Meet the young men and women performing 38 million hours of national service a year
With 19,000 volunteers from across Israeli society, Sherut Leumi has in recent years transformed into a source of highly-skilled help in fields like health, tech and education
During a recent stint at a local hospital, a problem arose: after days of probing my veins, they simply disappeared. Doctors, nurses and interns tried their painful best, but were unable to draw blood. Finally, staff called in the big guns: two volunteers from Sherut Leumi, Israel’s national service. From that time on, they were the only ones I permitted near my beleaguered arms.
Sherut Leumi has been around in some form since the early days of prime minister David Ben-Gurion, with its final structure legislated in 2018. From the very beginning, the national civil service was intended only as an alternative method of serving the country for young men and women who were excused from the army for medical, religious or other reasons. Reuven Pinsky, Sherut Leumi’s director general, stresses that under no circumstances does it replace military service.
Over time, and especially in the last few years, the responsibilities given to volunteers have become ever more challenging. Earlier, they were given only side jobs in the hospitals, such as offering tea to patients and visitors. Today they are trained to perform all kinds of tasks: some become expert in drawing blood, for example, after extensive training and plenty of practice. While these doctors’ and nurses’ aids have only limited authority, says Pinsky, they are of tremendous help to the staff.
Service volunteers work 40 hour weeks, can stay on for a maximum of two years, and receive a small monthly allowance. At the end of their time in the Service they receive the same perks offered to non-combat soldiers who complete their stretch in the Israeli army.
Today, Sherut Leumi has nearly 19,000 volunteers. Of them, 13,500 are Jewish, and 5,500 are Arab or Druze — a number that increases by eight percent every year. Now, there are 1,500 haredi (ultra-Orthodox) volunteers, double the number prior to the October 7 massacre. Another 2,000 belong to special populations, including people with disabilities and medical issues who are unable to perform military service.
Pinsky notes that volunteers are involved in every possible field where they can contribute to the country. Besides education, health, and social services, they also now volunteer with security forces such as the Secret Service and intelligence organizations in a variety of technological posts.
While the young women who man the computers often have a technological background, and sometimes even a high school degree in computer science, many haredi volunteers do not. So before they begin training in quality assurance as network managers, and in similar fields where they will be working, they first take part in a special track where they study English, math and basic computer science. The benefits to both the volunteers themselves and society at large are vast: volunteers perform a meaningful service and at the same time gain valuable work experience that will help them in the future.
Over the past months, Sherut Leumi has also become involved in restoring communities and farms destroyed during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. And with nearly 100,000 people displaced from their homes, the Service has shifted 600 volunteers from work as guides and related fields and sent them to hundreds of hotels that are housing people displaced by the war. Here, volunteers keep children busy, work with older (and often severely lonely and traumatized golden agers) people, and, if groups move to another location, they go with them and continue their task. In Dead Sea hotels alone, there are over 100 volunteers accompanying the displaced Israelis.
Many a government body is woefully understaffed. Thus establishments like the National Insurance Institute and a variety of different municipalities now have Sherut Leumi volunteers that help out. So does the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo, where volunteers can be found assisting in almost every field.
Israel’s Education Ministry is desperately in need of both teachers and teachers’ aids, for schools are severely short-staffed. These days volunteers who once had limited duties are thoroughly trained, says Pinsky, and can be wonderful as teachers’ aids.
Amira lives in an Arab neighborhood outside of Jerusalem where performing national service carries political implications due to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. When she finished 12th grade, she heard there was work in the area school with children who had special needs. Because she had a natural connection with children of all kinds, she took the job: it was only many months later that she realized that she was performing national service. It didn’t matter to her. What did matter was the satisfaction she got from her work and the feeling that she was doing something meaningful. In addition, when she completed her two years of service, she received a sum of money that enabled her to help pay university fees.
Even more understaffed, perhaps, are this country’s social services. Here, too, Sherut Leumi volunteers have a special and unique role. While volunteers from the National Insurance Institute, for example, visit one or two elderly people each week, the Sherut Leumi volunteers, closely supervised and trained in gerontology, visit five to six carefully chosen lonely, bedridden or otherwise needy older people each day. They get them out of the house, play games with them, and just keep them company.
Pinsky tells of a completely new pilot project that sends thoroughly trained and constantly supervised volunteers into the homes of families who lost their loved ones through the current war. Requiring unusual sensitivity, the visits take place only after families have been vetted as wanting and needing their support.
Sherut Leumi is actively recruiting boys and girls from the Arab sector, and constantly developing programs that will bring them in. At the moment, states Pinsky, 20.5% of young Arab women who finish 12th grade volunteer for national service.
A relatively new program for young Arab men is in great demand. While ordinarily when they finish school Arab boys are eager to start making money so that they can begin saving for their future families, sometimes they end up in a cycle of violence. The new project, called Firefighters and Rescue Services, teaches them, instead, to become firemen and paramedics.
According to Pinsky, national service volunteers work 38 million hours a year at a cost of NIS 1 million ($268,000). It may sound like a large sum — but the benefits to Israeli society are beyond price.
Aviva Bar-Am is the author of seven English-language guides to Israel. Shmuel Bar-Am is a licensed, tour guide who provides private, customized tours in Israel for individuals, families and small groups.
