Hashomer is Israel's largest volunteer movement – and The Land is our mission.
Every day, Jewish farmland quietly slips away. Farmers face crime, isolation, and economic pressure. Border communities struggle to hold on. And the physical Jewish presence on the land – erodes, silently, acre by acre.
We safeguard the land
We build communities on the land
We connect the next generation to the land
We make the land thrive
Our volunteers come from across Israeli society. What unites them is simple: love of the land and the belief that our presence is not guaranteed – it has to be earned by the people willing to show up.
The Jewish people have a homeland. HaShomer makes sure we keep it.
Yoel Zilberman, Founder and CEO of HaShomer HaChadash, grew up on a cattle ranch in Moshav Tzippori in the Galilee, the third generation of a family rooted deeply in the soil of northern Israel. From an early age, he witnessed the quiet devastation of agricultural crime up close, seeing fences destroyed, livestock stolen, and farmers threatened. What made it worse was understanding the intent behind it, that these weren't random acts, but crimes strategically designed to erode a farmer's capacity and morale and to push him off his land. When his own family's ranch came under threat, Yoel took leave from his IDF unit, moved into a converted shipping container on their plot, and kept watch through the night. Word spread, neighboring farmers began reaching out for help and volunteers showed up to stand alongside them. What started as a son protecting his family's livelihood became a movement.
In 2007, Yoel joined forces with On Rifman from Kibbutz Revivim in the Negev, another young Israeli fighting the same battle hundreds of kilometers to the south; and together they founded HaShomer HaChadash. The name, meaning "The New Guardian," is a tribute to the original HaShomer, the legendary organization founded in 1909 whose members stood guard over the earliest pioneering communities in the land of Israel. Like those founders before them, Yoel and On believed that love of the land is the foundation of civic life, that it instills a sense of commitment and responsibility, and that it’s something you show up for, with your own two hands.
Today, rooted in over a century of Zionist spirit and built for the realities of the present, HaShomer HaChadash has grown into Israel's largest volunteer movement — connecting hundreds of thousands of people to the land, and to each other.
