Chasing Utopia The Future of the Kibbutz in a Divided Israel

A fascinating, non-partisan exploration of an incendiary region

Say the word “Israel” today and it sparks images of walls and rockets and a bloody conflict without end. Yet for decades, the symbol of the Jewish State was the noble pioneer draining the swamps and making the deserts bloom: the legendary kibbutznik. So what ever happened to the pioneers’ dream of founding a socialist utopia in the land called Palestine?

Chasing Utopia: The Future of the Kibbutz in a Divided Israel draws readers into the quest for answers to the defining political conflict of our era. Acclaimed author David Leach revisits his raucous memories of life as a kibbutz volunteer and returns to meet a new generation of Jewish and Arab citizens struggling to forge a better future together. Crisscrossing the nation, Leach chronicles the controversial decline of Israel’s kibbutz movement and witnesses a renaissance of the original vision for a peaceable utopia in unexpected corners of the Promised Land. Chasing Utopia is an entertaining and enlightening portrait of a divided nation where hope persists against the odds.

In 1988, David Leach ran away from university to live on a kibbutz in Israel. He is now the chair of the Department of Writing at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia. His award-winning feature writing has appeared in Canadian Geographic, Financial Post Business, Communities, Explore Magazine, and other publications. His first book, Fatal Tide: When the Race of a Lifetime Goes Wrong, investigated our modern appetite for “extreme” experiences. He lives in Victoria, B.C.

Prologue: It Is Dangerous to Read Facebook
Part One: Who Killed the Kibbutz?
Chapter 1: Ghetto Life in the Finger of Galilee
Chapter 2: Between the Hammer and the Anvil
Chapter 3: A Few Grams of Courage
Chapter 4: A Village Under Siege
Chapter 5: The Final Solution
Chapter 6: Stories from the Ass
Chapter 7: Moving the State
Chapter 8: The Shouting Fence
Chapter 9: The Architecture of Hope
Part Two: Look Back to Galilee
Chapter 10: Born This Way
Chapter 11: Buried History
Chapter 12: Buying Cat Food with the King of Achziv
Chapter 13: Living in Glass Houses
Chapter 14: A Dry Season in the Garden of Eden
Chapter 15: Love and Rockets
Chapter 16: More Than a House
Chapter 17: Broken Promises in the Promised Land
Chapter 18: Revival of Faith
Chapter 19: Boxing Hope
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Acknowledgements