Shar Leyb, 31-32, is a Canadian from Calgary and was an active member of the Jewish community there, attending Jewish schools, according to his Facebook page. In 2010, The Canadian Jewish News (CJN) reported Leyb had wanted to join the Israeli army since elementary school. “People have known ‘that kid’s going to the army.’ I’ve wanted to go into the [Israeli army] since I was very young,” Leyb said, adding that one of his brothers, his father, a grandfather and a cousin had all previously joined the Israeli army.

CJN interviewed Leyb, a recent high school graduate, on his way to Israel, where he said he was planning to stay permanently. The publication reported: “Leyb will go into a kibbutz, brush up on his Hebrew and then enter the army in November. He hopes to become a paratrooper.”

Leyb would in fact go on to join the Israeli military, but in a different unit. As reported by Electronic Intifada in 2019, “Leyb stated […] that he was a member of Duvdevan, an elite Israeli military unit whose members often disguise themselves as Palestinians in order to carry out extrajudicial executions. Leyb even described taking part in a raid on a Palestinian home where young children were sleeping and where the combat soldiers confronted a woman holding a toddler.”

According to his LinkedIn, Leyb returned to Canada in 2017 as part of the group “Reservists on Duty,” which is an Israeli NGO bringing army reservists to university campuses in an attempt to combat BDS. Two years later while travelling with the group, Leyb accused pro-Palestine students at York University protesting the event of chanting, “Intifada, Intifada, go back to the ovens.” Leyb made this claim to a reporter at the Jerusalem Post, who then reported it as fact, leading to condemnations from Canadian politicians at all levels, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Later on, the Jerusalem Post admitted Leyb was its only source for the claim, and as of yet no evidence has been produced to substantiate it, despite dozens of recordings from the event being posted online.

Leyb returned to the Israeli army in October 2023 and has since been deployed multiple times. He was deployed again in October 2024, according to an Instagram post from his brother.

Shar is a brother of two other Israeli soldiers included in this database: Noy Leyb and Tav Leyb.

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