Eliav Saban is a Canadian from Toronto. His Facebook page states that he graduated from Yeshivat Or Chaim, one of the Bnei Akiva private Jewish high schools in Toronto, in 2020. It also notes that during this period, he was a camp counsellor at Camp Moshava, a Jewish summer camp in Ontario that writes that its “vision is to strengthen the religious Zionist community by educating and nurturing the campers and counselors entrusted to our care each summer to become role models both in Israel and the Diaspora.”
Upon finishing high school, Saban moved to Israel to attend a yeshiva. He was featured in a September 2024 Instagram post from Nefesh B’Nefesh, an organization that helps North Americans immigrate to Israel.
The post quotes Saban: ““I grew up in Toronto, and now I live in Jerusalem. From a very young age I knew I needed to be here, I just didn’t know how to get here. It took me a few months to figure it out, but after some time in Yeshivat Hakotel, I knew what I needed to do. Between my first and second year in Yeshiva, I flew to Toronto, packed my bags, said bye to my parents, and I made Aliyah! Making this decision was an adjustment and changed the course of my life, not only my actions but also my perspective and maturity. Whether it was drafting to the army as a Lone Soldier, finding a place to live, choosing schooling, and more. It wasn’t easy but I knew I could do it!’”
Saban is mentioned in a September 2023 Jewish Link article, which refers to him as “Sgt. Eliav Saban,” and notes that a member of the family he was staying with at the time refers to him as “my lone soldier.”
Saban also has a profile on the “Mizrachi World Movement” website on a page about youth immigrating to Israel. It quotes him as saying: “My obsession with Eretz Yisrael began at age 9 when I began attending a Religious Zionist summer camp. By the time I was in high school I was asking myself every day: ‘Why am I still in exile? Why am I not in the Jewish homeland, the land G-d gave us?’ The dirt that I step on here is so holy you can’t even plant right now! Everything I learned in Torah, from Avraham and Lech Lecha, to Moshe and his yearning to enter Israel, was about the land. And now I’m finally here!”
Saban is listed as a staff member for the 2025 year at Camp Moshava.
