National Service:
A Story of an Association and Volunteering (1971-2021)
National Service in Israel is the largest social initiative ever established in the country. It allows young men and women aged 18, who do not wish to or cannot serve in the IDF, to enlist for one or two years of volunteering, fulfilling a civic duty equivalent to military service. Today, in 2023, approximately 18,000 young people volunteer each year, coming from all sectors of Israeli society: religious and secular, Arab and Druze, able-bodied and those with disabilities. Hundreds of thousands of young men and women have already exercised their right to serve the state in this way, instead of serving in the IDF.
Upon completing their National Service, they are entitled to all the rights granted to discharged male and female soldiers (such as financial benefits, educational assistance, and preferential treatment in various public services).
National Service now seems routine and self-evident, an integral part of the Israeli experience. It is the "little brother" of the IDF – an official track for serving the state, operating according to laws and regulations set by the Knesset, and supervised by a government authority: "The National-Civic Service Authority."
It wasn't always like this.
In the early decades of the state, there was only one service track, the Israel Defense Forces, which obligated young men and women turning 18 to enlist. It was proudly called "the people's army," but not all the people truly served in it. The IDF did not accept everyone. It exempted yeshiva students under the 'Toratam Umanutam' principle (a legal exemption allowing dedicated religious study in lieu of military service), rejected young men and women on medical grounds, and did not accept pacifists or young people with criminal records, and of course, minorities – primarily Muslims.
Even religious girls did not serve in the IDF, but that's an entirely different story. From the establishment of the state and for about two decades, very few religious girls, just a few percent, enlisted and wore uniforms. All the others received an exemption from military service on religious grounds. Girls from all religious sectors, including the Religious Zionist sector (then called: Dati-Leumi), completed their high school studies and moved on to the next chapter of their lives: studies, work, marriage, and starting a family. Even if they wanted to contribute to Israeli society, they had no organized way to do so.
In the 1970s, this reality changed, and a dramatic transformation occurred: a framework for National Service was established for religious girls, enabling an overwhelming majority of girls from the Religious Zionist sector (and also Haredi girls) to choose National Service instead of military service. They largely took advantage of this opportunity. Three decades later, the framework expanded, and new service channels opened to the entire population of Israel, including: Muslim Arabs, Christians, Druze, young people with disabilities, and anyone prevented from serving in the IDF.
This gap between what was and what is today is credited to "The Association for Volunteering" – the non-profit organization that founded National Service and made it an inseparable part of Israeli society.
In the following chapters, we will tell how it once was, how the transformation occurred, what is happening today, who are the people behind the changes, and what role politics played in all these historical processes. The material published here in 7 chapters is based on the book the Association published to mark its 50th anniversary and that of National Service. The full book, spanning 274 pages, was written after in-depth research by Shlomi Rosenfeld, the author, and is based on thousands of documents, personal interviews, and thousands of additional information sources. For the first time, the book provides a comprehensive overview of the processes that led to the establishment of National Service as a unique Israeli initiative – a topic still largely unexplored in academia and media.
Here, selected chapters from the book are presented in summary.
This is the book (in Hebrew):
"The Association for Volunteering - Fifty Years of National Service"
by Shlomi Rosenfeld.
And these are the chronicles (in summary) of National Service and the story of The Association for Volunteering in 7 chapters. Each chapter on a separate link:
* Introduction – this page
* National Service and the Historical Covenant
* The Association and National Service
* The Turning Point in National Service
