Socialism has always been a major part of Israeli society. For decades, all of the country's leaders came from kibbutzim, which are run on a model of pure communism.
And that's probably the largest scale that communism can operate successfully.
Communism with a will, in service of a shared ideal, isn't all that different from the community that might exist in a religious organization. What's the problem with a voluntary commune? It's imposed from above, institutionalized Communism that's awful. As for Israel, that kibbutz enthusiasm lasted for a generation or so, then faded somewhat, I understand.