Ranks initiative

 Nine years before the beginning of the Israel-Hamas War, IDF Maj.-Gen. (res.) Doron Almog – who received the Israel Prize and is now chairman of the Jewish Agency – launched a voluntary organization called Closing Ranks.

It specializes in offering thorough, high-level personal guidance and mentoring in various life areas for young men and women, many living in the periphery, who have difficulty finding a job or studying, running their financial affairs, and lacking financial and emotional support from their families.

Little did they know that many tens of thousands of wounded and traumatized soldiers and reservists, evacuees, displaced people, and others would need urgent, personal assistance after October 7, 2023. Many of those who were not wounded suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Since the outbreak of the war, its efforts have become even more critical, as our focus is on assisting young adults in the first cycle of exposure to the war events in the Gaza surrounding area, the southern and the northern districts of Israel, as well as soldiers returning from the front who need emotional support and assistance in processing the difficult experiences they faced during the war,” said Almog.

Almog established the organization together with MK Benny Gantz and National Unity Party MK and former agriculture minister Alon Shuster. Its success rate – those who continue the process and gain from the experience for a year – is 85%.

IDF tanks sit near the Gaza border communities at daybreak, March 27th, 2019 (credit: SETH J. FRANTZMAN)

Operating nationwide from its office in Emek Hefer, its eight paid staff around the country train and supervise mentors from Kiryat Shmona in the North to Yeruham in the South. Closing Ranks’ 1,500 volunteer mentors aged 35 to 50 have worked with over 240 young adults each year.

Today, 70% of those being mentored have been affected by the war, and 24% are reservists. Ninety-one percent said they have no effective support from their families. Approximately 55% are males mentored by males, and 45% are women mentored by women every two weeks. Over 30% of those seeking help are of Ethiopian origin, and there are also many Russian speakers.

As Israel’s largest and leading mentoring nonprofit organization, Closing Ranks plans to triple the number of young adults that it mentors within the next three years, said its deputy director, social worker Miri Rabinovich Marciano, in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.

Oded Solomon, the director, is in charge of fundraising; the organization receives a small amount from the Welfare and Social Affairs Ministry and hopes to receive help from the Defense Ministry as well as more Israeli and foreign donors.

“Our mission in these challenging days is to give these young individuals affected by the war, who are Israel’s future generation, a guiding hand as they return to a proactive life routine while maximizing their abilities, strengthening their personal resilience, for making a meaningful impact on the society of the future,” Rabinovich Marciano declared.