A conference of 107 managers of industries of Israeli collective settlements was told here that the kibbutzim must ensure a sound economy by developing modern industrial plants.
Arye Bahir, chairman of the Organization of Kibbutz Industries, said that the collectives would never give up their agricultural base. However, he stressed that sound grewth required modern industrial output. He said that such plants would also provide productive work for kibbutz members as they became too old to work in the fields.
The delegates discussed the possibility with Gen. Yaacov Dori, president of the Haifa Institute of Technology, of the creation of a special Technion school of technology at which kibbutz industrial managers could learn the skills needed to operate such plants. Gen. Dori told the managers that the Technion was willing and able to undertake industrial research to make Israel’s industry second to none but that Israeli industry would have to support such research and use its findings in a “reciprocal arrangement.”
Gen. Dori noted that there are now 200 kibbutzim operating industrial enterprises with annual sales of 200,000,000 pounds ($66,000,000.)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
