Launch the Gap-Year Program

Ohr Chabad hopes to launch its gap-year student program within just a few months of the first families moving into the yishuv. The timing is deliberate: students who arrive at this early stage will not be visiting a finished community — they will be helping to build one. From laying out gardens to setting up communal spaces, from plastering walls to planting trees, every participant will leave knowing they had a hand in something real and lasting.

The program will combine rigorous Torah learning with hands-on pioneering work — a combination that is virtually impossible to find anywhere else in the world. Morning hours will be devoted to Chassidus, Gemara, and Halacha in a classroom overlooking the Yatir Forest. Afternoons will be spent working the land, contributing to construction projects, and helping the young families of Ohr Chabad establish their community infrastructure. Students will experience firsthand what it means to settle the Land of Israel — not as a historical concept, but as a living, breathing reality.

“Excellent is the study of Torah together with a worldly occupation, for the exertion of both causes sin to be forgotten.”

— Rabban Gamliel, Pirkei Avos 2:2

To make this vision a reality, the program requires equipped living quarters where students can feel at home, a fully stocked kitchen and dining area, a dedicated classroom with learning materials, and a qualified program director to guide the experience. These are not luxuries — they are the minimum foundation needed to run a safe, structured, and transformative program. Transportation for field trips across the Negev and the broader Land of Israel will round out the educational experience, bringing the lessons of the classroom to life in the places where Jewish history unfolded.

Once the gap-year program is established and its reputation grows, the goal is for it to become self-sustaining through tuition and ongoing partnerships. But every program needs a launch — a moment when generous supporters step forward and say, “We believe in this.” Your donation today is that moment. It is the seed money that will bring the first cohort of students to the Negev hills and set in motion a program that could shape young Jewish lives for decades to come.

This is Torah im derech eretz in its purest form — not Torah studied in isolation, and not labor disconnected from spiritual purpose, but the two woven together into a single, unified life. The students who come through this program will carry that integration with them wherever they go, becoming the kind of Jews who can learn a page of Talmud in the morning and build a wall in the afternoon, who understand that sanctifying the physical world is itself a form of divine service.

What Your Donation Provides

• Student dormitory furnishing and setup
• Classroom and learning materials
• Kitchen and dining facility
• Program director salary
• Transportation and field trips
• Marketing and student recruitment

By investing in the Ohr Chabad gap-year program, you are investing in the next generation of Jewish pioneers — young men and women who will carry the spirit of this yishuv into communities around the world.