Welcome!

You’ve reached the starting point for applying to come for a HaYovel volunteer trip on the mountains of Israel. We’re excited to have you come join us!

This site will walk you through a straightforward process to send in an application for yourself and any family members coming with you (if applicable). Please read this page to get some helpful pointers for the next steps. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us at enrollment@hayovel.com.

Important points

Before continuing, there are a few important points that it’s essential for you to remember regarding coming to Israel with HaYovel:

• All volunteers serving with HaYovel must arrive and depart from Israel on designated trip dates and must remain with the HaYovel group during the entire duration of their visit to Israel.  This is due to both Israeli Ministry of Interior requirements for volunteer visas as well as logistical necessities for our event staff. We realize that it may sound appealing to come early or stay late and spend time in Israel on your own, or to come for different dates than in one of our offered trips, but we need to make it clear that, unless authorized ahead of time in writing by a HaYovel staff member, this is not permitted.
• It’s essential that you wait until after you’ve talked with a staff member and been approved to buy your plane tickets. We understand that you would like to get your airline tickets booked as soon as you can and find the best price possible. However, we want to be absolutely sure before you make that large investment for airfare that it will for sure work for you come, just in case. We want to be very respectful of your hard-earned funds and not take any risks.
• Volunteers age 17 and under must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. 

Thank you for your attention to these points. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation as we focus on serving the Jewish people in the heartland of Israel.

What you need to apply

In order to save you time and hassle, we recommend that you have the following things ready before starting your application, so that you can finish all the way through once you sit down to start:

• A scanned color copy of each applicant’s passport. Please note that passports need to be valid for at least 12 months after your arrival date in Israel, regardless of trip length.
• A simple profile picture of each person coming. We won’t publish or share this anywhere, so it doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s mainly used for our airport greeters so we can recognize you when we come to pick you up after you arrive in Israel.
• Details about any medical conditions or prescriptions. Volunteering in Israel is rigorous, so for your health and safety it’s important for you to share with us ahead of time about medical details that could affect your stay.
• Name and email address for a character reference.  If you haven’t been on a trip with us before, we ask that you provide the name and email for someone (preferably unrelated) who has known you well for several years, as a character reference.
• An application fee of $200 per adult volunteer (max $500 per family), payable by credit/debit card or check. Your application fee will be deducted from your overall trip cost, and covers our upfront cost of processing your application and obtaining your Israeli visa.

If for some reason you don’t have all those items but need to send your application to get it submitted in time for a trip, go ahead and apply and we can follow up about the remaining items afterward. It’s just easier, if possible, to do all the steps at one time.

Are you ready? Let’s get started!