Moshav

Moshavim are an intentional community and cooperative in Israel, they are different to Kibbutzim as they do not farm in common, but on individually owned land of fixed and equal size. The first Moshav, Moshav Nahalal was founded in September 1921 and there are 451 Moshav in Israel.

Decision-Making

Moshavim are governed by an elected council.

Economy

Workers produced crops and goods on their properties through individual and/or pooled labour and resources and used profit and foodstuffs to provide for themselves. Community projects and facilities were financed by a special tax (Hebrew: מס ועד‎, mas va'ad, lit. committee tax). This tax was equal for all households of the community, thus creating a system where good farmers were better off than bad ones, unlike in the communal kibbutzim where (at least theoretically) all members enjoyed the same living standard.

Culture

Because the moshav organisation retained the family as the centre of social life, it was much more attractive to traditional Mizrahi immigrants in the 1950s and early 1960s; they eschewed bold experiments, like communal child-rearing or equality of the sexes, practiced by the more radical communal kibbutz. These so-called "immigrants' moshav" (Hebrew: מושב עולים‎, moshav olim) were one of the most-used and successful forms of absorption and integration of Oriental immigrants; it allowed them a much steadier ascent into the middle class than did life in some development towns. For this reason, the moshav became largely a Mizrahi institution, whereas the kibbutz movement remained basically an Ashkenazi institution.