Israel Boy and Girl Scouts Federation

The federation is Israel's national umbrella association for Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Druze, and Catholic scouting organizations. It represents Israeli scouting in relations with WOSM and WAGGGS and operates under Israel's Scouts Ordinance.[1]

The Hebrew Scouts Movement is one of the federation's constituent movements and states that it operates within the federation's framework.[1][3] This organizational distinction is important: programs operated by the Hebrew Scouts or Tzofim abroad are connected to a federation member, but the available sources do not identify every such program as a direct program of the federation itself.

The first scout troop in Palestine was established in 1919 at the Herzlia gymnasium in Tel Aviv.[2] Troops in Jerusalem and Haifa soon followed, and the three groups together formed Histadrut ha-Ẓofim be-Israel, the Jewish Scouts' Federation.[2] That early federation did not survive intact: it dissolved in 1930 after several sections seceded, then reconstituted itself in 1936 under the Education Department of the Va'ad Le'ummi, the pre-state Jewish National Council.[4]

During the British Mandate period, the Jewish scouts faced an unusual barrier to international recognition: the organization was coeducational, which prevented its admission to the global scout movement and excluded it from international scout meetings.[4] Despite this, the movement deepened its practical commitment to the land. Starting in 1938, scouts began undertaking agricultural training; in 1941 the federation formally adopted pioneering as one of its central aims.[2] Graduates founded Ma'agan Mikha'el in 1949 and subsequently established 26 additional kibbutzim.[2]

The Jewish Scouts' Federation was admitted to the international scout movement in 1951.[2] In 1953 it merged with Muslim, Christian, and Druze scouts in Israel to form Hitaḥadut ha-Ẓofim ve-ha-Ẓofot be-Israel, the Israel Boy and Girl Scouts Federation.[2] The Girl Scouts were affiliated with their corresponding world movement in 1957.[2] The federation's official page gives 1954 as its founding year and identifies it as an amuta.[1]

The federation is not associated with any political party or sectional organization.[2] It operates within the school framework under the supervision of the Ministry of Education and Culture, which appoints half the members of its governing body.[2] The federation identifies itself as the representative body for dealings with international scouting organizations, specifically WOSM and WAGGGS.[1] The Hebrew Scouts Movement operates within the federation's framework.[3]

Constituent sections—Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Druze—participate on an equal basis in jamborees held inside Israel and send representatives to international scouting events.[2] A separate section for religious scouts also exists within the federation.[2] The federation emphasizes good citizenship and national service, including agricultural pioneering and service in Naḥal outposts.[2]

Troop structure reflects both age and community. Israeli scout troops are called shevatim ("tribes") and encompass three age groups: 8–10, 11–14, and 15–19.[2] In the first two groups, boys and girls have separate units and programs; the oldest cohort brings them together.[2] Arab scout movements within the federation maintain separate boys' and girls' sections, while the Druze scouts are all-male, a practice attributed to the community's religious traditions.[2]

In the early 2000s, the federation reported approximately 70,000 members in total.[2] The breakdown across constituent bodies was: 45,000 in the Federation of Jewish Scouts; 13,000, mostly Muslim, in the Organization of Scouts from Arab Schools; 2,000 in the Muslim Arab Scouts; 2,000 in the Greek Orthodox Arab Scouts; 3,000 in the Organization of Catholic Scouts; and 5,000 in the Organization of Druze Scouts.[2] A separate count from 1990 placed total Israeli scout membership at 29,600.[5]

Within Jerusalem, the constituent Hebrew scouting movement known as HaTzofim recorded 2,484 members in 2015, ranking second among the city's secular youth movements behind HaNo'ar HaOved VeHalomed.[6] Nationally, HaTzofim was described by the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research as the largest youth movement in Israel by membership during that reporting period.[6] Participation figures are inherently fluid, as membership is difficult to measure precisely and the Jerusalem figures came from movements' self-reports to municipal social services.[6]

A Library of Congress country study, while not identifying the federation by its formal name, characterized an unnamed Israeli Boy Scout organization as "relatively apolitical and nonideological" and observed that it had grown at a time when left-of-center youth movements had not.[7]

