Podcasts about cjn

You know the scene. Darkness falls. A hush settles over the gathered crowd. The rabbi intones: “The hour is nigh! Yom Kippur is upon us! Atone, turn your hearts toward righteousness, for today our fates are sealed. Who will live and who will die, who by fire, who by water, who by wild beasts?” A pregnant pause. Your future hangs in the balance. Is there any way to tip the scales? “Now, I'd like to tell you all about our capital campaign. There are pledge cards in the seat pockets in front of you…” The High Holidays, when synagogues are at their fullest, offer a natural opportunity for annual fundraising appeals. It's also the time of year when many Jews engage in cheshbon hanefesh, literally “soul-accounting,” meditating on what they've invested over the past year—in time, energy and resources—and how they want that to change in the year to come. On this week's episode of Not in Heaven, our rabbinic podcasters talk philanthropy. Is tzedakah purely monetary? What makes an effective High Holiday appeal? And while it might be more efficient to fundraise one $20,000 donation than 20 $1,000 donations, what does that mean for cultivating a culture of widespread giving? As it says in Pirke Avot: “Without flour, there is no Torah. Without Torah, there is no flour.” So, how do we raise the dough? Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

Nadav Zysblat has just begun his posting as Israel's new Consul General in Toronto and Western Canada at a particularly difficult moment in Canada-Israel relations. In the days surrounding his arrival, Canada announced it would bring forward measures to ban trade in goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, while a boycott campaign targeted pro-Israel singer Boy George's Vancouver concert. Zysblat, a career Israeli diplomat, says his job is to strengthen—not retreat from—the relationship. Pushing back against calls for boycotts, he wants to expand trade and business ties at the provincial level, restore direct flights between Canada and Israel, and support local Holocaust education initiatives. Zysblat has served previously in Washington and Shanghai. Two days before the Carney government's West Bank announcement, Zysblat sat down with The CJN's North Star podcast host Ellin Bessner to record his first Canadian interview. He told Bessner he wants to find new areas of cooperation with Ontario, the Prairies and B.C., particularly in sectors including natural resources, health care, AI, quantum computing and secure technology. They talked about how boycotts are not helpful to building relationships, how they hurt Canada's interests rather than solve the problem in the Middle East, and why he feels Israel could actually be “an answer” to Canada's current push to diversify its economy, amidst the economic trade war with the U.S. Related links Learn more about Prime Minister Mark Carney's recent announcement on Sept 8 that Canada will cut off imports of products made in illegal West Bank settlements and also East Jerusalem, and go after companies and entities who finance the settlement movement, in The CJN, Discover the background to a protracted Canadian case brought by anti-Israel activists in 2017 over labelling of wines produced by Psagot and Shiloh wineries located in the West Bank, and the last development in 2022, in The CJN. Read the Israeli Embassy's statement Sept. 8 condemning Canada pledging to join the U.K. and France in banning imports of products produced in West Bank settlements. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor),l Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

