"The kibbutz is not an ideal society, but it is a society built on ideals.

http://www.kibbutzlotan.com/community/community.htm

"For Martin Buber the collective commune based on mutual responsibility between its members, a strong striving for an egalitarian economic ethic, and the conscious commitment to create Jewish community, made it a potential framework for the achievement of dialogue, of the "I-Thou" relationship within a contemporary Jewish setting. Buber asserted in his "Paths to Utopia" that the kibbutz was an experiment that had not yet failed, i.e. the kibbutz had not succeeded in realizing its utopian aims, but it was still, in spite of the exigencies of every day life, concerned with striving towards this goal. More recently, another kibbutz member, Muki Tsur, has put it succinctly: "The kibbutz is not an ideal society, but it is a society built on ideals.
" From Michael Livni (Lotan member), " Reform Kibbutz and Religious Pioneering"