Barr Solnik is a Canadian who was born in the United States but grew up in Canada. Solnik immigrated to Israel at some point after high school, and has written about his experience as a so-called lone soldier for The Israel Forever Foundation.
Solnik writes, “I served as a sniper in the paratroopers brigade and since the completion of my service have made it my ongoing endeavor to share the lone soldier story with the rest of the Jewish World and to help lone soldiers where I can.”
Discussing his plans to create a film about lone soldiers, Solnik adds, “There is a reason why the lone soldier movement is growing. A few friends of mine and I want to help it grow. We want to share our story in the most authentic way and one which will show Israelis, North Americans, Europeans, South Americans, South Africans and anyone anywhere else where a trace of Jewish blood might lie, why it is we are here, who we are and what we do.”
Solnik’s LinkedIn profile states that he has volunteered for multiple lone soldier organizations, including Kfar Olim (“organizing and initiating the creation of a self sustaining city in the periphery, which supports Lone Soldiers both during and after their military service”) and Ach Gadol (“a unique social initiative aimed at bringing together volunteers, who have all completed their military service as lone soldiers and are presently students of higher education or young professionals”).
In June 2024, Solnik published an article on Medium describing his experience in Gaza amidst the war. Referring to Gazan homes, Solnik writes, “As a Jew, the image of little children’s shoes abandoned and grayed from ash is a hard one to bear. There’s an uncomfortable familiarity. My mind replaces the image before my eyes with one of similar abandoned belongings from another place and time.
Poland, Germany, and other European countries were the centers of displacement, mass incarceration, forced labor, and the systematic extermination of millions of our people. Some of the most notorious concentration camps include Auschwitz-Birkenau, Dachau, and Majdanek. Yet here I am, in the land of Israel, the home of the Jewish people, and also the residence of our not-so-distant cousins.This time, we are the ones pushing people out of their homes.
The parents and sometimes the children themselves pose a very real and immediate threat to me and my family. The house with the abandoned shoes is filled with grenades, machine guns, and suicide jackets. Some, like the jacket, were hidden under a child’s bed. But it is just a child — what should be a source of joy and goodness, who, while often very selfish, bears a seed of hope for a future that is not yet written. These parents have already sealed their children’s fate. They not only fill their homes with weapons meant to harm others but also systematically educate their children to hate.”
He adds, “In schools decorated with Bugs Bunny and Minions, there are also miniature models of Israelis hanging and oppressing Arab women and men. From feelings of sadness, I cannot help but move towards feelings of hate — not because they have tried and succeeded in murdering some of my people, but because there is no sign, not a single one, of a desire for a better, more collaborative, peaceful world.”
Later, he writes, “I have seen children being sent to spy, deliver bombs, and do all sorts of things in places I wouldn’t wish a soul to be. Why would they be there? Because they send the people they know the IDF won’t shoot to do their bidding. They put them at risk out of their own cowardice and lack of care.”