Work crews affixed a row of black metal fence posts into cement around the front and along both sides of Beth Tzedec Congregation in midtown Toronto on Sept. 10, laying the foundation for a new permanent security fence at Canada's largest synagogue. The unprecedented installation is happening just one day ahead of Rosh Hashanah and subsequent High Holidays, which begin on the evening of Sept. 11. Synagogue officials say the fence won't be finished before the start of the holiday, but is being done to minimize the potential for a shooting from the street as large crowds gather over the next month. It's also to prevent people gaining unauthorized access close to the building. The fence will cover the entire property, except for the rear of the building where fencing has long been in place around the parking lot and school playground. The installation comes two days after Toronto police and Mayor Olivia Chow held a media conference outlining stepped-up security plans for the Jewish community between the High Holidays and Oct. 7 commemorations. “Jews, Jewish institutions and even Jewish neighbourhoods are being targeted. It is despicable,” Chow told reporters on Sept. 8. At Beth Tzedec, the security budget has doubled since the spike in antisemitism following Oct. 7, 2023, and is now approaching $500,000 a year, according to Senior Rabbi Steven Wernick. He says the synagogue estimates it needs another $1.5-2 million to reach what he calls the “maximum reasonable safety” it can achieve. The growing security environment includes lockdown drills, bollards, reinforced doors and armed police. But Rabbi Wernick also laments the normalization of safety measures which Jewish people have come to expect, simply to enter a synagogue in Canada. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with Rabbi Wernick about the difference between being safe and feeling safe—and why the new fence will be a striking sight for congregants arriving for services. Related Links Read what the Toronto Police Service and Mayor Olivia Chow said they will do to protect “despicable” targeting of Toronto Jews, between the High Holidays and the Oct. 7 commemorations, in The CJN. Rabbi Steven Wernick of Beth Tzedec describes why his heart broke earlier this year while his congregation did a lockdown drill with Toronto police, in The CJN. Hear Rabbi Wernick's reaction to Prime Minister Mark Carney's speech on antisemitism omitting anti-Zionism as one of the causes, on The CJN's North Star, in June 2026. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

This week, the Toronto International Film Festival will take over the city's downtown. Among the many films slated for red-carpet premieres is Our Loves, the latest by award-winning Israeli filmmaker Avi Nesher, which will receive its worldwide debut on Sept. 13.– the second day of Rosh Hashana. The film follows ordinary people navigating troubled relationships when Hamas's massacre unfolds on Oct. 7—but the plot stays focused on how it affects their personal lives, rather than digging into the graphic horrors of that day. Some anti-Israel activists have called for the film to be boycotted from TIFF, and some Israeli media outlets report that there will be protests. Last year's festival was mired in controversy over Barry Avrich's The Road Between Us, a Canadian documentary about one Israeli man's journey to save his son during Oct. 7, which was scheduled for a debut, then cancelled abruptly—and ultimately reinstated, with an apology from TIFF's CEO. But Nesher told Ellin Bessner, host of The CJN's North Star podcast, that he sees his film's global debut here in Canada as a victory against the growing international boycott of Israeli art and artists. Listen to the full episode to hear why he still believes TIFF is not a political festival, and how he feels about fictionalizing stories surrounding Oct. 7 only three years after the tragedy. Related links Learn more about Avi Nesher's Oct. 7 -themed film Our Loves premiering at TIFF on Sept. 13 at the TIFF Lightbox. Watch the trailer for the film. Read more about TIFF CEO's apology to the Jewish community in 2025 after cancelling, then uncancelling, Barry Avrich's Oct. 7 film, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor),l Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

The Federal Court has ordered Canada to release another group of Nazi war criminal documents from the 1985 Deschênes report laying bare the government's controversial immigration policies that allowed several thousand collaborators into Canada after the Second World War. The federal Library and Archives Canada has fought the release for years citing privacy laws protecting longstanding diplomatic intelligence agreements with allies including Ukraine, Russia and even the United States to keep the information secret. Much of the Deschênes report has been made public, albeit with redactions, but the second part, with the list of names, has not. For decades, B'nai Brith Canada and others have lobbied and used court challenges to force the government to be more transparent about the chapter in Canadian history. In his ruling ordering the release, issued Sept. 1, the Federal Court justice Simon Fothergill described almost all the information on the eight disputed pages as "innocuous", citing the passage of time. However, B'nai Brith Canada's lawyers weren't successful in winning the release of one other page, which deals with a secret pact between U.S. post-war intelligence and Canada's RCMP. Government lawyers argued releasing it would heighten current tensions between Canada and the American government during this period of great tension over tariffs. The judge rejected Ottawa's "bald" statement, writing it was "not a sufficient basis to refuse disclosure of very specific information related to efforts by the United States to resettle suspected Nazis and Nazi collaborators in Canada following World War II." B'nai Brith Canada's director of research Richard Robertson told The CJN in an interview Sept. 3 that the trade war argument was "incredibly frustrating" but the human rights organization views the latest court win as "all part of moving the needle". "All Canadians, should know that the parts of the [Deschenes] report that have been released indicate that our government colluded or even went as far as working at the direction of the United States to allow Nazi war criminals to enter Canada, "Robertson said. "And this is something that the government has seemingly tried to withhold from Canadians, and so decisions like this bring us just that little bit closer to understanding this whole story and enabling us as a society to learn from our mistakes and to heal from some of the trauma that they caused." The documents have not yet been released to B'nai Brith Canada, and the judge did not set a timeline for this to be done. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, hear the background to this case, in an encore presentation of an interview host Ellin Bessner did in February 2025, with historian Howard Margolian, who worked with the Justice Department to investigate Nazi war crimes, and with Sam Goldstein, a former legal director for B'nai Brith Canada. Related links: Read B'nai Brith Canada's statement on the latest legal battle, and read the judge's written decision issued Sept. 1, 2026. Read why Canada was reluctant to prosecute known Nazi war criminals, in The CJN from Feb. 2024.

