Sar-El

Sar-El combines practical assistance to the IDF with opportunities for volunteers to encounter Israeli society and build relationships with Israelis.[1] It is a nonprofit, non-political organization operating under the direction of the IDF Logistics Corps, with stated goals of providing logistical support and fostering cultural and educational exchange.[1] Its participants perform non-combat work on military bases rather than taking part in combat operations.[1]

Also called the National Project for Volunteers for Israel, the program takes its name from a Hebrew acronym meaning “Service to Israel.”[4] Participants include Jewish and non-Jewish volunteers from abroad as well as volunteers living in Israel.[5] Assignments are determined by military needs and encompass work that would otherwise occupy soldiers or reservists, including packing supplies, maintaining equipment, and preparing emergency stores.[5][6]

The program's military setting is paired with an educational and social framework: volunteers generally live on bases during their placements, work alongside military personnel, and attend organized activities outside working hours.[7] Its wider offerings include Hebrew study, first-aid training, archaeological volunteering, and forest rehabilitation.[4][2] These activities extend the program beyond warehouse work to include cultural learning and other forms of service in Israel.[1][2]

Sar-El's official history traces the program's origins to labor shortages created by reserve call-ups during the 1982 Galilee War.[8] Farmers in the Golan Heights lacked workers to harvest their crops, prompting Dr. Aharon Davidi, then involved in community and cultural activities and formerly head of the IDF Paratrooper and Infantry Corps, to contact friends in the United States for help.[8] They recruited 650 volunteers to assist with the harvest.[8]

The initial effort also supported IDF logistics in northern Israel, and participants' interest in continuing their service helped lead to the creation of the nonprofit organization.[5] Sar-El's history places the volunteer effort in 1982 and the organization's beginning in 1983.[8] The program subsequently shifted from agricultural work toward assignments on army bases, including packaging supplies.[9] Early arrangements included food, accommodation, and transportation from the airport to the volunteers' base.[3]

Participation increased during periods of conflict.[3] In 2013, annual attendance was approximately 4,000 volunteers from 40 countries, while participation during the First Gulf War in 1991 and the Second Intifada in 2002 reached 8,000.[3] A 2022 account similarly described annual participation of up to 5,000, rising to 8,000 in conflict years such as 2002, and estimated that about one-fifth of volunteers were not Jewish.[10]

By 2016, the program was receiving an average of about 4,000 volunteers annually, with roughly 600 present at any given time.[6] Many participants were in their forties, fifties, or sixties; some were retired, while others took leave from their jobs to volunteer.[6] Placements commonly lasted three weeks, although some participants came for two.[6]

The organization faced substantial difficulties in 2020, when a Defense Ministry budget cut threatened its continuation and COVID-19 border closures prevented overseas volunteers from arriving.[10] Before the war that began in October 2023, annual recruitment stood at approximately 4,000–5,000.[5] During the initial wartime period, CEO Keren Dahan described participation reaching 300–400 volunteers per day, with volunteers preparing medical kits, food rations, and other equipment for combat units.[5]

Accommodation also required additional fundraising during that period.[11] Board member Edouard Cukierman raised money for hotels and other lodging for volunteers who could not sleep on military bases for security reasons.[11] In June 2024, wartime participation since the start of the conflict was reported at 33,000, described as an approximately 600 percent increase in volunteer numbers.[12] Participants had come from more than 30 countries, especially the United States, Russia, France, Argentina, Brazil, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and Australia.[12]

A 2025 account placed participation since October 7, 2023, at more than 36,000 and cumulative participation since the program's inception at more than 240,000.[13] It also estimated that one-quarter of participants were not Jewish and that volunteers had come from more than 40 countries.[13] By July 2026, reported cumulative participation was nearly 292,000, with volunteers drawn from about 60 countries.[14]

In July 2026, volunteers were working on six IDF bases, maintaining medical supplies, assembling rations, and preparing equipment returning from Gaza and Lebanon.[14] Weekly arrivals ranged from 60 to 100 for assignments lasting one to several weeks, but demand for their work exceeded the available supply of volunteers.[14] Reduced international air service and concerns about becoming stranded were among the reasons given for lower arrivals.[14] At that time, the organization reported helping prepare approximately 35,000 military meals daily.[14]

Packing medical supplies, checking and repairing machinery, and cleaning, painting, and maintaining bases are among Sar-El's regular assignments.[7] Volunteers work alongside soldiers, base employees, and other volunteers, with their placement and duties depending on where the IDF requires assistance.[7] Other documented tasks include organizing uniforms, cleaning warehouses, preparing medical boxes, and shipping food rations.[13]

Some assignments involve maintaining emergency stores and preparing equipment for possible deployment.[6] Volunteers organize supplies and bags, grease equipment, and sort or maintain parts for weapons and tanks.[6] Other documented work includes cleaning weapons, working with electrical equipment, repairing or painting facilities, cleaning warehouses, and keeping storage units stocked.[3][13] These assignments remain non-combat support work; volunteers are not involved in combat.[13]

The regular program operates Sunday through Thursday, with mandatory evening lectures, programming, and activities while participants are on base.[7] One-, two-, and three-week programs are available, and placements may be extended to six weeks with prior permission.[7] Volunteers live in military barracks during one- to three-week placements.[15] From Thursday afternoon until Sunday morning, participants spend time off base and are responsible for their own accommodation, food, and transportation.[7]

