Sar-El
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sar-El is a volunteer program of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Every year about 5,000 volunteers from overseas serve for two or three weeks with the IDF. Their job is neither paid nor armed and is mainly in the logistical, maintaining, catering, supply and medical services. Having volunteers do these jobs saves the army money and spares reserve soldiers from being called up. Volunteers must be at least 17 years old (if accompanied by parents: 14 years) and healthy.
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[edit] History
The program was raised in the summer of 1982 by Brigadier (ret.) Dr. Aharon Davidi (former commander of the IDF Paratrooper and Infantry Corps), when due to the general mobilization during the 1982 Lebanon War in some kibbutzim at the Golan the harvest with crops already ripened was in danger, because all able-bodied farmers were on reserve duty in the IDF. Within a few weeks Davidi recruited some 650 volunteers to lend their support for Israel through volunteer labor on IDF bases, so the kibbuzniks could be sent to their fields. These first volunteers expressed their wish that this volunteer project should be perpetuated, and in the spring of 1983, "Sar-El - The National Project for Volunteers for Israel" was founded as a non-profit, non-political organization. Volunteers from all over the world came to participate in the project, and today, Sar-El is represented in some 30 countries. The majority of Sar-El's volunteers come from "Volunteers for Israel" - (VFI) [1] in the U.S.A., Sar-El Canada (Canadian Volunteers for Israel) [2] in Canada, and "Volontariat Civil" (UPI) in France.
[edit] Legal status
The volunteers wear IDF work uniforms with blue Sar-El epaulettes, but they are not soldiers, because Sar-El is not an official part of the IDF. For this reasons their service usually does not collide with the military laws of the volunteer's home countries.
[edit] Meaning
Sar-El is the Hebrew acronym for Sheirut Le’Israel, meaning "Service to Israel".
