The CJN Daily

Israel's Supreme Court ordered the government on Feb. 19 to complete long-delayed renovations to Robinson's Arch, the official egalitarian prayer section just south of the main Western Wall. For years, it's where non-Orthodox Jews, including women, can pray together, and also read from a Torah scroll. But what began as a ruling about construction permits has quickly become something bigger. Members of Israel's governing coalition are advancing legislation this week that would effectively bring the broader Kotel site, including Robinson's Arch, under the authority of the ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate. The law could mean prison terms of up to seven years for anyone deemed to be desecrating the holy site — and observers fear the new proposal could ban any alternative forms of Jewish prayer around Judaism's holiest place. This raises a deeper question: where does that leave millions of Jews, especially outside of Israel, who are not Orthodox? On today's episode of The CJN's “North Star” podcast, Toronto Rabbi Elyse Goldstein joins host Ellin Bessner to explore what's at stake. The Rabbi is a longtime advocate for pluralistic prayer, for women's place in Judaism, and a supporter of the Women of the Wall movement's decades-long struggle for equality at the Kotel. Related stories: Read about the Israel Supreme court decision on Robinson's Arch Feb. 19, 2026, and reaction, in The CJN Learn more about what Rabbi Elyse Goldstein experienced joining the Women of the Wall's 25th anniversary prayer service in 2013, in The CJN . Hear what it was like in July 2023 at a Women of the Wall prayer service in this eye-witness account by The CJN's producer Zachary Judah Kauffman , who was studying in Israel and produced this podcast for The CJN's North Star Podcast. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here ) Watch our podcasts on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@TheCJN Help others find this podcast by leaving us a review for “North Star” on Apple Podcasts via your iPhone or iPad device, or with your Android. (Spotify allows only starred ratings but you can do that, too!)

For many Canadian Jews who grew up feeling secure here, the idea of needing a ‘Plan B' might have never occurred to them. Unthinkable, even. It was something their grandparents faced before the Holocaust. But in recent months, that conversation is now happening in many Jewish spaces across this country — even among people who have no immediate plans to leave. Some families are actively scouting Florida, despite the political and immigration challenges which the U.S.A. poses. Others are traveling to Panama, to explore buying property there just in case-where permanent residency is attainable. Real estate agents and immigration lawyers in Israel and beyond are fielding new calls. And communities in the U.S. and Israel are marketing directly to Canadians: you will have heard about Lech L'Tulsa, Oklahoma. But is this a real demographic shift — or is it something deeper: a rupture in confidence about the future of Jewish life in Canada in response to rising antisemitism and uncertainty? Today on The CJN's flagship podcast North Star, host Ellin Bessner examines why some Canadian Jews are looking for Plan B: we speak with Aryeh Snitman and his wife Heather Snitman of Thornhill who're exploring both Florida and Panama; with Jaqueline Lewis, of Toronto, who bought a place in Panama just a few months ago; and with Lauren Cohen, a Canadian-born lawyer based in Boca Raton, Florida who provides immigration business and real estate guidance to clients considering moving to “Mechaya Florida”. Related links: Learn more about Tafsik's Plan B resources, their next trip to Panama in March , and watch their Zoom video about moving to Panama. Read more about Lauren Cohen's immigration and real estate services designed for Canadians interested in relocating to Florida, or elsewhere in the United States. Why these Canadian Jews moved to Israel months after Oct. 7, 2023, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner info@thecjn.ca Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler, The CJN's Editorial Director Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/newsletters/ Subscribe to North Star https://thecjn.ca/north https://www.youtube.com/user/CanadianJewishNews https://www.youtube.com/user/CanadianJewishNews Donate to The CJN + get a charitable receipt Watch our podcasts on YouTube. Help others find this podcast by leaving us a review for “North Star” on Apple Podcasts via your iPhone or iPad device, or with your Android. (Spotify allows only starred ratings but you can do that, too!)

What is behind the push to have Ontario school boards adopt policies to combat anti-Palestinian racism? And why has it prompted an outcry of concern from many families of Jewish students, from Jewish school staff and from some Jewish human rights groups?  The Ontario government recently put more than half a dozen school boards, including in Toronto and Ottawa, under the supervision by the ministry of education. This has effectively halted official school board discussions on the issue there – for now, but the debate over anti-Palestinian racism policies, or APR for short, isn't over: it's just moved out of the spotlight. For weeks, our Mitchell Consky, The Canadian Jewish News's Local Journalism Initiative reporter, has been digging into why the campaign for school boards to adopt APR policies has become such a flashpoint, what's at stake for Jewish and Israeli families, and also for Palestinian ones, and their allies.  His story was published last week. His investigation also uncovered evidence that the Canadian government has been funding APR advocates who strongly oppose Canada's widely-accepted definition of antisemitism known as the IHRA Definition, even as the APR groups accuse this framework of causing anti-Palestinian racism.  On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, Consky joins host Ellin Bessner to tell us more about his reporting, what APR is, and how the clash is playing out on the ground and in the schools. Related stories: Read Mitch Consky's investigative story about the controversy over the campaign to have school boards in Ontario adopt anti-Palestinian racism policies, in The CJN . Hear Mitch Consky evaluate why some Jewish teachers and even a Jewish school board trustee were accused of anti-Palestinian racism, on The CJN's North Star podcast from June 2025. Learn more about why this Jewish advocacy group for parents warned that identity politics are feeling antisemitism in Ontario schools, in The CJN . Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here ) Watch our podcasts on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@TheCJN Help others find this podcast by leaving us a review for “North Star” on Apple Podcasts via your iPhone or iPad device, or with your Android. (Spotify allows only starred ratings but you can do that, too!)

Just over four months from now, thousands of campers and staff will be heading out to Jewish summer camps from coast to coast. But the lead-up to the annual countdown for camp has being threatened by a new boycott campaign from a coalition of pro-Palestine groups who hope to cripple 17 high profile camps over their support for Israel and hiring of Israeli staff. The campaign was launched Feb. 4. They released a report online urging official camping associations in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes to de-certify the accreditation of these Jewish camps. They also asked the federal tax department to strip the camps of their charitable status because the programming supports “a genocidal state”. The campaign came to light ahead of the Family-Day long weekend weekend, on Friday Feb. 13, afer the Ontario Camps Association released a blistering statement condemning the targeting of Jewish campers and staffers. The board also denounced the singling out for discrimination of its own executive director, Joy Levy. Levy was accused of being a “Zionist who publicly supports Israel, its military, and promotes anti-Palestinian racism,” among other things.  While public reaction has been swift from some Jewish advocates and some allies, none of the individual Jewish summer camp directors we contacted responded to our request for interviews, except for Camp Northland, who declined to comment. It appears the camps have decided to not amplify the boycott's impact. But on today's episode of The CJN's flagship podcast “North Star”, host Ellin Bessner gets reaction from Risa Epstein, the CEO of Young Judaea Canada, an umbrella group for nine Zionist camps operating in Canada, and also from Simon Wolle, the CEO of B'nai Brith Canada, who previously was director of Camp Northland. You'll also hear what Joy Levy had to say. Related links: Read Ellin Bessner's in-depth print article about the boycott campaign and how it has impacted Yonge Judaea's nine camps, and also Joy Levy, the executive director at Ontario Camps Association, who was personally targeted, in The CJN. Read about Israeli kids finding respite from war at Canadian summer camps, in The CJN. How Canada's Jewish summer camps provided a safe space to discuss the geopolitical issues in the Middle East, in The CJN . Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here ) Watch our podcasts on YouTube. Help others find this podcast by leaving us a review for "North Star" on Apple Podcasts via your iPhone or iPad device, or with your Android. (Spotify allows only starred ratings but you can do that, too!) https://www.youtube.com/@TheCJN

In 2024, the image of Jake Retzlaff—the only Jewish quarterback ever to play for Brigham Young University's football team—adorned special editions of Manischewitz matzah boxes. That brand deal, to showcase a promising Jewish pro-football prospect, was the inspiration for a company co-founded by former Montrealer Jeremy Moses. His sports-marketing company is called Tribe NIL. (NIL stands for Name, Image and Likeness, a new monetization route for college athletes to make money off their work.) The company aims to boost the careers of hundreds of talented Jewish college athletes, including more than a half-dozen Canadians playing for U.S. college football, baseball, hockey, basketball and swim teams, among others. Moses was raised in Montreal. He's the middle son of retired Montreal Rabbi Lionel Moses and Yiddish scholar and editor Joyce Rappaport. His brother, Zev Moses, is the founder and executive director of the Museum of Jewish Montreal. Jeremy Moses moved to Brooklyn where he's worked in the sports and entertainment field. He and business partner, the comedian Eitan Levine, founded Tribe NIL last spring. This year, they're doubling down on the Manischewitz campaign, looking for one male and one female Jewish athlete to reward with $10,000 in prize money each, a “L'Cheisman Trophy” and international fame as this year's faces of Manischewitz matzah. On today's episode of The CJN's flagship podcast North Star, Jeremy Moses joins host Ellin Bessner to share more about his campaign—plus they get into the myriad Jewish sporting news of the week, including Jewish Olympians and Robert Kraft's controversial Super Bowl antisemitism ad. Related links Learn more about co-founder Jeremy Moses's company, Tribe NIL and see some of the 250 Jewish NCAA college athletes they represent (including some Canadians). Follow Manischewitz's contest with TribeNIL for Jewish male and female college athlete of the year, with winners to be announced in March. Listen to The CJN's Not in Heaven podcast discuss whether parents want their kids to be professional athletes. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here ) Watch our podcasts on YouTube.

