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Podcast: North Star with Ellin Bessner
Episode: Alone in the Holy Land: Life as a Canadian IDF lone soldier
Description: The term "lone soldier" refers to recruits in the Israel Defense Forces who have little or no family support systems in the Jewish state. Israel estimates there 6,000 lone soldiers currently active.
While it's impossible to say how many of those are Canadian, it's relatively common for Canadian high school graduates to head to the Holy Land for two years of military service, despite the known issues of occasional homesickness, language barriers, depression and even suicide. Elsewhere, some Canadian groups have argued that it's illegal for a foreign country to recruit soldiers on Canadian soil.
But...