Sar-El

In the summer of 1982, in the midst of the Galilee War, Golan Heights communities faced the disastrous prospect of losing their entire agricultural crop. The majority of able-bodied farmers and other workers were called up for army reserve duty and entire farms, with crops already ripened, were left unattended, due to the acute manpower shortage. Touched by the farmer’s distress, the former head of the I.D.F. Paratrooper and Infantry Corps sent a number of friends as a recruitment team to the United States. Within a few weeks, some 650 volunteers arrived in Israel to lend their support through volunteer labor. Realizing the merits of that action, those first volunteers expressed the wish that the volunteer project be continued as an ongoing volunteer organization. Over the years, volunteers from other countries began to participate in the project, and to date, Sar-El is represented in over 70 countries worldwide. Since its inception the Sar-El volunteer project has brought in over 200,000 volunteers providing broad logistical support to the I.D.F. throughout the country.