France's administrative court has thrown out a lawsuit launched by Montreal's Lawee family, who allege the French embassy in Baghdad has been occupying their family's ancestral home, rent-free, for more than fifty years. The Paris-based body ruled against the Jewish family on Feb. 2. in a printed decision, after an in-person hearing last month, The court said it's denying the Canadian family's case because France has immunity for acts done on foreign soil–and because the old lease was signed in the 1960s in the city of Baghdad, so local Iraqi laws apply. The case has garnered international headlines because it involves a much wider story: the historic injustice done to nearly a million Jews from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) who were forced to flee their regimes' growing anti-Israel sentiment after 1948. They were stripped of their citizenship and their assets were seized. The CJN's flagship podcast "North Star" has been following the story since last year, and on today's episode, host Ellin Bessner sits down with Philip Khazzam, the Montreal businessman on a mission to seek justice for what happened to his grandfather's beloved mansion. Related stories Read the French administrative court's Feb. 2 decision in The CJN. Learn why Philip Khazzam launched his $30 million legal challenge against France for unpaid rent and damages last year, in The CJN . Hear the survival stories of Canadians of Iraqi descent who survived the “Fraud” pogrom against Baghdad Jews in 1941, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here ) Watch our podcasts on YouTube.

The first Jewish aid mission from Canada since 2019 arrived in Havana, Cuba on Feb. 3, loaded with seven extra suitcases full of batteries, pills, and hundreds of pieces of donated baseball equipment. The delegation from Toronto's Beth Sholom synagogue spent the past week delivering pharmacy supplies and other necessities–which they donated to Jewish seniors, Cuban synagogues, and even to a pharmacy housed inside the Jewish community centre in Havana, which supplies Jewish Cubans and also nearby hospitals. Local Jewish leaders say this group is the first Canadian Jewish mission to come to Cuba in nearly seven years, since before the pandemic in 2019. And officials worry there might be fewer going forward. The Canadian government raised its travel warnings for Cuba on Feb. 4, citing widespread economic problems impacting tourists, including more frequent power outages, lack of food and fresh water, and fuel shortages. The island, a popular destination for Canadians, was hit in October 2025 by a damaging monster hurricane. But the country's difficulties worsened noticeably in the last month, after the U.S. president ordered all shipments of Venezuelan oil to Cuba be halted, as part of the capture of Venezuela's former dictator Nicolas Maduro on Jan. 3. On today's episode of The CJN's flagship podcast “North Star”, host Ellin Bessner speaks with Beth Sholom's Cantor Eric Moses, who organized the trip, and with William Miller, a Jewish community leader in Havana; plus we hear from Benji Tock of Toronto. The teenager didn't make the trip, but his bar mitzvah project–collecting eight duffle bags full of donated baseball bats, cleats, gloves and other gear–arrived safely in Cuba, too, destined for local Jewish players bound for this coming summer's Maccabiah Games in Israel. Related stories To donate to the Cuban Jewish community, contact Toronto-based Cantor Eric Moses cantor@bethsholom.net Donate to the Global Seder initiative of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. https://www.jewishtoronto.com/donate Learn more about Canadian efforts over the decades to help the small Jewish community of Cuba with kosher food and basic daily supplies, in The CJN archives. In 2014, four Toronto bar mitzvah boys raised thousands to help Cuba's Jewish community purchase medical supplies, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here ) Watch our podcasts on YouTube.

One day before Prime Minister Mark Carney's government announced it will scrap the role of the Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, a group of senior Canadian bureaucrats and policing experts attended a roundtable in Ottawa where they heard advice from some of the world's top antisemitism experts. The guest list of the four-hour meeting included government advisors and scholars on antisemitism and the Holocaust from France, Germany, the U.K. and Israel. The closed-door discussions strove to understand what tactics to tackle anti-Jewish hatred are working worldwide, which Canada might try; Norway, for example, has found success bringing young Jewish “pathfinders” into schools to meet their peers. The international experts also told the government what Canada doesn't need: more laws. On today's episode of The CJN's flagship North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner sits down with two of those experts. Sally Sealey runs the U.K. envoy's office for post-Holocaust issues and chairs the Holocaust memorial foundation, which is building the country's new education centre in London; Carl Yonker, meanwhile, is the senior researcher at the Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University, which also publishes an annual global antisemitism monitoring report. Related stories: Read Irwin Cotler's column about Canada scrapping its special envoy office, a role which he first held from 2020-2023, in The CJN . Reaction was swift to Canada's surprise announcement Wednesday that the government is ending its Special Envoy position for Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, (and the other one for Islamophobia) in favour of a single advisory council on rights, equity, inclusion, in The CJN. Read the latest global antisemitism report from Tel Aviv University published in April 2025 , and the Israeli Diaspora ministry's newest interim report on international antisemitism, from January 2026. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) info@thecjn.ca Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here) Watch our interviews on our YouTube Channel

Eight decades ago, Andrew Cassel's father was bundled aboard a prison ship in England and sent to Canada as an “enemy alien”, where he was held behind barbed wire for two years. The elder Cassel was part of a little-known operation that in 1940 targeted about 2,300 Jewish Europeans whom the British feared were spies for Adolf Hitler. Now, Cassel—along with other descendants and some historians—are raising awareness about what he calls “Canada's dirty little secret”. They want an apology from Canada and educational programming. The prisoners lived in harsh conditions at nine prisoner-of-war camps in Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick. In some cases, they were locked up together with groups of real Nazi soldiers and German U-boat crews who'd been captured by the Allies during the Second World War. But they weren't spies—they were doctors, professors, Yeshiva students and bankers who fled to England to escape the Holocaust. The British government soon realized their mistake, but Canada took until 1943 to release all the prisoners. Some experts blame widespread antisemitism in the Canadian government for the undue delay. Many of those former internees later became prominent community leaders in Canada, including the late Rabbi Erwin Schild, who died in 2024 at age 103; Justice Fred Kaufman, the first Jewish judge on Quebec's Appeal court; Alfred Bader, a chemist and philanthropist to Queen's University; businessman Eric Exton; printer Leo Klag; philosopher Rabbi Emil Fackenheim; and two Nobel Prize winners. On today's episode of The CJN's flagship North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner is joined by Andrew Cassel; Jewish historians Paula Draper, and Jennifer Cousineau of Parks Canada, who collaborated to release a new podcast spotlighting the story of one of the POW camps south of Montreal; and Blatant Injustice author Ian Darragh, who is spearheading the apology petition. Related stories Learn more about the new Parks Canada podcast  spotlighting European Jews deported from Britain to Canada in 1940 as enemy aliens and held in POW camps in Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick.  Read the petition , initiated by author Ian Darragh , sponsored by Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, asking the House of Commons for an apology and educational programming and commemorative plaques at the sites of the former POW camps. Read more about the Andrew Cassel's father, Henry Cassel , and also about the late Toronto Rabbi Erwin Schild  and Dr. Walter W. Igersheimer , all former internees. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) info@thecjn.ca Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here ) Watch our podcasts on YouTube.

As Canada's ambassador to the United Nations for the last five years, Bob Rae helped shaped how the international community has responded to the most pressing global human rights issues of our time: the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Iran's nuclear threats, the collapse of Haiti, genocides against the Rohingyas and the Uyghurs, the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, and more. But no issue has been as polarizing as the Israel-Palestine crisis, especially after Oct. 7, 2023—which also marked when Canada's long-standing support for Israeli government policies began to change. Canada abstained or voted yes to motions and resolutions that were critical of Israel's treatment of Palestinians and military campaign against Hamas. Canada called for a ceasefire and condemned, with other nations, Israel's settlement-building in the occupied West Bank and the Golan. (Canada also did try, early on, to get the U.N. to censure Hamas for its massacre of Israelis, but the motion failed.) Last fall, at the 80th U.N. General Assembly, Canada unilaterally recognized the State of Palestine—which Rae says he fully supports. He also supports funding UNRWA, the U.N. aid agency for Palestinians, where some employees were fired for being linked to the violence of Oct. 7. But while Israel and many Canadian Jews feel the U.N. and its leadership are obsessed with demonizing Israel, the outgoing ambassador disagrees. Rae's term as Canada's envoy to the U.N. started during the height of the pandemic in 2020 and ended in November 2025. Since then, he's joined two universities and a think tank, and has been a regular commentator in the Canadian media. Rae joins The CJN's flagship North Star podcast host Ellin Bessner to unpack what's behind his support for Canada's tougher stance on Israel—and what that's cost him. Related stories Hear former Ambassador Bob Rae discuss the whether the Russian invasion of Ukraine unleashed genocide, in a 2022 interview on  The CJN's Bonjour Chai podcast. Rae spoke to broadcaster Ralph Benmergui last year about how his spiritual side mixes with his political career, on The CJN's “ Not That Kind of Rabbi” show.  When Bob Rae was a Liberal MP from Toronto, in 2010, he told a Haifa University fundraising event in his honour that co-existence between Israelis and Palestinian is the only way forward, in  The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) info@thecjn.ca Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins (https://www.brethiggins.com/) Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here) Watch our podcasts on YouTube.

