Bonjour Chai

Have you heard of the World Zionist Congress before? Until relatively recently, a lot of people hadn't—including two hosts of The CJN's Not in Heaven podcast. Yet, perhaps owing to the impact of Oct. 7 and the wide-reaching effects of the Israeli government's actions on the Jewish Diaspora, Jews around the world have found themselves not only suddenly attentive to the existence of the World Zionist Congress, but actively vying for a voice at the table. (For more on what's at stake, listen to a recent episode of our sister podcast, North Star.) And so get-out-the-vote campaigns are in full swing for Zionists to fight over who gets to control a billion-dollar fund. In the U.S., WZC elections set a new turnout record, nearly doubling participation since the last election in 2020. Meanwhile, Canada is holding its first election for the WZC in decades. This week on Not in Heaven, our rabbinic hosts cast a skeptical eye towards the whole enterprise—while one reveals they are actually a delegate on one of the electoral slates, and explains what that entails. Elsewhere in this episode, co-host Matthew Leibl reports from his home province of Manitoba, where wildfires coninue to ravage the province, and we discuss Swedish activist Greta Thunberg's flotilla stunt, as she was swiftly deported after trying to float into Gaza to deliver aid. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Not in Heaven (Not sure how? Click here)

The world feels increasingly unsafe for Jews. Digital spaces are riddled with antisemitic rhetoric. Israel recently issued a travel warning for Jews visiting Canada. And, last week, threats turned real when Elias Rodriguez allegedly shot and killed two Israeli embassy staffers outside the Jewish museum in Washington, D.C., shouting about a free Palestine during his arrest. One of the hosts of our Not in Heaven podcast, Yedida Eisenstat, lives in the U.S. capital with her family. Another host, Avi Finegold, lives in Chicago—where the suspected killer lived. When danger lurks so close, it becomes an unavoidable topic of conversation across generations. All three hosts of this show have multiple children, ranging in age from four to 19. In this episode, each shares how they approached the topic with their family: how to speak frankly about world politics to teenagers, how to explainer to grade-schoolers about security guards with bulletproof vests, how to explain your presence at a rally for the hostages when your kids can't grasp what Hamas even is. They also discuss reactions to the murders, both their own and those who believe the murders were "100 percent justified", and Israel's travel advisory for Canada. Do the words of warning feel justified for Jews actually living here, or is the Jewish State just playing politics? Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Not in Heaven (Not sure how? Click here)

Recently, Congregation Dorshei Emet—the only Reconstructionist synagogue in Quebec, and the oldest in Canada—took a major vote on whether to secede from the official Reconstructing Judaism movement. A microcosm of the province in which it resides, the "remain" faction won. But the results could not mask the increasing schism, which, in turn, has revealed yet another crack in the foundational organizing structure of Jewish life in North America—denominations, otherwise known as movements. Synagogues vote to change or abandon denominations all the time, and many rabbis—including all three hosts of Not in Heaven—have received, or are receiving, ordination from outside the three main pillars of Reform, Conservative and Orthodox. Chabad, the most popular rising religious establishment in Judaism, is clearly part of the Haredi community, but proudly does outreach to Jews outside the Orthodox world. And yet, while the old-school labels may fall away, Jews will always want to know what kind of service they're walking into. Is seating mixed? Will Shabbat services include musical instruments? New labels may well rise to replace the old ones. Hear the full discussion on this week's episode of Not in Heaven. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Not in Heaven (Not sure how? Click here)

A new study on Canadian Jewry was recently published by Robert Brym and Rhonda Lenton in Canadian Jewish Studies, an academic journal out of York University. The numbers show that intermarriage is no longer as rare as it used to be in Canada, with 30 percent of Canadian Jews marrying outside their faith. Some key takeaways: younger Jews are more likely to intermarry than older ones, and men are more likely to do so than women. There is a strong inverse correlation between Jewish community size and intermarriage rates, too: intermarriage rates are lower in large Jewish communities than they are in smaller ones. Globally, Canada's rate is in line with fellow commonwealth countries the United Kingdom and Australia, but roughly half the rate of the United States. So what do we make of this? Doomsayers have called intermarriage a "second Holocaust", but the unavoidable reality of young people moving away from religion can't be fought. Should Jewish institutions and community leaders expand their outreach, or do they tighten their grip on what it means to be a Jew? Special guest host Phoebe Maltz Bovy, host of The Jewish Angle, joins to discuss. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Not in Heaven (Not sure how? Click here)

Mainstream Jewish communal leaders have, for ages, been talking about "skewing younger" with programming. But none of them would dare come near Sinners' Shabbat, a sexy, raunchy burlesque show, ripe with bondage ropes, leather skirts, cleavage and kippot and queer couples. Helmed by Tova Sterling, a chef and influencer in New York City, the events were born out of her feeling not at home in conventional Jewish spaces—and finding a community on the fringes. Meanwhile, not far away, in Manhattan, Chabad debuted Fins and Scales, a pay-what-you-can kosher omakase dining experience at a Chabad house in Greenwich Village. Diners enjoyed lightly charred madai, sea bream and fresh sashimi, happy to take part in a luxurious fine-dining experience if all it cost was a donation and signing up to Chabad's mailing list. So what's going on here? Are these sorts of ultra-modern shticks the future of Judaism, or just passing gimmicks? And are they even "Jewish" events if they're totally divorced from religion and tradition? The hosts of Not in Heaven share their thoughts and disagreements. Plus, the hosts recap the tumultuous trauma felt by hundreds of Canadian teenagers on a recent March of the Living trip: they silently recreated the death march from Aushewitz to Birkenau in a walk led by former hostages and survivors of Oct. 7; they felt the heat from forest fires that decimated swaths of the hills surrounding Jerusalem; and on their way out, in Ben Gurion airport, they witnessed a Houthi missile explode on a runway right outside the building. Have the emotional intensity of these trips gone too far? Are we traumatizing future generations in the hopes of having an impact? Our rabbinic hosts weigh in. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Not in Heaven (Not sure how? Click here)

Most Jewish holidays date back thousands of years. We commemorate the time when an ancient Persian with a triangle hat tried to kill the Jews, when the Maccabees rededicated the temple in Jerusalem, when we escaped slavery in Egypt and the seas parted ways. But in the past century, Jews have added three new holidays, all of which fall in the span of a week. We're now at the tail end of the trilogy of "memory days": Yom HaShoah, Yom ha-Zikaron and Yom ha-Atzmaut. And, perhaps because they're recent additions, the way in which we mark them is susceptible to shifting, particularly after Oct. 7. Just this week, former hostages and survivors of Oct. 7 marched in the March of the Living in Poland. The USC Shoah Foundation is expanding its mission beyond the Shoah, collecting testimonies of antisemitism in the modern world. It begs the question: How do you memorialize events when you're still living through them? That's the topic for this week's episode of Not in Heaven, a podcast about the future of communal Judaism. Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat and Matthew Leibl join to discuss these traditions, memory engineering, and how the stories we tell about the past shape our present—and our future. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Marc Weisblott (editorial director), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Not in Heaven (Not sure how? Click here)