The daily routine can include wearing IDF uniforms, attending a flag-raising ceremony, and singing “Hatikvah” before starting work.[14] Evening and supplementary activities have included lectures, tours, Israeli slang, Krav Maga, first-aid courses, and Hebrew-immersion programs.[13][14]

Groups have been organized by language and accompanied by young Israeli guides known as madrichot.[4] These guides are selected for their language skills and trained to answer questions, resolve problems, and help volunteers navigate the experience of Israel and the IDF.[4] One instructor, Kelly Plus, had herself volunteered at age 16 before immigrating from France and later serving as an instructor accompanying arrivals to logistics bases.[6]

Applications undergo staff review and a video interview.[7] Approved applicants must provide documents including a waiver, a physician-completed medical approval form, and a copy of their passport identification page.[7] The application process can take up to six weeks, and the program advises completing it at least six weeks before participation.[7] Medical clearance and insurance covering participation are required; the minimum age is 17 for unaccompanied volunteers or 16 when accompanied by a parent or adult relative.[7] Applicants also undergo IDF background checks.[5]

Participation has extended well beyond young adults: a 2023 account identified the oldest volunteer at that time as 96.[5] The program has accepted both individual applicants and groups, with some groups attending for a single day and other volunteers staying for an average of one to three weeks.[5] Earlier offerings included a summer Young Adult program for ages 17–25, alongside year-round adult participation.[4]

Special programs combine base volunteering with other activities.[2] These have included Krav Maga, first-aid training with Magen David Adom, Hebrew study through an ulpan, and forest protection and rehabilitation with KKL.[2] A Volunteers for Israel Plus archaeology option paired military-base service with work at an excavation near Haifa.[4] By 2026, offerings included educational tours, Hebrew immersion weeks, Krav Maga training with the Wingate Institute, and missions with KKL-JNF to rehabilitate forests damaged by fires.[14]

Educational participation also extends to people providing lectures and activities for volunteers.[16] A 2014 recruitment notice sought English- or French-speaking volunteers able to draw on their expertise to lead sessions for groups at IDF bases.[16] In 2026, Academy by Sar-El added a lecture series intended to deepen participants' understanding of Israeli society and current events while maintaining connections among them.[14]

Sar-El's logistical contribution allows reservists and soldiers to concentrate on duties for which they have been trained rather than routine support tasks.[5][4] Maintaining emergency warehouses and preparing equipment reduces the need to assign reservists to that work.[6] In 2016, the annual labor value of the volunteers' contribution, including work by Israeli volunteers, was estimated at approximately NIS 30 million.[6]

Volunteer labor has played a substantial role at particular facilities.[3] In 2013, some bases, including the Medical Support Base at Tel Hashomer, were described as operating almost entirely through program volunteers.[3] Funding nevertheless remains necessary: in 2023, approximately 20 percent came through the Defense Ministry, with the organization raising the remainder.[5]

Repeated participation is a prominent feature of the program.[14] In July 2026, more than 125,000 participants—approximately 43 percent of the reported cumulative total—were described as having returned five or more times.[14] The organization's homepage separately listed 292,000 volunteers from 60 countries and 125,560 who had volunteered more than five times.[15]

The program also connects service in Israel with relationships maintained after participants return abroad.[1][3] In 2013, Allouche estimated that many returning volunteers became informal goodwill ambassadors for Israel and that approximately 10 percent chose to make aliyah.[3] A 2023 scholarly study examined Sar-El's role in relations between the Jewish diaspora and Israel, considering both the supply of volunteers and the demand for their participation.[17] Its geographic focus was France and Israel, including questions concerning contemporary French Jewish life and the evolution of Zionism in France.[17]

Individual experiences illustrate the program's personal and cultural dimensions.[4] One volunteer account recounts a Canadian participant explaining to a soldier that she had paid her own way to Israel to mop floors, although she employed a cleaner at home; the soldier became tearful and thanked the volunteers.[4] The same account describes participants and guides arranging a bar mitzvah for a middle-aged volunteer who regretted never having had one, with the ceremony held in the base synagogue and the commander presenting a certificate.[4]

Wartime volunteering has also brought back people whose connections to Israel had become distant.[12] American Jewish Hollywood producer Nathan Ross had not visited Israel for 30 years before deciding to volunteer after October 7.[12] During a month of service, he performed kitchen work, organized equipment containers, and volunteered at hospitals in southern and central Israel.[12] In June 2024, most overseas volunteers were reported to have arrived through the umbrella organization Mosaic United, working with the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism and participating organizations.[12]

Published accounts differ on details of Sar-El's founding. Sar-El's official history says 650 volunteers were recruited in response to Golan Heights crop shortages during the 1982 Galilee War and says the effort marked the organization's beginning in 1983.[8] A 2013 Jerusalem Post report republished by the Israel Forever Foundation instead emphasized a need to transport goods to remote Golan moshavim and reported 680 volunteers in 1982.[3] A 2022 Jerusalem Post account also reported 680 volunteers but placed their arrival in 1983.[10]

Published cumulative totals also conflict, including across Sar-El's own pages. The homepage reports 292,000 volunteers from 60 countries, while About Us says more than 290,000 from more than 60 countries but separately says more than 200,000 served on IDF bases.[15][1] The Our History page gives more than 160,000 volunteers from more than 30 countries.[8] These figures may reflect different update dates or counting categories, but the pages do not explain the discrepancies; time-stamped figures should therefore be read as reported totals rather than as directly comparable measurements.