The Jewish festival of Tu b'Shevat begins this Sunday. The new year for trees. Some people feel it's the Jewish version of Earth Day: a day to care for the environment. While much of Canada is still in the deep freeze of winter, the people who run Vancouver's Jewish Community Garden are itching to get their rubber boots on soon, and go up to the rooftop of the two-storey parking structure located between Congregation Beth Israel synagogue and the VTT, The Vancouver Talmud Torah, where the garden is located.. This spring, the garden will begin its third season of growing food and flowers for programs at the shul, and school, as well as for clients of Vancouver's Jewish Family Services, and hosting dozens of volunteers–all the while teaching environmentalism and food security through a Jewish lens. When the garden was officially opened in the spring of 2023, we interviewed the team behind the idea, likely the highest Jewish community garden in Canada. The episode originally aired May 31, 2023. The Vancouver Jewish Community Garden had its official ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 28, 2023, a fitting debut for the $200,000 initiative. On North Star (formerly The CJN Daily), we're joined by the organizers: Congregation Beth Israel's Rabbi Jonathan Infeld; Emily Greenberg, head of school at VTT; and Tanja Demajo, executive director of Jewish Family Services in Vancouver. Related links Watch a video of the construction of the Vancouver Jewish Community Garden  on You Tube https://youtu.be/oUQJ9yKCd_o In Toronto, the Shoresh farming agency ran a community garden in peoples' backyards, in  The CJN Read more about environmental programming gaining popularity in B.C. in  The CJN Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner info@thecjn.ca Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Subscribe to North Star https://thecjn.ca/arts/podcast-how-to/ Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN + get a charitable receipt

This episode originally aired on March 15, 2023. Montreal filmmaker Ezra Soiferman loves the winters in his native city so much, he's made a new film about them, called Montreal, Snowbec. It's a love letter to the season where the city is covered by nearly six feet of white stuff each year. In the film, Soiferman showcases the beauty of Place Ville Marie's searchlight, plus many Jewish winter scenes, including two Hasidic men walking through a snow covered lane, and the famous St. Viateur bagel bakery, in the snow. Soiferman feels Montrealers who spend winters in Florida or Arizona are missing out on the joys of the season, from watching snowplows clean the streets to driving by the white-capped iconic Orange Julep restaurant. Ezra Soiferman's film was released two weeks ago and is already getting people smiling, which was his aim. He joins North Star host Ellin Bessner—a former Montrealer—to compare notes and memories of potholes, driveway plastic car protectors and sledding on Mount Royal. What we talked about Watch  Montreal, Snowbec for free on Ezra Soiferman's YouTube channel Read more about the filmmaker on his website Learn about Ezra Soiferman's previous films, in The CJN Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins

As Gary Kapelus grew up in Canada, his father, Jerry Kapelus, never talked about what it had been like to be forcibly tattooed by Nazis in Auschwitz in 1944. But Kapelus noticed that his dad never tried to hide or remove the tattoo, either; indeed, he often displayed it as he spoke to thousands of school children over the years about his experiences. After Jerry died in 2021, Kapelus took up the mantle as a Holocaust educator, sharing his father's story. Recently, at the age of 70, Kapelus decided to take one extra step: he got that same number, B-7619, tattooed on his own left arm. The act is a growing trend among descendants of Holocaust survivors, known as “re-marking”, taking ownership of something that was done against the will of the Nazi's victims. The tattoos are done for many different reasons: some do it in defiance of their grandparents' persecution, while others see it as a way to honour the six million killed. Kapelus's motivation was to spark conversations. On today's episode of The CJN's flagship North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with Gary Kapelus ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27. Related links Read more  about Gary Kapelus's father, Jerry. Why descendants of Auschwitz survivors are tattooing their own arms, in  The CJN  archives (from 2021). Learn more about the  (Re)marked project Stories from the Skin  at the University of Waterloo. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner info@thecjn.ca Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Subscribe to North Star Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN + get a charitable receipt

This episode originally aired on The CJN's peace-building podcast, In Good Faith. To subscribe and hear more, visit thecjn.ca/faith. There's a teaching that appears almost word-for-word in both Jewish and Islamic scriptures: whoever kills a soul, it's as if he killed the entire world; anyone who saves one soul, it is as if he had saved mankind entirely. Judaism and Islam diverge on many points—but on this one, they're in unanimous agreement. Yet over the last two years, both Jews and Muslims in Canada and around the world have felt like they're in a constant state of mourning over the violence and death in Israel and Gaza. And it's not just the weight of the loss itself—there is also rage when it feels like someone else's grief is being prioritized above your own, or when the reality of your grief is questioned. At the same time, grieving is fundamentally not about death. Grief can heal us and bring communities together—as it has for both guests on today's episode of In Good Faith. First, you'll hear from Layla Alsheikh, a Palestinian mother whose six-month-old son died after inhaling tear gas that Israeli soldiers shot into her West Bank village in 2002. After her story, Yonatan Zeigen discusses life after the murder of his mother, the Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver, at the hands of Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7. What connects these two bereaved voices? After suffering a brutal loss, both wound up turning toward peace-building as a way to honour the legacy of their late family members. Credits Hosts:  Yafa Sakkejha and Avi Finegold Producers:  Michael Fraiman and Zachary Judah Kauffman Editor:  Zachary Judah Kauffman This podcast is sponsored by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, with support from the Ronald S. Roadburg Foundation.

Just after New Year's Day, an NDP member of Parliament, Heather McPherson, adopted a private citizen's petition calling on the government to scrutinize Canadian citizens and residents who have served in the Israel Defense Forces. The petition is the latest in a series of requests from lawmakers targeting IDF veterans for allegedly violating Canadian war-crime laws and international rules on genocide. This parliamentary effort comes after a Liberal MP from the Montreal area, Sameer Zuberi, asked officials with the Canada Border Services Agency to screen for non-Canadian citizens entering Canada who served in the IDF and may have participated in breaches of international law. Simultaneous to all this, families of Canadian IDF soldiers are still reeling after a Canadian media outlet created a public database of hundreds of former or current soldiers, effectively doxxing private citizens. One young man on that list is Eitan Ellis, 29, the son of Israel Ellis, an author and podcaster who is campaigning to get the website shut down. For reaction to this societal pivot against the IDF Canadians have witnessed over the last several months, Israel Ellis joins today's episode of The CJN's flagship podcast, North Star, along with David Kalman, an entrepreneur in Toronto who served his compulsory military service over thirty years ago. He calls the targeting of people in his situation a “witch hunt”. Lastly, at the end of this episode, hear a clip of host Ellin Bessner's exclusive interview with Israeli comedian Guy Hochman, who was held for nearly six hours by Canadian border agents before a scheduled performance at the Prosserman JCC in Toronto—and found himself greeted with anti-Israel protesters once he arrived at the venue. Related links Read more about the RCMP's structural investigation into possible war crimes by IDF veterans in The CJN from June 2025 , and in Jan. 2026 . Learn more about Israel Ellis' new book “10.7 The Wake Up Call” and his “The Unfiltered View” podcasts via his website . Follow Israeli comedian Guy Hochman . Learn more about David Kalman's pest control business Good Riddance Critters . Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner info@thecjn.ca Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Subscribe to North Star Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN + get a charitable receipt

It's Monday. That means hundreds—maybe thousands—of employees around the world, including some in Canada, will start a shortened work week. It's part of a growing trend towards a new way of working—the same pay in fewer days. It's been a trend since the pandemic. Companies such as Microsoft and Lamborghini, along with small towns in Ontario, British Columbia and elsewhere, have turned their workplaces into more productive environments, getting tasks done more efficiently by using technology—especially AI—while avoiding in-person “busy work” during the traditional five eight-hour days spent in an office. Toronto business journalist Jared Lindzon, also the host of The CJN's Geltwise podcast, has a new book out digging deep into this concept. His book is called Do More in Four: Why It's Time for a Shorter Workweek, published by the Harvard Business Review. He co-authored it with an Irish-Canadian academic, Joe O'Connor, who has been helping corporations around the world try out this new way of working. The results have helped companies' financial bottom lines and the mental health of their employees, who report less burnout, more equal opportunities for women, and a greater environmental impact. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, Jared Lindzon sits down with host Ellin Bessner to share why his new book reveals a work-life recipe worth trying. And check out the giveaway contest at the end of the episode to win our one free copy of Do More in Four. Related links Follow Jared Lindzon at his  website and learn more about how to buy  his new book Listen to The CJN's  Geltwise podcast. Why Canadian cabinet minister Evan Solomon is funding so many applications of artificial intelligence, on  The CJN's “North Star” podcast . Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner info@thecjn.ca Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer),Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Alicia Richler: The CJN's Editorial Director Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Subscribe to North Star https://thecjn.ca/arts/podcast-how-to/ Watch our podcasts on  YouTube Donate to The CJN + get a charitable receipt

The Senate didn't attract much attention last month, when, on Dec. 8, the Standing Committee on Human Rights wrapped up its public hearings about antisemitism. Over the course of a full year they held eight meetings, heard from over 40 witnesses and received about 37 briefs. Now the senators and staffers are drafting their report. But while communal Jewish leaders welcome the Senate's attention to antisemitism, they maintain they don't need another study that gathers dust on the shelves. Lawmakers have a mandated deadline of the end of 2026 to release the report—but one committee member, Senator Leo Housakos, the leader of the Conservative party in the Senate, wants the final document of non-binding recommendations to come out much sooner. He believes it is urgent to convince the Carney government to tackle “a terrible crisis, and we need action quickly to start protecting our Jewish community.” Housakos feels he represents the voice of Canada's mainstream Jewish community on the nine-member permanent committee, which currently lacks any Jewish senators. Four of those committee members, including the chair, have either signed open letters critical of Israel's conduct in Gaza, or spoken about it in the Senate. Housakos wasn't thrilled by some of the anti-Zionist witnesses nvited to testify. He clashed with one witness, who said any groups that support the State of Israel should be destroyed. He also frowned on those who urged Canada to scrap the current IHRA definition of antisemitism, which the government adopted in 2019. The committee also heard that antisemitism is being exaggerated and in some cases, carried out by Jews on themselves. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, Senator Leo Housakos joins host Ellin Bessner to explain his urgent priorities for the expected antisemitism report. Related links Take a deep dive into the  Senate's hearings on antisemitism , which wrapped up Dec. 9, 2025. Why U of T professor Robert Brym told the Senate committee studying antisemitism they had been given “weaponized” information from some anti-Zionist witnesses, on  North Star . Read what the House of Commons committee studying antisemitism recommended in its report on antisemitism in Canada, published in Dec. 2024, in  The CJN . Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner info@thecjn.ca Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Subscribe to North Star https://thecjn.ca/arts/podcast-how-to/ Watch our podcasts on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/user/CanadianJewishNews Donate to The CJN + get a charitable receipt https://www.youtube.com/user/CanadianJewishNews

