This is Eli. He grew up in New Jersey.

Eli was 9 years old when three Israeli boys were kidnapped in Gush Etzion, just south of Jerusalem.

That day, he told his parents he was going to defend Israel when he grew up.

At 21, he packed a bag, said goodbye to his family, and got on a plane. He enlisted in the IDF as a lone soldier. No parents nearby. No family apartment to return to on weekends. When he finished a week on the front, there was no father waiting to pick him up.

Then he found Beit Daniel, a home for lone soldiers. A furnished room waited for him. Hot meals. Friends who understood what he had been through. Mentors who knew his name and his story. For the first time since leaving New Jersey, Eli had a place he actually wanted to come back to.

But there are many more like Eli. Young men who come every year from America, Canada, England, South Africa, Australia, and beyond. They leave their families, their countries, and everything familiar to defend the Jewish homeland, but they do not have a home to turn to.