Reviews of Volunteer Programs in Israel

Jenna Rose, Livnot Volunteer Alum in Israel

Jenna is originally from Connecticut but spent the last 6 years of her life in Baltimore, Maryland. When she made the trip to Israel in 2009, she had graduated college and was about to start a year of service with AmeriCorps.

Deciding to volunteer in Israel: In truth, I didn't have any desire to go to Israel. I had done a lot of traveling and Israel wasn't high on my priority list after I had an unpleasant hebrew school experience. My cousin and I wanted to travel together, however, and she insisted I come on this program with her. She had been to Israel before and had a special connection to the country that she wanted to share with me. I decided it would be worth it to see a new place and get to bond with my cousin but had no high hopes for my experience. I was happily very mistaken.

Morning: Our day to day activities consisted of waking up and taking turns cooking breakfast for the whole group (which can vary anywhere from 5 - 25 people). We ate most of our meals together as a community and watched and discussed the news every morning.

Afternoon: Afterwards, we either went off to do some community service in the area or a beautiful hike. Some examples of the community service we did were cleaning up a low income, immigrant village, singing to elderly people in a home, playing with children in an Ethiopian Absorption Center, painting a school, and helping to renovate a bomb shelter. The hikes we went on were guided by some of the most amazing guides and people I've ever met. Not only did they know seemingly everything about the area we were in (which is impressive in a land with so much history!) but were interested in our lives, what had brought us here, and open about their own experiences. I had many conversations about the meaning of life while hiking down the side of a mountain on that trip.

Jenna learned about herself and Israel while volunteering

The program also consisted of some Jewish learning. It was so important for me to be in a Jewish environment that was also so open and diverse. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to join the discussion, no matter what point of view he or she has. This sense of openness and safety in this community allowed for incredible bonding and insights.

Returning to Israel: When I left Israel after this trip, I knew immediately that I had to come back. For a year and a half, I impatiently waited and planned to come back to Israel and explore what this feeling was that I had about being in the land, connecting to these people. I finally made it back, with no plans of what I would do during my four month stay. I wound up studying with a wonderful community in Jerusalem, traveling around the country, and eventually going back to work for Livnot U'Lehibanot.

Jenna and her fiance met and volunteered in Israel

It was there that I met my fiance, another Livnot alum who had a very similiar experience to my own and had decided to move to Israel. We are getting married at the end of this month and planning to live and start a family in Israel. Because of Livnot, I have gotten to know myself in ways I never thought possible, have met some of my favorite people in the world, and have found where I am truly at home. I could not recommend this program more for someone who wants an off the beaten track, meaningful way to experience Israel and meet an amazing community of people.

Read more about volunteering in Israel with Livnot.

Sarah Greenberg, OTZMA Alum in Israel

Sarah Greenberg is from Greenwich, CT and currently is travelling the world with her fiance for pleasure, while working with an Africa-based NGO for satisfaction. She attended McGill University and the California Institute for Integral Studies and will soon return to the San Francisco Bay Area to resume her career as a Psychotherapist with an integrative mind-body practice. Of late she has a been a seeker of adventure, such as climbing a couple of mountains, scuba diving with an elephant, and paragliding over the Himalayas.

Highlights: OTZMA was such a meaningful and varied experience in my life that it is impossible to choose just one or two highlights. I learned what my passions were when money was taken out of the equation. I learned and worked in a new language. I stood beneath waterfalls, hiked for days through the desert, swam in the Dead Sea, and danced all night at a party inside a deep desert crater. I lived for a month in Jerusalem, a city of such political, historical, and spiritual significance. That city has a palpable soul that never ceased to affect me, and make me feel more alive. I was immersed in a culture that is warm and embracing. I got informally adopted by an Israeli family, and made incredible friends. I got to experience ten months of consciously thinking beyond myself, and helping however I could. This has an immense impact on happiness.

I signed up for OTZMA at a crossroads in my life. A recent college graduate, I had prepared for a career in Finance, yet when I went to my NYC interviews at investment companies, my stomach tied itself into millions of knots screaming, "NOOOOOOO!!!". My time in Israel gave me the confidence, experience, and self-knowledge to take a different path, and that has made all the difference.

