Last summer, Ofir Levy and Alan Benchimol, both 21, walked back through the doors of Instituto Alberto Einstein, the close-knit Jewish school they grew up attending in Panama City. They weren’t there as students, but as IDF combat veterans returning to speak to a room full of excited teenagers.
What began as a presentation about military service in Israel’s army became a chance to reflect on how far they had come.
“Seeing the little kids we used to see running around during recess all grown up, and realizing that we grew up, too, and are now able to talk to them about our experience was a really moving and heartwarming moment,” said Levy, who served in the Paratroopers Brigade for nearly two years.
Levy and Benchimol, who served as a combat soldier in the IDF Artillery Corps from 2024 to 2025, are part of a small, distinct, and growing wave of young Jews from Latin America (LATAM) choosing to serve as “lone soldiers” – defined by the IDF as service members without immediate family or a primary support network in Israel.
While local media coverage of lone soldiers isn’t unique, it almost always focuses on North American immigrants or those from the former Soviet Union. It makes sense when you look at the numbers. According to 2025 data from Nefesh B’Nefesh and Friends of the IDF Lone Soldiers Program, those regions comprise 34% (1,259) and 32.3% (1,197) of active lone soldiers, respectively.
Public records rarely separate year-by-year data for Latin American recruits, yet overall lone soldier numbers tell a clear story. There are an estimated 7,000 lone soldiers currently serving in the IDF, among them more than 3,700 immigrant soldiers from around the world and over 4,000 native-born Israelis serving without the support of immediate family.
The Latin American demographic shows that by the end of last year, their numbers grew to 358 active soldiers, outnumbering recruits from Africa, Asia, and Oceania combined.
Levy believes this small but growing group is a chain reaction. When teenagers see someone from their own school, neighborhood, or family enlist and have a meaningful experience, it suddenly feels like a path they can follow, too.
After he and Benchimol visited their old high school, Saul Gazal, 19, who heard them speak, decided to follow in their footsteps and enlist.
“After seeing everything the Jewish people went through in the Holocaust, October 7, and so on – I decided that I wanted to contribute, join the Israeli army, and support our country,” said Gazal, currently in combat training and expected to start a combat role in November. “All the Panamanians who served or are currently serving in the army were an inspiration.”
Joining the IDF
Lone soldiers arrive in Israel with very different backgrounds and reasons for serving. While some follow deep family traditions, many others – young men and women alike – feel a sudden call to action. For some, watching the aftermath of October 7, 2023, and the rise in antisemitism globally serves as a push to voluntarily leave home and build a new life in Israel.
Levy, the youngest of three siblings born to Israeli parents who all served, said he felt a natural call to defend the country.
“It made me stronger with my feelings, with myself, with my friends,” said Levy, who arrived shortly after October 2023 as a new recruit. “Something in my mind clicked and said to me, ‘Listen, you need to do better, and you have to do something meaningful with your life.’”
Similarly, in Ecuador, veteran lone soldier Yanir Haim followed his father and siblings into the IDF, turning his home into a “soldier’s family.”
In Brazil and Venezuela, Victor Waintraub and Leonardo Meckler credit their tight-knit Jewish schools for giving them the idea to enlist, after watching older peers head to Israel before them.
“Since I was a kid, I always had this feeling that connected me to Israel. I said I was going to give it a try,” said Waintraub, who moved to Israel in 2019 and began his service in combat, but shifted to a role as a car mechanic in an intelligence unit following an injury.
Finding their footing
For the young immigrants who move across the world to join the IDF, there are numerous obstacles greeting them upon arrival, including a language they may not speak fluently, a new culture, and intense bureaucracy.
To keep these young volunteers from falling through the cracks, a dedicated network of organizations steps in to handle everything from financial aid to emotional guidance. Major groups like Nefesh B’Nefesh provide logistical backup and will even fly a soldier’s parents to Israel for major milestones.
Programs like Mahal help diaspora youth volunteer before making official immigration decisions, while the non-profit Ach Gadol pairs active soldiers with former lone soldiers who act as mentors.
Some of the biggest challenges these lone soldiers face are the simplest things, such as weekend furloughs, when they walk into an empty apartment.
“Usually when I came home, everything was dark, and no one was in the house … I really, really wished both of my parents had been there to welcome me,” Levy recalled, about coming home after intense weeks on base.
Meckler, now 21, who served in an IT combat-support role, says he felt a similar weight: “Coming back home and not seeing your family, and having to do everything for yourself, was difficult.”
Today, these veteran lone soldiers are using their experiences to focus on paying forward the support they received – which is exactly how Benchimol and Levy found themselves back at their old high school.
At the time they enlisted, the two didn’t know they were each making the move. They grew up in the same Jewish schooling system back home and unexpectedly met again in the IDF.
“Neither of us planned it together, but somehow we ended up here at the same time,” said Benchimol. “He is basically a brother to me. Having him here made Israel feel a little more like home.”
And Gazal, who is currently a lone soldier, knows that he can get help from them and other Panamanians should he need it.
Similarly, Waintraub, who completed his military service in 2021, encourages young Brazilians considering the same path not to let fear stop them from taking the leap. He hopes others will take from his experience the need for mental resilience.
“Everything is in your head,” said Waintraub. “Everything you go through, if your mind is in the right space, you can go through it.”
As for Haim, who followed his siblings from Ecuador into the Israeli army, he wants everyone even considering serving to know one thing: “It’s a really amazing experience. You’re going to love it. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he said, smiling.
“You have to do it. There’s no other place like this place.”■
This report was written as part of the ‘Art of Journalism’ workshop at the School of Communication, Reichman University.