Elijah Peppars
By Andrew Adler
Community Editor
Sharon Ohayon
The next time somebody declares that teenagers lack the courage of their convictions, point them in the direction of Elijah Peppars and Sharon Ohayon.
Both of these young people have decided on a course of action reflecting an extraordinary degree of commitment: enlisting in the Israel Defense Forces. Peppars of Jeffersonville, Ind. and Ohayon of Louisville will travel to Israel for preliminary training, followed by 18-month stints as IDF “Lone Soldiers” – the moniker for young men and women from outside Israel who volunteer to serve in the nation’s military, but who have no family or support network within the country.
They will be part of a tradition that dates back to 1948, when diaspora Jews committed their energies – and in some cases their lives – as members of Mahal amid Israel’s War of Independence. Volunteers have participated in subsequent conflicts, too, up to and including the current war against Hamas in Gaza.
October 7 was an obvious tipping point that prompted numerous Jews outside Israel to sign up as Lone Soldiers. Yet sometimes the motivations emerged well before that murderous day.
“I guess my impetus is, number one, being Jewish and just falling in love with Judaism and wanting to be surrounded by Jewish culture,” Peppars explained. The middle child among five brothers, Peppars says he was the sole Jew out of close to 3,000 students at Jeffersonville High School. Beginning in his freshman year, he was “constantly being met with rude remarks in the hallway, not going to (basketball) practice on Shabbat, and then being reprimanded by my teammates for being Jewish.”
Experiences like these “put the idea of joining the IDF in my head,” he says. Antisemitism “left a sour taste in my mouth. I was like, ‘I really don’t want to stick around and be in a society where I’m expected to tolerate this.’”
Even after moving to Community Montessori school in New Albany, Peppars couldn’t shake the sensation of isolation and restlessness. “Then after October 7 – then there was waking up on October 8 and having so many people I know posting blatant propaganda and denying the rape, murder and beheadings.”
Like most people his age, Peppars already had already been wondering, ‘What do I want to do with my life?’ He considered taking a gap year, participating in a Birthright trip – the usual options for a teenager finishing high school.
“But then Israel and the entire Jewish world was flipped upside down, and it dawned on me that I believe in Jewish self-determination. In times of war like this, I don’t think it’s fair that I get to go over there and just study, when people my age are fighting for our right to exist.”
Eventually, he reached a personal tipping point. “We have a home in Eretz Israel; we fought for it in 1948. We have a state, and we as young, able-bodied Jews should fight for that.”
There is an established protocol for becoming a Lone Soldier. “First you have to apply,” Peppars explains, “which you can do at any time. For this cycle you had to have all your documents in by May. I applied in March; I believe Sharon applied in April. And then you arrive in Israel.”
His departure is imminent: early July, when he will set foot in Israel for the first time. After an interval exploring Jerusalem and nearby areas, he and his entire cohort take part in a “pre-army” orientation from July 14-Aug. 8.
“They test to see your math scores, your reading ability and your general technical abilities,” Peppars says. “It’s sort of non-combat basic training. And then, at the end of three months, learning Hebrew and getting used to Army life, they ask where you want to serve? And you tell the selection officer what you want to do, and they go from there.” His preference is to serve either in the infantry or as a paratrooper.
Ohayon – a 19-year-old who graduated last year from the Francis Parker School – got the IDF bug after talking with her grandmother.
“It’s such an interesting story,” she recalls. “When I was about 16, my grandmother said to me: ‘Hey, you should join the IDF. Our soldiers are amazing.’ And I was like, ‘No way – you’re funny.’ I thought it was a joke. And then my dad said, ‘Maybe you should think about it.’”
Though she’d initially dismissed the notion, Ohayon couldn’t help playing the “What if?” game about enlisting. “A year later I turned 17 and was doing research. It had stuck in my mind for some reason. And then I thought, ‘You know what? That actually looks so cool – something I would love to do,” even though she hadn’t yet taken her first trip to Israel.
That inaugural journey came shortly before Ohayon turned 18, when her father took her to Israel during Hanukkah in December of 2022. The experience electrified her.
“‘This is amazing,’” she remembers feeling. “‘I don’t want to leave.’ It felt so much like home – I had such a connection. So I told my dad that I definitely wanted to do it” – enlisting in the IDF as a Mahal Lone Soldier.
Oct. 7 gave grandma pause – perhaps sending Sharon into a war zone wasn’t such a great idea after all. But her granddaughter was undeterred.
“‘There’s no way I’m not going,’” Ohayon told herself. “This is even more reason.’”
Various friends were a good deal less enthused. “Some people were like, ‘Are you crazy? Do you see what’s going on?’’
Yes, she saw.
Ohayon tells of “the pain I felt when Oct. 7 happened, the videos, the amount that me and my family cried and me feeling there’s nothing I can do.”
Despite the potential perils of serving in a wartime environment, her father remained in favor of her enlisting. “My dad was actually the one who was like, ‘Yeah, you definitely should still go.’’’ Ohayon said that her rabbi at The Temple, Rabbi David Ariel-Joel admitted he was worried for her – that “‘This is scary.’”
Her response was characteristically direct: “I want to do this.”
Like Peppars – whom she got to know after meeting him and participating in a Mahal WhatsApp group – Ohayon wants to serve in a combat unit. “I want to be part of the action.”
Okay. “I will say that when I told my family that I specifically wanted to do combat, they were wondering, ‘What is wrong with you? What are you doing? This is a suicide mission.’”
As she prepares to travel to Israel in October and deploy in December, the question remains: Is Ohayon herself worried about her safety?
“The truth is – and it might sound crazy to people – is that I am more excited than necessarily worried,” she says. “Because at the end of the day, I know that no matter what happens, I’m doing something that means the world to me, something that matters.