Why did Martin Buber see the Israeli kibbutz as an important social experiment?

Martin Buber viewed the Israeli kibbutz as a "bold Jewish undertaking" and an "exemplary non-failure" of utopian socialism. In his 1949 work Paths in Utopia, he highlighted the kibbutz as a significant social experiment because it functioned as a cooperative agricultural community where members lived in a voluntary communion and worked within a natural environment.1

Buber valued the kibbutz for its practical success in building a just community and fostering interpersonal relationships, which he saw as a vital step toward healing the alienation prevalent in modern society. However, his endorsement was not absolute. He maintained a critical reservation because many kibbutz members disregarded the relationship between man and God, often denying or doubting the presence of a divine counterpart. While he acknowledged that they successfully fulfilled the commandment to build a just society, he argued that they failed to recognize the divine origin of that imperative.1

Would you like to know more about how Buber’s dialogical philosophy influenced his views on other social or political issues?