After a website called Find IDF Soldiers surfaced online last month, compiling publicly available information about individual Canadians who have ever served in the Israel Defense Forces, a few of those featured in the directory looked into whether legal action could have it permanently removed from public view.

The project was first published on Feb. 24 by The Maple, which calls itself an “antidote to the establishment corporate press,” with an increasingly particular focus on government policy related to the Middle East and its connection to communities in Canada. The editorial slant is unapologetically pro-Palestinian, and anti-Israel.

The operation claims to be entirely funded by readers; according to its landing page, it has 70,000 email subscribers for its leftist reporting and commentary. The Maple‘s initial audience was imported from North99, a conventional third-party election advertiser advocating against conservative political views, primarily through social media postings.

Find IDF Soldiers material draws from published news sources, LinkedIn profiles, and social media accounts. Past reporting from publications in Israel and Canada—including The Canadian Jewish News—are cited in each of the profiles.

“This is not a doxxing website,” reads the introduction, using the contemporary term for the concept of dropping documents of a classified nature. “Every profile is based entirely on public information gathered through simple Google searches from news articles, social media profiles, newsletters, websites, public directories and other sources.

“This information is also not being collected and republished here to encourage any harassment of the individuals named.”

While no legal action has been launched to date, The CJN has learned that groups of IDF veterans initially named on the website—most of whom are based in Canada, the U.S., or Israel—have been exploring legal avenues to respond to The Maple for publishing the project, which is inviting additional names to research.

The soldiers named span generations of Jewish Canadians—from the late Ben Dunkelman, one of the Canadian ‘Machalniks’ who served with Israel in the 1948 war, to those who have served since Oct. 7, 2023, and the war in Gaza following the Hamas attacks on Israel.

The initial article based on similar research, featuring information about 11 Canadians serving in the IDF during the current war, was published on Nov. 12, 2024, although it received scant attention compared to the spin-off website.

Find IDF Soldiers became inaccessible to internet users on the day after it first appeared. The material was restored by March 3.

But an accompanying introductory article on The Maple—which remained accessible while the standalone project website was offline—shared quotes and highlights from some of the profiles, with links to journalism sources and database entries.

Creator offers rationale

Davide Mastracci, the opinion editor for The Maple who’s behind the project, unveiled his findings with a “composite of the average soldier” derived from “stats and demographics, quotes from the soldiers themselves about their motivations, what units they served in, and more.”

The website was removed by “a third party” on Feb. 25, according to Mastracci, but he did not supply further detail on how that happened or how the site was restored. (The original URL of findidfsoldiers.com now redirects to hosting at findidfsoldiers.net.)

Creating what he calls “the largest such collection of names and stories in Canada, by far” is presented as an ongoing project, with requests for further information from readers.

The Maple does not provide detail on what the publication plans to do with these tips—although it is presumably to help expand the list beyond 85 profiles.

In the project introduction and disclaimers on the accompanying article, Mastracci says he seeks to better understand Canadians who have served in the Israeli military, provide insight into their backgrounds and motivations for serving, and “if their participation was encouraged by family members and social networks.”

The editor posits it is “reasonable to infer that many people in Canada do not approve of fellow Canadians becoming Israeli soldiers” and that a disconnect exists between the Canadian government’s view on Israel and those of ordinary Canadians.

Find IDF Soldiers intends to help readers understand the mindset of Canadians who join the Israeli military, Mastracci writes, by aggregating those publicly available details on where soldiers grew up, their education, their reasons for enlisting, their military roles, and their lives after their service.

“Many of the Canadians that have joined the Israeli military eventually return here and rejoin society. Some of them likely attempt to keep their service out of the public eye, while others willingly share this information. Regardless of how these soldiers decide to approach their service, Canadians deserve to know who they are, the networks they’re a part of that may have influenced their decision to join the military and what they’ve done since returning to Canada.”

The Maple states it is not accusing the soldiers of breaking Canadian laws or engaging in “Israeli military crimes.”

An additional disclaimer about why these Canadians chose to serve in the IDF says “other members of the Jewish community may disagree with the soldiers’ interpretation of Judaism and views on the Israeli military.”

Reservist’s father reacts

Israel Ellis immediately reacted to the website with a mixture concern and fury when he learned his IDF reservist son Eitan Ellis was highlighted, along with other soldiers they know.

An entrepreneur and author based in Toronto—who writes about the aftermath of Oct. 7, the threat of radical ideologies and the “wildfire of global antisemitism” in his recent book The Wake Up Call: Global Jihad and the Rise of Antisemitism in a World Gone MAD—said he went into a defensive mode, but that came alongside anger, and a restlessness to act in response—and organize.

“‘How do we get this thing shut down as quickly as possible?’ That took me on a bit of a journey,” he said, and was soon contacting “every politician I know”—and law enforcement officials, too.

“Many people were talking, and by the morning the site was shut down.” (Ellis spoke with The CJN before it was restored.)