For Jews in the pews, the wail of the shofar is the signal sound of the Jewish New Year. But for congregational rabbis, it's like the crack of a starting pistol, setting them off on a six-week sprint of preparation and facilitation. The role of the pulpit rabbi can be emotionally draining, with unrealistic expectations and a lack of boundaries for their personal lives. Logistics, administration, governing boards and committees take over, leading some to search for a new path. Enter the freelance rabbi. Not in Heaven host Avi Finegold covered the rise of the freelance rabbi in the most recent issue of Scribe Quarterly. As membership numbers at synagogues continue to fall, demand is increasing for spiritual leaders who can fit into their lifestyles. These freelance rabbis are unaffiliated with any synagogue, and they're available for officiating lifecycle events like weddings, funerals, baby namings, or b'nai mitzvah. This week, our rabbinic podcasters—including our very own Matthew Libel, longtime freelance rabbi in Winnipeg—look at what's behind the trend and where it's going. What does a community lose when participation becomes an à la carte experience? And how does shifting to the gig-work world ultimately affect the rabbi's mental health? Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) https://pnc.st/s/not-in-heaven

A landmark letter on MAID, approved recently by Toronto's main Orthodox rabbinical council—also called the Vaad HaRabbanim—is sounding the alarm about what the group notes is the increasing prevalence of medically assisted death making "inroads" into the local Jewish community. Citing the figure of 5,000 patients in Ontario in 2023 who the council describes as being "euthanized by medical practitioners", the leading Orthodox rabbis said they need to take steps to "curb this disturbing trend": going forward, they will not officiate at the funerals of MAID patients and will refuse to permit MAID patients to be buried in plots in their synagogues' cemetery sections. The letter was adopted a while ago, but had not been made public. The CJN received a copy of it in the summer of 2026. On August 28, one of the Vaad's presidents, Rabbi Yacov Felder, sent the MAID statement out in an email blast to his own congregation, Shomrai Shabbos Chevrah Mishnayos. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner unpacks the Vaad HaRabbanim's MAID policy on funeral rites. She hears their wider concerns about the proliferation of MAID over the past decade and discusses the reaction to the statement coming from other rabbinical leaders, starting with Rabbi Jennifer Gorman, the current president of the Toronto Board of Rabbis. Gorman's group of 56 rabbis has now issued its own new statement in response to what she called the Vaad's "surprising" and "harsh" approach to Jews and their families, whom her board feels are entitled to be treated with compassion—even though their statement does not endorse medically assisted death. We also hear from Montreal Orthodox leader Rabbi Reuben Poupko, who explains why – despite his own strong opposition to MAID – he believes the Toronto Vaad's approach stigmatizes people who choose MAiD and penalizes their families. Related links: Read our full-length print feature on this controversial Vaad HaRabbanim of Toronto statement on MAID burials, in The CJN . Listen to Rabbi Louis Sachs, now of Beth Sholom Congregation in Toronto, and Dr. Karen Devon, a surgeon at Women's College Hospital, discuss Jewish approaches to MAID and whether Ottawa should expand it for mental illness, on The CJN's North Star from 2024 . Read more about how Jewish nursing homes are or are not permitting residents to undergo MAID, which has led to a court case in Vancouver, in The CJN from 2020. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor),l Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins https://www.youtube.com/@TheCJN https://www.brethiggins.com/ Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) [Ed. note: An earlier version of the podcast incorrectly identified Rabbi Green as a member of the Toronto Vaad]

