Pure ethanol and its mixtures with water were used as extraction solvents for two Israeli's oil shales. Using bioethanol-like mixtures to produce organic matter from oil shales made the extraction process environmentally friendlier, while simultaneously enriched the ethanol to a level that it can be used as a fuel. It was found that oil shale characteristics, such as organic and water content and particle size, as well as extraction parameters such as shale loading and mixing speed, were found to highly affect the extraction yield. Under optimum conditions up to 8 wt% of organic matter was extracted by ethanol.