While Ellin and her team prepare new stories for the new year, we're bringing you an episode from another podcast by The CJN, The Jewish Angle_, hosted by Phoebe Maltz Bovy. She recent sat down with Montreal-based academic and writer Adam Louis-Klein, who founded the Movement Against Antizionism._ Anti-Zionism is often presented as simply a political critique of Israel. But in reality, it frames Zionists as a hostile, genocidal group, while often collapsing Jews and Israelis into the same stereotype due to their support for the Jewish State. From that perspective, anti-Zionists can quickly fall into racist tropes against Israelis, flattening identities into caricatures and seeing scapegoating Israel in broadly conspiratorial ways. The consequences ripple outward. Some anti-Zionists end up sidelining Muslim and Palestinian voices that don't fit a rigid ideological script, diverting attention from corruption and repression elsewhere in the Middle East. It also reshapes identity politics, excluding Jews from multicultural events, and turning “Zionist” into a charged label that Jews are pressured either to renounce or wear as provocation. On this week's episode of The Jewish Angle, Phoebe Maltz Bovy sits down with Adam Louis-Klein, a writer and academic currently completing his PhD in Anthropology at McGill University. He is the founder of the Movement Against Antizionism and a pundit who covers this topic in the media. As he explains, by creating an activist organization with academic roots, Louis-Klein is on a mission to help Zionists prepare responses to public anti-Zionist claims while reframing the discussion entirely. Credits Host: Phoebe Maltz Bovy Producer and editor: Michael Fraiman Music: " Gypsy Waltz " by Frank Freeman, licensed from the Independent Music Licensing Collective Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The Jewish Angle

It's been just over a week since U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the military capture and trial of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife. The stunning late-night operation on Jan. 3 was welcome news to millions of Venezuelans who have fled their home country over the last two decades, leaving it to descend into corruption and impoverishment, despite controlling the biggest oil reserves on the planet. Among the estimated eight million Venezeulans who left, tens of thousands are Jewish. They faced additional pressure to escape: the regime was strongly anti-Israel, supporting Iran and Hezbollah, which led to the harassment of the local Jewish community. It's a stance first adopted by Maduro's predecessor, the late former president Hugo Chavez, in 2006. While Maduro now faces drug and racketeering charges in New York City, the uncertainty about what happens next has kept Venezuelans confined to their homes, with schools temporarily closed and paramilitary forces patrolling the streets. Some political prisoners are being released, in a gesture of goodwill by Maduro's replacement, while President Trump is vowing to bring billions in investment to revamp Venezuela's oil production. While some Venezuelans say they have great hope now that Maduro is gone, others think restoring democracy is still a long way off. On today's episode of The CJN's flagship _North Sta_r podcast, we hear reaction and analysis from three Venezuelan Jews who have made their homes in Canada. Jonathan Rosemberg Kort and Rebecca Sarfatti join from Toronto, while Daniel Topel joins from Ladner, B.C., south of Vancouver. Related links Read what Irwin Cotler and two other experts concluded in 2018 that Venezuela was committing crimes against humanity, in The CJN archives . Why Maduro's predecessor, president Hugo Chavez, embraced Jew-hatred and hatred for Israel, in The CJN archives . Montreal Rabbi Adam Scheier feared for the safety of Caracas' Jews after a visit to the country in 2009, in The CJN . Learn more about Jonathan Rosenberg Kort's new book on corporate change, published in Nov. 2025. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner info@thecjn.ca Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/newsletters/ https://thecjn.ca/donate/ Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here ) Watch our podcasts on YouTube

Cindy Schwartz started her life in dance when she was barely out of first grade, when her parents arranged for her to perform for patients at the Donald Berman Maimonides long-term care hospital in Montreal. At the time, they felt her passion for dancing should stay just a hobby—but Schwartz believes her late parents would be proud that she's transformed her passion into a decades-long project that culminated in her being named to the Order of Canada on Dec. 31, 2025. Schwartz founded Les Muses, Canada's first full-time performing arts training program for neurodivergent adults, over three decades ago in Montreal. Since then, she has landed her students roles in movies, television and onstage; one even won best Actress at the Canadian Screen Awards in 2014. The Order of Canada recognition came, coincidentally, just days before Schwartz officially retired on Jan. 5, 2026, at the age of 65. She joins North Star host Ellin Bessner to reflect on her achievements and explain how the Canadian entertainment business still has a long way to go to create space for actors, dancers and singers who are persons with disabilities—which includes increased government funding. Related links Learn more about the latest 2025 Order of Canada winners of Jewish faith, in  The CJN. Read more about Les Muses, t he training school  founded in Montreal by Cindy Schwartz. When autistic artist Adam Wolfond's poetry, and his mother's creations, were on display at the Koffler Centre for the Arts in 2025, in  The CJN . Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner info@thecjn.ca Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here ) Watch our podcasts on YouTube

The red swastikas and hateful tags that were spray painted on the front doors of Winnipeg's Shaarey Zedek synagogue early on Jan. 2, 2026 have been mostly cleaned off the building's front doors, less than a week later. But Winnipeg police say the suspected hate crime is affecting not only the Jewish community, but the city as a whole. And it's prompted them to call on residents to take a stand against hate, report suspicious activity, and refrain from acting as vigilantes. Meanwhile, the Shaarey Zedek congregation has welcomed the outpouring of support in the last few days, which it received from Manitoba's premier, Winnipeg's mayor, the Lieutenant Governor, federal members of Parliament, and religious leaders of other faiths. But despite the solidarity, some Jewish leaders say what's really needed is for existing hate laws to be enforced, and for Canada to quickly appoint a new special envoy on antisemitism—a post that's been vacant since July 2025. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, you'll hear first from Inspector Jennifer McKinnon of Winnipeg's Major Crimes Unit, then Rabbi Carnie Rose of Shaarey Zedek congregation and Belle Jarniewski, a Holocaust educator and director of Manitoba's new Institute to Combat Antisemitism, which recently launched. Related links Why Winnipeg police retrieved a suspicious item from the Shaarey Zedek property on Sunday Jan 4, 2026, in The CJN . Rabbi Carnie Rose returned to Winnipeg in the summer of 2025 to lead the city's Shaarey Zedek congregation where he grew up, and be close to his brother Rabbi Kliel Rose who leads Congregation Etz Chayim in the same city. Then their parents moved back too. On The CJN's North Star podcast. Under Belle Jarniewski's guidance, Winnipeg's Holocaust education centre got a redesign in 2023 aimed at accommodating more visits. Hear the story in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here )

While the Canadian Parliament has been on winter break since mid-December, international politics have only heated up so far in 2026. Pro-democracy protests have rocked Iran; Russia's war against Ukraine remains unresolved; and the United States stunningly bombed oil-rich Venezuela and captured its dictator, Nicolas Maduro. It's all likely to overshadow domestic policy issues once Canadian federal politicians come back to work. But Canadian Jews have their own concerns at home, worrying about whether lawmakers will keep last year's promises to fight antisemitism and remain proactive about hate-fuelled terrorism. And some federal policy is less clear: how will Canada change its relationship with Israel in the wake of recognizing Palestinian statehood? Will the federal New Democratic Party choose former broadcaster and anti-Israel activist Avi Lewis as their new leader? Is Pierre Poilievre, a staunch ally of Israel, going to survive his party's leadership review in January? And what about the economic problems our country continues to face stemming from U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war? On today's episode of North Star, The CJN's political panelists weigh in. Joining host Ellin Bessner today are Dan Mader a Conservative strategist and a founder of Loyalist Public Affairs, who sits on CJPAC's advisory board and volunteers with Friends of JNF Canada; David Birnbaum, a former Liberal member of the Quebec National Assembly for the riding of D'Arcy-McGee in Montreal; and Noah Tepperman, a past president of the Windsor-Tecumseh NDP riding association, who has advised the federal and provincial NDP on Jewish issues. Related links Read more about Canada recognizing the State of Palestine in Sept. 2025, in  The CJN. Hear federal Liberal cabinet minister Evan Solomon on how his government is taking antisemitism seriously, as well as the safety of Jews, in  The CJN. How Toronto's Jewish community gave a warm welcome to Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre at a synagogue in December, in  The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here )

On Dec. 9, 2025, The CJN teamed up with the Shalom Hartman Institute and two synagogues in Toronto—Beth Tzedec and Holy Blossom Temple—to host a live event called Pathways to Hope, a conversation with young Israeli changemakers. The Hartman Institute runs a project called Hazon, which mentors Israeli university students who are also active in their campus's pro-democracy movement, among other social justice issues in Israel.  Two of the students, Yonathan Machlis and Ayala Dahan, along with Hartman's director of the Center for Israeli & Jewish Identity, Ronit Heyd, joined North Star producer Zachary Kauffman for a panel discussion about what gives them hope amid a challenging time for Israeli democracy. The panel also shares their vision for Israel's future and what it means to enact democracy as the Jewish State heads towards an election in October.  Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here )

Fans of the long-running game show Family Feud Canada may have caught the Bernstein family appearing as contestants last week. The five family members—who all live around Richmond Hill and Oshawa—taped their episodes back in August at CBC headquarters in Toronto, but had to keep their appearances a secret until their three episodes aired on Dec. 15-17. In an interview with The CJN's North Star podcast, two of the family members reveal how proud they were to represent Judaism on the small screen—bantering in Yiddish with comic host Gerry Dee—even though their episodes ended up airing during difficult times. The family watched themselves on TV last week, shortly after losing patriarch Nat Bernstein, 101, in Montreal. And while the timing around Hanukkah was convenient for celebration (especially given how much gelt they won), the terror attack at Bondi Beach in Australia cast a pall over their excitement. To find out what the experience was like, why they auditioned, and what the five of them will do with the prize money, siblings Shaun Bernstein and Alexis Orchard join North Star host Ellin Bessner. Related links Watch the Bernstein family's three episodes on Family Feud Canada on CBC Gem , or see clips on YouTube . Read about the Kestelman family including Rabbi Stephen Wise and his wife Cheryl, who runs the synagogue's supplementary school, his sister Renee Cohen of TanenbaumCHAT, and other relatives win on Family Feud Canada back in 2022, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here )

