An interesting article. Over the years I have known a number of people who moved to Israel and lived in kibbutz communities, some of them were not even Jewish. They all came back within a couple years usually telling stories of how much they loved living with all their new friends at the kibbutz, and all the great ways they managed to grow enough food not to starve in a place with almost no water. So the question that I had for every one of them was, “If you loved it so much, what are you doing back here?”
There were various excuses, but it almost always really came back to eking out an existence with barely enough to eat, getting paid almost nothing, and living where it gets hot with almost no air conditioning just gets old pretty fast.
Must have been a long time ago.
Only a few percent of Israelis have kibbutz connections these days. Kibbutzim are pretty corporate these days, and are relatively wealthy. Many members are much older than the average Israeli and their kibbutzim seem like retirement co-ops.
But being a foreign volunteer on a kibbutz is something akin to being a recent illegal alien in the USA, mostly hard work and low pay.