Israeli families fleeing rat-race revive once-doomed kibbutzim

Children play on swings in Kibbutz Degania Alef on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, northern Israel May 23, 2015. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

DEGANIA ALEF, Israel (Reuters) - This year's harvest was especially merry at Degania Alef, Israel's first kibbutz, founded in 1910 on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. The community celebrated the birth of 11 children, its largest crop of babies in a quarter century.

Twenty-five years ago kibbutzim, collective communities traditionally based on agriculture, seemed all but doomed.