Cabinet Minister Evan Solomon tells The CJN in a wide-ranging interview how the government is 'highly engaged' in monitoring terrorist threats against Canada's Jewish community. Solomon spent much of last week carrying out his official role as Canada's first Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, making funding announcements to support local researchers and entrepreneurs. But on Dec. 14, the rookie politician made a point to tell Canadians about the impact that the Bondi Beach Hanukkah massacre had on Canada's Jewish community—including himself. Having already spoken to his rabbi and congregants at his synagogue, Holy Blossom Temple in midtown Toronto, he quickly headed downtown to City Hall to film a video of support, inviting Mayor Olivia Chow to join. Days later, he took part in a roundtable discussion with RCMP officials and other Canadian law enforcement agencies, where politicians and Jewish community leaders were briefed about the possibility of a domestic copycat attack. Solomon insists his government is “highly engaged” with what he calls the “unacceptable level” of antisemitic attacks and the “threat level” that's causing fear and anxiety for his community. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, Solomon sits down with host Ellin Bessner to explain what is being done. Related links Evan Solomon was one the two Jewish MPs from Toronto who were appointed to Prime Minister Mark Carney's new government in May 2025, in The CJN . Hear Evan Solomon's (and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow's_ message to the Jewish community for Hanukkah, after last week's Australian Bondi Beach massacre, on The CJN's North Star podcast. Learn more about Evan Solomon's election campaign for the Liberals in Toronto Centre, one of the key ridings to watch in April 2025, with a tiny Jewish electorate at 1.4% of the population, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here )

When sociologist Robert Brym published his research on Canadian Jewry in November 2024, his findings made international headlines. While 94 per cent of the community said they support Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state—and about 84 per cent were strongly or somewhat emotionally attached to Israel—barely half said they called themselves Zionists. The three progressive Jewish organizations that commissioned the survey concluded it proves how nuanced conversations about Israel are within Canada's Jewish community after Oct. 7. It also showed how no one can claim to speak for the majority of Canadian Jews, they added—not the mainstream centre-right organizations, nor the anti-Zionist far-left ones. All the while, the author himself has been quietly fuming, as he believes his original findings have been “weaponized”, deliberately misinterpreted by Jewish groups—mainly Independent Jewish Voices—in order to bolster their own political goals. This came to his attention a few weeks ago in the Senate, where a committee has been studying antisemitism in Canada. Byrm has been sitting on the results of a new study he did earlier this year, which he says proves them wrong. He revisited the same nearly 600 people who answered the first time, and asked why 51 per cent felt they could not call themselves Zionists. Now that his paper has been published in the latest issue of the academic journal Canadian Jewish Studies, Brym is eager to set the record straight: while he found the same overwhelming support for Israel as a Jewish state at 94%, modern interpretations of the word “Zionism” are making many Canadian Jews reject the label. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, Ellin Bessner sits down with Brym to unpack his latest findings and to hear his advice for people who support Israel but don't want to use the Z-word. Related links Read Brym's new  2025 study just published in the Association of Canadian Jewish Studies' latest journal edition.  Read his first  2024 survey done on behalf of NIFCanada, JSpaceCanada and Canadian Friends of Peace Now Hear how the heads of New Israel Fund of Canada and JSpace Canada broke down the findings of the first 2024 survey, on  The CJN's Bonjour Chai podcast from Dec. 2024. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

Funerals began Wednesday in Australia for some of the 15 Jewish victims of the Dec. 14 Bondi Beach massacre, including Rabbi Eli Schlanger. The Chabad rabbi was shot at the popular Hanukkah candle-lighting festival near his synagogue during the terrorist attack by an ISIS-affiliated suspect. Among those who will be mourning is a former Ottawan, Michael Gencher, who now runs the Australian arm of the Jewish advocacy organization StandWithUs. Gencher was a close friend of the murdered rabbi and knew others who were killed. Gencher blames what happened squarely on the Australian government. He believes much more could have been done by the federal government over the last two years to crack down on escalating antisemitic hate, which included street protests and firebombings. Meanwhile, Jason Adessky, a former Montrealer, was near Bondi Beach with his children and their Canadian grandmother on Sunday to pick up Hanukkah treats. They nearly brought the family to the beachfront festivities, but decided against it because of the heat. Now Adessky is “trying not to think about the ‘what ifs'”. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner is joined by Jason Adessky and Michael Gencher to hear how the massacre has affected them personally, along with Australia's 117,000 other Jewish residents. Related links Read about how Canada's Jewish community is responding to the Australian terrorist attack, in The CJN. Watch the broadcast of the funeral for Rabbi Eli Schlanger, the Chabad emissary gunned down at his Hanukkah beach festival by ISIS-influenced terrorists on Bondi Beach on Dec. 14. Hear Canadian political leaders warn that our governments must do more to prevent a similar attack here, on The CJN's North Star podcast . Donate to help the victims' families in Australia with links on the Chabad of Bondi website. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here )

In the wake of Sunday's terrorist attack on Australia's Jewish community, Canadian Jews are feeling angry, scared, mournful and defiant, with some seriously considering moving to Israel. As of Sunday night EST, the death toll in New South Whales had risen to 15 victims, including the host of the Bondi Beach candle-lighting event, Chabad Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who has deep ties to Toronto and Ottawa. Meanwhile, officials believe up to 60 other festival-goers were wounded, including the rabbi's wife, a mother of five. One of the two shooters was also killed. In Canada, rabbis and Jewish leaders urged their community to push back against terror, show extra pride and make an effort to attend public candle-lighting ceremonies this Hanukkah. But some fear Canada is equally ripe for an attack like Australia's, due to the failure of public officials to stop hate speech and protests on our streets featuring chants like “Globalize the Intifada”. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast with Ellin Bessner, you'll hear what Jewish Canada sounded like while mourning Jews on the other side of the planet. We're joined by Richard Marceau, a senior official with the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, who just returned from an antisemitism conference in Australia six days prior to the attack; award-winning Canadian author Sidura Ludwig, who lined up early to buy special sufganiyot at a Thornhill bakery; Sara Lefton of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto; Rabbi Levi Gansburg of Chabad on Bayview, who knew the murdered rabbi; and political leaders, including Prime Minister Mark Carney, Toronto mayor Olivia Chow and cabinet minister Evan Solomon. Related links Read more about how Canadian Jewish leaders and politicians have reacted to the mass terrorist shooting in Australia, in The CJN . Why Australia's prime minister accused Iran of trying to destabilize their country, including by masterminding the arson at the Melbourne synagogue in 2024 and firebombing of a kosher deli, in The CJN.   This Australian Jewish leader said his country and community are ignoring online hate, at their peril, during a visit to Winnipeg in February 2025, in The CJN . Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here )

This weekend, starting on Dec. 12, thousands of Jewish teens from nearly 70 countries, including Canada, will be participating in BBYO's annual #GlobalShabbat weekend, featuring dances, Havdalah services and other meaningful Jewish events in between. These BBYO high schoolers can thank Vancouver student Levi Moskovitz for helping raise a lot of the money to pay for it. Moskovitz, a Grade 12 King David High School student with a passion for finance, is halfway through his term serving as BBYO International's treasurer. Elected in February, he's the sole Canadian teen on the current leadership board of the century-old Jewish youth organization. As treasurer, a title known as Grand Aleph Gizbor, Moskovitz has many duties—among them, overseeing a global fundraising blitz last week, called #GivingBBYODay, where they raised $1.6 million in a single day. But Moskovitz, 17, is equally proud of his success revitalizing BBYO chapters here in Canada and attracting hundreds of new teens to find community and a safe space after Oct. 7. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, we hear from Levi Moskovitz in Vancouver to hear why BBYO is sort of a family business. His father, Rabbi Dan Moskovitz, himself a former BBYO international leader, also joins, and we'll hear from BBYO's regional director in Winnipeg, Jonah Posner. Related links Read more about why Levi Moskovitz was nominated this fall as one of The CJN's Chai Achievers . Learn more about BBYO's Canadian activities, including in the Vancouver area and Winnipeg's Global Shabbat Dec. 12. Discover when this Ontario teen was elected president of the international B'nai Brith Girls organization, in The CJN, from 2014. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

Toronto police, investigating the suspected hate-motivated theft of mezuzahs from a seniors apartment complex over the weekend, now tell The CJN they have raised their original count of 20 cases to approximately 30. But community leaders—including rabbis, political offices and some tenants—believe the true number is significantly higher, anywhere from 60 to 110. Police acknowledge their count is probably low, but they need the victims to report the crime before they can confirm it. Beginning Sunday, Toronto police's hate crime unit and other officers combed through the 14-storey West Don Apartment complex in the Jewish area of Bathurst and Steeles. By the following afternoon, volunteers from the Jewish Russian Community Centre and Unapologetically Jewish replaced more than 60 mezuzahs. But the disturbing crime spree has left many residents shaken, including one who reportedly asked if the mezuzah could be installed inside their apartment, not outside, to avoid being targeted. The City of Toronto has stationed personnel from the public housing division's Community Safety Unit at the seniors building for the next couple of weeks “for safety and security support”. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner brings you her on-the-scene report, where you'll hear from tenants including Lev Zaidel and Shoshana Pellman, and also from some of the volunteers, including local Rabbi Yirmi Cohen, Rabbi Mendel Zaltzman and Rabbi Shmuel Neft, who showed up to help. Related links Read more about how the Jewish community came together to help the seniors who were victims of the mezuzah theft, in The CJN . Learn more about how to donate mezuzahs through the Jewish Russian Community Centre. This Toronto condo complex had 7 mezuzahs stolen in 2017. What did the victims say? In The CJN . Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here )

