Hai Levi, a student going into 12th grade at the AMIT Sderot Religious Junior and Senior High School, jokes that his mother “freaked out” on him recently because she rarely sees him. Hai isn’t hanging out with friends all the time, as most 17-year-olds do, especially during summer vacation. Instead, he’s spending his time volunteering at every opportunity.
“Volunteering saved my life,” Hai said recently, as he recounted how he transformed from a troubled junior high student into a shining example of a teenager who wants to help others, who lives his Jewish values and his love of Israel every day. “Seeing someone that you did something good for,” he said, “you understand the power you hold in your hands and what it means to do something for someone else.”
Hai’s family has faced its fair share of challenges. Some 10 years ago, his mother was diagnosed with cancer; his father also has a physical disability, and neither parent can support the family financially. From a young age, Hai has worked odd jobs: at a local pizza shop, selling Israeli flags ahead of Yom Ha’atzmaut or flowers on the side of the road on Fridays.
When he started junior high school, Hai wasn’t the most well-adjusted student. “It’s not something I like to talk about,” he said, “but I was very problematic in seventh grade. I used to smoke, drink and hang out with not the best crowd. There was a lot of nonsense.”
With the help of the teachers and rabbis at his school, he began doing some soul-searching and became increasingly religious. But Hai’s true turning point came when he saw his older sister, also an AMIT student in Sderot, train to become a youth guide for the Education Ministry’s Shelach program. A Hebrew acronym for field, nation and society, Shelach fosters knowledge about Israel through field trips, hikes and group dynamics exercises. Being a youth guide in the program is prestigious and helps students develop leadership skills, but participation in the program usually begins in the eighth grade.
Nurit Davidi, a teacher at the school, approached Hai about taking part, even though he was too young. “You have potential,” he recently recalled her telling him—and she was right. After getting special permission from the Education Ministry to join the program, Hai applied himself to every challenge and slowly rose through the ranks. He completed his first course as the outstanding student, and then continued through the advanced course, the reconnaissance and navigation course and a final mission that simulates Golani Brigade exercises and includes trekking about 400 miles in one week.
Hai became the Shelach youth program leader within his school and the regional head of the program. He works alongside teachers to coordinate Shelach activities for students and joins younger students on field trips, guiding hikes throughout the country and helping educate them about leadership and values. Hai routinely organizes courses for more than 400 kids at a time on behalf of the Education Ministry, and is responsible for the courses’ content, guidance and logistics.
Hai also completed a training course through Magen David Adom, Israel’s emergency medical service, and volunteers with them doing ambulance shifts several times a month, as well as with the local firefighters in Sderot and with the Bnei Akiva youth movement, where he has been a counselor for three years.
Another volunteering effort that Hai speaks of fondly is his work with a non-profit in Israel called Etgarim, which means “challenges.” The organization helps Israelis with disabilities, at-risk youth, terror attack and car accident victims and those with other impairments integrate socially through participation in outdoor sports.
“It’s all about paying attention to the small details, seeing where help is needed, where an extra hand is needed, and being there,” Hai said. “If we open our eyes, we can see there are plenty of opportunities to do good things and plenty of opportunities to help others. It’s not just about giving your seat on the bus to an elderly person. It goes far beyond that.”
Hai spent his summer vacation taking part in a grueling Shelach course called “Survivor” and helping to oversee the reconnaissance and navigation course for younger children. Naturally, as he is going into his senior year, he is also thinking about his studies and the bagrut exams. He is looking ahead to studying at yeshiva and enlisting in the army, where he’s got his eyes set on Unit 669, the elite airborne rescue and evacuation unit.
“I want to do significant service—and that is my intention,” he said. “That is my goal in life: to be significant, to be someone who makes a mark—not so that people remember the name Hai Levi, but to leave a mark on the world, to have made an impact.” Clearly, he’s well on his way. —AR