It's election season in Canada, with a record-breaking 7.3 million voters having already cast their ballots ahead of April 28. And between Passover seders and weekly Shabbat sermons, there's been no shortage of opportunities for Jewish communal leaders to weigh in on federal affairs during this high-stakes election cycle. But should they? An Israeli think tank recently used AI to analyze 4,400 sermons from 2021 to 2024. Across denominations, about half of all sermons focused on politics—with a clear jump to roughly two-thirds post-Oct. 7, including 80 percent of modern Orthodox sermons. Rabbis are divided. Some see it as their duty to guide their community and stand up for values they believe to be in the best interest of the Jewish people; others prefer to keep divisive topics out of synagogues, focusing instead on what binds us together. It's a ripe topic for our first-ever episode of Not in Heaven, The CJN's new podcast about the future of communal Judaism, taking over our previous weekly debate program, Bonjour Chai. Avi Finegold returns with a new panel of rabbinic voices: Yedida Eisenstat is a scholar, writer and associate editor at the Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization in Washington, D.C.; and Matthew Leibl is a freelance rabbi in Winnipeg with a background in sports radio. "How should your Jewish values affect your vote?": Read the new On One Foot column by Avi Finegold in the Spring 2025 premiere issue of Scribe Quarterly Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Marc Weisblott (editorial director), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Not in Heaven (Not sure how? Click here)

It's that time of year again, when all of us at Bonjour Chai reach out to noteworthy, interesting, prominent Canadian Jews to share their thoughts, stories and memories of Passover. This is the fourth annual Great Canadian Seder, featuring political musings on national borders, Donald Trump and Israeli hostages; nostalgia for a bygone Canada; and one very unique love letter to Moses. Plus, to kick things off, we're sitting down with the new hosts of this soon-to-be-rebranded podcast, Rabbi Matthew Leibl and Yedida Eisenstat,. Stay tuned later this month for the launch of Not in Heaven, a podcast discussing the future of Jewish communal life, right in this same podcast feed. In this year's seder, you'll hear from: Jonathan Rothman, staff reporter at The CJN Jacob Samuel, comedian Diane Flacks, actor and writer Mike Wilner, sports columnist and broadcaster Maya Ben David, performance artist Rabbi Susan Tendler, Beth Tikvah Congregation Talia Schlanger, singer and radio host Rabbi Sean Gorman, executive director of Mercaz Gary Topp, countercultural promoter Bryan Borzykowski, chair of The CJN board Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (producer) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

Quick editorial announcement: after four years of weekly shows this will be the final regular episode of Bonjour Chai. After Passover, this podcast feed will be relaunching as Not in Heaven, a series focusing on the future of Jewish communal life in Canada and beyond. Avi Finegold will remain as host, and he'll be joined by a panel of bright, funny, critical Jewish minds. Phoebe Maltz Bovy is excited to launch a new series with The CJN: The Jewish Angle. Hear the trailer and subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Over the past month, two works of documentary activism have been put into duelling positions in the box office. No Other Land, which documents the destruction of a Palestinian village in the West Bank, and which won the Oscar for best documentary, has been getting North American cinema owners in hot water: the mayor of Miami threatened to evict a theatre that screened it, while Jewish communities across Canada and the U.S. have held protests with similar outrage. The industry counterargument is Oct. 8, which details the emergence of campus antisemitism after the Hamas terror attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, and features interviews with Bari Weiss, Michael Rapaport, and Sheryl Sandberg, among other pro-Israel voices. Paying to see either film—or supporting one while calling to ban the other—has made movie theatres the latest venue in the broader divide between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian communities. Avi Finegold saw No Other Land in theatres, and came away with many thoughts. After that, Phoebe Maltz Bovy dives into the Jewish Yale professors ostensibly "fleeing" the U.S. for Canada in the wake of Trump's election... even though the reality may not be as drastic as it seems. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (producer) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

For years, Heeb was the Jewish hipster's answer to _Vice—_an early 2000s-era counter-cultural protest in print form, dripping with satirical comedy and anti-establishment sentiment. Sometimes, the editorial team would push the envelop too far—the magazine was famously criticized for publishing photos of Roseanne Barr dressed as Adolf Hitler, holding a tray of burnt cookies—but it encompassed a cultural moment for North American Jews that now feels somehow nostalgic. The last print edition came out in 2010, and the website has been dormant for years. Until now. Mik Moore, a creative director and digital media campaign strategist who often works with the Democratic Party, has decided to pick up where Heeb left off and revitalize the brand for a new generation. And as a collector of nearly every edition ever printed, Bonjour Chai host Avi Finegold couldn't be more excited. Moore joins the podcast to explain why he's bringing it back and address what's changed since those erstwhile days of two decades ago. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (producer) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

On March 13, nearly 100 protesters were arrested for storming Trump Tower in New York City. Their cause? Not government cuts, Medicaid, migrant rights or the cost of living. They were protesting in the name of Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old pro-Palestinian student who became a lead organizer of the campus protests at Columbia University last spring. Even though Khalil is a legal permanent resident who holds a green card and is married to an American citizen, he was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement last weekend, and is currently under threat of being deported for being a threat to U.S. foreign policy. The move has sparked outrage, with many people on both sides of the Israel-Palestine debate arguing that it's a blatant attempt to silence dissenting voices, undermine free speech and threaten legal immigration routes. On today's episode of Bonjour Chai, the hosts look at the unfolding case and how best to protect the right to protest in both the U.S. and Canada. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Michae Fraiman (producer), Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

Two antisemitism summits occurred this week: one hosted by the Anti-Defamation League in the United States, and the other by the federal government in Ottawa. And while, in both countries, there is an understanding that these sorts of summits and conferences rarely lead to change—is the alternative any better? As the world backslides into populist-style illiberalism, can we safely assume that "antisemitism is bad" is a shared belief? To discuss these trends, and how to achieve real results, The CJN's podcast producer Zachary Judah Kauffman joins co-hosts Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy. They begin with one of the most eye-popping pieces of digital content to come out of the ADL's conference: self-described "Jewish women with big racks" out to combat antisemitism online. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

