On farms across Israel, volunteers pick strawberries, plant zucchinis, and harvest cucumbers. American college students pose with peppers and pineapples while wearing T-shirts branded with the logo of Hashomer Hachadash, an Israeli nonprofit organization. They have become “the best ambassadors Israel could ask for,” Avi Cohen-Scali, director general of the Diaspora Affairs Ministry, recently said. “It’s moving and heartwarming.”
Hashomer Hachadash (“The New Guardian”) is the most prominent of Israel’s volunteer-based “agricultural” organizations. For over a decade and a half, its wide-ranging youth programs — from farming to horseback riding — have helped it grow into one of the biggest nonprofits in the country, with a budget exceeding $33 million and allegedly more than 120,000 annual volunteers. ….more