Sarah in Israel

Morning: A typical morning in Ashkelon: Mornings in Ashkelon were all about language learning. We had about four hours of 'Hebrew Ulpan' each morning, and these were held at the immigrant absorption center where we stayed, so it was a treat to roll out of bed, make some breakfast, and already be at class. After three months, coming in with zero Hebrew, minus the ability to sound out words, and sing the alphabet, I became proficient enough to work with kids who only spoke Hebrew. The teachers were fantastic and taught us about Israeli history and culture while teaching the language. After class, I almost always managed to squeeze in an hour of beach time (we lived just a ten minute walk from the Mediterranean) before an afternoon of volunteering.

Afternoon: My schedule in Afula was full and wonderful. Since there were few volunteers in the region, and more need there than in many areas of the country, the three of us in Afula had endless opportunities to get involved. Most afternoons I went to a school created for kids with Cerebral Palsy, and helped run their therapeutic art program. A couple times a week, I accompanied them to a therapeutic horseback riding program which was incredibly successful. Several of the children I met could not sit up on their own prior to the horse riding, but the horses motivated them, and riding requires core strength. After several months they gained the strength to sit upright, and received much joy from their time with the animals.

Evening: In Ranana, I had two internships with OTZMA: one doing research and writing articles at the International Institute for Counter-terrorism, and another working with the Yoga Teacher's Society of Israel. The two experiences really balanced each other out! In the evenings, my friends and I would get home around the same time, then go into town for dinner, cook together, hang out with others in our building, or go to the nearest beach for sunset. There is a great sense of community within this program, and within Israel as a whole.

Read more about the OTZMA program in Israel.

Shaina Ward , OTZMA Alum in Israel

Shaina Ward volunteered with OTZMA form September 2009-June 2010. Shaina is originally from Los Angeles and loves to travel, explore world cultures, learn languages, and try all kinds of food. She was grateful to improve her Hebrew while in Israel and finally considers herself multilingual. After Otzma, Shaina went on to complete her masters in social work and currently lives in Philadelphia.

Highlights: There were a lot of highlights to the trip, however one of the main highlights was how connected I felt by the end, especially to my host family. I really tried my best to integrate into the communities I lived in and worked tirelessly on my Hebrew. I knew that learning Hebrew in Israel was my best chance at succeeding in being truly bilingual and that it would bring me closer to the people there. Among the people that helped me feel connected were my host family members and their extended family. I barely traveled on weekends during track 2 because all I wanted to do was hang out with the women that I met and learn how to cook from them, and then spend shabbats with them and their families, including my host family. I still keep in touch with them and really feel like they’re family. These women and families in Netivot helped me feel welcome and a part of the Jewish peoplehood and took me to participate in really special things like weekly Israeli folk dancing with a religious group of women.

Wishing that time could stop

Morning: Each track of the program looked a little bit different, but a typical morning during the first track consisted mostly of Hebrew class. I would wake up, have some breakfast, and go downstairs to a classroom in the absorption center. We had a great teacher for my class and would learn vocabulary and grammar, listen to the radio, sometimes watch movies, and come up with dialogues. Among the best parts of the morning experience was our teacher who was super sassy and personable and the breaks we took which allowed us to go back upstairs and eat fun Israeli snacks.

Afternoon: A typical afternoon usually meant making lunch or going out for food, then splitting off from most of the group and heading to a volunteer site. I always enjoyed going to sites with fewer Otzma volunteers so that I could really get to know other people in the community and engage with them in a different way. A lot of my placements in the first two tracks were helping out with English classes or afterschool programs, so I often took a bus to a school and worked with kids on the sidelines of a classroom, ran activities, or taught lessons.

Shaina in the classroom

Evening: Evenings during track one were my favorite. Typically we would cook dinner in small groups and then hang outside in the communcal space of the absorption center. People often joked around and hung out, but I also would sit out there with my notebook. I made friends with some of the other students from the nearby college who also happened to live there. They were not only really nice and fun, but they put up with my many questions about Hebrew and helped me practice what I had been learning. This is the phase of the program in which I learned how to say “nerd” in Hebrew. Many nights we also would be go out as a group to a bar and spent time together.

Read more about the OTZMA program in Israel.