Shnat Hachshara is a yearlong educational and leadership gap year program in Israel for school leavers. Shnat Hachshara refers to a year of preparation. In the early days of the establishment of the State of Israel, this referred to preparation for the challenges of Aliyah including learning the required farming skills to be able to physically build the land of Israel. Shnat Hachshara today prepares the participants as future leaders in the Australian community and as potential future olim.

February - June 2021*
Our life-changing 5 month gap year programme in Israel.
Shnat Netzer is the ultimate gap year programme , providing an exciting, challenging and stimulating way to spend a long period of time in Israel and to be part of a communal way of life. Shnat Netzer will broaden your horizons and offer opportunities to discover yourself and Israel from a progressive perspective. Live in Jerusalem, make new friends from around the world, and travel around Israel to explore historical, political, cultural, and social issues.
The Habonim Dror Shnat program is an intensive 9-month educational and leadership program in Israel. Each year we send roughly forty participants who will have a life-changing and eye-opening experience, and return home to be leaders of Habonim Dror and the Jewish community. Shnat plays a significant and central role in the movement and is our greatest source of strength and inspiration. Each component of our Shnat program is structured in a way that gives each participant the opportunity to educate, question and challenge themselves whilst at the same time living, experiencing and expressing the movement values and ideology.
You really want to know what Shnat is? Try it for yourself! Shnat is our 9 month gap year program in Israel for 18 years old school leavers. A unique aspect of the Habonim Dror Shnat program is the emphasis placed on the group experience. The participants live in a group, or kvutzah , with whom they share their day-to-day living with as well as many personal experiences.