By SARAH WILDMAN
Published: June 29, 2008
The New York Times
SOME kibbutzim have integrated projects for visitors that can be as short as a few days, or extend for several months. Kibbutz Lotan, in the desert about 30 miles from the southern tourist city of Eilat, offers alternative medicine, meditation and “holistic workshops” — as well as cranial sacral massage, tai chi, shiatsu, watsu (water massage) and yoga.
But its biggest focus is ecology. Calling itself a “leader in alternative/natural construction,” the kibbutz invites tours of its mud buildings, recycled-tire playgrounds and organic farm. Workshops held throughout the year offer courses in mud-building. A 10-week “green apprenticeship,” according to its Web site, “offers a highly practically-based immersion into the processes and challenges involved with the design, building and running of sustainable communities, linking together ecological, social, economical and spiritual aspects into a unified whole.”
June 29th, 2008
If you had to choose just one word to describe Kibbutz Lotan, vibrant would do it.
Not only is the 50-member kibbutz a lush, verdant spot of green in the heart of the arid Arava, but the members seem infused with a unique energy, especially when talking about the plethora of trendsetting ecological and environmental programs Lotan has pioneered. As one of the last kibbutzim to be authorized, the age range in Lotan runs from newborn to 73, but everywhere you go, a youthful feeling of life, ideas and enthusiasm seems to flow.
Continue Reading June 28th, 2008
How’s this for musical synchronicity? Alex Cicelsky and Inda Martinez grew up in different parts of the US, but as children, both were attracted to a particular record album - the songs of the Arava. They didn’t meet until the early 1980s, when each became interested in aliya. But both went on to help found Kibbutz Lotan in the heart of the Arava.
Continue Reading June 15th, 2008
Dear Lotan Friends,
I visited Lotan recently and I left full of wonder with the ecological building.
Inspired with what we saw in your community we built a bench on our patio from construction waste that we found on the streets in our area. It looks great!
Orly Kenneth
June 3rd, 2008
Water is a precious thing. It is life. It is health. Its too valuable to pollute.
But that is what we do with huge volumes of water every second – we pollute it with our body’s excrement. This is perhaps the consumate example of how disengaged we are from the environment.
Continue Reading May 28th, 2008
This 15-week semester (1 September to 9 December 2008) is…
Continue Reading February 15th, 2008
NEW: Students from the US and Canada can earn a…
Continue Reading January 31st, 2008
Merav and Maya (GA winter 2006-7) decided there…
Continue Reading January 31st, 2008
by Alex CicelskIy
Israel
Discussion Start…
Continue Reading January 15th, 2008
Many thanks to Brenda Hertzberg for the followi…
Continue Reading November 13th, 2007
Previous Posts
SOME kibbutzim have integrated projects for visitors that can be as short as a few days, or extend for several months. Kibbutz Lotan, in the desert about 30 miles from the southern tourist city of Eilat, offers alternative medicine, meditation and “holistic workshops” — as well as cranial sacral massage, tai chi, shiatsu, watsu (water massage) and yoga.
But its biggest focus is ecology. Calling itself a “leader in alternative/natural construction,” the kibbutz invites tours of its mud buildings, recycled-tire playgrounds and organic farm. Workshops held throughout the year offer courses in mud-building. A 10-week “green apprenticeship,” according to its Web site, “offers a highly practically-based immersion into the processes and challenges involved with the design, building and running of sustainable communities, linking together ecological, social, economical and spiritual aspects into a unified whole.”
