also known as the Valley of Esdraelon) on September 11, 1921. By 1986 about 156,700 Israelis lived and worked on 448 moshavim; the great majority of these are divided among eight federations.

Because the moshav organization retained the family as the center of social life, it was much more attractive to traditional Mizrahi immigrants in the 1950s and early 1960s; they eschewed bold experiments, like communal child-rearing or equality of the sexes, practiced by the more radical communal kibbutz. These so-called "immigrants' moshav" (Hebrew: מושב עולים‎, moshav olim) were one of the most-used and successful forms of absorption and integration of Oriental immigrants; it allowed them a much steadier ascent into the middle class than did life in some development towns. For this reason, the moshav became largely a Mizrahi institution, whereas the kibbutz movement remained basically an Ashkenazi institution.

Since the 1967 war, both the moshavim and kibbutzim have relied increasingly on outside — particularly Arab — labor. Financial instabilities in the early 1980s hit many moshavim hard, as did their high birth rate and the problem of absorbing all the children who might wish to remain in the community. By the late 1980s, increasingly more moshav members became employed in non-agricultural sectors outside the community, so that some moshavim began to resemble suburban or exurban villages whose residents commute to work. In general however, moshavim never enjoyed the "political elite" status afforded to kibbutzim during the period of Labor dominance; correspondingly the moshavim did not endure the decline in prestige experienced by kibbutzim in the 1970s and 1980s, during the period of Likud dominance starting in 1977.

List of moshavim

References

  • "Kibbutz and Moshav." Chapter 2. Israel : a country study. ed. Helen Chapin Metz. Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. 1990. Lcweb2.loc.gov

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Moshav — (Moshav Ovdim)    A cooperative agricultural settlement. It is a village composed of a number of families; the average is about 60, each of which maintains its own household, farms its own land, and earns its own income from what it produces. The …   Historical Dictionary of Israel

  • Moshav —   [mo ʃaːf; hebräisch môsǎv, eigentlich »Sitz«] der, s/... vim, Moschaw, landwirtschaftliche Gruppensiedlung in Israel, gekennzeichnet durch vier Prinzipien: Alle Mitglieder sind zur Eigenarbeit und zur gegenseitigen Hilfeleistung verpflichtet,… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Moshav — (hebreo: מושב Translit.: moshav. Plural: moshavim. Traducción: «asentamiento, población») es un tipo de comunidad rural israelí de carácter cooperativo, similar al kibutz, formado por granjas agrícolas individuales y promovida por el sionismo… …   Wikipedia Español

  • moshav — MOSHÁV s. n. gospodărie cooperativă agricolă în Israel. (< fr. moshav) Trimis de raduborza, 15.09.2007. Sursa: MDN …   Dicționar Român

  • moshav — [mō shäv′] n. pl. moshavim [mō΄shä vēm′] [ModHeb mōshābh < Heb, a dwelling] in Israel, a type of settlement consisting of individual leaseholds farmed cooperatively: cf. KIBBUTZ …   English World dictionary

  • Moshav — Un moshav ou mochav (en hébreu : מושב ; au pluriel, moshavim signifiant : installation, village, ou encore demeure, habitation, séjour) est un type de communautés agricoles coopératives israéliennes associant plusieurs fermes… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • moshav — /moh shahv /, n., pl. moshavim /moh shah veem /. a cooperative community in Israel made up of small farm units. Cf. kibbutz. [1930 35; < Mod Heb moshav, Heb moshabh dwelling] * * * (Hebrew: settlement ) Israeli cooperative community that combines …   Universalium

  • moshav — (hebreo: asentamiento). Comunidad cooperativa israelí que combina el trabajo privado de la tierra con la comercialización colectiva, y donde a veces existe también industria liviana. La tierra de un moshav pertenece al estado o al Fondo Nacional… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • MOSHAV or MOSHAV OVEDIM — MOSHAV (Heb. מוֹשָׁב) or MOSHAV OVEDIM (Heb. עוֹבְדִים מוֹשַׁב, workers settlement ), cooperative smallholders village in Ereẓ Israel combining some of the features of both cooperative and private farming. The idea was evolved during World War I… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • MOSHAV SHITTUFI — (Heb. מוֹשָׁב שִׁתּוּפִי, collective moshav), a form of settlement combining features of the kibbutz and the moshav . The originators of the idea wanted to combine the advantages of both forms of settlement, while avoiding what they regarded as… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

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