“I of course have no objection to hosting Zionist Orthodox/haredim…but I strongly object that we kibbutz members will have to adapt to the customs of the haredim and not act like everywhere normal, where guests adapt to the local customs,” the member, who describes himself as a “devout atheist” wrote, adding that he was willing to give up the money the haredi guests will pay and cancel their stay if they could not tolerate mixed swimming. But, the atheist letter writer wrote, he was not willing to give up on being “a proud secular person on Kibbutz Mizra.”
Once Israel’s Premier Pork-Producing Socialist Kibbutz, Mizra Now Has Gender-Segregated Swimming Pool To Accommodate Haredim
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
One of the most secular kibbutzim in Israel will have gender-separate swimming pool hours this summer.
Kibbutz Mizra was founded in 1923, 25 years before the State of Israel was founded.
In 1957 Kibbutz Mizra built a slaughterhouse that killed and processed beef, turkey, duck – and pork – products.
Its production of pork drew the ire of haredim and of Zionist Orthodox Jews, and a series of attempts were made to legislate Kibbutz Mizra’s pork production out of business.
But then in the Soviet Union collapsed, hundreds of of thousands of Soviet Jews and their relatives flooded into Israel, and the demand for pork products skyrocketed.
Kibbutz Mizra helped fill that need until it sold its slaughterhouse to the supermarket chain Tiv Ta’am, already well-known for selling treife, four years ago.
Now enter the haredim again – this time more literally than figuratively – and, Ha’aretz reports, the Kibbutz Mizra pool has gone same-sex only.
What happened?
This summer a group of haredim are vacationing in, of all places, Kibbutz Mizra.
And while the haredim are lolling about the pool and grounds that pork built, the pool will be gender segregated, with some hours dedicated for males and some for females.
The founders of Kibbutz Mizra must be rolling in their graves.
When current kibbutz leadership told members about the four days of segregation, only a few reportedly opposed it.
But the haredim will be paying to stay in the kibbutz guest rooms, and for the most part the money appeared to have soothed the old socialists' wounds.
But not completely.
One kibbutz member sent a letter to the other kibbutz members objecting to the gender segregation.
“I of course have no objection to hosting Zionist Orthodox/haredim…but I strongly object that we kibbutz members will have to adapt to the customs of the haredim and not act like everywhere normal, where guests adapt to the local customs,” the member, who describes himself as a “devout atheist” reportedly wrote, adding that he was willing to give up the money the haredi guests will pay and cancel their stay if they could not tolerate mixed swimming. But, the atheist letter writer wrote, he was not willing to give up on being “a proud secular person on Kibbutz Mizra.”
He also reportedly noted that he wanted to express his objection to “the trend in recent years to reverse the Zionist cultural revolution that took place in the previous century and was the basis for establishing the State of Israel,” adding that he was against the “return to public religion, a trend that has fit wonderfully with the right-wing political trend that is taking over our country.”
More than 80% of the formerly socialist kibbutzim have been privatized in recent years. Every member on these privatized kibbutzim is now responsible for paying his or her own way, and every kibbutz business must be profitable.
And dozens of kibbutz kitchens have been kosher supervised and approved for years in order to be able to host outsiders for profit.
The new white meat in Israel is suddenly kosher, gender-segregated and, in some cases, Sabbath-observant as well.