Abstract

"We Have an Electronic Brain: Technology, Corporate Communication, and Collective Labor in Israel, 1948-1973"

Ethan Cowan, University of Delaware (ecowan@udel.edu)

This paper traces the origins of technological adoption in collectivist villages (kibbutzim) during the first decades of Israeli statehood. Kibbutzim, although largely depicted in the historical literature as exclusively agricultural entities, began to industrialize before 1948 and experienced rapid economic growth during the 1950s. This industrialization developed in parallel with the introduction of IBM computers, the first international technology firm to establish an office in the country. IBM’s focus quickly expanded beyond census-taking and military applications as the company set its sights on the general population and opened training centers in Tel Aviv. The Israeli public proved to be a receptive audience—Kibbutz Afikim rented an IBM 360 system in 1968, becoming the first non-governmental Israeli institution to make computing available to a civilian population. This paper argues that the co-creation of the Israeli technology industry emerged from the ideological necessity of industrial automation in the nascent State of Israel, bolstered by IBM’s flagship corporate publication, Machshavot. For years, Machshavot was the only Hebrew-language science and technology journal, allowing IBM to control the conversation around innovation and technological development. Synthesizing sources from kibbutz archives, articles from Machshavot, and records from the Israel State Archives, this article demonstrates that computing gained an early foothold in Israel through corporate messaging and a population primed for technological adoption.