Over the last two weeks, the Polish government has been doubling down on its official narrative that, during the Second World War, its own people were the victims of the Germans—not responsible for collaborating in the murder of millions of Jews during the Holocaust. That policy has been law since 2018, and has led to strained relations with Israel, Holocaust survivors and academic scholars, including award-winning Canadian professor Jan Grabowski. Grabowski, a historian at the University of Ottawa and the child of a Warsaw Holocaust survivor, has spent years researching how ordinary Poles denounced, betrayed and helped carry out the murder of 200,000 Jews—mostly without any prodding from the Nazis. That's why Grabowski, who has been sued by the Polish state over this issue, has been closely monitoring the recent flare-ups involving Poland, Israel, and even Germany, which began at the end of November. It started on Nov. 19, when the new U.S. ambassador to Poland—an observant American Jew who used to run the Jerusalem Post—told a startled Warsaw conference that it was “a grotesque falsehood” and a “historic injustice” to blame Poland for Holocaust crimes committed by others. After that, a popular far-right member of the Polish parliament stood outside the gates of Auschwitz to oppose the country's plan to adopt a new antisemitism strategy. He called for Jews to be kicked out of the country. Then, on Nov. 25, the Israeli ambassador to Poland was summoned over a social media post from Yad Vashem. On today's episode of The CJN's flagship news podcast North Star, Grabowski joins to unpack why his native country continues distorting the truth about its past involvement in the Holocaust, and how Polish officials are dismissing the historical records he's unearthed, which tell a more nuanced story of who killed Poland's Jews. Related links Example Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here )

“We had a beautiful wedding. Wish you could have been there!” That's what Shawna Magence quipped to her new husband, Steven Weiss, about three weeks ago, after a freak accident marred their joyous marriage ceremony in Florida. Magence, 55, from Toronto, had just stood under the chuppah on Nov. 16 with her husband-to-be, an American from the Five Towns area of Long Island, New York, for the traditional breaking of the glass. Suddenly, people noticed puddles of blood on the floor. It turns out, the broken wedding glass had pierced the groom's right foot, causing a deep gash. Paramedics arrived soon after. Weiss, 59, was strapped onto a gurney and wheeled out to a waiting ambulance. But he didn't depart for the hospital right away—the rabbi had the couple complete the next stage of their wedding inside the emergency vehicle. Eventually, the groom got nine stitches, while the bride returned to the reception, alone, to tend to their guests. And the wedding? It took another day to complete. Meanwhile, the couple is taking the accident in stride, considering it just one more memorable challenge they've had to overcome after the pair, both in their 50s, met in 2024 and embarked on their unexpected, late-in-life romance. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, we hear the whole incredible wedding story with Shawna Magence—while her groom recuperates. Related links Learn more about “After Forever”, the support group and resources for separated, divorced or widowed Jewish people, co-founded by Shawna Magence. Watch the video of the newlyweds' bloody wedding mishap, on The CJN's YouTube channel Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here )

Nearly 40 handwritten letters by a group of Ottawa seniors have made their way into a unique new publication documenting the impact of Oct. 7 over the last two years. The project is by a group called “Active Jewish Adults 50+”, and grew out of a call-out by The CJN in mid-October, following the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and subsequent release of the remaining 20 living hostages. The CJN asked readers to send in their reactions—and these seniors took that request to heart. They meet each Tuesday at the Kehillat Beth Israel synagogue in Ottawa for programming and lunch. Upwards of 50 regulars, between the ages of 70 and 100, took part in this special letter-writing project. But they didn't just send their reactions to The CJN—they decided to publish the letters themselves. The result is a new booklet called Reflections on the Release of the Hostages, launching the week of Dec. 1, just as Hamas handed over more unidentified remains to the Red Cross. Israel hasn't confirmed whether they belong to the final two deceased hostages, still considered missing since Oct. 7. On today's episode of The CJN's flagship news podcast North Star, host Ellin Bessner asks some of the creative seniors to read their submissions and share how the war has affected them. Plus, we hear from Sheila Osterer, the group's executive director, who initiated the project. Related links Learn more about  AJA 50+  and their activities in Ottawa. Read  the new booklet containing letters and poems about Oct. 7, written by the Ottawa Jewish seniors “Creative Connections” group. Hear when Ottawa native Jacqui Rivers-Vital and her husband shared the story of their murdered daughter Adi with the AJA 50+ members, in February 2024, on  The CJN Daily . Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here )

Former Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren, a diplomat and former member of the Israeli Knesset, says he has always refused to do public “gladitorial” debates when it comes to representing Israel these last two decades in public life. But the American-born statesman and author changed his long-standing practice to come to Canada this Wednesday Dec. 3 to headline the Munk Debates on stage in Toronto. Organizers are mounting what they admit is their thorniest topic ever: be it resolved that supporting the two-state solution is in Israel's best interests. Oren is on the “no side” together with right-wing former Israeli politician Ayelet Shaked. They'll take on a former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert former cabinet minister Tzipi Livni, who will be arguing for the “yes” side. The debate is already attracting controversy for several reasons: there were no Palestinian voices invited on the program, and organizers are expecting protests, so security has been ramped up. They also had to move from their traditional venue, Roy Thomson Hall, for the first time in 15 years. But despite the side show, Oren believes the Munk Debates are important to reach a massive online audience with reasoned arguments, including why most Israelis oppose the so-called two-state solution in any near future. He calls the proposal “deranged”, especially after Oct. 7, even though most Western countries, including Canada, are doubling down on the idea. And says the two-state solution is a tragedy for Palestinians. So what's in store for Israel, the Palestinians, and the Middle East? Oren joins The CJN‘s “North Star” podcast host Ellin Bessner on today's episode, for his take. Related Links: Learn more about watching the Munk debate on Dec. 3, 2025. Follow Amb. Michael Oren's columns, his Israel 2048 organization and his books, at his website . Read Amb. Michael Oren's praise for former Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper and foreign minister, John Baird, during a 2013 speech in Montreal, from The CJN archives Credits:https://munkdebates.com/membership/ Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here )

After Hamas terrorists gunned down Rabbi Leo Dee's wife Lucy and two of their daughters, Maia and Rina, during a family outing in the West Bank in April 2023, the tragedy made international headlines. Thousands attended the funerals, where the bereaved rabbi and his three surviving children quickly became public figures. The Dees are officially considered by Israel to be the first victims of the Oct. 7 attacks, despite their murders happening six months before. Rabbi Dee, 53, has since become a sought after speaker and an activist on behalf of other grieving families. So when he announced in June that he was getting remarried, to Aliza Teplitsky, a Canadian formerly of Toronto, the news prompted an outpouring of well wishes. Fans rejoiced that Rabbi Dee had found happiness again, two years after his family was shattered. The new couple had intended to spend two weeks in Canada in July. But Iran had other ideas. Israel's brief war with Tehran broke out just before their trip, forcing it to be postponed until after their high profile marriage, which took place in August in their West Bank community of Efrat. Now though, the newlyweds have arrived in Canada, for what they jokingly refer to as their “workingmoon”, because the private visit also includes meetings and speeches to the Jewish community, and others. The Dees hope to inspire people with his story about how he rebuilt his life, and balances his sorrow with his newfound happiness. It's also why he's written a new book entitled “The Seven Facets of Healing.” On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, Rabbi Leo Dee and Aliza (Teplitsky) Dee join host Ellin Bessner to talk about their self-described rom-com, and about healing, but also to share some harsh criticism of Canada's recent declaration to unilaterally recognize unilateral Palestinian State. Related links Hear Rabbi Leo Dee and Aliza Dee in Toronto Nov. 28 and 29 at Shaarei Shomayim synagogue. or in Whitby on Nov. 30 a local church. Learn more about Rabbi Leo Dee's new book “The Seven Facets of Healing” available now on Amazon. Read about the murders of Rabbi Dee's late wife Lucy, and their daughters Maia and Rina, in this tribute by former Montreal Rabbi Mark Fishman, from April 2023, in The CJN.. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here )

Quebec's nationalist government is expected to table yet another bill later this week that will go even further to take religion out of provincial institutions and public life–and which will likely include a few key issues impacting the Jewish community. The new “Secularism 2.0” law, as the minister in charge has dubbed it, will make it illegal to hold public prayers on the streets, although the province will leave it up to municipalities to enforce the ban. Some observers believe it's a response to growing concerns in Quebec since Oct. 7, 2023 over the frequent, intimidating anti-Israel protests where Muslim demonstrators block traffic to hold prayer services. Others say it's a sign the ruling CAQ government is in trouble at the polls, which is why lawmakers are doubling down on Quebec's existing secularism restrictions. Since 2019, many government employees have been banned from covering their faces, and from wearing religious symbols like hijabs and kippahs at work. Then just a few weeks ago, Bill 94 was passed on Oct. 30, that expanded these bans to more people in the Quebec education system. It also revoked the practice of giving public school staff and students accommodation via time off to observe their religious holidays. While there is some fear this coming week's newer proposals could impact provincially-subsidized day schools, and ban kosher meals in public institutions, Jewish leaders say they will wait to comment until the actual bill is tabled. All this comes after recent local elections, which saw Montreal elect a new mayor who is seen as friendlier to the security concerns of the Jewish community, while in the majority-Jewish municipalities of Côte Saint-Luc and Hampstead, two kippah-wearing mayors have now officially been sworn in to office. The CJN's Quebec correspondent Joel Ceausu joins “North Star” host Ellin Bessner–back from vacation–to unpack all these developments. Related links Read about Côte Saint-Luc's newly elected mayor, David Tordjman, in The CJN . Learn more about Montreal's new mayor and some of the key issues impacting Jewish voters, in The CJN . How Quebec moved to tighten secularism laws, bans religious symbols and face coverings for school staff, with more to come, in The CJN . Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here )

While host Ellin Bessner is on vacation, we're bringing you an episode from the archives of our show. This episode originally aired 06/20/2022. For the past 20 years, Ari Sitnik has taken small acting gigs on the side in Toronto. But nothing compared to two weeks ago, when he got a call to show up at the Royal York Hotel for the top-secret filming of Drake's new music video, “Falling Back”. The video shows a lavish wedding featuring Drake getting married to 23 Instagram models. Sitnik, as the officiant, appears right at the beginning, clad in his ultra-Orthodox outfit, asking the betrothed if they will act "according to our values and traditions." He then pronounces them "man and wives." Today on The CJN Daily, you'll meet the real Sitnik, the father of four who works as a computer specialist, who doesn't call himself "Rabbi Sitnik," who was born in Brazil before moving to Canada—and who isn't too worried about Jews criticizing his portrayal of our religion for what is currently the most popular (and controversial) music video on the internet. Related links Watch the video for " Falling Back " Watch Sitnik in the " Slammin for Shabbos " video Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here )

