Community | Carmel Communities

Strengthening Community in Haifa

The Carmel Communities were founded by a group of alumni of the Yitzchak Rabin Pre-Army Leadership Academy (Mechinat Rabin) and other HeChalutz pre-army programs. While attending HeChalutz pre and post army programs, they learned about intentional communities and about the values of Zionism, Judaism, mutual responsibility, social justice, coexistence, and gender equality. Afterward, they moved on to a shared residential building in Haifa’s Hadar neighborhood, where they continue their social and communal activism.

Throughout Haifa and especially in Hadar, community members volunteer at schools, after-school facilities, youth centers, children’s centers, and mental health facilities. They lead civic initiatives to impact a change for the better in the neighborhood and surroundings, and regularly produce events for the benefit of the entire locality.

In one major project, Carmel participants worked with the Haifa Department of Welfare to map the needs of the neighborhood’s elderly population by going door to door, an initiative that took some three years.

Over time, the Carmel Communities have expanded to include a range of HeChalutz pre- and post-army programs: Mechinat Rabin, Made in Israel, a student village, and more—as well as spouses, partners, friends, and others who choose to live in Hadar and be a part of this tightknit project.

At any given time, some 200 individuals are active in the Carmel Communities. Many love the neighborhood so much that they decide to make their permanent homes there, sending their children to local schools and continuing their involvement in local education.

Carmel members work in a range of fields, such as education, social work, the public sector, and high tech. Some serve as career officers in the IDF. Others pursue studies at the University of Haifa, the Technion, or Oranim Academic College.

Founding members of the Carmel Communities form the management of the entire HeChalutz movement, now one of the largest young adult organizations in Israel, and continue to extend their proven model of civic renewal throughout the country.