Coby Fein grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia, according to a 2021 Hasbara Fellowships essay where he wrote that he “did not grow up in a very big Jewish community.” Fein attended Camp Ramah in Canada while growing up for four summers, including one as a staff member. The camp states that its vision is to “instill core Jewish values that will guide our future leaders and inspire an unwavering dedication to the Jewish community,” and lists one of these values as encouraging “a deep commitment to Israel.”
Fein immigrated to Israel and joined its military after high school, and has written and spoken about why he decided to do so. In the aforementioned 2021 essay, which was written before he joined the Israeli military, he recounts being disturbed on trips to Israel by the way other youth talked about Palestinians. He mentions a meaningful interaction he had with two Palestinian boys where they came across each other in a park and played baseball.
He ends the piece by writing: “I carry this story very close to my heart, because it’s a vital part of who I am as a Jewish person. I love Israel. I have studied the country’s history in school, and have returned many times since that sabbatical. I became a Bar Mitzvah there, on Givah Tzarfatit, near that park. I love and cherish the idea of a Jewish homeland. I’m joining the IDF in 2022 because I feel that I owe a debt to the land of Israel. And I am aware that this is paradoxical, but I do not want to see a world in which Israel drives Palestinians out from their homes. I truly believe we can coexist, because even my twilight game of catch revealed that in many ways we are more similar than we are different. It scares me that I used to think differently. Looking back, I wish that I had given that boy my shoes instead of that baseball. I wish that I had asked them for their names. I understand that one game of catch does not reflect the entire geo-political scope of the Israeli Palestinian dispute. However I think that as Jews, we need moments like that one to illuminate the very human stakes of the conflict. At least I did.”
In November 2023, Fein recorded a video message for Camp Rafah attendees while in the midst of his military service in the Nahal Brigade, waiting to go into Gaza. Responding to a question about why he became a lone soldier, Fein stated: “I always figured that if people like me didn’t do it, who else would? There’s only so many people in the country itself and they need all the help they can get in this army. I guess I just figured that any extra support would be appreciated and useful. Now, I didn’t expect myself to be in the middle of a war, but here we are. I think now more than ever it’s important to remind Jews all over the world how critical support for Israel really is. And I’m not saying ‘come draft.’ That’s a little extreme. But I am saying do what you can. Be proud to be Jewish, be proud to be a Zionist, no matter who’s telling you not to be.”
Fein is a son of Dahlia Lithwick, a Canadian from Ottawa who moved to the United States for university. Lithwick’s professional website states that she is a “regular contributing analyst at MSNBC and senior editor at Slate Magazine – and, in that capacity, has been writing their ‘Supreme Court Dispatches’ and ‘Jurisprudence’ columns since 1999. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Harper’s, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The New Republic, and Commentary, among other places. She is host of Amicus, Slate’s award-winning biweekly podcast about the law and the Supreme Court.”
Lithwick was featured in a 2024 event at the Reuben & Helene Dennis Museum in Toronto, which is associated with the Beth Tzedec Congregation synagogue. The description for the event states: “Beth Tzedec spiritual leader Yacov Fruchter will be in conversation with journalist, writer, lawyer and podcaster Dahlia Lithwick. In December 2021, Dahlia added to her repertoire ‘mother of a lone soldier’ when her son Coby joined the IDF. He is currently stationed in Northern Israel and his brother Sopher will be enlisting in the spring. We will discuss her experience spending half of her time in Israel since October 7, the state of Jewish unity, and Jewish texts that can help sustain us at this time.”
Lithwick had also attended Camp Ramah in her youth, and was featured in a May 2024 Instagram post on its page where she mentioned Fein was in the Israeli military.
