Browse Programs

Living accomodations for lone soldiers on Kibbutz Beerot Yitzchak

Habonim Dror Australia's year-long Shnat Hachshara Ve'Hadracha Le'Aliyah, run through the Australian Zionist Youth Council: touring Israel, a stay on Kibbutz Ravid near the Sea of Galilee for agricultural work and Hebrew/Jewish studies, an intensive study tour in Jerusalem working with civil-society organizations, and a concluding independent-living volunteering period. Masa-recognized, matching the same structure as the already-listed Habonim Dror UK and Southern Africa Shnat programs.

The classic short-term kibbutz work-exchange program: volunteers aged 18-35 work about 8.5 hours a day, five days a week, in a kibbutz's agriculture, kitchen, garden, or factory branches, in exchange for shared accommodation, three daily meals, and laundry facilities, without the structured Hebrew-ulpan component of Kibbutz Ulpan.

A 10-month fellowship for college graduates aged 20-26 combining Hebrew immersion, civil rights and community-building volunteer work, and hands-on social action, structured in three roughly 3-month sections: Hebrew ulpan at an absorption center, full-time community service in a development town, and a final stretch on a kibbutz, in the army, or in an internship, with housing, transportation, and food all arranged by program staff.

A 6-10 month gap year (length varies by home-country cohort) for members of Netzer, the Reform/Progressive Zionist youth movement, opening with a seminar at Kibbutz Ein HaShofet, moving into 1-2 months of volunteering on Kibbutz Harduf through the Jewish Agency's Project TEN, and continuing with programming on Tikkun Olam, leadership, and Zionism alongside Netzerniks from Australia, the UK, South Africa and beyond.

A 10-month gap year for Habonim Dror Southern Africa members, combining leadership and educational training at Jerusalem's Machon LeMadrichim, work and communal living on Kibbutz Revivim, and a trip to Poland to confront the history of the Holocaust, all within the Progressive Labor Zionist youth movement's framework.

A contemporary-dance program (established 2012) for male dancers 18-28 and female dancers 18-25 with a dance background, from Israel and around the world, offered by Vertigo Dance Company at its Eco-Art Village on a Judean-foothills kibbutz; recognized by Israel's Ministry of Culture & Sports, with graduates going on to the independent dance scene internationally.

An annual two-week Israel mission for CAMERA Fellows, CCAP activists and other campus Israel-advocacy leaders from the US, Canada and Uruguay, filled with expert speakers, lectures and touring -- most of the trip based in Jerusalem, with a Tel Aviv visit, a free weekend, and closing days on a Kinneret-area kibbutz -- to sharpen participants' ability to advocate accurately and effectively for Israel back on campus.

A 10-month gap year for members of the Labor-Zionist, secular Hashomer Hatzair youth movement (active in over a dozen countries including France, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay), living communally in Israel and becoming part of Israeli society before returning home to lead the movement's younger members.

A 5-10 month post-high-school program combining Machon Le'Madrichim leadership seminars, an optional taste of IDF Marva training, Magen David Adom EMS training, kibbutz living and work, touring across Israel, and a Poland trip focused on Shoah education; fully supervised by Maccabi World Union madrichim.

A Masorti/Conservative-movement gap year for young adults from Noam's global network (UK, Europe, Latin America and beyond), combining Zionism, Masorti Judaism, tikkun olam, hadracha (leadership) and democracy education, run through Kibbutz Hannaton's Education Center in the Galilee.

An 8-month gap year for UK school leavers built around Socialist-Zionist and collective-living values: 3 months on kibbutz (Shorashim) for group bonding, Hebrew ulpan and Jewish/Zionist education; a month of leadership training; and 4 months (Anafim) living communally in an Israeli city, volunteering, running youth groups, teaching English, and a March of the Living trip to Poland.

A 5-month program combining multi-level Hebrew language classes with kibbutz dormitory living and work assignments, giving participants an immersive experience of rural Israeli community life alongside their Hebrew studies.

A World Bnei Akiva gap-year track designed to enhance a participant's parallel year in yeshiva or seminary with additional leadership training, seminars, Shabbatonim, a kibbutz stay and a wider Israel-wide peer community. Available for British and European attendees of Yeshivat Hakotel, Yeshivat Eretz Hatzvi, Midreshet Harova and Midreshet Amit. The program is mixed.

An immersive, co-ed, modern-Orthodox Zionist gap-year program giving participants a broad taste of Israeli life through internships, kibbutz living, volunteering, Magen David Adom training, a taste of Marva IDF preparation, seminars, Torah learning and travel.

A pluralistic, co-ed pre-military academy on a kibbutz near the Sea of Galilee emphasizing nature exploration and building bridges across different sectors of Israeli society, alongside standard mechina Jewish-identity and leadership study.

The longest-running Israel gap-year program, an 8-month experience combining kibbutz-based collective living, volunteering with Israel's Hanoar HaOved VeHalomed youth movement, a Poland seminar, and deep engagement with Israeli society in all of its complexity.