National-Civic Service for Community Youth in Lod

When is it the right path?

• When the army doesn't fit (medical, psychological, or religious exemption) — or when civic-service track is preferred.
• For women — legally easier to enter civic over military.
• For older immigrants — drafted but prefer service in their hometown.

Benefits

• Subsistence payment: ₪810 a month (raised from ₪540 in March 2025, backdated to January 2025)
• Maintenance allowance (דמי כלכלה): paid in addition, tiered by housing and meals. A lone volunteer receives a supplement of 50% of the rate for a volunteer living at home
• Travel: free on trains and buses
• Housing in kind: for volunteers placed far from home

In total the cash components run roughly ₪800-2,100 a month, depending on the mix.

This page previously said "~₪5,000/month" — about five times the real figure. It also claimed "benefits identical to standing-army soldiers" and a "tax exemption for the first three working years"; no source was found for either and both were removed.

How to start

1. Registration: via sherut-leumi.co.il → "Candidates"
2. Choose a role: from the list of recognised host organisations on the authority's site. (An earlier version said ENP, Tene Briut, Tebeka and Olim Beyahad were "most of them" — there are hundreds of host organisations, so that was not true.)
3. Interview: with the host organization
4. Start: usually 1st of the next month

Idea for community youth: Service at ENP/Fidel/Tene Briut = direct community work + career development in education/welfare/health.