A leaked memo to CBC journalists last week ordered them not to call the 9/11 al-Qaida attacks "terrorism" in forthcoming coverage of next month's 25th anniversary. It prompted backlash within Canada and beyond. Not long after Toronto Sun journalist Warren Kinsella broke the story on Aug. 27, the head of the FBI, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, CSIS, two Canadian cabinet ministers and several politicians all condemned the CBC's internal journalistic guidelines for 9/11 coverage, especially since 24 Canadians were among the 2,977 people who were murdered in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania by the Islamic terrorist attacks. It didn't take long for the CBC to issue a clarification. On Aug. 28, the CBC issued an update to its policy, but just for 9/11: journalists can now call what happened on that historic day "terrorism" and they can call the hijackers "terrorists". But the rules still remain for newer conflicts: journalists have to attribute the T-word designation to governments, experts or other sources, rather than using the label themselves. Since Oct. 7, 2023, many Jewish viewers and groups have been lobbying the CBC; its oversight body, the CRTC; and the federal government to allow journalists to call Hamas "terrorists", and what they did on Oct. 7 as "terrorism". After all, Canada designated Hamas a banned terrorist group in 2002. But the federally funded broadcaster insists it needs to use neutral language in covering modern conflicts. CBC News' editor-in-chief and general manager, Brodie Fenlon, came on The CJN's North Star podcast on Oct. 19, 2023, to explain why their policy exists. On today's episode, we're bringing you that conversation with host Ellin Bessner. Related stories Read the CBC's clarification Aug 28, 2026, of the use of “terrorism” in 25th anniversary stories about Sept. 11, after uproar over an internal memo which was leaked to journalist Warren Kinsella last week. Hear why Toronto businessman Evan Kosiner complained to CBC's ombudsman and the CRTC in 2023, for not calling Hamas “terrorists” after Oct. 7, on North Star. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

Earlier this week, on Aug. 24, Montreal's City Council adopted a motion expressing solidarity with the Palestinians and all civilians affected, and supporting international investigations into genocide claims and human rights violations, acknowledging that International Criminal Court arrest warrants have been issued for for Israeli leaders, and that Canada placed sanctions on Israel. But three “divisive” and “irresponsible” parts of the original motion – put forward in June by the opposition party Projet Montreal – accusing Israel of genocide and apartheid, and forcing the city to cut ties with Israel – were removed. But three “divisive” and “irresponsible” parts of the original motion – put forward in June by the opposition party Projet Montreal – accusing Israel of genocide and apartheid, and forcing the city to cut ties with Israel – were removed. The 54-6 vote came after six weeks of campaigning by Jewish groups and allies in the city's Hellenic, Christian and Italian communities of Montreal, and business leaders, who sent letters and petitions with hundreds of names to the lawmakers, opposing the anti-Israel rhetoric. Ahead of Monday's council meeting, mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada and her team worked behind the scenes to cut those parts out of the motion and negotiate a final version. And while during the debate, she said the city stands in solidarity with Palestinians and an eventual Palestinian State and recognizes the grave humanitarian crisis, she urged the politicians to focus on issues that unite residents of their city. Some Jewish leaders are calling the final wording “a win”, but unease remains that the issue won't go away. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with Paola Samuel, the regional director of B'nai Brith Canada, who was in the council chamber and heavily involved in the campaign to block the original anti-Israel motion. Related links Read more about the controversy surrounding the Projet Montreal motion, and what happened at city council on Aug. 24,, in The CJN. See B'nai Brith Canada's statement issued following the 54-6 vote on the amended motion. Find out why a kosher restaurant was burned to the ground in Montreal's Jewish neighbourhood in early August, 2026, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor),l Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

