Benjamin Brown, 20-21, was raised in Toronto and was an active member of the Jewish community, attending Jewish elementary and high schools (Associated Hebrew School and the Bnei Akiva Or Chaim high school, respectively). Brown’s father, Jeffrey Brown, is a former president at the Beth Avraham Yoseph Synagogue in Thornhill, Ont. The rabbi at the synagogue, Daniel Korobkin, told The Canadian Jewish News (CJN) that the Brown family are “very strong religious Zionists.”

After high school, Brown moved to Israel in order to attend a yeshiva and also enlist in the army. In July 2024, Brown was nearing the end of his service in the 12th Battalion of the Golani Brigade in Shebaa Farms — Lebanese land illegally occupied by Israel — when the army base where he was stationed was struck by a Hezbollah rocket. A piece of shrapnel pierced Brown’s brain and he was eventually placed in a medical coma in an attempt to allow him to heal.

CJN reported that Benjamin was inspired by his older brother, Zachary Brown, who had served in the Israeli army a few years prior as a “top sharpshooter” in the Kfir Brigade. He described the brigade as a “combat unit that primarily specializes in urban warfare in the West Bank.” Zachary is also included in this database.

Korobkin told CJN that both brothers joining the Israeli army was a “natural outcome” of the education they received at their Jewish schools, as well as other factors. A mother of one of Benjamin’s classmates said that around a quarter of their high school class joined the Israeli army, and that the students are commemorated with a plaque in the school. Both brothers also have had their service in the army celebrated in the Beth Avraham Yoseph Synagogue’s newsletter.

(A version of this mini-bio was originally published in a November 2024 article at The Maple.)