After several decades focusing on Israel’s poor and mainly urban communities, the legendary Nahal group, which combines military service with community service, will return to its roots serving agricultural settlements along the Gazan and northern borders. Several IDF-approved organizations — including the kibbutz and moshav movements, the religious youth movement Bnei Akiva, HaShomer HaTzair, HaShomer HaChadash, and Kedma — are establishing garinim, or core groups, of 12th graders who will be assigned to their communities starting on September 1.
Nahal service includes a perek mesima, roughly translated as “task-oriented period,” during which teens spend a pre-army service year living together and volunteering in a community to which they will return for an additional year after the military portion of their service.
In the new track, the volunteers will live in a border settlement, working in education, agriculture, and the community. They will perform the military part of the service (22 months for men, 18 to 22 months for women) in the 50th Battalion, the mixed-gender Caracal Battalion, the education corps, or in support roles. An IDF spokesperson confirmed a “significant rise” in the number of youths volunteering for these garinim following October 7, 2023. (Read More)
