Yonah Morrison, 26-27, is a Canadian born and raised in Toronto. He attended The Toronto Heschel School, a private, Jewish day school, and then the TanenbaumCHAT Wallenberg Campus, a Toronto location of a chain of private, Jewish high schools, according to his Facebook page. After finishing high school, Morrison immigrated to Israel to join its military. A 2019 CBC article noted that he was set to finish his service in July of that year.
Morrison has attributed his decision to join the Israeli military to his upbringing in Toronto’s Jewish community. The Canadian Jewish News (CJN) reported that Morrison participated in an exchange program while in high school that allows students to spend a semester in Israel, and that this “was a big influence on his decision to join the Israeli army.” They wrote, “‘During that program, we actually spent a week at Gadna, which is a pre-army week of simulated basic training,’ Morrison said, adding that the experience along with his Zionist upbringing, solidified his belief that since Jews all over the world can benefit from the existence of a Jewish homeland, they should do their part in service of the country.”
Meanwhile, the CBC reported the following in their article profiling Morrison and others, “Yonah Morrison, 20, was 15 when he first stepped off a plane in Tel Aviv. Alone in a country he’d never visited, a strange feeling washed over him: He was home. The Canadian teen spent the next two months in Israel as part of a program that familiarizes North American Jews with the Jewish state. While on that trip, he spent a week embedded with the Israeli military. He says that week in fatigues left such an impression on him that three years later, in the summer of 2016, after he graduated from his Toronto high school, he decided to leave Canada and enlist in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). ‘I always considered Israel to be my home,’ Morrison said. ‘I don’t see why I shouldn’t have to serve, just because I was born somewhere else.’” The CBC added that Morrison feels joining the Israeli military was a way of “protecting his heritage.”
Yonah’s mother, Joanna Sasson, was quoted by the CJN discussing his military service. She said he had hinted about making a commitment to Israel while in the high school exchange program, but that she assumed he meant something like university. The publication wrote, “‘I remember being taken aback the first night that he said, “I’ve decided to join the Israeli army,”’ she said, adding that her reaction to the news would have been the same if he had told her he decided to take a gap year in Africa or anything that strayed from her expectation that he would go to university right after high school.” A LinkedIn profile notes that Sasson was previously the executive director at the Congregation Darchei Noam synagogue in Toronto.
Morrison’s father, Howard Morrison, is a rabbi at the Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda Synagogue in Toronto. In March 2019, he published an article in CJN responding to the CBC article about Yonah.
The article starts: “At the end of my recent sabbatical in Israel, I was sent a CBC article that featured a beautiful photograph of my son, Yonah, in his IDF uniform. At the top of the piece were a number of meaningful quotes about why he chose to become a lone soldier. It seemed like a good story. But as I read on, I became confused, chagrined, angry and sad. I found myself screaming within. Tears were falling down my face. Innuendos, partial truths, vicious lies, slander and propaganda were hitting me from all directions.”
He goes on to write, “Indeed, even though Israel has the most moral military in the world and is a staunch ally of Canada’s, the CBC article raises questions about dual loyalties, questions the financial structure of the lone soldier program and compares foreign soldiers who serve in the IDF with those who fight for ISIS. The CBC article reduces itself to moral relativism by comparing how many Israelis and Palestinians have died in conflicts over the past couple of years.”
Howard noted that he made a complaint about the article to HonestReporting Canada, and added, “I am proud of our lone soldiers and I am sad that their idealism has been used against them. I am angry at the CBC and its supporters.”
The CBC listed Noam Zeldin, another individual included in this database, as one of Morrison’s friends, and states that their terms of service overlapped.