Ellis confirmed that several families of the named soldiers had been in communication since the list was published, and were exploring options for a legal response to The Maple.

“We are now gaining legal opinions [on whether] to launch a class-action lawsuit, and we are looking at our legal avenues to see what we can do to create a case, to create damages,” said Ellis. “We’d like to shut down the entire operation.”

That said, it’s difficult to prove there was a negative intent behind the site.

“The problem is that Canada does not have laws that cover this. It is an uphill battle to prove intent to harm. There is a risk to launching a legal action that gets dismissed as it will cause to validate [the database project].”

“But obviously when you look at all of this, the intent is to intimidate, to cause fear, and to put these people that are mentioned on that site in harm’s way, because they are in harm’s way,” said Ellis, who was speaking to community organizers and soliciting legal opinions, and had sought to launch a complaint with Toronto Police Services.

“There may be an opportunity for people to demand that their names not be published publicly, as social media is not intended for that type of consumption,” he added later via email.

A group called Hind Rajab Foundation filed International Criminal Court complaints about 1,000 IDF members and senior officers in 2024. The group continues to publicly reveal private information about Israeli soldiers, and lobby for foreign governments to arrest soldiers, often sharing soldiers’ own social media content as evidence. The IDF has now said it will no longer allow soldiers to be identified by name, explains a recent report in the Times of Israel, which also said Israel’s foreign ministry published a warning about soldiers’ social media posts “being used to bring legal action against them in other countries.”

According to Ellis, the database author was “extremely strategic” to avoid crossing the line into libellous territory. He says Mastracci created an “aggregate” of public information, and while he realizes the publication isn’t illegal per se, the list of names provides “the haters and the lovers of death… supporters of Hamas, with bread crumbs to the people that have been involved.”

Someone could commit a random, violent act against one of the listed Canadians, says Ellis, adding that many post-service IDF soldiers’ trauma involves, specifically, fear of an unexpected, sudden attack.

The intent behind the list is “insidious” he says, because “that person’s intent [is] not to be a public provider of information, but rather the purpose of him publishing that is to intimidate, to create fear, and cause harm, and put my kid at risk… He [Mastracci] knows exactly what he’s doing.”

By making the list public and encouraging readers to report new tips, “there is no question about it,” says Ellis.

“It is a hunting exercise.”

Shai DeLuca is not ashamed

The most widely recognized name on Find IDF Soldiers is a Toronto-based interior designer and TV personality who won a defamation lawsuit against the proprietor of Foodbenders, after the café’s owner published a series of antisemitic Instagram posts in 2020.

So, when the website debuted last month, Shai DeLuca quickly found himself being contacted by others on the list.

“Jews… once something like this happens, the WhatsApp group comes together, and all of a sudden I was added to this WhatsApp group of people who are on this list,” he said.

“There’s nothing in these lists that we are embarrassed of, or that we are ashamed of.”

He notes that his social media profiles mention he served in the IDF.

“What did you find out? What did you prove? What in our mentality did you show? That we’re proud of who we are, that we’re proud that we’re able to defend ourselves, that we’re proud that we adhere to the law in the country that we are a citizen of? What did you prove? Nothing.

“It was literally a list of Jews. That’s all it was. Good for you, you put a list of Jews together. That’s what you did. Like the SS.”

DeLuca, who had already been in contact with his lawyer from the Foodbenders case after the list was published, confirmed he would be open to joining any potential legal action if launched—and that he had been contacted about potentially joining such cases.

“If my name and being a part of it would help combat this publication, and what this man did, of course I would, absolutely.”

The Maple’s editor was “very smart legally,” DeLuca says, by adding disclaimers: ‘’’This was not for doxxing. All of the information I found was online. I’m just putting a list together.’”

“If the point of it was not to doxx,” DeLuca says, or to claim that any of the Canadians who served that were named had done wrong, “[then] what exactly is the point of this list?

“There was no point other than to create a list of Jews.”

He’s skeptical the project seeks to understand anyone’s motivations for serving in the IDF: Mastracci never contacted him directly.

DeLuca says there’s never a good reason to make a list of Jews.

“There’s a very dark history with that. People think it’s only the Holocaust—it’s not only the Holocaust…It was during the Spanish Inquisition, it was any time there was a need to round up Jews, lists were made. So Jews and lists—not a good thing.”

More reactions from the ‘Found’

Several others featured on Find IDF Soldiers have publicly responded to their inclusion.

Championship ultra-endurance cyclist Leah Goldstein—who was formerly an IDF Krav Maga instructor and kickboxer—posted on social media that she wasn’t intimidated by the list, as she is a public figure who’s been criticized elsewhere for her time in the military.

“I’m proud of my service and there’s no way I’ll hide it. But to put us out there, it feels like it’s a bit targeted. What’s the purpose of that?”

Gil Troy, a prolific commentator and history professor at McGill University, wrote a column for the Jerusalem Post in response to the inclusion of each of his four children. He says they are proud to be listed alongside the late Ben Dunkelman, their personal friend Ben Mizrahi—who was killed while attending the Nova music festival—and Yisroel Eliyahu Suissa, who died in a motorcycle accident while on break from serving in Gaza.

