Dear Friends,

 

The past few months have continued to test us. A new wave of conflict, the weight of an extended war, and real uncertainty on the ground - and yet, what I've witnessed again and again is people choosing to show up.

 

At the end of April, I was in New York for Elluminate's Global Jewish Women's Leadership Network Summit, spending time with Jewish communal leaders across North America and Israel. What struck me most was the feeling in the room. Jews everywhere are carrying something heavy right now. The challenges we face are not only Israel's challenges. Antisemitism, disconnection, a generation of young Jews searching for something real to hold onto, these are our shared challenges, and they don't stop at any border.

 

What I also felt, in that room and in so many interactions with the international volunteers who come through Yahel, is that community is what keeps us standing. Not speeches or strategies, community. People who show up for each other, across geography and difference and uncertainty, because they believe that what binds us is stronger than what divides us.

 

That is exactly what our new strategic alliance with Repair the World is proving in practice. As we shared in our letter earlier this year, Yahel and Repair are building a shared curriculum, bringing groups to Israel, training educators on both sides of the ocean, and creating pathways that connect service in Israel to a deeper, lasting sense of belonging, before, during, and long after the experience itself. Service is not a program. It is one of the most honest expressions of who we are as a people, and it is building the kind of resilience that no crisis can take from us.

 

In this update, we want to share some of what we've been part of these past several months: a landmark week with the Jewish Service Alliance in Israel, AEPi brothers who came to serve and learn, fellows who traveled through the Gaza Envelope, the Negev, and Jerusalem with open hearts and hard questions, and international volunteers from all around the world that kept moving even when things were anything but simple.

 

None of what we do happens without your support, and we want to be direct about where that support is needed most right now (read more in detail below).

 

When conflict escalated in the spring, our community responded in a way that moved us deeply. We launched an emergency fundraising campaign to directly benefit our grassroots partners with a goal of $20,000, and we ultimately raised nearly $44,000. Those funds went directly to a joint food package effort with Kulna, reaching both Arab and Jewish families in Jerusalem; emergency kits delivered to displaced families from Dimona after the Iranian attack; and multiple projects supporting communities in the North, and much more. We are very proud of what this community made possible.

 

Alongside emergency response, we also want to highlight something that doesn't always get the spotlight it deserves. Over the years, up to a quarter of our Yahel Social Change fellowship cohorts have been non-Jewish, and that matters deeply to us, and to our Jewish fellows too. At a moment when so much of the world feels divided along religious and national lines, having Jews and non-Jews live, volunteer, and grow together for nine months feels more important than ever. It builds genuine understanding in a way that no lecture or headline can, and it reminds all of us, Jewish and non-Jewish fellows alike, that the values at the heart of this work, service, curiosity, showing up for one another, are not exclusive to any one group. 

 

Most of our Jewish participants receive Masa funding to help cover the cost of the fellowship, support that simply isn't available to non-Jewish fellows. For many years, this gap was closed almost entirely by one extraordinary person: Yahel alum Will Van Den Broek, who funded non-Jewish fellows through the Nicholas Cleeves Scholarship, named in honor of Will's college friend Nicholas Cleeves, who was a victim of a 2017 terrorist attack in NYC. 

 

We are endlessly grateful for his generosity over the years, and as he now scales back that commitment, the scholarship has been renamed the Gesher Scholarship, reflecting the bridges this fund helps build, so we can continue welcoming amazing non-Jewish fellows into this community. If this resonates with you, you can support it directly below, and please feel free to pass this along to other donors who you feel this may interest.

We are also so proud to announce a brand new initiative, English IRL, pairing native English-speaking volunteers with Israeli high schoolers for real-time conversation practice ahead of one of the most important exams of their high school years. Many of our volunteers are close in age to the students they're working with, and what starts as exam practice quickly becomes something more: genuine conversation, curiosity, and connection across very different worlds. It's also addressing a real need for these students, and we are excited about the potential this program holds. I encourage you to read below to find out more. 

 

Thank you, as always, for being part of this.

 

With warmth,

 

 

Years of disrupted schooling have left many Israeli high schoolers deeply behind on oral English skills ahead of their national matriculation exam. This year, Yahel launched English IRL (in real life), pairing native English-speaking volunteers with Israeli students for structured, real-time conversation practice built around the exact format of the exam. For our international volunteers, it's a uniquely meaningful way to give back, a few hours of real conversation that can genuinely shift a student's confidence going into one of the biggest tests of their high school years. 