For decades, it has been broadly accepted in the Jewish community that Meir Kahane—founder of the Jewish Defense League, accused terrorist in Israel and the United States, ultra-nationalist character—is an extremist outlier whose ideas are decidedly not mainstream. And yet, because ultra-nationalism is in vogue again, perhaps it was only a matter of time until Kahanism picked up steam on social media. In this week's episode of Bonjour Chai, hosts Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy focus on influencer Lizzy Savetsky's controversial post in support of Meir Kahane—and how the lifestyle content creator, like others in her field, have pivoted towards hardline pro-Israel advocacy post-Oct. 7. How seriously should we take their endorsements? Or should we be more worried about the mainstreaming of fringe ideas? Turning abroad, the hosts then speak with Till van Rahden, a professor of German and European studies at the Université de Montréal and the author of Jews and other Germans: Civil Society, Religious Diversity and Urban Politics in Breslau, 1860 to 1925, about similar pro-nationalist trends in Germany. He sheds light on the recent German elections and the rise of the Alternative for Deutschland party, including its evolution from a conservative group to a radical right-wing entity, raising concerns of neo-Nazi affiliations. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (producer) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

Last week, the Toronto District School Board held two virtual meetings that lasted seven hours each. In those 14 hours, trustees were set to vote on whether to receive a report on antisemitism in the county's biggest public school system—a report that offered 32 recommendations for confronting and mitigating antisemitism in public schools. Once again, this was to vote on whether to receive the report. Not to enact all 32 recommendations, but simply to accept that it was done. Why did it take 14 hours to discuss? The meetings—which The CJN's education reporter, Mitchell Consky, attended—were bombarded by mostly anti-Zionist delegates who argued that the report should not consider anti-Zionism as a contemporary form of antisemitism. On the other hand, the community saw pro-Zionist activists slam the report for trying to shoehorn antisemitism into a "diversity, equity and inclusion" framework that create a hierarchy of victimhood. Consky joins Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy on Bonjour Chai to explain what went on in those titanic meetings and the shifting politics at play. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Joe Fish (producer & editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

Valentine's Day, for most people, is a day to celebrate love. For the more neurotic among us, we might be inclined to spend the day analytically dissecting our romantic lives and partnerships. There are conflicting truths about modern relationships: we have to accept that our partners are special, sacred and worth fighting for; and, at the same time, that modern marriage was never meant to be like this. Throughout history, our co-parents, best friends, cooks, nannies and confidants were different people; today, we expect everything from our partner. It's no surprise that couples therapy has risen dramatically, and that the shifting role of men in society—more depressed, anxious and lonely—has played a role in this. Daniel Oppenheimer knows this well. The writer and podcaster recently published a lengthy personal feature in the New York Times Magazine, "How I Learned That the Problem in My Marriage Was Me", in which he details undergoing couples therapy quasi-publicly with the acclaimed therapist Terry Real. He joins Bonjour Chai, our weekly current affairs show, to discuss the importance of taking responsibility for one's actions and the complexities of modern masculinity—especially through the lens of Jewish identity. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Joe Fish (producer & editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

U.S. President Trump's threats of tariffs and making Canada a 51st state has sparked a resurgent nationalism across Canada. In progressive neighbourhoods, Canadian flags have replaced Palestinian ones; in Conservative messaging, federal leader Pierre Poilievre has stopped claiming Canada is "broken" and started defending it from our southern neighbours. One tangible fallout from the schism—and eventual trade war, should it actually happen—will be an even higher cost of living than what Canadian have grown accustomed to. This is specifically true of kosher food products, many of which are imported from the United States. With this backdrop, a growing number of Canadians who once admired Trump—including Canadian Jews, but also Ontario Premier Doug Ford—are now realizing their mistake. On this week's episode of Bonjour Chai, Avi and Phoebe break down the ways in which Donald Trump is reshaping Canadian politics, from a Jewish perspective and beyond. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

Last week, billionaire internet troll Elon Musk made headlines (including several at this publication) for making what appeared to be a Nazi salute at the inauguration of Donald Trump. When, in the following days, he was accused of being a Nazi by many people and organizations, he responded with a series of Nazi puns in a tweet, a la, "Some people will Goebbels anything down!" The post was noteworthy because it was unclear where Musk stood on the topic of Nazism, surprising as that is to say. Once, in the not-so-distant past, people could reasonably assume that anyone making jokes about Nazis were making fun of Nazis—not Nazis themselves. But with the rise of online troll culture and a widespread disregard for historic events-turned-memes, it's no longer obvious that the person making the Nazi salute is anti-Nazi. On this week's Bonjour Chai, hosts Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy are joined by The CJN's director of podcasts, Michael Fraiman, who once wrote a column on Jewish comedy for The CJN, and has many thoughts about the evolution of online, right-wing, male-dominated troll humour. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

Donald Trump has wasted no time in his first days as president of the United States in signing executive orders to enforce mass deportations, gender laws and American expansionism. And within this new Republican omnicause, support for Israel has become a mainstay. In the inauguration, Rabbi Ari Berman delivered a presidential blessing that took a swipe at college campuses and advocated for releasing the remaining Israeli hostages. In Trump's first week, he reversed sanctions on Israeli settlers in the West Bank and is getting credit for the ceasefire deal that was struck before he took office. But then he also pardoned the Jan. 6 rioters—including blatant antisemites—and there's the whole Elon Musk maybe-Nazi-salute thing. To break down the first week of Trump's second presidency, we're joined by Gil Troy, an American presidential historian, former CJN columnist and author of the new book, To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream. After Trump talk, they turn to the future of political movements in Israel and the shifting identity of the left in a post-ceasefire world. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

The world is sitting in suspense in anticipation of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, which would end the 15-month war that has devastated Gaza and caused mass protests worldwide. Will it happen Sunday, as planned? Will it be delayed until Monday? Will the whole thing fall through? What are the ramifications for the key political leaders involved: Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump, Joe Biden...? With all these questions swirling around, we turned to an expert on the ground. Lahav Harkov is an American-born Israeli journalist, currently writing as the senior political correspondent for Jewish Insider. She speaks with Phoebe Maltz Bovy from the midst of one of the most chaotic weeks in recent memory in this special edition of Bonjour Chai. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

With Justin Trudeau's announced resignation as prime minister and Liberal leader this week, media pundits wasted no time in penning their reflections, looking back at nine years of how Trudeau changed the Canadian political landscape. One such pundit is Jonathan Kay, an editor at the online magazine Quillette, whose article, "Shame on Us for Ever Believing Him", describes the evolution of Trudeau's brand from optimistic patriot to "Canada's Chief DEI Officer," embracing American-style culture wars and identity politics. And he'd know: Kay openly ghostwrote part of Trudeau's memoir Common Ground, spending ample time with the future prime minister in the run-up to the 2015 election. Kay now returns to Bonjour Chai to describe the Trudeau he knew and how the political landscape has shifted among the left in recent years—especially among Canadian Jewish voters. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

