On remote hills, two models of harmony

Gilad and Carmit Matiyevich, another co-founder, went to the Ministry of Education with a startling proposal — they wanted to start a kibbutz whose sole “product” would be education.

The pair admit that their idea was not rapturously received initially. None of them had any relevant experience. But they persisted and eventually the group moved into Eshbal and opened a remarkable boarding school, the majority of whose students are Ethiopian boys and girls, who would otherwise fall through the cracks of the state educational system.

The students come from poor backgrounds, and are often involved in petty crime or drugs before they arrive at the kibbutz. But Eshbal gives them one last shot at qualifying for army service, the gateway to a flourishing life in Israeli society. “We now have three groups who have finished school in Eshbal and can get drafted,” says Perry.

The school has many unusual aspects to its curriculum. It works, for example, in partnership with the local police force, offering students the chance to train horses and dogs, and giving them the opportunity to join the police when they finish. So successful has the Eshbal experiment been — supported by UJIA donations for the past five years — that the educators are establishing a special school in Karmiel, and are working with the local Arab population to bring their students into the project. “Judaism,” says Matiyevich, “should radiate tikkun olam” — repairing the world.

Just north-west of Karmiel, another radical experiment, supported by the UJIA, is making waves. Kishorit is about the same vintage as Eshbal, established 11 years ago. It is an associate member of the Hashomer Hatzair movement, but there the resemblance to a conventional kibbutz ends. Kishorit is home to 147 adults aged from 21 to 58 who suffer from a variety of different special needs conditions, both physical and mental, including autism, Asperger’s, schizophrenia and Down’s syndrome. Three of the residents come from the UK.

Dita Kohl-Roman, whose brother is a member of the village, says: “Kishorit was established by a group of parents who were, in many cases, at their wits’ end as to what would become of their children. Today it is a groundbreaking model of rehabilitation, and people come from all over the world to see what we do.”

The starting assumption of Kishorit is that everyone, no matter what their particular handicap, has a skill. The achievement of the village is to draw that skill out of the residents, 97 per cent of whom work each day in one of the kibbutz’s various businesses.

These include a goat farm, which has become Israel’s largest producer of organic goat’s milk; a stable, which permits therapeutic riding for Kishorit members and the wider community; and the kennels, which breed and board pedigree mini-schnauzers and dachshunds — one Kishorit dog even showed at Cruft’s this year.

In an echo of Gilad Perry at Eshbal, Dita Kohl-Roman calls Kishorit’s work “an up-to-date Zionist approach”. And, in keeping with the ethos of the region and a pledge to improve the lot of their Arab neighbours, Kishorit is now building a sister community for Arab adults with special needs.