Israel's lone soldiers make aliya independently and as new immigrants, and must adapt to a new country while serving in challenging military positions. Few have experienced as arduous a cultural journey as Caleb Dyer. Until 2009, Dyer and his family – natives of Toronto – were members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. “My parents were very religious, and were always the ones to find out the truth about anything, which led them to Judaism,” Dyer says. In 2009, he and his family underwent an Orthodox conversion to Judaism. He speaks highly of Toronto's Jewish community: “The amount of love and acceptance my family and I received is something I've never seen in my life.” After finishing high school, Dyer wanted to go to Israel. “Before we converted,” he says, “my family and I affiliated both with Israel, and the land itself. It was also part of the motivation of converting to Judaism.” Once he arrived, Dyer first studied at Ohr Somayach Yeshiva in Jerusalem. “It was an experience I would never forget. The lessons I learned there helped me become a better person,” he said. Next, he learned Hebrew in an ulpan at Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu, where he gained a firsthand perspective on kibbutz life. In April 2016, Dyer entered the IDF and became a mechanic in its combat engineering unit. He now services the D9 armored bulldozer, nicknamed “Doobie” – “the bear” – for its immense size and power. The most valuable skill he says he has acquired in the army is a work ethic. “In the army you work from when you wake up until you go to sleep.” Loneliness is the lot of the lone soldier and Dyer admits to that, but he also enjoys being with friends on base and working on military operations. While he lives primarily with English speakers in Herzliya, he greatly appreciates the kindness of Israelis. “I love how nice and caring the people are here,” he adds. “Wherever I go, I always have a family that can host for Shabbat or help in different ways.” Dyer met President Reuven Rivlin at an army-sponsored panel of lone soldiers. “Meeting the president was a moment that I will always remember, due to the inspiration it gave me to keep pushing and fulfilling my dreams, which are to serve and do the best I can in the army,” he says, adding that serving in the army, for him, was part of being a Jew. “Serving in the army definitely does enhance my Jewish experience. I am in a Jewish country, serving in an army that swears to protect its civilians.” The unofficial motto of the IDF Combat Engineering unit is “The hard we shall do today; the impossible we shall do tomorrow.” Caleb Dyer, who grew up under the wintry skies of Canada, has become a devoted Jew, serving the IDF under Israel's sunny skies. He has, it seems, already achieved the impossible.
