A few weeks ago, during reserve duty in Lebanon, I wrote about a group of lone soldiers singing in the back of a Hummer. They came from the United States, England, Brazil. I remember thinking that they represented the very best of the Jewish people.

Today, I find myself thinking about another lone soldier. His name was Ben. Ben Vais. Since hearing about his death, I have not been able to stop thinking about him. I watched videos of him from our Kol Ami Mechina gap-year program over and over again. Smiling. Laughing. Surrounded by friends. Volunteering, learning, and traveling across the country he loved so deeply.

I learned more about him from Avishai and Akiva, the directors of Bnei Akiva Mechina Olamit, the Kol Ami campus at Migdal Oz. Ben’s life was not an easy one. He faced challenges that many people never see. Yet from everything I have heard, he kept pushing forward. He kept striving for more.

After his gap year in Israel, he........

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