Summer is winding down, which means the Menschwarmers are back in their natural habitat: wondering which Jews might make NFL rosters, how our baseball stars are faring midseason, and the many ways in which Middle Eastern politics seeps into soccer matches these days. As NCAA basketball gets started, they look at the "Jewish Rodman", Chaim Galbut—a six-foot-seven Orthodox basketball player from Miami who is heading to Duquesne University after a gap year, who plans to keep Shabbat while playing Division I basketball. Then they turn to a quick NFL preview, the Los Angeles Lakers' new Jewish owners, and West Ham United fans' anti-Palestinian chants in purported support of Israeli footballer Manor Solomon, which make us Jews feel a little less than comfortable. Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Kosha Dillz Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

When trade negotiations between Canada and the United States broke off Aug. 19, mere weeks before Rosh Hashanah, Prime Minister Mark Carney described the situation as being “at war”. Farmers are now finding themselves caught in the crosshairs; among them are Jewish producers of festive staples this upcoming High Holidays season: milk and honey. Canadian milk products and natural honey are among the $28 billion of exports now subject to a new 50 per cent American import tariff. On our side of the border, on Aug. 25, Canada announced it will follow up with dollar-for-dollar tariffs, charging American milk and honey producers exactly the same extra dues in reverse, effective Sept. 8. Natural raw honey producer Yoav Sasportas is directly affected by all of this. His company, Urban Dvash—which manages hives of 10 million honey bees throughout the Montreal area—exports some honey to customers south of the border. Sasportas admits he's already scaled back expansion plans. Despite this, he says Canada should go further and bar all foreign honey from coming into our country—and foreign live bee imports, too. Meanwhile, 600 km away, on their historic dairy farm west of Hamilton, Ont., the Loewith family is also feeling the pinch. They don't sell milk outside of Canada, but their business is facing rising prices for equipment and flavourings. But both the farm families firmly support Canada's tough stance against U.S. President Donald Trump in the renewed cross-border trade war, even if it will bring pain and layoffs in many sectors of the Canadian economy—including theirs. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner learns about the Jewish front of this tariff war from Dave Loewith and his nephew Ben Loewith, and from Yoav Sasportas, who is deep in the middle of his annual honey harvest, right before the Jewish New Year. Related links Learn more about Yoav Sasportas and his wife Dana Sitbon, who run Urban Dvash and find out where to access their kosher honey and bee-related products in Montreal. Find out more about the historic Loewith's dairy farm Summitholm Holsteins (Joe Loewith and Sons) and their milk and cheese products, or visit their retail store near Hamilton, Ont. Read how Canadian kosher food distributor Altra Foods in Montreal was preparing to weather the earlier tariffs storm in April 2025, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor),l Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

