Growing Up Below Sea Level: A Kibbutz Childhood

by Rachel Biale

This beautifully written memoir is composed of linked stories about growing up on a kibbutz in Israel in the 1950s and 60s, when children spent most of their time, from birth on, in a Children's House. This memoir starts with a Prologue drawn from the diaries of Rachel Biale's mother and the letters her parents exchanged while her father served in the British army. With excerpts from these documents, she describes how the long trials and tribulations that encompassed her parents dangerous escape from Eastern Europe to Israel - fleeing from the Nazis from Prague in 1939, five years of dangerous sea voyages, and long internments in British refugee camps. Throughout these ordeals, her parents socialist and Zionist values sustained them and eventually brought them to their kibbutz. The middle and main section of the memoir is devoted to Rachel's growing up as a kibbutz child. While Rachel's parents soon realized that no community can live up to its utopian ideals, Rachel's youth on kibbutz was a robust and buoyant one. Rachel pens 24 beautifully written and engaging stories about her kibbutz childhood -- from earliest memories at age three as part of a children's society, to her army service at age twenty. The stories focus on the world of children, but also offer a window into the lives of the adult kibbutz members, including Holocaust survivors. The book ends with a Postscript--as Rachel revisits her kibbutz and updates the stories of her childhood companions.

234 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 14, 2020

Reviews

[Talia Carner · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting, well-written collection of anecdotes from the author's growing up years in a kibbutz in the lower Galilee. It would be fascinating for non-Israelis to get the inside view of how ideas of collectivism were translated into child rearing practices.

As an Israeli city girl close to the author's generation, my greatest fear of visiting a kibbutz was the joint shower of boys and girls. (As a guest, I wouldn't be invited to stay at the children's house anyway, or even mingle in their close-knit units, but I didn't know that.) In some kibbutzim joint showering was until age 10, in others pushed further into pre-puberty. But I also loved my beautiful dresses from America (hand-me-down from my cousins,) and dreaded the idea of no private property in the kibbutzim of those years. The author mentions it in passing when the clean laundry is placed on shelves and each child just picks an underwear, shorts or a tank shirt as needed.

These collective ideas were a part of a larger philosophy of freeing both parents to join equally in the work force as well as to shed off the baggage of Diaspora that core families may have carried.

Many of the practices of child rearing in the kibbutz as described in this collection would be labeled child neglect when viewed from the prism of our time and culture. Except that as a girl growing up in a mid-size town—not a kibbutz—I was subject to similar if not more freedoms that bordered on outright danger. Unsupervised in the many hours that my mother worked but with no appropriate child care available, I, too, ran around all summer barefoot, stepped on rocks, shards of glass and burning sidewalks. It was perhaps typical of Israel, not just of the kibbutzim.

Interestingly, the author and her friends were shielded from any mention of the Holocaust even though many kibbutz members were survivors. She tells how she didn't know what "Nazis" were. I, on the other hand, in the city, had the Holocaust shoved down my throat and into my little heart. I came from Israeli-born parents, but all my friends were children of Holocaust survivors who had lost their first families and rebuilt the lives by remarrying and producing this one child. In school we were taught Holocaust and were taken to the then-nascent Yad-Vashem in Jerusalem to see lamp shades made out of Jewish skin. The reason I am mentioning this is that Israel had a single national educational program through the Ministry of Education. The author even mentions the proficiency exams that tested all eighth graders. Therefore, I was surprised that the kibbutz eliminated that subject from its curriculum.

Eleven children were in the author's age group, and they grew up like siblings, living, studying, sleeping in their own house. What the author couldn't know when she was a child was that in Israel's towns and cities, standards classrooms had 35 to 40 students. We never had the advantage of a teacher's personal attention, so the kibbutz offered something unique of both a larger family of adults but also more tailored education. I liked reading the tasks that the kids were entrusted with, responsibilities and challenges to grow up and become independent. It is no wonder that a disproportionate number of Israel's military officers came from kibbutzim. It is also tragic--and not surprising-- that the author's friends were killed in battle.

