Mitzpe Shalem Community
Mitzpe Shalem is a young and vibrant community. The majority of the community has lived in the kibbutz since its beginning, and over the years many single people and families joined the kibbutz.
We have a very colorful community, that is open minded, well educated and creative.
The social make-up of the families in terms of age and culture make this community very active and caring. We try to live in harmony with each other and with the environment, and each individual is free to live his life the way he or she chooses.
Living in the desert brings us closer to each other, making us into one big family; we give one another caring and support in times of trouble and happiness alike. We celebrate bar-mitzvahs and holidays together and we have a monthly cultural activity.
The community is secular by nature but respects tradition and the holidays.
90% of the families speak English or at least understand it, and children learn English from the age of 7.
The Municipal Management and the Organizational Structure
All kibbutz members and all members who intend to build their private homes in the kibbutz will become members of the cooperative municipal society whose function is to manage the municipal life in the community. This includes setting up committees and electing directors, determining the budget and the level of taxation in the community, etc.
Kibbutz Mitzpe Shalem is incorporated as a cooperative municipal society, and currently owns assets and production sectors. New members join the cooperative municipal society but do not share the kibbutz businesses.
Demography
At Mitzpe Shalem there are approximately 200 residents (adults and children), some of whom are kibbutz members and others only live on the kibbutz. The ages of adult residents range from 22 to 50. The ages of the children range from infants to 18.
Residents’ Occupations
Among the various professions in Mitzpe Shalem: mayor, economist, businessmen, coaches, teachers, accountants, people in managerial positions, administrative workers, artists, nurses, engineers, chemists, gardeners, hospitality professionals, marketing, and more.
Recreation and Culture
The community gets together once a month for various cultural activities.
Mitzpe Shalem and the Regional Council offer a broad variety of organized and non-organized activities such as rappelling, hiking and more.
Onsite activities include yoga, pottery, belly dancing, body-shaping, and outdoor activities such as soccer, basketball, tennis, a playground for children, and a private swimming pool.
Regional activities include horseback ridding, arts, basketball, folk dancing, a gym, chess, trips, lectures, and more.
We have the most beautiful desert beach, rich in minerals, natural sulfur and mud.
Ahava Festival
Once a year, during Passover, we produce a musical festival sponsored by Ahava . The festival features Israel’s top rock singers, and trips and more, throughout 4 days of celebration in Mitzpe Shalem.
Services in the Community
Mitzpe Shalem has an office building that provides various administrative services, a post office, a community hall, a grocery store for members, daily and weekly shopping requirements, and health services such as a nurse every day, a doctor twice a week, a dentist, newborn and infant care, education services for all ages, and an ambulance.
Pets
Many families own dogs, cats or other pets, all taken care of by a veterinarian who visits once a month.
A nearby kibbutz has a horse ranch.
The Kibbutz Economic Sectors
- Tourism – Metzokei Deragot Resort Village offers desert-like guest-accommodation that includes 50 guest rooms, varied tourist services, production of desert-events, organized desert-tours, a mineral beach with sulfur pools, natural mud and spa treatments.
- Agriculture – Palm grove, field crops and hothouses, turkey coop.
- Industry – Ahava Dead Sea cosmetics factory and the Ahava Visitors Center.
Work, Business and Entrepreneurship
At the renewed Mitzpe Shalem, new opportunities to enter the workforce were created, either through jobs in the different sectors of the kibbutz, through employment in the vicinity or in Jerusalem, or by starting an independent business. At Mitzpe Shalem, as in the other regional council towns, unemployment does not exist. One of the reasons is the fact that we – all the communities in the area – feel responsible for helping every resident in finding work and in making a living.
Assistance in Starting a Business
- Anyone who builds or buys a house at Mitzpe Shalem and is interested in starting an independent business will get financial support of up to $42,000 from the Settlement Division of the Zionist Organization. This is subject to submitting a business plan, evaluation by the Settlement Division representatives and adhering to specified criteria.
- The kibbutz representatives, the regional council and the Settlement Division offer the entrepreneur step-by-step guidance in preparing the business plan and in meeting the requirements.
- Olim (newcomers) will get the assistance of a professional counselor from M.T.Y (The Center for Nurturing Entrepreneurship at the Ministry of Trade and Industry) in order to prepare a business plan, symbolically charged, and the support of professional counselors subsidized by M.T.Y.
Employment Opportunities in the Area
Job opportunities are available in the kibbutz itself, in the area, or in Jerusalem.
On the kibbutz we have the AHAVA factory that provides many jobs, for example in engineering, chemistry, research, and marketing & sales (there are 120 employees).
The hotels in the Dead Sea region, about a 30-minute drive from Mitzpe Shalem, offer numerous employment opportunities in the tourism & accommodation field. There are about 20 hotels with 4000 hotel rooms and many spas in the area. Other jobs are offered at the mineral beach and in Metzoke Dragot resort village.
There are also jobs in agriculture, education & teaching and in administration.
Mitzpe Shalem is only a 45-minute drive away from Jerusalem, Israel's major city, that offers everything a big city can offer: biotechnology parks, universities, hospitals, trade & commerce, etc.
Research Community Development
The Dead Sea Research Center is seeking researchers in the following areas of knowledge and specialization:
- Physicians: dermatology, rheumatology, hydrotherapy.
- Scientists: biotechnology, microbiology, molecular biology, botany, mineralogy, chemistry, laboratory sciences.
- Environmental and populations scientist: geography, ecology, archeology, hydrology, sociology, etc.
The Dead Sea Research Center offers and guarantees a salary for a period of 3 years and rent-free accommodation at Mitzpe Shalem to researches that will be found suitable.
For more information contact:
Mitzpe Shalem
Secretary Tel. – 972-2-9945111
Absorption Coordinator (Ronit Ehrlich) – 972-52-2397771
Fax: 972-2-9944108
E-mail Mitzpe Shalem: dalpak@mitzpe-shalem.co.il
Ronit Ehrlich: roniterlich@gmail.com
Dead Sea (Megilot) Regional Council
Regional Absorption Coordinator (Sol lavi Ben-Shimol) – 972-52-2360123
soll@dead-sea.org.il
Fax: 972-2-9400442
www.dead-sea.org.il
Last Updated: April 20, 2006