Moshav

(Moshav Ovdim)

   A cooperative agricultural settlement. It is a village composed of a number of families; the average is about 60, each of which maintains its own household, farms its own land, and earns its own income from what it produces. The moshav leases its land from the Israel Lands Authority or the Jewish National Fund and, in turn, distributes land to each of its members. Each family belongs to the cooperative that owns the heavy machinery and deals collectively with marketing and supplies and provides such services as education and medical care. Families are duty-bound to mutual assistance in cases of need as a result of some misfortune or national service. Hired labor is forbidden except under special circumstances, and then only after the village committee has given its approval. Full response is expected to the needs of the nation and the labor movement. However, over the years there have appeared some deviations from the principles of moshav living. Some now engage in industry under similar conditions.

   The first moshav, Nahalal, was founded in 1921 in the Jezreel Valley. Private homes rather than communal living are the rule, as are private plots of land and individual budgets. Moshavim (plural of moshav) have become more numerous than kibbutzim. Many of the postindependence immigrants (see ALIYA) to Israel were attracted to the concept of cooperative activity based on the family unit rather than the kibbutz's socialist communal-living approach. The moshavim are organized in the countrywide Tnaut Moshavei Haovdim—the Moshav Movement. They belong to the Agricultural Workers Union and to the Histadrut.