Who is Sar-El? The Israeli volunteer organisation that has been in Singapore's news
Sar-El Volunteer Corps has been in the spotlight in Singapore recently. Here is a closer look at the organisation — its founding purpose, its ties to the Israel Defense Forces, and how it operates across dozens of countries.
- Sar-El was founded in 1983 explicitly to supply volunteer labour to the Israel Defense Forces, with IDF support built into its founding mission.
- The organisation's leadership includes a Brigadier General as chairman and a former Shabak officer as CEO, who holds a formal IDF office title.
- As recently as December 2024, Sar-El's own Instagram account recorded 28 Singapore volunteers in its annual global tally, with the post hashtagged #idf by the organisation itself.
Sar-El Volunteer Corps has attracted considerable attention in Singapore in recent weeks. But the organisation itself — its origins, its structure, and its stated relationship with the Israel Defense Forces — has received comparatively little scrutiny. A closer look at Sar-El's own promotional materials and published history offers a clearer picture of what the organisation is and has always been.
Sar-El was established in the spring of 1983. According to the organisation's own account, its origins trace to the summer of 1982, during the Galilee War, when towns and villages on the Golan Heights lost their crops as thousands of hectares were left without manpower to work them.
Brigadier General (Mil.) Aharon Davidi, a former Paratrooper, responded by recruiting committed volunteers from communities he knew and sending them to Israel. Within weeks, 650 volunteers were on the ground. That pilot effort was formalised the following year as a permanent volunteer organisation.
The name Sar-El is an acronym for Sherut Avor Yisrael, meaning Service For Israel. From its founding, the organisation's stated purpose was not cultural exchange in the conventional sense, but the direct supply of volunteer labour to IDF bases. Sar-El's own materials describe its mission plainly: "to bring an army of volunteers from all four corners, to contribute to the security of Israel." Volunteers work on military bases, packing medical kits for the field, repairing mechanical equipment, and packing and inspecting field equipment and battle necessities.
The organisation is led by figures with deep institutional ties to the Israeli military and security establishment. Its chairman is Brigadier General (Mil.) Tzvi Shor, described in its materials as a volunteer faithfully doing a job "he clearly loves." The CEO of the Sar-El Office of the IDF is Colonel (Mil.) Shlomo Stav, a former high-ranking officer in Israel's General Security Service — the Shabak. Stav's title is notable: he does not merely lead a civilian organisation with ties to the IDF, but formally holds a position within the IDF's own institutional structure.
Stav has described the organisation's mission in terms that go beyond logistics. "Our mission is to encourage, promote and organise Jewish volunteers in the Diaspora to supply working hands for the IDF and garner general support for Israel," he is quoted as saying in the organisation's promotional materials. A secondary but explicitly stated goal is the recruitment of funds for the programme's expansion.
The organisation describes itself as a "joint mission with Volunteers for Israel USA, SAR-EL, and the IDF," and has stated ambitions that reflect its scale of operation. As of its own published account, Sar-El had recruited approximately 250,000 volunteers since its inception through to the end of 2019, with a stated goal of reaching 10,000 volunteers on IDF bases annually by 2025. The programme has drawn participants from 60 countries and territories.
Sar-El's promotional materials are candid about what volunteers experience on the ground. They describe witnessing military drills, attending IDF oath ceremonies, and being present at flag-unfurling ceremonies while the Israeli national anthem, HaTikva, is sung.
One volunteer quoted in the materials described the experience: "It is also really moving to be in uniform during the flag unfurling ceremony in the mornings while we're singing the National Anthem." Another, a Canadian who had completed the programme 16 times, described his pride in knowing that logistical work he contributed had "already assisted in saving lives."
The programme is also described as having a deliberate diplomatic and ideological dimension. Sar-El materials describe its volunteers as becoming "true ambassadors in their home states," and note that a special project targets Jewish students from colleges in the United States, providing lectures from VIPs, tours of heritage sites, and seminars on coping with anti-Semitism on campuses. One student quoted in the organisation's own promotional copy offered a summary that the materials reproduce approvingly: "Every Jew in the world must do this programme in SAR-EL."
Sar-El's leadership structure, its formal IDF office, its stated mission of supplying working hands to IDF bases, and its own description of the programme as a joint mission with the IDF have remained consistent features of the organisation since its founding in 1983.
As recently as December 2024, Sar-El's official Instagram account, @sarel_israel, posted a global volunteer tally declaring that the organisation had "hosted over 52,050 volunteers from all around the world" that year. A world map accompanying the post listed volunteer figures by country. Singapore's flag appeared among them, with 28 volunteers recorded for 2024. The post was hashtagged #idf by the organisation itself.