This week's abrupt resignation of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland from cabinet has rocked the federal government. It happened the same day Sean Fraser, the minister of housing, infrastructure and communities, stepped down; both he and Freeland join a long and growing list of cabinet members and Liberal backbenchers either resigning their cabinet positions, deciding not to run again in the next election, or outright calling for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to step down. They're not alone: all signs point to the federal Conservatives crushing the Liberals in next year's election. Multiple recent byelections, including the heavily Jewish Toronto-St. Paul's in midtown Toronto, have swung from red to blue in recent years. And it's against that backdrop that Hal Niedzviecki, the author and founder of the recently-in-the-news, now-defunct Broken Pencil magazine, posted on social media, "For the first time in my life I'll be voting Conservative." One week after discussing the Israel-induced implosion at Broken Pencil on this very podcast, we invite Niedzviecki to discuss the changing political climate, how the progressive left is losing support, and his side of what happened at the indie publication he founded in 1995. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

This week, the New Israel Fund of Canada, JSpace Canada and Canadian Friends of Peace Now released a survey of 588 Jewish Canadians that aimed to figure out the community's relationship to Israel. In short: it's complicated. The survey, managed by Leger, found that 94 percent of respondents agreed Israel "has the right to exist as a Jewish state"—yet only 51 percent self-identified as "Zionist". This startling contradiction could reveal how tarnished the brand of Zionism has become, regardless of Jewish Canadians' opinions on Israel itself, and dispels the myth of the Jewish community being monolithic about its opinions towards the Holy Land, its voting patterns and its values. Can Zionism be saved? Or should we all just ditch labels and talk about the issues? To learn more about the key takeaways, we invited Ben Murane and Maytal Kowalski, the executive directors of the New Israel Fund of Canada and JSpace Canada, respectively, to come on Bonjour Chai and explain their motivations for commissioning the survey and how we can digest the data. Listen to that interview above. After that, Avi and Phoebe dig into the anthology book On Being Jewish Now, which Phoebe had previously not read—then was called out for—and has since read every page of. Avi read it, too, and they dig into the politics of not paying Jewish writers for their work while purporting to support Jewish artists. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

The war between Israel and Hamas has claimed yet another casualty in the Canadian arts world: Broken Pencil, an independent magazine that has covered zine culture since 1995, has been shut down. Founder and publisher Hal Niedzviecki wrote on their website that "the values of the zine and small press community have shifted," adding that "the relentless pursuit of ideological purity and identity politics has overshadowed the core mission of Broken Pencil." He cited calls for his resignation, a petition for the publication to join the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, and pushes to cover what's happening in Gaza as reasons for his eventual decision. This leads to a few obvious questions. Does a Canadian publication that covers the zine world have a responsibility to focus on Gaza? Can people not hold complex views on creators and the things they create—or must everything we enjoy be ideologically syncronized? Avi and Phoebe discuss on the latest episode of Bonjour Chai. And before that, they dig into the role of activism in literature, pressures faced by Jewish fiction writers and the efficacy of antisemitism summits. Do they do anything—and do we really need another one? Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

Shortly after Anne Michaels won the Giller Prize, Canada's foremost literary fiction award, on Nov. 18, she posted a lengthy letter on social media. "I write in solidarity with the moral purpose of every writer bearing witness," she wrote. "I write because the dead can read. Every reader throughout the decades who has written and spoken to me, whose gaze has met mine on the page, has given me courage. And with every word I've spoken tonight, I want to give that same courage." To which one peorson on Twitter replied: "My gawd, that's a pretentious way of saying nothing." The implicit accusation is that Anne Michaels should have boycotted the Gillers, which awarded her a $100,000 prize, courtesy of the gala's main sponsor, Scotiabank. Scotiabank has come under heavy fire by the pro-Palestinian movement for its investments in Israel—as have the Gillers, by association—and now, too, has Anne Michaels. After recently discussing the messy politics of the Giller controversy, we wanted to zoom out and take a broader look at the politicization of the Canadian arts landscape. How did our art and artistic institutions become so deeply political? When did we start demanding artists weigh in on geopolitics? And why don't we have more right-wing art to balance this out? Culture critic Lydia Perović, who writes the newsletter Long Play, joins Bonjour Chai to discuss. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

Recently, a Canadian women's magazine, Chatelaine, removed an article from the digital version of its website for including a photo of the author sporting a red triangle—which is only a subtle gesture if you didn't know that the red triangle is a symbol of Hamas. The author, a pro-Palestinian chef and activist in Nova Scotia, describes baking challah to connect with her Jewish heritage. But the ensuing political fallout across social media (and some traditional media, including this one) caused more headaches than the editorial staff at Chatelaine were likely anticipating. The debacle exemplifies an ongoing shift in the culture-wars landscape: women shifting to progressive spaces, men shifting to conservative ones. (See: the re-election of Donald Trump.) But the cost of this broadstrokes realignment has ramifications on how political cultural spaces become, ranging from women's magazines to television, film and cuisine. Here to discuss these issues is Shayna Weiss, associate director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. She joins Phoebe Maltz Bovy and Avi Finegold to discuss representation of women in Israeli culture and society, the evolution of cuisine as a cultural signifier, and the role of media in shaping perceptions of identity. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

This week, president-elect Donald Trump has confirmed several planned appointments for next year. Aside from numerous cabinet members was the incoming ambassador to Israel: Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister and former governor of Arkansas. While there's no rule that American ambassadors have to be Jewish, it's unusual for a president to nominate one so evangelical in their Christian beliefs. Trump has promised Huckabee will bring "peace to the Middle East." But if you ask the hosts of Bonjour Chai, they're skeptical. Huckabee exemplifies the Christian Zionist viewpoint of being intensely pro-Israel—not for the sake of Jews, but for the sake of bringing about the return of Jesus and, in turn, the death of Jews and Muslims alike while believers in Jesus ascend to heaven. With that in mind, should Jews be celebrating or worrying about Huckabee's appointment? And before that, Avi and Phoebe break down the recent violence in Amsterdam that erupted in the wake of a soccer match between visiting Maccabi Tel Aviv and AFC Ajax. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

In the aftermath of Oct. 7, Canada's broadly left-wing literary community took aim at the Giller Prize, Canada's foremost award for fiction, for its title sponsorship coming from Scotiabank. The financial institution, they have argued, has millions of dollars invested in an Israeli arms dealer—leading to backlash from pro-Palestinian writers who began boycotting the Giller for taking $100,000 as prize money, withdrawing as entrants and judges. The controversy has taken a lengthy, convoluted road since then, involving past winners speaking out critically of the Giller Prize; Elana Rabinovitch—the executive director of the prize and daughter of its founder—taking to traditional and social media to defend her organization's actions; and various half-measures by Scotiabank and Giller that have decreased (but not eliminated) their association with the Middle East conflict. Meanwhile, the competition is still going on, with a winner set to be announced on Nov. 18. With Avi Finegold in Canada this week, he joins his Bonjour Chai co-host, Phoebe Maltz Bovy, in her living room to unpack this mess and discuss whether the criticism is legitimate or yet another example of antisemitism, framing big-money Jews as string-pulling villains. They're joined by Michael Inzlicht, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto and writer of the newsletter Speak Now Regret Later, who also happens to live in Phoebe's neighbourhood of Roncesvalles. Their community has seen a surge of pro-Palestinian signs in storefront windows over the past year, prompting the question: What do you do when controversial geopolitics come to your local coffee shop? Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