 

The schools that have already taken part have had nothing but praise for the program, and the potential here is enormous: a simple, scalable model that connects volunteers and Israeli high schoolers in a way that's deeply meaningful for both sides. We are fundraising to expand it, and we are very excited about where this can go.

 

 

 

This past May, Yahel and Repair the World welcomed 16 Jewish organizational leaders from across North America for a week of immersive, hands-on service - in partnership with JFNA and Taglit-Birthright Israel. Participants experienced Israel in all its depth, with service sites spanning Israel's south: from a therapeutic farm in the Negev and a center for the blind and visually impaired in Be'er Sheva, to a Shabbat in Jerusalem — and much more in between. The Baltimore Jewish Times covered what participants took home from the experience.

 

 

We are thrilled to share that Yahel has received new support from both Crown Family Philanthropies and Natan: Reimagining Israel Education. Partnerships like these help us develop our regional hubs and the infrastructure behind them, the relationships, staff, and systems that let us connect international volunteers with meaningful service opportunities and a deeper connection to Israel and Jewish peoplehood. We are deeply grateful for their belief in this work.

 

 

This spring, AEPi brothers spent eight days on an immersive service trip with Yahel and Repair the World - in partnership with JFNA and Taglit-Birthright Israel - beginning on a kibbutz in the south and ending in Jerusalem. Along the way, they completed a backyard build for a Lone Soldier House in Dimona, hosted an English fair for kids at an after-school program in Ofakim, planted trees at a community garden in Jerusalem, and connected with Yahel fellows and the Ethiopian Jewish community in Rishon LeZion. They also visited the Nova festival site and heard firsthand testimony from a bereaved father. As AEPi's Director of Campus Life put it: "This is who we are, this is what we stand for."

 

 

These past months took our Yahel Social Change Fellows to some of the most significant and challenging corners of the country - to the Gaza Envelope, where they heard directly from residents of Netiv HaAsara, Sderot, and Re'im and spent time at the Nova festival site; through four days in the Negev in Bedouin communities in Rahat; and to Jerusalem, from the Knesset to Gush Etzion, sitting with complexity and holding it honestly. 

 

We are proud that despite everything this year brought with it - these seminars happened. And even more importantly, so did the volunteering. Week after week, fellows showed up at their placements: at English lessons, Tuesday mornings at an elderly day center, after school programs and so many more. 

 

As the fellowship draws to a close at the end of this month, Fellow Kae Goldstein, based in Lod, put into words what so many of the fellows have carried this year - the unexpected depth of connection that comes from simply being present.

 

The fluctuating dollar-shekel exchange rate and the ongoing pressures of this past year have made this a genuinely demanding period. The need in our partner communities hasn't slowed down - and neither have we. If you're able to make a gift right now, it goes directly toward keeping that commitment.

 

 

Nine months. Three cities. Hundreds of community members who will know your name by the end. The years since October 7th have been complicated, painful, and also - for the fellows who chose to come - among the most meaningful of their lives. To be in Israel right now, embedded in communities, doing real work alongside real people, is something that stays with you. The Yahel Social Change Fellowship 2026/27 is still accepting applications - deadline extended to June 30th. If you know someone who's ready to experience Israel from the inside, please help us connect with them. The real Israel. The work being done on the ground, every day.

 

 

When the escalation with Iran brought sirens back over Israeli cities this past spring, Yahel partnered with Masa Israel Journey to connect their program participants already in Israel with volunteering opportunities. Hundreds of Masa participants joined our emergency response, packaging food parcels and preparing activity kits for children spending days in bomb shelters. It was a powerful reminder of what having roots in communities makes possible - the ability to match real needs with real volunteers, quickly, because the relationships were already there.

 

 

Recently we welcomed our newest Olim Shalav cohort - 13 new immigrants from Russia, Argentina, France, Germany, and the US, who during one of Israel's hardest moments have chosen no to sit on the sidelines, but to integrate into Israeli society through community, service, and action. They are now part of the Yahel community in Haifa, building belonging through service in the place they now call home. We are so proud to walk this journey with them.

 

Thank you for reading this month's newsletter! We’d love for you to stay connected - whether by making a gift to support Yahel’s work or by following us on Instagram and Facebook to hear more stories from the field. Together, we can keep building bridges between international volunteers and Israeli communities, fostering connection, learning, and meaningful service.