When Snonit applied to join Shnat Sherut 50+, she imagined spending a meaningful year giving back to others.
She never expected it to transform her own future.
Taking a Leap into the Unknown
The decision happened quickly. Within a day of hearing about the programme, Snonit was sitting in an online interview with the program team.
Only afterwards did she tell her partner, Amos.
Although he encouraged her wholeheartedly, he had no plans to join her. His work, their children, grandchildren and their kibbutz remained at home while Snonit began a new chapter in Mateh Asher.
Learning to Let Go
Like many volunteers, Snonit arrived with clear ideas about how she wanted to contribute. Instead, she discovered that finding the right role took time.
“Volunteers in their fifties, sixties and beyond don’t fit neatly into predefined roles,” she reflects. “Finding the right place, for us and for the communities welcoming us, takes time.”
Rather than becoming frustrated, she embraced the unexpected.
She volunteered at the Ashreinu Day Center, joined the permaculture project in Hanita and helped establish an afternoon program for children and parents at Gan Narkis in Rosh HaNikra. Each opportunity led naturally to another, opening doors she had never imagined.
More Than Volunteering
The experience extended far beyond the volunteer placements.
Living with five other women became an important part of the journey. Weekly group meetings, discovering the region together, sharing laughter and supporting one another through challenges created friendships that became just as meaningful as the work itself.
Along the way, Snonit found herself slowing down.
She spent time photographing wildflowers and sunsets, listening to residents returning home after months of displacement and discovering that simply being present could make a real difference.
Choosing to Stay
When Operation Rising Lion began, Snonit’s partner happened to be visiting.
He returned home.
She stayed.
Like many volunteers, she made a conscious decision that if the communities she had come to support were staying, then she would stay too.
The volunteers worked in bomb shelters, ran to protected rooms when sirens sounded and continued supporting local residents throughout the emergency.
“It was never really a question,” she says. “We had come to stand alongside these communities, and that’s exactly what we did.”
A New Beginning
As the year drew to a close, another surprise awaited.
The partner who had originally stayed behind suggested that they begin a completely new chapter together.
This autumn, Snonit will become Early Childhood Director at Kibbutz Be’eri, while Amos will join her as they begin building a new life in the South.
More Than She Ever Expected
During the group’s final reflection, each volunteer was asked what they had gained from the year.
Snonit’s answer surprised even herself.
“I had fallen in love,” she said.
Not with someone new.
With her partner.
With their friendship.
With the life they were now building together.
Looking back, she smiles at how different the year turned out to be.
She thought she was giving something away.
Instead, she discovered new purpose, lifelong friendships, a new career and a future she had never imagined.
“When you give yourself a year like this,” she reflects, “you never really know where it will lead.”
