When the Israel Defense Forces announced on July 24 that one of their soldiers was badly wounded by Hezbollah rocket fire aimed at an army base in Northern Israel, they didn't disclose the young man's identity. But his parents want the Jewish community to know.

Just before they flew to be with him at his hospital bedside, the parents of Ben Brown, asked members of their community in Toronto to begin praying for their son's recovery.

Now Jews in Canada and around the world are keeping the 20-year-old student in their prayers. Ben was raised in Toronto, attending Associated Hebrew School and then Or Chaim high school, and went to Moshava summer camp in Ontario before moving to Israel to attend a yeshiva and enlist in the IDF—just like his older brother before him.

Since the Hezbollah attack, Ben has undergone neurosurgery in Haifa's Rambam hospital and remains in intensive care, still in a coma.

On today's episode of The CJN Daily, we speak to Rabbi Daniel Korobkin of the family's Beth Avraham Yoseph synagogue in Thornhill, with community members who know the Browns, and we hear from his older brother, Zach Brown, in Israel, in whose footsteps Ben chose to walk.

What we talked about:

• Listen to Ben’s brother, Zach Brown, share his own experiences as a lone soldier from Canada serving in the IDF, on The CJN Daily from Dec. 2021
• Read about how Canadian parents of lone soldiers are coping with their children’s decision to serve in the IDF after Oct. 7, in The CJN
• How Yonadav Levenstein, 23, was killed in battle in November 2023 in Gaza, the son of Canadian-born parents, in The CJN

Credits

• Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
• Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
• Music: Dov Beck-Levine

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