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To realize the enormous potential of pre-military programs as a platform for social change we must ensure they are accessible to everyone and that diverse groups are represented.
By DANI VALAL JANUARY 16, 2025 00:52
THE WRITER addresses participants in Maase Center’s leadership programs during a seminar for trainees from various such programs within Israeli society. At a time when our society faces profound social challenges, we must focus on expanding the diversity movement, he maintains.
(photo credit: ROY TAHAR)
In today’s Israel, where the gap between the center and the periphery is evident in almost every area, from education and employment to infrastructure, pre-military programs serve to empower populations from disadvantaged environments and reduce these gaps.
The revolution these programs have created on the ground is the best evidence of their impact. In an age where every struggle for equal rights requires educational solidarity, it is essential to tell the story of Israel’s pre-military programs, which integrate exceptional and diverse youth from communities on the periphery.
Originally established to prepare the younger generation for significant service in the IDF and to shape future leadership, pre-military programs have evolved into a formidable tool for reducing social disparity.
If, until now, we have been accustomed to thinking that pre-military programs attract strong groups from the center – a perception echoed and amplified by the media – recent years have changed this reality on the ground.
In the last decade, the number of pre-military programs aimed at different audiences from the periphery has doubled, including young people from Druze society, ultra-Orthodox society, members of the Ethiopian community, and integrated populations.
In 2024, there were about 100 pre-military programs in Israel, with a total of 5,800 trainees participating. These young people and their parents understand that these programs are a tool for social mobility for promising youth who grew up in disadvantaged environments.
They provide youth with a platform to develop meaningful life skills, benefiting all of us. The past focus of pre-military programs on young people from stronger and integrated localities was an error that created a social wound.
Pre-military programs are a platform for social change and serve to create a new generation of values-driven leaders committed to society as a whole.
The availability of such programs to all populations is key to fulfilling their social destiny. It is not only about providing opportunities to those from the periphery but also about equipping them with tools to integrate into the core of Israeli society.
The role of educators, civil society, and public leadership is to ensure that these programs are available and accessible to all youth in Israel.
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About the Maase Center
The Maase Center, along with other member organizations, leads an agenda aimed at integrating youth from the periphery into such programs. We invest in developing programs that integrate youth from the periphery alongside stronger populations, understanding that diversity builds worthy and desired future leadership.
Our programs consistently prove that the combination of diverse audiences contributes not only to participating individuals but to society as a whole and to its resilience.
These programs are no longer merely an “education program,” as important as that may be; they are the real bridge that allows participants who are busy shaping their own paths and perceptions to be exposed to and understand others and their different opinions.
At a time when Israeli society faces profound social challenges, we must focus on expanding the diversity movement. During these challenging times, this is a preventive measure against the deepening polarization and fragmentation occurring in our country. The preliminary encounter between cultures, attitudes, and opinions at an early age, when we form opinions, is key to a different, sane, and accepting reality required of us as a society and as a people.
To expose more young people from the periphery and their parents to the possibility of improving their starting position in life, we need to engage more in promoting and attending to the story of pre-military programs among their target audiences, just as the duty of military service is familiar and known to every young Israeli.
To realize the enormous potential of pre-military programs as a platform for social change we must ensure they are accessible to everyone and that diverse groups are represented. Our job is to broaden the perspective: pre-military programs for the whole of Israeli society, not just for those who have the power to pay or who were born on the “right” side of society.
The writer is CEO of the Rashi Foundation’s Maase Center, which operates 17 pre-military programs among youth from the periphery, encompassing about 1,000 youth from different backgrounds every year.
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