With the U.S. election less than a week away, the hosts of Bonjour Chai are turning their attention south with a comprehensive pre-election primer. Pollsters tend to lump Jewish voters together in a bloc, but there are different priorities for Jewish communities across the United States—and Jewish residents of certain swing states, namely Pennsylvania, are seeing the brightest spotlight this year. Besides, there are issues on the ballot beyond antisemitism and relations with Israel. Affordability, the economy and religious issues such as abortion rights all figure into Jewish voting patterns. Does Vice-President Kamala Harris's Jewish husband tip the scales? Do former president Donald Trump's Jewish daughter and son-in-law? How did Oct. 7 change things? Or does none of that matter in a presidential election that could be won more on vibes than facts? To answer some of these questions, we're joined by William D. Adler, an associate professor at Northeastern Illinois University who specializes in American political development and the presidency. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

During our extended break for the High Holidays, we're bringing Bonjour Chai subscribers something different. Sukkot is described as the holiday of joy—a time when the Israelites would gather together as one people in the temple to worship and to rejoice. The easy thing this year would be to say that we hope that we will be able to rejoice with everyone in sukkot, including all the returned hostages and all the soldiers home from the front. The truth is obviously more complicated, and one of things Avi keeps returning to is the complicated composition of world Jewry today. That complicated relationship was what prompted him to write an extended piece in The CJN Magazine about the nature of Zionism and Jews' relationship to Israel and Zionism today, entitled, "What Do We Mean by Zion?" Today's podcast is an audio version of that article. Hopefully the joy this Sukkot is one of unity among Jews who once saw themselves far apart from those who they disagree with. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

Whenever there's a new mainstream TV show with a Jewish bent, Jewish audiences share a familiar reaction: excitement over representation, followed by dread over how bad that representation will be. The latest example is Nobody Wants This, the new Netflix rom-com series about a sex-advice podcast host (Kristen Bell) who, despite not being Jewish, falls for a hot young rabbi (Adam Brody). Gasp! One key theme in the show is the nuance and viability of interfaith relationships, which, for Bonjour Chai co-host Phoebe Maltz Bovy, brought to mind the writer Meghan Daum. A prolific writer, Daum once penned a 1996 GQ piece called "American Shiksa", which appears in her 2001 collection of essays, My Misspent Youth, and which describes the common Jewish-guy-meets-non-Jewish-girl love story from the female perspective. On this week's episode, Daum joins to recall the origins of that article and helps dissects Netflix's new take on the age-old trope. And after that, the hosts turn south to examine how Donald Trump spent the one-year Oct. 7 anniversary... by visiting the grave of Lubavitcher Rebbe and allegedly offering to sign siddurs. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

The cover illustration of the fall issue of The Canadian Jewish News Magazine drew hundreds of responses from readers across the country. The image depicted a fictional family gathered for Rosh Hashanah. This family included a matronly woman in an apron wearing a yellow ribbon in support of bringing the hostages home; a young girl with a dog tag necklace in support of the Israel Defense Forces; two bearded men in a heated discussion; someone looking at footage of an explosion posted to Instagram on their smartphone; one woman clutching her forehead in apparent disappointment or frustration; and, most controversially, a young woman sporting a keffiyeh and watermelon earrings—a symbol of Palestinian solidarity. The magazine's editor-in-chief, Hamutal Dotan, joined Rabbi Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy for a robust discussion of the logic behind the drawing. After that, they discuss Phoebe's and Avi's articles inside: one on what Judaism has to say about Zion as a historic homeland for Jewish people, and one on the new philosemitism that's arisen since Oct. 7. Read a condensed transcript of this conversation here. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

Last week, Toronto's public school board came under fire after footage emerged on social media showing students partaking in a public protest for Indigenous water rights... that also happened to feature pro-Palestinian chants and signs. A provincial investigation ensued to learn how it happened and why teachers allegedly encouraged students to get involved in the demonstrations, but while those slow bureaucratic gears turn, parents—especially Jewish ones—are unhappy. Bonjour Chai hosts Avi and Phoebe ask: should students ever be taken to a public protest as part of a school curriculum, even if parents agree with the cause? After that, they dig into the Indigo boycott/buycott fiasco, sparked after Indigo mounted a legal challenge against a grassroots movement claiming they kill kids. The movement began because Indigo CEO Heather Reisman operates a separate charity that supports Israelis without families (who are in all likelihood lone soldiers), but has spiralled into Jews and allies proudly supporting Canada's singular monolithic bookstore entity as a badge of honour. Remember when people used to proudly support their local indie bookstore? Finally, Ta Nehisi Coates has re-entered the public discourse, years after breaking ground with his argument for reparations for Black Americans. His topic this time? Israel-Palestine, something that's being marketed as a "taboo" subject for discussion by a public intellectual. Except... it really isn't. Everyone's talking about it. So what's going on? Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

On a recent trip to Poland, the writer Tanya Gold visited the Auschwitz concentration camp memorial site. In her lengthy travel essay on the visit, "My Auschwitz Vacation", published in the September 2024 edition of Harper's Magazine, she details the numerous absurdities of the Disneyfied extermination camp, from its notable lack of Jews to the oft-overlooked nearby castle, waterfall and theme park. On today's episode of Bonjour Chai, Tanya Gold joins to discuss her deeply personal journey, intermingled with the shifting lens of Holocaust memory in Poland, rising antisemitism in Europe, and the trap of focusing Holocaust education on death instead of life. After that, hosts Avi and Phoebe discuss exploding Hezbollah pagers (are the jokes and memes hypocritical?) and the swift implosion of the storied British publication, the Jewish Chronicle. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

