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Say the word “Israel” today and it sparks images of walls and rockets and a bloody conflict without end. It wasn’t always so. For decades, the symbol of the Jewish State was the noble pioneer, in a blue work shirt and white sunhat, draining the swamps and making the deserts bloom: the legendary kibbutznik. That romantic picture — plus the exotic promise of sun, sand, and sex — drew young backpackers from around the world to volunteer on Israel’s country communes. Foreign volunteers returned home to spread the myth of the Marxist Marlboro men (and women) who had built the Jewish nation from scratch. So what ever happened to the pioneers’ dream of founding a socialist utopia in the land called Palestine? *Chasing Utopia: The Future of the Kibbutz in a Divided Israel* draws readers into the quest for answers to the defining political conflict of our era. After a 20-year absence, acclaimed author David Leach revisits his raucous memories of life as a kibbutz volunteer and returns to meet a new generation of Jewish and Arab citizens struggling to forge a better future together. Crisscrossing the nation, Leach chronicles the controversial decline of Israel’s kibbutz movement and witnesses a renaissance of the original vision for a peaceable utopia in unexpected corners of the Promised Land. *Chasing Utopia* entertains and enlightens with a darkly comic journey of personal discovery and political awakening through a divided nation where hope persists against the odds.

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