Aluma for Service Archives

Aluma for Service

Meaningful military or civilian national service starts with an informed decision. Aluma supports young people struggling at the crossroads of identity, faith and civic duty, providing them with the knowledge, tools and support to enable them to choose how to serve in a way that upholds their personal values, reinforces their sense of duty, and lays the foundations for a meaningful contribution to Israeli society.

Meaningful service rooted in values

For many young people, decisions around military service can raise uncomfortable questions of identity, faith and values. A lack of information, concerns about their service coming into conflict with their values, and the absence of a professional point of contact often create confusion, discouraging young people from serving. Aluma seeks to ensure that people’s choice to serve is a meaningful and informed one. By providing one-on-one support, professional training, and access to information, we help young people understand the options available to them, choose a path that suits them, feel more connected and confident — and serve with a sense of purpose.

Meshartot Be’Emuna

Meshartot Be’Emuna (“Serving Faithfully”) has been running since 2002 in partnership with the Ministry of Defense and the IDF. The program supports religious girls through the process of choosing a fulfilling and meaningful military service — one that works with their religious identity, their wishes and the system’s needs. The program focuses on providing reliable, current, comprehensive and accessible information about military service options and challenges, so that service candidates and their parents can trust the process and make informed decisions with confidence. The program’s team runs a dedicated hotline and informative sessions in schools, homes, orientation events, Torah seminars, educational activities, pre-military training and Shabbat retreats — providing a comprehensive support system to encourage informed decision-making and enable young women to serve in a way that works with their values. Over the years, the program has become an important professional point of contact for religious girls and their parents, and a key factor in building trust, offering knowledge and ensuring informed decisions around military service. The result is a program that encourages a meaningful and stable integration into the system.

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Initiatives that led to change

Over the years, Aluma has launched and operated a wide range of programs and projects in its core areas of service, education and youth mentoring. While some of these initiatives are no longer run by Aluma, they still reflect our experience, know-how and ability to lead long-term processes in collaboration with government ministries, the education system, the IDF and others.

Teacher-Soldiers

For over 20 years, Aluma has been running the training center of the IDF’s teacher-soldiers unit on behalf of the Ministry of Education and the IDF. Teacher-soldiers have a unique role that combines meaningful military service with an educational and social mission. Teacher-soldiers work across a variety of educational frameworks around the country, including schools, boarding schools and after-school programs, bridging academic and social gaps, supporting students with special needs and assisting new immigrant students. The training center gives teacher-soldiers the professional, pedagogical and social skills they need, building a deep sensitivity to the needs of a broad range of populations and preparing participants for working with them. The combination of professional training, military service and educational impact make the Teacher-Soldiers Unit a unique model of meaningful and fulfilling military service with a lasting contribution to Israel’s education system and society.

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Tzahala: Long-Term Youth Mentoring

Tzahala is a national long-term mentoring program for young, at-risk people, founded in 1992 by Brigadier General Ran Pekker. The program built participants’ sense of self-worth and self-belief, encouraged them to choose meaningful national service, and supported them through their coming-of-age. It offered both group and individual support: groups of mentees met weekly with volunteers from military command or education backgrounds, who also served as personal mentors through a process spanning three years. The program included workshops, “peak days”, values-focused activities, and individual support throughout the process. From the 2025-26 academic year, responsibility for the Tzahala program was handed to the Erech LaDerech nonprofit, which continues to implement the model developed over the years at Aluma.

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Likratekh: Preparing Young Women for Service and Adult Life

Likratekh was an educational program for young women in grades 11–12, primarily from at-risk populations, preparing them for meaningful national service and the subsequent transition into adult life. Working with the Ministry of Education and schools across the country, the program ran group interventions led by young women who had completed their own service. The groups were a safe and open space for conversations about identity, choice, fears, dilemmas and the challenges that come with graduating high school and starting the next stage of life. The program also provided individual support for each participant. The initiative reflected Aluma’s holistic approach: prioritizing interventions that educate, build self-belief and prepare young people to make meaningful life choices.

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Chomesh: National and Military Service Information and Support Hotline

The Chomesh Center supported young people from the ultra-Orthodox community wanting to contribute through national service without compromising their way of life and identity. It provided reliable, personal information on various service tracks, and allowed young people to get in touch and work through dilemmas anonymously — before they reached out through official channels. The work done at Chomesh demonstrated Aluma’s ability to make sensitive and complex knowledge accessible, build trust with unique audiences, and serve as a professional resource and source of support for important decision-making processes.

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