This episode originally aired on The CJN's peace-building podcast, In Good Faith. To subscribe and hear more, visit thecjn.ca/faith. Mainstream Jews, who support Israel and consider themselves Zionists, feel like they are under attack. When they see people wearing keffiyehs and storefronts stamped with Palestinian flags, they hear an implicit attack: "You are not welcome here." But for Palestinians, watermelons and keffiyehs aren't anti-Jewish icons at all: they're symbols of national pride.  How can everyday Canadian Jews and Muslims even start a conversation when words and symbols have such different meanings to different people? Telling people they're overreacting isn't an effective tool, nor is public shame, arguing over historical facts or posting online memes. What might work: navigating difficult conversations. On today's episode of In Good Faith, The CJN's interfaith podcast miniseries, we speak with two people who are working toward exactly that. Niki Landau and Bashar Alshawwa both came to conflict resolution through trauma. Landau lost a close friend, Marnie Kimmelman, to a terrorist pipe bomb on a Tel Aviv beach at age 17; Alshawwa was shot by an Israeli army sniper during a protest in 2014. Now they're touring Canada, bringing Jews and Muslims together for lengthy closed-door dialogue sessions, with a singular goal: create a toolkit to guide Canadians through conversations they desperately don't want to have. Credits Hosts:  Yafa Sakkejha and Avi Finegold Producers:  Michael Fraiman and Zachary Judah Kauffman Editor:  Zachary Judah Kauffman This podcast is sponsored by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, with support from the Ronald S. Roadburg Foundation.

While host Ellin Bessner is on vacation, we're bringing you an episode from the archives of our show. This episode originally aired February 13, 2023. More than five years have passed since the still-unsolved murders of philanthropists Barry and Honey Sherman in their Toronto home. Despite a $35-million reward for clues to solve their killing, the case remains a mystery. Conspiracy theories abound over who did it and why, with fingers being pointed at the Clintons, Big Pharma, the Sherman children, a cousin or even the Mossad. Police haven't released any clues in more than a year. But interest is about to heat up again as two major Canadian news outlets give the story the true-crime treatment, each releasing podcasts about the Shermans—this same month. The two shows take very different approaches. One is hosted by Kevin Donovan, the Toronto Star reporter who broke most of the Sherman case and wrote a book about it; the other, produced by the CBC, is hosted by Jewish journalist Kathleen Goldhar. She has produced previous hit shows about a romance scammer and the cult that ensnared two Bronfman sisters. Today, both podcasters join The CJN Daily to explain why they have been pursuing the case for years and whether either of their competing shows actually provide closure to the unsolved mystery. What we talked about:. Learn why the Toronto police  released this video  of a person of interest Hear Kevin Donovan on  The CJN Daily  talk about his book  The Billionaire Murders , which the new podcast is based on Read about  the philanthropic legacy  of the Shermans Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here )

This episode originally aired Oct. 15, 2024. On the night of Oct. 16, 2024, Jews around Canada welcomed the holiday of Sukkot, having erected temporary wooden or cloth structures outside their synagogues and homes. While celebrating in their makeshift shacks, many told stories of the huts that ancient Israelites lived in after their exodus from Egypt. Meanwhile, in modern-day Canada, a different kind of exodus is happening across the country: young Jewish families, along with Canadians of all stripes, are finding themselves priced out of the housing market, fleeing their home cities to find affordable houses in ever-farther destinations. While the cost of a sukkah kit may seem steep these days, in the hundreds or low thousands, it pales it comparison to the national average cost of a house: nearly $650,000. As a result, housing organizations are stepping in to find creative solutions. One such company with deep Jewish roots is Ourboro, whose COO, Eyal Rosenblum, is the son of Israeli immigrants. The company essentially buys a stake in your house by lending you up to $250,000 for your down payment. Whatever the percentage of the down payment is, that's what you'll have to pay them back once you sell. The idea has caught on, with real estate developer Miles Nadal having joined Ourboro as a key investor. Eyal Rosenblum joins The CJN Daily to explain how this concept can help some Canadians afford homes, and why his Jewish values align with the idea. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here )

While host Ellin Bessner is on vacation, we're bringing you some highlights from other podcasts produced by The CJN. Today: The second episode of our interfaith miniseries, In Good Faith. Over the last two years, a flood of gruesome images have emerged in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and ensuing war in Gaza. In Canada, thousands of kilometres away, Jews and Muslims have watched this horror online—and, in many cases, found their social lives overturned by them. Friends, acquaintances and colleagues have made comments online, often over-simplified, that they'd never say out loud. What happens when politics become personal? When geopolitics half a world away breaks apart relationships between parents and children, romantic partners and close friends? That's what happened to Ronit Yarosky and Ehab Lotayef. They met in the early 2000s, during the Second Intifada, at a dialogue group for Jewish and Arab residents in Montreal. Both of them have deep connections to the region. They became close friends, celebrating festivals together and dining in each others' homes, marching side-by-side in activist circles—until October 2023. Hear how they fell apart, and found their way back together, on the second episode of In Good Faith.

Mickey Heller wasn't eager to open up about his Second World War military service. But his grandson, Aron Heller, a journalist and contributor to The CJN, was curious about his zayde's wartime past—and so, over the span of a decade, he asked questions durings phone calls, visits and emails. As Heller discovered his grandfather's fascinating untold stories, he decided to expand his scope of inquiry to include his grandfather's circle of Jewish veterans who fought in the Second World War, and also Israel's War of Independence as overseas volunteer fighters called mahal. In one story, Heller discovers previously unpublished details about a long-unsolved plane crash in southern Israel that cost the lives of three Canadian military volunteers in 1948. Heller combined these stories into a new nonfiction book, Zaidy's Band, to be released Nov. 11, 2025, for Remembrance Day. Heller joins North Star host Ellin Bessner to share stories about his late grandfather and the parallels between that elder generation and those who are defending Israel today. Related links Learn more about Aron Heller's new book [Zaidy's Band ](https://aronheller.com/)and see where he's holding book talks across Canada from Nov. 11-19. Read Aron Heller's tribute to his late grandfather Mickey Heller, in [The CJN archives](https://thecjn.ca/opinion/even-as-he-turns-100-rcaf-veteran-mickey-heller-goes-back-to-memories-of-the-second-world-war/). Read Aron Heller's coverage from Israel of Oct. 7 in [[The CJN](https://thecjn.ca/opinion/canadian-dispatches-from-israel-at-wartime-like-father-like-daughter/)] Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN Subscribe to North StarClick here

Twenty years ago, when Ilanit-Michele Woods urged her grandmother Olga Fisch to write down her memoirs of life in Hungary before and after the Holocaust, Woods could never have imagined the journey that manuscript would make. The 75 typed pages, all in Hungarian, sat unread for decades in Montreal, long after Olga died in 2017. The family eventually translated the documents into English at the Montreal Holocaust Museum in the summer of 2023. And because Woods is an award-winning sound editor, with both a BAFTA award and an Emmy nomination on her resume, she turned a microphone toward herself and her mother and recorded hours of tape during trips to Hungary, Poland and Israel, shortly after Oct. 7. The mother-daughter duo explored the places that shaped Olga's remarkable life. As a teenager, Olga had been deported from eastern Hungary to Auschwitz; she was later shipped off to a slave-labour factory, and sent on a death march. They also explored the source of their mother's Holocaust trauma, which they firmly believe has impacted three generations of their family. The long-lost manuscript might eventually become a book. In the meantime, Woods has released a six-part audio podcast entitled Olga, Erika and Me, which launched in Montreal in Sept. 2025. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner is joined by Woods and her mother, Erika Ciment, to discuss how the audio format will enhance the storytelling. Related links Listen to the six-part podcast Olga, Erika and Me Watch the trailer for the podcast on YouTube Learn more about the podcast via the Montreal Holocaust Museum Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

While host Ellin Bessner is on vacation, we're bringing you some highlights from other podcasts produced by The CJN. Today: The most recent episode of The Jewish Angle. Israelis breathed a collective sigh of relief after Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire that included the return of the remaining hostages and and end to the fighting in Gaza. But the question remains: What comes next? What does the future look like for embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heading into next year's elections? How are Western political figures like U.S. President Trump perceived in the region after this fragile peace deal? To get an inside view of life this month in the Holy Land, we bring on Lahav Harkov, a senior political correspondent for Jewish Insider and co-host of the Misgav Mideast Horizons podcast, who is based in Israel but writes for a Western audience. She sits down with Phoebe Maltz Bovy on The Jewish Angle for a discussion of Israeli political polling, Israeli views on Canada and what are the ramifications of a possible Zohran Mamdani mayoralty in New York City. Credits Host: Phoebe Maltz Bovy Producer and editor: Michael Fraiman Music: “Gypsy Waltz” by Frank Freeman, licensed from the Independent Music Licensing Collective Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The Jewish Angle

The name Hannah Senesh is a household legend for many Israelis, and also for Diaspora Jews of a certain generation–especially those who attended Jewish school. Over the years, there have been books and films and documentaries about her, and even a recent re-enactment of Senesh's famous 1944 military commando mission when she and dozens of Jewish volunteers parachuted back into Nazi occupied Europe to try to rescue tens of thousands of imperilled Jews and also save downed Allied pilots. But Canadian journalist and author Douglas Century, of Calgary, felt there was more to discover about the brave Hungarian teenager who escaped growing antisemitism in her native Budapest at the start of the Second World War, to pursue her Zionist ideals as an illegal immigrant to British Mandate Palestine in 1939. Senesh was eventually captured by Hungarian collaborators, tortured, and despite an offer of clemency if she confessed, was executed by firing squad eighty-one years ago this week, on Nov. 7, 1944. She was only 23. Her poems and diaries were recovered after her death, and published, like Anne Frank's. One poem, known as “Eli Eli”, is regularly sung at Holocaust remembrance ceremonies. Douglas Century joins host Ellin Bessner on today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast to explain why his new book about Hannah Senesh aims to challenge the historical record that the wartime mission was a failure. Related links Learn more about Douglas Century's new book about Hannah Senesh at the Canadian book launch on Nov. 19 at Toronto's Holy Blossom Temple.  Order the book “Crash of the Heavens: The Remarkable Story of Hannah Senesh”. Read The CJN's Treasure Trove from 2024 paying tribute on the 80th anniversary of Hannah Senesh's execution. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

