About

RadJew is a journal of the lives of 3 radical Jews!

Today, a new generation of Chalutzim [pioneers] are taking on the most radical Jewish challenge in the world: to pioneer the social frontiers of Israel. Idealistic young Israelis are now building urban kibbutz communities all over Israel, establishing cutting edge social justice and education projects. All this against a backdrop of an Israel which is plagued by racism, sexism, homophobia, environmental abuse, religious coercion, violence, individualism, materialism and (of course) war.

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RadJew aims to share our observations and insights of life in Israel as 3 Jews who immigrated from Britain, Australia & Mexico. We are each undergoing a personal revolution [tikkun atzmi], trying to change ourselves in order to overcome our middle-class Diaspora Jewish conditioning, striving to live up to our ideals by unleashing the Chalutz [pioneer] within ourselves and becoming the New Jew. We are living in inspiring new intentional communities, striving towards Peace, Social Justice, Freedom and Equality in order to make an Israel that we can be proud of: an Israel that can be an example to humanity and actively bring about tikkun olam [healing the world].

One Response to “About”

  1. David Leach Says:
    May 8, 2010 at 00:36 | Reply

    Shalom:

    I’m a journalism teacher and a writer in North America. I’m researching a book project looking at how the kibbutz system has changed over the past 100 years and where its original ideals might now be found in Israel. I’ve got more than just an academic interest in the subject, as I was a volunteer on Kibbutz Shamir for 8 months in the late 1980s and spent several of those months working in the lens factory there (now listed on the NASDAQ exchange!).

    I will be in Israel from June 6 to July 4 on a research trip, visiting different communities across the country and then giving a talk at the International Communal Studies Association conference on June 29 (about what I call “privatization cinema”). I will be travelling with a colleague, who is a Hebrew-speaking former kibbutz resident, a documentary filmmaker and a peace activist.

    Anyway, I just discovered your RadJew blog and wanted to drop you a line to see if anyone of you three might be around and available to meet in person when we’re in Israel to talk about your project and its connection to the urban kibbutzim movement.

    Thanks for your time!

    David

    David Leach
    Associate Professor and Director of Professional Writing
    Fellow, Centre for Co-operative and Community-Based Economy
    Department of Writing, University of Victoria
    Victoria, BC, Canada, V8W 2Y2
    http://www.davidleach.ca, http://lookbacktogalilee.blogspot.com/

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