Rebecca Weiss, 24-25, is a Canadian from Toronto who immigrated to Israel and joined the military.
In 2018, Weiss published an article at The Canadian Jewish News (CJN) explaining why she decided to do so. She wrote, “My journey to Aliyah started nearly a decade ago. After attending Camp Ramah in Canada from ages 10-11, my parents encouraged me to participate in a summer camp on a kibbutz in order to benefit from a more immersive Israeli experience. After all, there’s only so much you can learn about Israel from afar in North America. My parents were right. At 12, when I was a camper at Kayitz Bakibbutz on Kibbutz Shluchot in northern Israel, I was quickly attracted to Israeli culture. I became very close with all the Israelis in the summer camp, frequently visiting their homes after the session ended each year. Looking back, what really motivated my Aliyah were the friendships I made along the way, starting with that summer.”
She added, “As a 10th-grader at Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto, I returned to Israel through Ramah’s TRY program for the spring semester. As part of a group of 46 students from across North America, I not only learned Jewish history, but traveled through Israel in history from Abraham to the present day—all in a mere four months. Before TRY, I had no interest in joining the Israeli army. I thought that if I didn’t have a strong pull to enlist (as was the case in my mid-teenage years), then I shouldn’t. But as I started learning more about Israeli culture, I realized that if at my age you want to live in Israel, then you need to join the army—especially if you really want to integrate into Israeli society. At that point, I wanted to stay in Israel and join the IDF. It was a gut feeling. But I never told anyone about my intention at first, thinking I should wait a couple of years and allow my feelings to settle in. I was still only 15.”
Weiss writes, “When I started to apply for college, I looked at mechinot (pre-military preparatory) programs. I wanted to throw myself into the Israel experience and see what happened. After high school, I attended Mechinat Nachshon for 10 months. This was my trial year in Israel, a serious crash course in Israeli culture. The mechina accepts students from all over Israel and from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, to show not only North Americans, but even Israelis themselves the real Israel. We learned everything from Israeli politics to agriculture. I participated in the program with four Americans; we were all very different, but it was comforting to have a group of people like me to rely on, considering our fellow students were 42 Israelis.”
Weiss’s immigration process was facilitated by Nefesh B’Nefesh.
In December 2021, Weiss was featured in a CJN podcast describing her time as a so-called lone soldier. She said she was drafted in November 2018, served as a “basic training commander,” and finished “about a year ago.”
After finishing her service, Weiss went on to study at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Weiss’s parents told the Jerusalem Post that they are proud of Rebecca’s decision: “‘We’re not nervous at all,’ Jeff Weiss said, explaining that Rebecca’s immigration is a dream fulfilled not just for her, but the entire family. Weiss’s mother, Vicki, attended Tel Aviv University as a teenager with the hope of staying, and regrets not making her time here permanent.”
Vicki works in sales, according to her LinkedIn, and also runs a blog. In October 2024, she posted a video on Instagram of Israeli soldiers thanking her for sending them inflatable pillows. Jeff is the chief revenue officer at a software company with its global headquarters in Toronto.