Fania Fainer's friends risked their lives to celebrate her 20th birthday in a forced labour factory in Auschwitz, fashioning a tiny ersatz cake along with a folded paper greeting card shaped like a heart. Decades later, she was living in Toronto when she decided to donate it to the Montreal Holocaust Museum to further the cause of Holocaust education. Her origami heart was also featured in the recent Auschwitz exhibition at Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum. Fainer is one of the prominent members of Canada's Jewish community who passed away recently. Just ahead of Holocaust Education Week, The CJN's _North Star _podcast is paying tribute to her and to other community leaders as part of our recurring series, “Honourable Menschen”. On today's episode, host Ellin Bessner is joined by The CJN's obituary columnist, Heather Ringel, to share the stories of Fainer and: Cantor Ben Maissner, who served at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto for 40 years; Carole Grafstein, who helped found the Canadian Women Against Antisemitism group after Oct. 7 and raised millions for many charities as a member of the Toronto Glitter Girls; Montreal's Sid Stevens, who co-founded the Sun Youth organization; and Ben Schlesinger, a child Holocaust survivor who transformed his trauma into a career in social work. Related links Read more about the life of the late Fania Fainer in The Canadian Jewish News. Read the obituary of the late Cantor Ben Maissner from Holy Blossom Temple, in The CJN. Find out more about the life of the late Carole Grafstein, who raised millions for charity, in The CJN. Read how the late Sid Stevens co-founded Montreal's Sun Youth organization, started first food banks, and Crime Stoppers, in The CJN. Learn how the late Ben Schlesinger survived Kristallnacht as a child to become a renowned Canadian social worker at the U of T, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

Rabbi David Rotenberg got his first break performing jokes when he was 15 years old, in 1998. He had to rush out of his yeshiva's Talmud class to get to a 7-Eleven store payphone and book the gig at the Yuk Yuk's comedy club in his hometown of Ottawa. Over the past nearly 30 years, the Orthodox rabbi and Jewish educator chose to put his stand-up comedy career on the back burner for extended periods while he focused on his rabbinical duties and family. But he kept exercising his comedy muscles when possible, honing his material for mainly Jewish audiences, including at synagogue fundraisers. Since Oct. 7, however, the pull of the punchline proved too strong for Rabbi Rotenberg to ignore. He decided it was time to return to the comedy circuit, doing a mix of unpaid gigs and some paid slots. Rotenberg, who wears a kippah and tzitzit, describes himself as “edgy for a rabbi, but clean for a comedian,” with material that advocates for Israel, mocks antisemitism and gets his audience laughing, even with some Holocaust humour, depending on the crowd. Rabbi David Rotenberg joins host Ellin Bessner on today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast to talk about how comedy can help us process these last two turbulent years. Related links See Rabbi Dave Rotenberg as part of the “Funny Jews” comedy performance at Yuk Yuk's in Ottawa on Sunday Nov. 2 Learn more about Rabbi Rotenberg through his Instagram. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

"On a scale of one to 10, how afraid are you?" That's a conversation starter for the new youth discussion forum Ha'ikar, founded by two Toronto friends, which has served as a support group for Canadian Jews under 40 who have been affected by Oct. 7. A few months after Oct. 7, the group started meeting monthly at Temple Har Zion in Thornhill, Ont., where co-founders Jacob Weiss and Jay Ginsherman had bonded as kids. They admit that they themselves never would have come to Jewish programs like Ha'ikar, but with the explosion of antisemitism in Canada over the past two years, the pair wanted to create a space for young people to unburden their fears and look for community. Since its inception, Ha'ikar has held meet-ups in two other synagogues, and spawned an adjacent group for older Jewish adults called Ha'ikar Zahav. The founders try to keep politics out of their conversations, instead allowing attendees to disagree respectfully. Attendees share anecdotes and confessions, like how their "Judaism was not taken seriously as a real culture in my private school." On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, producer Andrea Varsany goes behind the scenes at a recent Ha'ikar meet-up to hear some of the powerful, personal stories told therein. Related links Learn more about Ha'ikar's meetings for 20's+30+ year olds. Learn more about the Ha'ikar Zahav group meetings for older adults. Follow Ha'ikar on Instagram. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

Louis Helbig, of Sydney, N.S., has been racing against time trying to find a solution and a good home for what he describes as the Trans-Atlantic Luscombe. The vintage aircraft, built in 1948, was once owned by a famous Jewish watchmaker named Peter Gluckmann, who had fled Hitler's Germany in 1939 to England as teenager with his family. He then who moved to the U.S. after the Holocaust, learned to fly, and in 1953, became the first person to ever successfully cross the North Atlantic, solo, in such a tiny plane. Gluckmann attempted the voyage because he wanted to see his parents again, and also to visit his family's lost home in Berlin. Gluckmann would set more flying records in the next few years until he disappeared into the Pacific in a different airplane, during a round-the-world attempt in 1960. Louis Helbig bought the Luscombe in 2013 and has been flying it himself to do aerial photography. It was damaged in an accident this past summer, and now Helbig says his insurance company needs a decision by Oct. 31 or it will deem the plucky two-seater a write off and likely send it to be scrapped. Helbig believes Gluckmann's story of survival and Jewish history is equally as important as the plane's significance. He hopes a museum will take it, display it, and tell the remarkable tale before it's too late. He's also motivated by what he's discovered about his own family's wartime history: to his horror, he learned that his German grandfather was a proud brownshirt with Hitler's Nazi regime. Louis Helbig joins host Ellin Bessner on today's episode of The CJN's “North Star” podcast. Related links Learn more about Louis Helbig's 1948-built Luscombe aircraft and see photos of the tiny plane once owned by Peter Gluckmann, a German Jewish Holocaust survivor and later amateur pilot who made record-setting flights beginning in 1953.  Read about Louis Helbig's environmental photography projects about the St. Lawrence Seaway and also the Alberta Tar Sands. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Andrea Varsany (producer), Zachary Judah Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

With the three-week-long Jewish holiday season behind us, Ralph Benmergui, the well-known TV and radio personality—and former podcaster with The CJN—is still kvelling about the first-ever High Holiday services offered by Ha'Sadeh in Toronto. The new-ish, Jewish Renewal community welcomed 150 attendees for its Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah services this season. It wasn't just a new beginning for Ha'Sadeh, but also for Benmergui himself, who was recently named as the new executive director for the Canadian branch of Jewish Renewal, ALEPH Canada. The movement is more popular outside Canada than inside—there are 50 congregations worldwide, including Vancouver's Or Shalom Synagogue—but there are smaller Renewal communities in Canada without brick-and-mortar buildings that aren't quite yet “congregations”, the latest of which is Ha'Sadeh. Its participants join a worldwide movement whose goal is to reinvigorate Judaism by mixing traditional Orthodoxy with spiritual concepts such as meditation, inclusiveness and concern for the planet. Jewish Renewal was founded in the 1960s by some breakaway American Chabad rabbis, including the late Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, who spent decades in Winnipeg, and Rabbi Arthur Waskow, who just recently passed away on Oct. 20, 2025. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner sits down with Ralph Benmergui for a deeply personal conversation about why he took on this new job just weeks away from his 70th birthday, and how he hopes to grow the movement within his home country so Canadian Jews can live more meaningful Jewish spiritual lives. Related links Learn more about the Jewish Renewal movement in Canada through their ALEPHCanada website. Hear Aleph Canada's new Executive Director Ralph Benmergui interview Toronto Jewish Renewal Rabbi Aaron Rotenberg for The CJN's Not That Kind of Rabbi podcast. Why Ralph Benmergui became ordained as a Spiritual Director with the ALEPH Jewish Renewal movement, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

On Sept. 29—the same day that Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, joined U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington to announce the 20-point ceasefire plan with Hamas—one of Israel's best-known advocates sent out her own, much lower-profile press release. It was a surprise resignation letter. Michal Cotler-Wunsh, the Canadian-raised lawyer and former Israeli politician who has spent the last two years serving as Israel's special envoy to combat antisemitism, resigned her post abruptly. She blamed her departure from the voluntary job on Israel's foreign ministry, who appointed her—but then, she feels, didn't fund her position or take her proposals seriously. She believes she was “ghosted” by senior Israeli officials, who failed to understand the dangers posed by what she calls the war's “eighth front”: the tsunami of normalized worldwide antisemitism that has altered public opinion against Israel and Jews. And while this current deal to stop the war and enable the hostage releases appears to be on shaky ground, Cotler-Wunsh warns there is no ceasefire in sight for the anti-Israel, anti-Jewish protests and terrorist attacks that continue from Ottawa to Manchester to Belgium. That is why she is taking on a new job, beginning Nov. 1, as CEO of the International Legal Forum, an Israel-based NGO helping pro-Israel lawyers in 40 countries hold governments, universities, and even the United Nations to account, including defending Israel in The Hague against charges of genocide and war crimes. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner is joined by Michal Cotler-Wunsh to hear why she quit her high-profile role and how she hopes her new platform will be more effective. Related links Read the resignation letter from Michal Cotler-Wunsh as Israel's antisemitism envoy, and then read the announcement of her new job. Israel's antisemitism envoy says she wasn't consulted by the Diaspora minister about his controversial guest list at an antisemitism conference where far right speakers were invited, in The CJN. Why Canada's antisemitism special envoy Deborah Lyons quit, well before the end of her term, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)