The Toronto International Film Festival is going on, and while it only has a handful of Jewish-themed or Israeli-produced films, those films have drawn some of the biggest spotlights. Chiefly among them has been The Bibi Files, a new work-in-progress documentary that received its world debut this week, and which shows never-before-seen leaked footage of people admitting to bribing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The prime minister himself amplified the film's popularity even more when he tried to block the Toronto screening in Israeli courts mere days before the event itself. (It remains unclear how, even if the Israeli court agreed with Netanyahu, they would have prevented an American film by an Australian director from screening in a Canadian festival.) Yet while The Bibi Files got the most press attention, it didn't face the largest crowd of protests—that honour may go to Bliss, an actual Israeli film that is apolitical in nature, which debuted on the night of Sept. 11. That happened to be the same night Bari Weiss delivered a keynote address at the campaign launch of the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto—an event which also received an ample crowd of angry protesters. Podcast producer Michael Fraiman joins Avi and Phoebe on Bonjour Chai to talk about these issues and more, including the minor political controversy that erupted when an NDP candidate in Montreal distributed leaflets depicting his smiling face before a Palestinian flag. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

Joshua Leifer made headline last month when he was slated to do a public talk at a Brooklyn bookstore about his debut book, Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life, and discovered, an hour before the event was scheduled to start, that the event had been unilaterally cancelled by an employee who didn't want to host a Zionist onstage. (The Zionist in question wasn't even Leifer—it was the Reform rabbi who would be interviewing Leifer, who, like Leifer, is quite progressive.) Leifer swiftly took to social media, and the story caught fire as the latest example of "cancel culture" silencing Jews in the real world. To explain the real story of what happened and the fallout he's faced, Leifer joins Bonjour Chai to discuss the messy middle he's found himself in—how, despite writing a book that is critical of Israel, he's suddenly found himself supported by pro-Israel organizations and the Jewish community writ large. And after that, he sticks around to help explain the recent wave of mass protests in Israel that erupted after six hostages were found murdered in Hamas tunnels. While North American spectators on both pro- and anti-Israel sides would like to map their viewpoints onto Middle Eastern politics, the realities are quite different—and more nuanced. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

It's time to head back to school—but this year, for some Jewish students in North America, school is going to look a little different. Some will be receiving what's known as a "classical" education: a curriculum based on a return to fundamentals, a focus on time-tested great books and a rejection of mandates that emphasize diversity and inclusion. There are plenty of classical schools popping up, including Jewish ones. The Emet Classical Academy in Manhattan is welcoming its first-ever cohort of students this fall, with its founders kickstarting their work earlier than expected due to parents and students feeling unsafe in the public system. Rabbi Mark Gottlieb, the chief education officer of the Tikvah Fund, which operates the school, joins to explain why his team felt compelled to create a new space for Jewish students of all backgrounds. And before that, Rabbi Eric Grossman, head of school at the Akiva School in Montreal, sits down with Avi and Phoebe to talk more broadly about this trend toward classical education in Jewish circles and beyond. To wit: if most of Jewish education is based on the Torah and Mishnah, how much more classical can you get? Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

Canadian Jews may have noticed a trend in their communities this summer: Conservative politicians making the rounds. Leader Pierre Poilievre, Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman and even former prime minister Stephen Harper have all made numerous appearances at synagogues, pro-Israel rallies and fundraising galas. It's nothing new to see the country's political right wing court Jewish voters—such a swing was cemented under Harper's government—but it feels especially pronounced this summer, coming up on the one-year anniversary of Oct. 7 and an approaching election. But Jewish institutions have historically been apolitical, and the broad rightward shift almost certainly makes members of the community feel excluded. What are the ramifications of this tight-knit union? Here to dissect the issue is The CJN's political columnist Josh Lieblein. He joins Bonjour Chai co-hosts Avi and Phoebe, who return from their summer vacations—Phoebe's having been blissfully apolitical in Europe, while Avi's culminated in a drive back to Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. And after that, Phoebe explains the bigger picture behind the abrupt cancellation of a book event in Brooklyn—not even because the author was Zionist, but because the interviewer was. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz) Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to the Bonjour Chai Substack Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Bonjour Chai (Not sure how? Click here)

Avi and Phoebe are taking a little summer vacation and will return soon. In the meantime, we're presenting an episode of The CJN Daily that Avi was on earlier this summer about kosher slaughter in Canada. Last week, the Federal Court of Canada sided with Jewish communities in Montreal and Toronto in their dispute with the federal government over new biological guidelines covering how cows are slaughtered. On July 24, the judge granted kosher meat producers a temporary injunction, effectively pausing the enforcement of new guidelines that are aimed at ensuring animals don't feel undue pain when they're killed. Jewish groups such as Montreal Kosher and the Kashruth Council of Canada argued in court that the guidelines not only were bad science, but were not in keeping with ritual practice, and were too costly. Which is why the judge felt he needed to act quickly so as to preserve the religious freedoms enjoyed by Canadian Jews who've been legally permitted to use handheld ritual slaughter methods for generations. The judge's ruling took religion and culture into consideration, including how trained shochetim carry out a vital religious service for the Canadian Jewish community, and also the importance of eating meat on Jewish holidays. But do Jews really need to eat meat? How many shochet jobs are actually at direct risk? And, perhaps most important to the majority of kosher-keeping Canadians, will the price for kosher meat go down? Rabbi Avi Finegold, host of The CJN's weekly current affairs podcast Bonjour Chai, joins The CJN Daily to share his insight, and we'll also hear from Shimon Koffler Fogel, the CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, who were directly involved in the case. What we talked about Why the Federal Court granted a temporary injunction July 24 allowing _shechita _to resume without subsequent bolt-stunning, in The CJN Hear why MK Kosher and COR went to Federal Court over the CFIA's new shechita _guidelines, on The CJN Daily_ Read more about the science behind kosher animal slaughter and Canada's new slaughtering guidelines for cattle, on The CJN Daily Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. We're a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.

This week, the hosts of Bonjour Chai are digging into the explosive world of U.S. politics. It began with President Joe Biden announcing on July 21 that he would, after significant pressure and plummeting poll numbers, drop his bid for re-election as the Democratic nominee for president. The next day, Vice-President Kamala Harris all but secured her spot as his replacement, raising historic amounts of money for her campaign within 24 hours. Immediately, questions were raised about her stance on Israel and Palestine, as well as her possible VP pick, Josh Shapiro. Then, on July 24, Israel's leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, happened to be in Washington, D.C., for a visit. He met with Biden for 90 minutes and Harris for 40, all while angry crowds protested outside, raising effigies and Israeli flags slathered in painted blood. Netanyahu himself gave a mostly predictable speech to Congress, ensuring politicians how closely aligned Israeli and American interests are. To help dissect the chaos, including ramifications for both American and Canadian Jews, Avi and Phoebe are joined for a second time by Gabby Deutch, senior national correspondent at Jewish Insider. Read her coverage here and follow her on Twitter. Credits Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy. Zachary Kauffman is the producer and editor. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a co-production from The Jewish Learning Lab and The CJN, and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast, donating to The CJN and subscribing to the podcast's Substack.

