Young Adults | Gap Year

HaMidrasha Young Leadership Programs for Overseas Students:
• Yitzchak Rabin Leadership Development Academy (Mechinat Rabin)
• HeChalutz Service Year on Kibbutzim in the Israeli South
• HeChalutz Urban Service Year

Each of HaMidrasha’s gap year offerings is an intense ten-month experience in which participants develop leadership abilities, cultivate self- and group management skills, and learn about Israel with their Israeli peers in class, on trips in the field, and in shared dormitories located on a kibbutz, in the city, or on an academic campus. At each location, a director, program head, and team of counselors provide guidance and direction from the very beginning to the conclusion of the program. Young adults from overseas are fully integrated with their Israeli peers, allowing overseas participants who can speak Hebrew (reading and writing are a plus) and have family in Israel to enjoy a unique gap year experience.

No two weeks of this experience are quite the same. Some are dedicated to learning and working in local communities, where participants volunteer at schools, coach younger teens, work in agriculture, help at nursing homes, and more. Other weeks are focused on activities further afield, with hikes throughout the country that introduce participants to all parts of Israeli society. Throughout, participants grow together as they learn about helping and depending on each other.

The HaMidrasha gap year is a powerful year. A meaningful year. A year that happens only once in a lifetime, yet gives young people tools for decades to come.

For more information, please contact Dana Yaari Dayan, director of international relations at HaMidrasha.