Rebecca Garner, a Montreal native who now lives in Berkeley, Calif., who served in a combat role from 2011 to 2014, told the National Post that she believes the names featured alongside her amount to “quite possibly the most unflappable members of our Jewish community.”

Noy Leyb, born and raised in Calgary before he became an IDF paratrooper who rose to the ranks of First Sergeant—and returned to serve with his unit soon after Oct. 7, 2023—was similarly undaunted by the attention, especially given his current New York-based leadership of Fuel for Truth, presenting Israel advocacy strategies to students. But he told the Jewish News Syndicate that he found the presentation unsettling.

“What surprised me was the language they used, the way they shaped us IDF soldiers and how non-human they made us look.”

Questions about ethics

The interim president of Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) called the website a “shameful attempt at intimidation.”

Noah Shack pointed out the “long history of Canadians, particularly those with dual citizenship, who have served in the militaries of democratic allies of Canada, whether in countries like Israel, the United States, or the United Kingdom.”

He also noted that some of those listed served in the 1940s, while others “have lived in Israel for decades and have written books about their military service.”

In a joint statement issued on Feb. 28, the Reform Jewish Community of Canada, Reform Rabbis of Canada, and ARZA Canada said “the nature of this publication is both distressing and dangerous.”

The Maple might have obtained information and quotes related to the soldiers legally from public sources, but questions of media ethics remain, particularly around the idea of public interest.

Marsha Barber is a professor of journalism at Toronto Metropolitan University and a former senior CBC News producer whose research examines media bias. From a journalistic perspective, she says The Maple’s article is “ethical, if abhorrent”—meaning there are Canadians who would call this public interest information.

“It’s ethical because it’s deemed to be in the public interest in some quarters. But it’s abhorrent because we’ve seen where lists of Jews have led in the past. The request for tips about other Canadians who have joined the Israeli military is also deeply disturbing,” she wrote in an email to The CJN.

“Regardless of how the author frames it, it appears to be a classic example of doxxing.”

Barber added that the editorial disclaimers “appear to be disingenuous and a way of shirking responsibility for the potential harm this article might cause.”

Content without context

The Maple answered The CJN’s questions via email, and Mastracci said he had not been contacted by legal representatives of any of the initial 85 profiled soldiers.

Mastracci reasserted that profiles were “based solely on public sources, including a great deal of reporting from The Canadian Jewish News” and that he created the database “to provide readers with a better understanding of Canadians who join the Israeli military, including why they decide to do so.”

As for what should happen to the Canadian subjects of the list, Mastracci wrote: “My only intention with the database is to provide readers with a better understanding of Canadians who join the Israeli military.

“Individuals were included on the basis of their service in the Israeli military, not their religious identity. Readers are welcome to pass along any names they feel I’ve missed.”

When asked why focus solely on Canadians who serve with Israel’s military, and not those involved in other conflicts, Mastracci responded that others are welcome to launch their own similar projects.

Find IDF Soldiers is selective about the information included upon initial publication. Ben Dunkelman’s profile omits his military honours for distinguished service during the Second World War, and his refusing of orders to order locals out in Nazareth in 1948—which was chronicled 70 years later by Ellin Bessner of The CJN in her book, Double Threat, after the story was published in the Toronto Star. Dunkelman died in 1997.

Soldiers who passed away were “included on the basis of their service in the Israeli military regardless of when it was,” explained Mastracci.

In that category is Ben Mizrahi, who was murdered by Hamas at the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023.

The profile for the former IDF medic, originally from Vancouver, mentions his paramedic training—but the text initially failed to mention the widely reported information about how he died, which was by trying to save the lives of others after armed terrorists stormed the festival site.

“Ben Mizrahi’s profile contains a video from his mother where she mentions this information,” wrote Mastracci about the omission.

It’s only around the three-minute mark in the four-minute video embedded on the web page that his mother, Dikla Mizrahi, says Ben and a friend were hastily exiting the grounds when they stopped to help someone who was injured, and whom they did not know.

“They attended to the wounded woman and they took her to the paramedic tent and continued to take care of people there, until they couldn’t,” says Dikla Mizrahi in the documentary short produced by Jewish Federations of Canada.

She also mentions her son’s motivations to serve, and his dedication to saving lives.

“He really believed in what he did, I know that because I read one of his notes that he wrote, because he wrote about ‘The Oath of the Paramedic’… you don’t leave a wounded person in the field… so he lived up to what he believes… and that was Ben.”

The restored website promises that the current IDF soldier database is “the first part of a series.”

CORRECTION (3/10/25): Due to an editing error, the reasons for the temporary removal of the Find IDF Soldiers website was mischaracterized in the initially published version. According to Davide Mastracci, the scenario was activated by “a third party.”

This article was originally published in CJN.ca and updated on March 10, 2025.