Last week, two very different sex-related 1980s icons passed away: Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the 4'7" German-born Holocaust survivor, who was 96; and Richard Simmons, whose mother was Jewish, and who rose to fame as a sweat-focused TV fitness guru whose personal sexuality was famously ambiguous . So, clearly, the hosts of Bonjour Chai had sex on the brain. What sexual-education lessons remain for Jews in different religious communities? What are the stigmas and secrets still hindering progress? What legacy does Dr. Ruth leave the world? To discuss these these themes and more, we're joined by Dr. Laurie Betito, a Montreal-based clinical psychologist with a specialty in sex therapy, who has also spent decades broadcasting on the radio and currently hosts the podcast Passion with Dr. Laurie Betito. Credits Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy. Zachary Kauffman is the producer and editor. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a co-production from The Jewish Learning Lab and The CJN, and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast, donating to The CJN and subscribing to the podcast's Substack.

This month, two major elections have changed the European political landscape. In both France and the United Kingdom, progressive parties have overcome significant right-wing counterparts, overthrowing 14 years of British Conservative power and staving off Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party in a surprising result. Jews, as they often are, find themselves caught in the middle. Should they be celebrating the victory of left-wing parties more likely to harbour anti-Israel members, or would a more pro-Israel right-wing result have been better—despite, in France's case, the National Rally having roots in Holocaust denial and hate speech? Some have argued that Jews should simply pack up and move to Israel. (Canadian-born Israeli politician Sharren Haskel made this exact point on The CJN Daily earlier this week.) But Avi and Phoebe disagree: people can, and should, live wherever they like, and Israel is not exactly safer. The hosts of Bonjour Chai break down the Canadian takeaways and Jewish lessons from a tumultuous week in overseas elections. Then, they take a lashon hara lens to the shocking revelations about the late Alice Munro's neutral stance toward her husband's abuse of her own daughter, and cap things off with a breakdown of all the hate mail that Phoebe "Matzo Ball" Maltz Bovy got for writing a column in the Globe and Mail questioning the statistics of modern-day bisexuals. Credits Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy. Zachary Kauffman is the producer and editor. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a co-production from The Jewish Learning Lab and The CJN, and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast, donating to The CJN and subscribing to the podcast's Substack.

It was true before Oct. 7, but especially afterwards: an increasing number of progressive-minded people are viewing Jews as settlers in Israel. "Go back to Europe," some especially antisemitic ones chant at rallies. But it begs the question: if Jews are settlers in Israel, where aren't we settlers? Ben Wexler, a writer and academic who recently graduated from McGill University, has been thinking about this question a lot. He recently published an essay in the French Jewish magazine K. Les Juifs, l'Europe, le XXIe siècle, titled "The Eternal Settler". In it, Wexler discusses the troubling rise in antisemitic violence, often carried out under the guise of decolonization and conflated with criticism of the Israeli government. To explore the topic more, Wexler joins to discuss colonization, settler identity and the perception of Jews as settlers. And after that, he joins hosts Avi and Phoebe in talking global political trends: the rightward shift of France, the United States and Canada may be good for Israel... but is it good for the Jews? Credits Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy. Zachary Kauffman is the producer and editor. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a co-production from The Jewish Learning Lab and The CJN, and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast, donating to The CJN and subscribing to the podcast's Substack.

What does Palestine have in common with climate change, gender equality and indigenous rights? The Omnicause, that's what. In the modern era of left-wing protests, these issues become conflated—think queer Palestinians, viewed as indigenous to their homeland, fighting climate change with organic farming practices. Or something. Perhaps something not so cartoonish: indeed, there are clear links between, say, First Nations rights here in Canada and the fight for climate justice, given the First Nations' connection to the land and how their reserves are often disproportionately affected by climate change. Racial justice and police reform go hand-in-hand. But the ties that bind such progressive causes start to weaken when you add Middle Eastern politics to the mix. Would any member of "Queers Against Apartheid" actually visit Gaza after coming out? Is Hamas interested in climate justice? It's a conflation that struck writer Hadley Freeman, who returns to Bonjour Chai to chat about all things Omnicause and the eternal plight of progressive Jews. Read her piece, "Welcome to The Omnicause, the fatberg of activism", in the Jewish Chronicle. And after that, Avi and Phoebe discuss Israel's new court ruling insisting Haredi men serve in the army, and the centre-right shift in North American politics following electoral upsets in Toronto and New York. Credits Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy. Zachary Kauffman is the producer and editor. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a co-production from The Jewish Learning Lab and The CJN, and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast, donating to The CJN and subscribing to the podcast's Substack.

The trope of Hasidic women leaving their communities—particularly during a journey of queer self-discovery—is not exactly unique. And yet, memoirs and documentaries continue to come out, the latest being Kissing Girls on Shabbat by Sara Glass, who is now a therapist. After Phoebe Maltz Bovy reviewed the book for The CJN, she had more questions—so we invited Glass on to ask them directly. The three discuss the nature of choice in a world dictated by authority figures, queer spaces in Judaism and how the community can change in the future. After that, Phoebe and Avi discuss whether the trend of attractive "rat-like" men is antisemitic, as well as a problematic essay about motherhood recently published in Tablet, "How Babies Are Made". Credits Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy. Zachary Kauffman is the producer and editor. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a co-production from The Jewish Learning Lab and The CJN, and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast, donating to The CJN and subscribing to the podcast's Substack.

We're taking the week off for Shavuot. Instead, we're airing a new episode of a podcast miniseries from our friends at the Jewish Public Library, called recollections. Avi and Phoebe will be back next week. May 2024 marks the 110th anniversary of the Jewish Public Library. Our opening season is a celebration of our Jewish Leftist roots in Montreal. In this podcast, we weave together interviews with scholars, activists, teachers, and fellow archivists that discuss topics such as Jewish immigration to Canada, Jewish languages and culture, labour and feminist movements in the 20th century, and the diversity of political ideologies that existed within the 'left'. Labour organizing, unions, and activism: Episode 3, "Labour of Love", highlights the impact language, culture, and Jewish identity had on Montreal's progressive labour history with a special focus on famed organizer Lea Roback. Thank you to our featured guests, in order of appearance:  Pierre Anctil, Ester Reiter, Sam Bick, Moishe Dolman,  Aaron Krishtalka, Melanie Leavitt, Eiran Harris, Lea Roback, Eddie Paul, and Shannon Hodge. recollections with the JPL is a production of the Jewish Public Library Archives and Special Collections. Visit JPL Curates to see licensing info, guest bios, related materials from the JPL Archives and Special Collections, and our further reading guide featuring works from JPL's catalogue. Donate to the Jewish Public Library Follow @jplarchives and @jpl_montreal on Instagram JPLArchives.org JewishPublicLibrary.org Production and editing by Ezell Carter and Ellen Belshaw Research support by Leah Graham, Sam Pappas, Maya Pasternak, and Eddie Paul Mastering by Josh Boguski Theme song and music by Danijel Zambo Sound effects provided by Pixabay and the JPL Archives Thank you to our sponsors, the Azrieli Foundation and Federation CJA

