#kvutza

Video ‘A Day in Degania’ in the Spielberg Jewish Film Archive; 1937.

Degania, meaning ‘cornflower’, is a kibbutz in northern Israel and was originally Israel's first kvutza, a communal settlement smaller than a kibbutz. It was established in 1909 in Ottoman Syria.  It was founded by a group of ten Jewish men and two Jewish women at a place known in Arabic as Umm Junieh after land was purchased from Persian landholders.

View from the air of Degania, British Mandate of Palestine; 1931. x

Degania is a Jewish agricultural settlement established on land purchased by the Jewish National Fund in 1909 near Tiberius when the land was still under the control of the Ottoman Empire.  Degania was a small agricultural settlement and the first established kvutza, which was distinguished from a kibbutz in that a kvutza was smaller, focused on agricultural activity elusively, and did not intend to drastically expand in size like some kibbutzim.

Rules: Tag some people you want to get to know better.

Countries you’ve lived in: i was born in china, but i’ve lived in the usa for all but 10 months of my life

Favorite Fandom: yikes, that’s a hard one. i really like the les mis fandom, but i’m also pretty partial to the yowamushi pedal fandom. those are my top two

Languages you speak: english, a little latin, and very little japanese and hebrew

Favorite film of 2015: i don’t know when most films have come out, but i did really like the force awakens

Last article you read: it was about the homophobic slurs yelled at the olympics

Last book you read: ‘the raven king’ by maggie stiefvater

Shuffle your song library and put the first 4 here: 

Last thing you bought online: gender blender tank top

Last person you dreamt of: um…

Any recurring dreams: i used to have this recurring dream where i was in a low-flying plane and we would fly under a bridge and i would be really close to some rocks and then we’d fly over a forest and i’d be pushed out of the plane and i’d fall on the ground. but then, the night before i got into skyline a cappella choir, i had the dream again and instead of falling to the ground, i spread a pair of rainbow eagle wings and flew away. i haven’t had the dream since Phobias or fears: if i was really going to list all of these we'd be here all day

How would your friends describe you: short, energetic, has insightful things to say, fights for what they believe in

How would your enemies describe you: fucking annoying, a nosey bitch (i've actually been described as such before), ‘short and spunky but can't sing and thinks she's a tenor’ (note the use of incorrect pronouns)

Would you take a bullet? For who?: my kvutza and my sister

If you had money to spare, what would you buy first: workshop. or mbi for my sister

just had such a good zman kvutza - honestly and constructively critiqued each other and it was sooooo good.many breakthroughs #nocomo (no competition)

So for Rosh Hahshana,I went to Mika's house.Weekend was pretty uneventful, here's what went down:

Wednesday: Left the kibbutz around two. Mika's grandparent's drove her, flam, and i to hodesh sharon, mika's parents house (her grandfather is a terrible driver!). We saw the beautiful apartment they have and helped set up the roof for the dinner that night. Had very secular dinner, large variety of food, ended with songs and wishes from everyone one of the 30 (30!!0 guests who were all in Mika's family.

Thursday: Spent the day kind of bored and visited Iggy at night. She was hosting a party so we met all her friends including one from BINA and one who was really cool from another global youth movement. It was nice to see Iggy, but we didn't talk much. When we got home listened to a This American Life with Yael about New Ramapo (made me maddddddd)

Friday: I woke up sick! Felt terrible, threw up, went back to bed, threw up three more times that morning, spent the day in bed sleeping. Got up at 1:00 am and watched bits of very quiet Charlie's Angels with flam and mika, then went back to sleep.

Saturday: Felt better but  not great. Went to the beach which was soooooo nice and fun with everyone + sofia and yael berkman. ate at a vegan burger place before going back to the kibbutz.

Yesterday we had our first day of classes. I was really nice to finally start doing something and Karen and Dana, our teachers, seem pretty good. Everything was really introductory, but we had a good conversation about privilege (in economics and social structures) and I talked to Nissim a lot about his family (which is very messed up) in the eduction class.

It was Siobhan's birthday as well so we had a party and had a lot of fun playing king's cup with sangria and then cutting Nissim's hair. I then talked with Emanuel for soooo long and hung out with him, drawing on his arm in the modon (we're becoming really good friends!).

Another funny thing about yesterday was that we did laundry and it came back all mixed together and everyone freaked out, picking through it like vultures in the big house.

Today we went on a trip, to Givat Haviva and Barta'a. We listened to Yaniv Sagee and the head of Through Others' Eyes about the conflict. We then got a history lesson and toured the town, which felt very voyeuristic and weird. Rosh Hashana is tomorrow and I'm still figuring out where to go (probably definitely Mika's).