Robbie Kohos, 26-27, is a Canadian from Montreal who attended a Jewish elementary school but told The Canadian Jewish News (CJN), “I actually hated learning anything related to Hebrew studies and Jewish studies.” The publication reported: “But a Bar Mitzvah trip to Israel – he says he wanted to go to Europe, but his parents put their foot down – gradually led him to feel a very deep connection. From there, he began hatching a plan to enter the IDF after high school.”

The publication reported that at 21, Kohos was halfway through two and a half years of service in the Israeli military where he served in combat intelligence. Kohos was one of dozens of Canadian Israeli military soldiers who attended a pizza party hosted for them by Canada’s then-ambassador to Israel.

CJN wrote, “As much as he loves Israel, Kohos is just as determined to fulfil his post-IDF dream of returning to Montreal to work in real estate investment, and take back what he’s learned. ‘Your knowledge of automatic weapons obviously isn’t going to help you so much in Canada,’ he says. ‘But the lessons you learn, being responsible, learning to take care of yourself, to overcome really hard things. Especially being a lone soldier, moving here, it’s a tough thing.’” Kohos now works as a commercial real estate broker at Trimont, a real estate agency in Montreal.