BBC reality show to put Brits on an Israeli kibbutz

Abigail Klein Leichman

To mark Israel’s 70th birthday, the network will film 10 Jewish volunteers spending two weeks on a kibbutz and exploring their cultural identity.

Picking grapes on Kibbutz Tzuba, near Jerusalem. Photo by Yaniv Nadav/FLASH90

A reality show set on an Israeli kibbutz is on the BBC’s 2018 broadcast schedule, according to press reports.

The British TV network is recruiting 10 Jewish participants of various ages and backgrounds to fly over from the UK and spend two weeks volunteering on a kibbutz, an Israeli farming or manufacturing community founded on socialist principles.

The Kibbutz Movement, which represents about 250 kibbutzim, is helping to scout the best location for the show.

The volunteers and the BBC crews are to arrive in December and the program is to air sometime next year in coordination with Israel’s 70th Independence Day in May.

A BBC spokesperson told The Jewish Chronicle of London that the reality show “aims to explore what it means to be British and Jewish.”

The spokesperson said that participants “will come from a broad cross-section of the population and the faith, will travel to Israel to discover more about their cultural identity and discuss the most significant issues in modern Judaism.”

Jewish and gentile volunteers from countries across the world have come to volunteer their manual labor for weeks or months on Israeli kibbutzim for the past 50 years.

“These volunteers are the best ambassadors Israel has anywhere in the world,” Kibbutz Movement Director of the Volunteer Program Center Aya Sagi told Ynet.