Spend five months volunteering and living alongside Israeli peers your age, making a difference for a community in Israel’s Galilee region. Choose from many different volunteer options available or identify a need in the community and create your own volunteer project based on your skills and interests. Live in the same town that you serve, gaining a real world connection to Israeli society and its people. Along the way, we will crisscross the country on a series of travel experiences that take you beyond the typical tour.

Israel Corps is based in Kiriyat Shmona, a small town of about 25,000 residents located between the slopes of the Manara Cliffs to the west, the Golan Heights to the East and Mount Hermon to the north. Kiriyat Shmona has a unique, small town feel and is comprised of students, families and surrounding kibbutz community farms.

Orientation Programming

The first 4 weeks of the Israel Corps experience is dedicated to learning the Hebrew language and getting oriented to living in Israel. Our "Ulpan Course" is an intensive Hebrew immersion experience, exclusive for Israel Pathways participants from around the world. Ulpan will be offered on different levels so that participants with different levels of background in Hebrew will be accommodated. The Israel Corps orientation also has a special focus on integrating you into your host community and preparing you for the work ahead.

Core Volunteer Programming  

The heart of the Israel Corps experience is a volunteer program in your local community. Here you will volunteer in Kiriyat Shmona or surrounding towns to help improve the region and provide resources to a community that does not have as many resources as other cities and towns.  You'll live in apartment style dorms with Israeli peers, ages 22-30, who are studying at nearby Tel Hai College just outside of Kiriyat Shmona, many of whom have made a commitment to do volunteer in distressed communities as part of an Israeli service initiative. Most of our participants work on 2-3 volunteer projects at a time, so you have the opportunity to devirsify your skills and have variation throughout the week.

Currently there are several different catagories of volunteering including:

• Senior Citizens
• Co-existence

Speicfic volunteer placements include:

• The Tennis Center runs a drop out prevention program where students come with their class during school hours and do fun activities as a reward for high attendance at school

• Helping out at Kadima, is an afterschool program for children from high risk homes
• Teach English at a local high school
• Help take care of close to 200 dogs at the local no-kill dog shelter

• Facilitate animal therapy sessions for children, and help take care of the animals at Kfar Giladi -- a local kibbutz farm hosting goats, dogs, and other farm animals

• Plan after-school activities and assist teachers at a local elementary school
• Perform maintenance projects and upkeep at Gold Park
• Collect data and release birds at the Hula Valley bird banding station
• Work in a classroom at a special needs school with low- and high-functioning students

Travel Experiences

In addition to making a contribution to your host community, traveling the Land of Israel is a core component of Israel Corps. The program includes a series of educational programs and tours in the Galilee region and beyond. These enrichment experiences are scheduled throughout the program and are designed to expose you to contemporary Israeli society, the intricacies of Jewish history, and the stunning beauty of Israel's ecology on a deeper level than a typical tour. These excursions are led by our own professional guides, and all of the travel expenses are included. In addition to day trips, the program covers weekend-long trips to the Galilee, the Negev Desert and, of course, Jerusalem -- where we stay at hotels and guest houses. Closer to home, Kiriyat Shmona is surrounded by nature reserves with plenty of hiking trails to explore. Evening programs such as speakers, presentations, and organized social nights are also scheduled periodically. Finally, most nights and weekends are free, and we schedule two full weeks of breaks to explore Israel on your own!

Explore the Path

Want to know what our current Israel Corps participants are up to? Check out the Israel Corps Photo Album which is always being updated!

Joining a MASA Israel Pathways program is an experience, not a trip. Read Life on the Path to get a sense for what daily life on Israel Corps will be like, and explore even further on the Questions & Answers page.