Scouting in Israel has been bound up with Zionist education from its earliest decades. The Institute for National Security Studies describes the British scouting model as having been copied in Israel "to a considerable extent," combining youth society, landscape, camping, and national content.[8] Youth-movement activities that taught knowledge of the land were historically connected to Zionist education and, in the pre-state period, to preparation for service in the Haganah and the Palmah.[8]

The federation's history embodies this connection: scouts began agricultural training in 1938, pioneering was adopted as a formal aim in 1941, and graduates subsequently founded dozens of kibbutzim.[2] The emphasis on national service extended after statehood to include service in Naḥal, the IDF's combined agricultural-military corps.[2]

The Sapir Journal argues that Tzofim scouting exemplifies the collectivist values that bind Israeli society together, focusing on group cooperation and solidarity, with young people given real responsibility for collective goals and adults kept deliberately in the background.[9] It illustrates this norm with the example of two 16-year-olds taking 40 10-year-olds on a hike, a level of responsibility it calls "not just legal but desirable."[9]

The Hebrew Scouts Movement, which operates within the federation's framework, maintains international programs through Tzofim Olami. Its North American arm, Tzofim North America, traces its roots to the 1960s.[3][10] By 2026, Tzofim North America reported more than 5,200 youth participating each week through 29 Tzabar chapters across the United States and Canada, all volunteer-led and representing diverse communities.[10]

Earlier counts showed steady growth: in 2017 the North American Hebrew-speaking branch had roughly 3,500 participants in 24 chapters;[11] a 2023 profile counted 4,500 young people in 26 chapters across 19 states and 30 North American cities, while also reporting about 5,000 enrolled children;[12] and a 2024 report described about 4,500 participants in 27 troops.[13] The movement functions as a community anchor for children of Israeli parents, offering an environment of Hebrew language, Israeli culture, and Zionist identity.[13] Older teens serve as counselors to younger members, guided by parent volunteers and adult counselors from Israel placed through the Jewish Agency.[13]

In 2017 an English-language American Scouts program, funded by the Areivim Philanthropic Group, was launched to bring an Israel-centered scouting experience to American Jewish children who were not Hebrew speakers. The pilot enrolled about 60 participants ages 9 to 15 in Manhattan and suburban Long Island, with activities covering Israeli history, life skills, social responsibility, and traditional scouting skills such as knot-tying and tent-building.[11]

The Tzofim Friendship Caravan, a summer touring program, had operated for more than 40 years as of 2023, traveling across the United States and sharing Israeli life through song, dance, and storytelling in Hebrew, English, and Yiddish.[12] Tzofim North America also lists Chetz V'Keshet, the Delegation to Poland, Machane B'Yachad, Tzababa, and the Tzofim Summer Delegation among its programs.[10]

Among Tzofim's international programs is Garin Tzabar, an initiative run by the Israeli Scouts in partnership with the Jewish Agency for Israel, the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption, and Nefesh B'Nefesh.[14][10] The program supports young Jewish adults from around the world who choose to make aliyah and enlist in the Israel Defense Forces.[14]

Participants—who may have been born in Israel or abroad, and who may be Jewish by birth or by conversion—attend preparatory seminars, relocate together to a host kibbutz, study Hebrew, and train for army service.[15] During periods of leave from military service, participants return to the kibbutz community.[14] A 2023 profile reported that Tzofim supported approximately 250 lone soldiers from the United States annually, preparing them in North America and assisting those who remained in Israel after service.[12] In 2026, Tzofim North America described Garin Tzabar as supporting hundreds of young adults each year.[10]

In January 2018, the Tel Aviv District Court rejected a request by Ilan Zilcha for a temporary order compelling the federation (HaTaḥadut ha-Ẓofim ve-ha-Ẓofot) to invite him to its annual council meeting.[16] Judge Hanna Pliner ruled that forcing the federation to accept a representative it had disavowed would constitute undue interference in the affairs of a voluntary association, that the prospects of Zilcha's underlying claim were unclear, and that the balance of convenience favored the federation; he was ordered to pay NIS 15,000 in costs.[16] The federation's lawyers argued that Zilcha had lost standing following his expulsion from the Hebrew Scouts movement; his attorney indicated an appeal was planned, though no outcome of any appeal appears in the cited report.[16] The ruling concerned temporary relief and did not resolve the underlying dispute.