Israel had some strange bedfellows in the news this week. The New York Times unveiled that country's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs created social media bots that posted AI-generated comments to influence American lawmakers and the general public; meanwhile, a rally against antisemitism in Manhattan drew headlines when it was revealed that the organization behind the rally was a Messianic Jewish group that aims to convert Jews to believe in Jesus. While the stories are different, the underlying theme is the same: Israel is increasingly isolated around the world, with ever-sinking public opinion and international allies growing distant. When good PR is hard to come by, you end up with AI-created bots and Jews for Jesus as suddenly noteworthy friends. Avi and Phoebe discuss these topics on this week's episode of Bonjour Chai, with special guest Rabbi Michael Skobac of Jews for Judaism, an organization created in direct response to Jews for Jesus. Credits Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy. Zachary Kauffman is the producer and editor. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a co-production from The Jewish Learning Lab and The CJN, and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast, donating to The CJN and subscribing to the podcast's Substack.

When Israel's Judaica store, a prominent retailer in the Toronto area, announced it was closing after 40 years, it felt like another moment in an unfortunately increasing trend: the decline of Jewish "third spaces", places beyond the home and office where Jews feel comfortable and welcome. Synagogues are closing and merging; community centres are broadening to welcome non-Jewish community members; now retailers are feeling pressure from Amazon and Etsy luring away their customers. Meanwhile, the type of engaged Jew who might visit these third spaces is on the decline, while younger generations are ever-more socially isolated, spending more time online. What are we losing when these spaces disappear? And what will take their place? To navigate the topic, we invited on Elise Kayfetz, the founder of Vintage Schmatta, a pop-up vintage fashion store in Toronto's Kensington Market, which taps into her Jewish heritage—and transformed her living room into an unexpected Jewish third space in the city. Credits Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy. Zachary Kauffman is the producer and editor. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a co-production from The Jewish Learning Lab and The CJN, and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast, donating to The CJN and subscribing to the podcast's Substack.

Last September, Eitan Hersh, a political science professor at Tufts University in Boston, tried something that hasn't been done before: he created a class teaching conservative ideas to students of his private liberal college. He felt there was a gap in the school's poli-sci curriculum, sensing that graduates were leaving without understanding the central ideas of the political right. He included articles from the National Review, videos of Tucker Carlson and essays by conservative Black intellectuals such as Glenn Loury and Thomas Sowell. The results, summarized in a recent longform feature in Boston Magazine, hint at the effectiveness of teaching politically diverse opinions on campus: most students (of this admittedly self-selecting group who are even willing to engage with the curriculum in the first place) did seem to positively grapple with the ideas, understand them better and have reasonable debates in an open academic forum. As pro-Palestinian tent protests continue dividing post-secondary institutions across North America, and political polarization feels more prevalent than ever before, we're joined by Hersh on Bonjour Chai to discuss what he learned by running this "conservative thought experiment" over an entire semester. Credits Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy. Zachary Kauffman is the producer and editor. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a co-production from The Jewish Learning Lab and The CJN, and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast, donating to The CJN and subscribing to the podcast's Substack.

You may not know who Joe Roberts is. But some people online, who may or may not have ever met the man face-to-face, claim to know him extremely well—to the point that they are posting photos of his grandmothers' graves, scouring the web for his tweets and published articles, and making bold statements about whether he's really who he says he is. Whether, for example, he's even Jewish. The former the chair of the JSpace Canada board, Roberts has found himself at the centre of this Extremely Online controversy largely because he (a self-described political left-winger) began more vocally supporting Israel post-Oct. 7, sparking many left-leaning Twitter users to turn on him. Rather than dive into the veracity of Joe Roberts's Judaism, on today's episode of Bonjour Chai, we're looking at the gatekeepers themselves: who feels they have the right to determine someone else's Jewish identity and why. Plus, Phoebe discusses a new viral Zionist blacklist spreadsheet, and Avi struggles to figure out whether tacky Jewish graphic tees are worthy of a nachas or broigus. Credits Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy. Zachary Kauffman is the producer and editor. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a co-production from The Jewish Learning Lab and The CJN, and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast, donating to The CJN and subscribing to the podcast's Substack.

College campuses have been heated spaces for Jewish students for a long time. The rapid spread of tent-in protests that began at Columbia University last month has only exacerbated the issue, giving an international platform to pro-Palestinian (and anti-Zionist) students and faculty members grounded in our post-secondary institutions. Jewish and non-Jewish protesters, both faculty and students, have been outspoken on these campus quads. But one cohort has been relatively silent: professors of Jewish studies. While Zionism is not inherent to Judaism, most Jews do support Israel, and rather than advocating for Jews on campus, these professors—who are generally more left-leaning—are often either siding with the pro-Palestinian protesters or simply keeping quiet. This is the thesis that sparked an in-depth piece published this week in Mosaic, a journal of Jewish ideas, called "Jewish Studies against the Jews". The author, Andrew Koss, joins Avi and Phoebe to explain his research and turn a critical lens on the state of Jewish academia in the United States, Canada and beyond. And before that, the hosts have a few questions about Jewish Heritage Month. Why does it exist? Does it actually do anything? And how does teaching kids the hora celebrate "diversity and equity", as our public school boards suggest? Credits Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy. Zachary Kauffman is the producer and editor. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a co-production from The Jewish Learning Lab and The CJN, and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast, donating to The CJN and subscribing to the podcast's Substack.

As pro-Palestinian encampments pop up across Canadian campuses this week, protesting against university ties to Israel and threatening to keep their tents pitched until the war in Gaza ends, it helps to understand the broader context of how this all began. And if you ask the Columbia University students at ground zero of this movement how they feel about the media circus they've created, they'll tell you frankly: they didn't ask for it. That's what many of them told Justin Ling, a Montreal-based freelance reporter who visited the New York university to see the original tent city firsthand. But that deflection belies an inescapable paradox. Maybe they didn't want all this media attention, but they've made themselves the main characters of this story, shifting the focus from a faraway foreign war to North America's culture wars. Now the movement has snowballed into something far greater. Ling joins Bonjour Chai to explain what he saw, share his takeaways and debate with the hosts about the merits of student activism—and whether it should be allowed at all. What we talked about Subscribe to Justin Ling's Substack, Bug Eyed and Shameless Read his dispatch from Columbia at The Line Hear The CJN Daily report on the Canadian campus protests Credits Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy. Zachary Kauffman is the producer and editor. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a co-production from The Jewish Learning Lab and The CJN, and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast, donating to The CJN and subscribing to the podcast's Substack.