Youth movements and youth organizations in Israel

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In Israel, youth movements, and youth organizations are organizations that group together youth and children within social and educational frameworks that create an expression for a unique youth culture^[1][2][3] The activity in youth movements is part of non-formal education in Israel.^[4][5][6]

The various frameworks encompass the world of the participant through an independent system of culture, ideology, symbolism, etc., and through them, he or she consolidates their identity, as part of their belonging to a social movement and organization.^[7]

Youth movements and youth organizations were mostly created against the backdrop of social crises and around the contribution of the youth to solving these crises. However, they differ from each other in the nature of the solution and also in their connection to the adult world.

In Israel, they have played an important role in shaping non-formal education in the country and education in general, mainly thanks to the Zionist history in the country and in Europe, where youth movements were a central component of historical processes.^[8][9] Most of the youth movements operating today in the country grew in the diaspora.^[3] The Zionist youth movements and organizations have a decisive role in settlement, mainly within the framework of Nahal groups, in holding onto territories, moshavim, and kibbutzim.^{[10][6][8][9]}

Most members of youth movements and youth organizations come from the middle classes, and they make a significant contribution to shaping the culture of Israeli society, mainly through guidance frameworks in settlements and a service year in which boys and girls postpone their enlistment to contribute to Israeli society.^{[11][12][2][13]}

The members in these frameworks are mostly called trainees, and they are organized within groups, with each group having one or more instructors. Usually, the instructor is a teenager from the older age groups, and in certain cases, it is an adult. Different groups located in the same settlement or neighborhood are united into local frameworks, each called by a different name in each framework. In many organizations and movements, the framework is called a branch, as in the religious movements and the Israeli Communist Youth Alliance, but there are also tribes (like in the Scouts movement), Sliks (like in the Tzameret organization), fortresses (like in the Betar movement), camps (like in the Aliyah camps), nests (like in the Working and Studying Youth and the Young Guard), knowledge centers, and more.

Both within the local groups and at the national level, organizational activities take place, but the level of youth involvement varies in each framework. In the Scouts movement, for example, there is a senior team in each tribe that manages its activities, and the national framework is mostly composed of adults. In the Appleseeds organization, each center has a leading team composed of senior trainees who hold experimental managerial positions alongside the senior local coordinator. In the Tzameret organization, the adults take on the role of mentors at the local level, and the national level is mostly managed by the youth.

In the activities of the youth movements, the trainees wear a uniform. Many movements like the New Movement, the Working and Studying Youth, the Young Guard, and the Aliyah camps, adopted the blue shirt, whose color represents the working class. The blue shirt receives different characteristics in each movement, such as buttons or laces in different colors. The Communist Youth uses uniforms similar to the Komsomol uniforms from the Soviet Union. A white shirt and a red tie. In contrast, the Scouts and the Young Maccabi movement wear khaki uniforms decorated with neckerchiefs made from folded squared fabric.

The uniform represents in all the movements that use it the pioneering spirit, simplicity, equality, and uniformity. In the youth organizations and some of the youth movements, the uniform is not used.

• Bnei Akiva