November 12, 2023, Updated March 31

With approximately half the Israeli population volunteering in some capacity since the start of the Swords of Iron war on October 7, you might think we have enough volunteers – but we truly don’t.

Labor is in short supply due to hundreds of thousands of Israelis called up for reserve duty, foreign workers leaving the country, and many people unable to get to their workplaces because of war-related childcare or safety issues.

A person carrying a rifle on their back and holding grocery bags in both hands inside a store or mall. Other people are in the background, some seated and others standing on a wooden floor. — Pantry Packers is providing 6,000 meals three times a day for displaced Israelis. Photo courtesy of Colel Chabad

Moreover, the needs for helping hands in fields such as emergency medical care, agriculture and mass feeding programs have never been greater.

Two people wearing white shirts and black gloves are picking ripe tomatoes in a greenhouse filled with lush green plants. The man in the foreground holds a tomato, and a woman in the background reaches for another. — Emergency medical personnel from Magen David Adom helping to harvest tomatoes at a southern farm. Photo courtesy of MDA

Ready to volunteer in Israel? There are plenty of opportunities to do so these days. Here are some of the initiatives that welcome English-speaking (and other foreign and domestic) volunteers with open arms.

How to volunteer in Israel

Emergency Volunteers Project
Israel Food Rescue Mission
Leket Israel
Mission Hinenu
Jewish National Fund
Sar-El Israel
Startup Reserves for Israel
Citrus & Salt
Pantry Packers
OneFamily
Adopt-A-Safta
Birthright Israel
Masa Israel Journey
Latet-Israeli Humanitarian Aid
Sword of Iron

1. Emergency Volunteers Project

Emergency Volunteers Project (EVP) is staffing two projects in addition to its professional firefighters initiative: The EVP Mass-Feeding Unit, working with Israel’s Home Front Command, trains volunteers to prepare fresh, healthy meals for IDF units and needy populations using a fleet of mobile kitchens. The EVP Make A Soldier Smile project has volunteers cooking meals at popup field kitchens on army bases.

Contact EVP by emailing office1@evp.org.il; or by calling 781-713-4562 (USA) or 073-729-1954 (Israel).

A woman in a black cap and apron pours food from a metal bowl into a tray in a food truck kitchen. She wears black gloves and is surrounded by various kitchen equipment. Outdoors, a gray truck is parked nearby. — A participant in the Emergency Volunteers Project’s Mass Feeding Unit. Photo courtesy of EVP

2. Israel Food Rescue Mission

Israel Food Rescue Mission is a joint effort of HaShomer HaChadash, Kol Israel and Brothers in Arms, in response to a war-related manpower crisis on Israeli farms. Volunteers may sign up for five or more days (paying their own way) or for a year-long stint doing agricultural work and sleeping on the farm.

Click here to volunteer for the Israel Food Rescue Mission or email rabbirandybrown@gmail.com.

For new immigrants willing to volunteer on farms through HaShomer HaChadash, click here.

3. Leket Israel

Leket Israel, in addition to its usual volunteer opportunities at its Logistics Center in Gan Haim (near Kfar Saba) and fields in Rishon Lezion, has begun matching volunteers with farmers in need of assistance in harvesting their produce.

To volunteer with Leket Israel harvesting produce, supporting a farmer, or packing in the Logistics Center, register here.

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4. Mission Hinenu

Mission Hinenu is helping understaffed Israeli hospitals by processing paperwork for licensed medical personnel (physicians, physician assistants, nurses, nurse practitioners, therapists, psychologists, pharmacists) and non-medical personnel (patient transport, feeding and other tasks) able to come to Israel to volunteer. Spearheaded by siblings Yigal Marcus and Eliana Marcus Aaron, Mission Hinenu works in partnership with the Health Ministry to find and place hospital volunteers efficiently.

Click here to access the volunteer application form for medical professionals. Click here to access the volunteer application form non-medical hospital professionals.

Another volunteer portal for foreign physicians willing to come to Israel for two weeks during the war has been opened by Nefesh B’Nefesh in collaboration with the Israeli Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration and The Jewish Agency for Israel. Doctors with valid licenses from North America, the UK, South Africa, Australia, and the EU may apply.

Click here for the NBN physician volunteer application form.

5. Jewish National Fund

Jewish National Fund-USA is running five-day volunteer missions in Israel. Participants (ages 18 and up) will be housed in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv and spend four to six hours per day working in agriculture, packing food or gift baskets for displaced families, patients or soldiers, or assisting with logistical duties at an IDF base.

Click here to sign up and to get more information on JNF-USA volunteer missions.

6. Sar-El Israel

Sar-El Israel provides organized opportunities for civilian volunteer service on IDF bases. Email johanna@sar-el.org or click here.

