Mystery Solved? Bernie’s Kibbutz Revealed

The mystery over Bernie Sanders’ Kibbutz he worked on while in Israel, before running for public office, may have been solved on Thursday.

The Democratic presidential candidate and his brother, Larry Sanders, have said for a while that they have forgotten the name of the Kibbutz he volunteered at for almost 6 months in 1964, after his graduation from the University of Chicago.

To date, no reporter has been able to pin down which kibbutz that was. In October, the Israeli Kibbutz Movement formally joined the search for Sanders’ Kibbutz. In a message on its page, which has 14,324 followers, the movement writes: “Help us solve the mystery: Bernie Sanders, a candidate for the leadership of the Democratic Party in the U.S, volunteered in the sixties in a kibbutz, but he doesn’t remember the name of it… Sanders said once in an interview, that he was in the kibbutz for several months, approximately between the years 1966 to 1964 with his wife at the time, Deborah Shilling from Baltimore.”

But on Thursday, Yossi Melman, a veteran Israeli journalist, tweeted that Sanders revealed the name of the Kibbutz during an interview over two decades ago.

“It was reported that B. Sanders refused to say in which kibbutz he stayed in 60’s in Israel. In [a] 1990 interview, he told me Shaar Haamakim,” Melman tweeted on Thursday.

Melman provided Jewish Insider with a copy of the interview (in Hebrew). Sanders is not quoted directly but the article notes the name of the Kibbutz, which was provided by Sanders.

Sha’ar HaAmakim (Gate of the Valleys) is a kibbutz in northern Israel. In 2006, it had a population of 548, according to Wikipedia.

It was reported that B. Sandres refused to say in which kibbutz he stayed in 60’s in Israel. In 1990 interview he told me Shaar Haamakim

— Yossi Melman (@yossi_melman) February 4, 2016