Overall, a fast, satisfying read.

[Kathleen C]

This one was interesting, although given that the preface tells us some of it is factual and some is autofiction, I never knew when to be truly scandalized (the kids were left to their own devices in many ways, and life was more communal a la "The Giver" than familial) and when to just be impressed with her storytelling :P

The first part details her parents' escape from Prague just before WW2, and the second part of the book is a collection of stories from her childhood growing up in a kibbutz.

In her own words from the epilogue, "[Her parents'] “Great Expectations” were not exactly dashed but, rather, like all dreams, they gradually gave way to realism and compromise. Yet their dreams did create a thrilling, carefree, and empowering childhood for us on thr kibbutz. I now look back on it with wonder...At the same time, I am astonished that our parents gave us this intoxicating freedom and autonomy and blithely went about their business, certain that we not only would not be killed or maimed, but in fact would flourish and become strong."

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Growing Up Below Sea Level: A Kibbutz Childhood is a wonderful collection of 26 stories. Biale sets the historical stage with a moving prologue, describing her parents’ nearly half-decade journey from Nazi Europe to Kibbutz Kfar Ruppin in the Jordan Valley. Forced to leave Prague, the author’s parents reached Palestine after a several-year detour in a detention center in Mauritius. The prologue itself could be its own book, much of it drawn from the author’s mother’s diary. Her parents began life anew in a collective society in which children were allowed considerable independence at a very young age. The author treats us to a child’s view of kibbutz life, offering the perspective of a highly intelligent, responsible and fun-loving child. The stories in Growing Up Below Sea Level are poignant, funny, somber; all of them are captivating. Through Biale’s narration, readers unfamiliar with Kibbutz life can glimpse some cross-cultural differences in childrearing and even aspects of personality development. Having personally experienced life on a kibbutz and having worked in a children’s house as a “metapelet” (caregiver), I found the content especially riveting. Biale is a talented storyteller. I savored her short stories with their often-surprising endings and rich emotional impact.

[Debby · Rating 4 out of 5]

In several vignettes, Biale gives us a look at growing up on a kibbutz in the 1950's & '60's; showing the freedom, independence and sense of mutual responsibility the children had, while still following social mores of the outside society. Her parents story was in a way more interesting - leaving Czechoslovakia in 1939 and their arduous journey to the kibbutz, and also their journey from idealism to realism.

[Esti Skloot · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well written, entertaining and fun to read book. Rachel Biale's fascinating prologue about her parents' immigration to Palestine is a perfect jumping board for her amusing, tragic and heartfelt stories about her life growing up on a Kibbutz in Israel.
Her stories give a personal glimpse into communal life. They are written with honesty and humor. It's a joy to read.

[Paula Buel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! It’s beautifully written, emotionally powerful, and yet warm and humorous. It gives us a window into the author’s lived experience of growing up on a kibbutz in the 1950’s and ‘60’s.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good writer
She can paint a good story in a minimum of paragraphs. I appreciated that
Also an amazing story about the harrowing and lengthy escapes of Zionist Jews out of wwII Europe to the promised land.

[Shachar Gilad · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautiful description of life in a kibbutz

There were so many memories in Rachel’s book that sounded and felt just like my own childhood. Thank you for sharing your story and presenting it to the world in such vivid colors.
Highly recommended!

[Paula Buel]

This a a great book! Beautifully written and insightful. Alternately humorous and poignant, it deals with a fascinating topic that is relatively unknown to people living outside Israel.

[Alyssa Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this out of curiosity, trying to understand what life was like for some of my family members. The novel goes through a history of her family getting to the Kibbutz and talks about her life, trying to navigate growing up in a Kibbutz, a rather unorthodox lifestyle. The novel was super interesting and gave me a new perspective on the history of the kibbutz lifestyle.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm glad she wrote it, although it was frustrating to read at times because it wasn't clear what was true and what was autofiction. Still, learned a lot, and appreciate her work very much.