7. Startup Reserves for Israel

Startup Reserves for Israel, based in New York, is recruiting thousands of tech workers to give support, guidance and staffing to some 25 companies in Israel’s high-tech sector. According to an Israel Innovation Authority and Start-Up Nation Policy Institute report, 15% to 20% of tech employees have been mobilized for reserve duty, leaving 70 percent of Israeli tech companies operationally shorthanded.

Apply to Startup Reserves for Israel here or email info@startupreserves.org.

8. Citrus & Salt

Citrus & Salt cooking studio in Tel Aviv launched Citizen’s Kitchen to provide daily fresh meals for Israeli soldiers and displaced families. Sisters Aliya Fastman and Shaendl Davis, with Alon Sharaby, run the project and work in cooperation with World Central Kitchen. The effort is staffed mainly by English-speaking immigrants and visitors, and is a great volunteer opportunity in Israel.

To volunteer at Citizen’s Kitchen, contact Aliya Fastman, citrus.salt@gmail.com or +972-53-334-6861.

9. Pantry Packers

Pantry Packers of Jerusalem ordinarily provides Meals on Wheels to 37,000 families every month, and also runs soup kitchens. Now, with thousands of refugee families from the south sheltering in Jerusalem, the city asked Pantry Packers to commit to providing 6,000 meals, three times a day. Lots of extra hands are needed.

To schedule a volunteer activity at Pantry Packers, email volunteer@pantrypackers.org or click here.

A man with a beard, wearing glasses and a cap, holds packaged meals in a storage room. Numerous trays are stacked on shelves in the background. He is smiling and wearing a dark hoodie. — Rabbi Menachem Traxler, director of Pantry Packers, with meals ready to go to displaced families in Jerusalem. Photo courtesy of Colel Chabad

10. OneFamily

OneFamily has plenty of volunteer opportunities. The Israeli organization needs volunteers to provide a range of services to victims of terror, from cooking and baking to visiting injured people in the hospital and more, as well as administrative support services such as social media, photography and answering phones.

Apply to volunteer at OneFamily here.

A person in a red Building Resilience One Family t-shirt and a face mask is holding two boxes on their shoulders. They are standing outdoors in front of more stacked boxes, with trees and a wall in the background. — A OneFamily volunteer delivering pantry staples to victims of terror. Photo courtesy of OneFamily

11. Adopt-A-Safta

Adopt-A-Safta is welcoming foreign volunteers in Israel, with access to a vehicle, to deliver Shabbat meals to isolated seniors on Friday mornings. This is a great opportunity for volunteers to keep their “adopted” grandmas and grandpas safe in wartime. Many of the recipients are Holocaust survivors in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area.

Volunteers may complete this form online to help Adopt-A-Safta with meal delivery.

12. Birthright Israel

Birthright Israel alumni, and others aged 18 to 40, can spend eight days or 14 days volunteering in food rescue operations as well as sorting, packing and distributing goods for civil and military personnel. Birthright is offering partial flight subsidies, free airport transfers and transportation to volunteer sites as well as health insurance and accommodations in Tel Aviv with safe rooms.

Apply here for Birthright Israel alumni volunteer trips.

13. Masa Israel Journey

Masa Israel Journey is offering a six-week volunteer program in response to the ongoing conflict. Participants may choose food packaging, tutoring, agricultural work, assisting displaced families or contributing to rehabilitation efforts in southern and northern Israel.

The program, open to individuals aged 18-40, also includes leadership seminars and certifications of leadership upon completion of the program.

Apply to Masa’s volunteer program here.

14. Latet-Israeli Humanitarian Aid

Latet-Israeli Humanitarian Aid, an NGO fighting poverty and nutritional insecurity in Israel, welcomes volunteers to its Beit Shemesh warehouse to pack food and hygiene boxes and essential winter kits for families in economic distress, displaced families, the elderly, Holocaust survivors and soldiers throughout the country.

Groups wishing to volunteer with Latet may use this webform or email Gaelle at gaelle@latet.org.il while individual volunteers may email Reut at reuts@latet.org.il.

A large group of people in a warehouse is organizing and packing boxes. They are surrounded by shelves filled with various packaged goods. Everyone is wearing casual clothing, and many have on T-shirts with writing on the back in another language. — Volunteers packing aid boxes in Latet’s warehouse in Beit Shemesh. Photo courtesy of Latet

15. Sword of Iron

Sword of Iron – Israel Volunteer Opportunities has over 13.5k members on Facebook, offering volunteer opportunities for people from anywhere and from any walk of life, “from CEOs to college students,” even for a day or an afternoon. Longer-term volunteers are also provided with a place to stay if needed.