This fall, two well-known Canadian Jewish schools will introduce new heads of school—and both leaders share similar visions for what students and parents and staff can expect when classes begin the first week of September. TanenbaumCHAT, Canada's largest pluralistic Jewish high school, in Toronto, is welcoming Dr. Amy Platt, who joins after nearly a decade leading one of the city's elementary/middle schools, Paul Penna Downtown Jewish Day School. Meanwhile, Dr. Laura Segall is the new leader of the Ottawa Jewish Community School, an elementary/middle school. Both women have experience as being the first female heads of school at different stops in their careers: Platt makes that history at TanenbaumCHAT, while Segall was the first female head of school at her former post, Montreal's Hebrew Academy, an Orthodox K-11 school. Platt describes her move as one of size and scope, moving from a small urban elementary school to one with over 1,400 students. Segall, meanwhile, is moving into a school half the size of her old one, in a city with one-sixth the Jewish population. Yet both women share plans and priorities for the new school year: they want their schools to be places for Jewish joy, balancing an atmosphere of safety against threats and attacks from protesters, antisemitism and anti-Zionism. Both also want to curate a robust menu of Zionist and Israeli programming and culture. Segall wants to involve the wider Ottawa community more, while Platt is forecasting more opportunities for Tikkun Olam. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, Amy Platt and Laura Segall join host Ellin Bessner for a preview of their plans for the first day of school—and the first weeks, months and beyond. Related Links Read about Amy Platt's bridge-building competition (literally, bridges) in The CJN from 2017. Learn how Laura Segall's Hebrew Academy welcomed a “Gesher Chair” delegation of students from Beer Sheva, Israel for a week, in The CJN from 2016. Hear the outgoing head of TanenbaumCHAT Jonathan Levy on why Jewish education helps students “build an ark” to survive antisemitism, on The CJN's “North Star” podcast from July 2026. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzy Helenchilde (producer and video editor),l Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

The late Holocaust survivor and speaker Eva Olsson died Aug. 4 in Port Carling, Ont. She was 101. She once estimated that she had given 4,300 presentations over the years. Her family says she likely reached over 1.5 million people with her story of resilience and courage. Although she only started speaking about her life in her 70s, 15,000 people wrote her letters saying how moved they were. The Order of Canada winner and author spent over a quarter-century sharing her story of surviving the Holocaust in Hungary, then slave labour camps, and both Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen before her liberation in 1945. Her message was always to fight hatred and not be a bystander. We here at The CJN's North Star podcast wanted to pay tribute in our way, so today we're rebroadcasting Ellin Bessner's last interview with Eva Olsson, which aired back in October 2021. She was just about to turn 97 and Yad Vashem was going to honour her with a birthday celebration—online, of course, via Zoom, because the world was in lockdown in the early part of the COVID pandemic. Related stories and links Read how the late Canadian Holocaust survivor Eva Olsson likely spoke to over 1 million people about her story, in The CJN . Yad Vashem marked Eva Olsson's 97th birthday in 2021 with a special ceremony, in The CJN Watch the trailer for a documentary about the late Eva Olsson “Stronger Than Fire”, on YouTube. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzy Helenchilde (producer and video editor),l Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

Eight months after the Conservative movement issued a public apology to interfaith families for historically treating them as a threat to Jewish survival, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (CJLS), the rabbinic arm of the denomination, released a new set of Jewish legal rulings delineating both the possibilities and limits for including interfaith families in Jewish religious and ritual life, entitled “Gateways Into Jewish Living: Guiding the Conservative/Masorti Rabbi in Supporting Families with Non-Jewish Loved Ones”. Two findings make this story of particular interest to Canadian Jews. First, as of 2019, Conservatives comprised the largest denominational affiliation among Canadian Jews, totalling 33 per cent of the population. Second, more than 35 per cent of married Jewish Canadians under the age of 40 have a non-Jewish spouse. While the rulings did provide concrete ways for rabbis and congregations to welcome interfaith couples and families, critics are frustrated that the CJLS said that rabbinic officiation of interfaith marriages remains beyond the pale of permissibility under Jewish law. Defenders say that the rulings deal with how interfaith families can build a Jewish home, raise Jewish children and celebrate life-cycle events—the things that make up Jewish life every day outside of the wedding. The publication solidified a number of practices into Jewish law for the first time. For instance, non-Jewish parents “may and should” be included in English blessings on the bimah during their child's bar or bat mitzvah. They may not receive an aliyah to the Torah—recite the official blessing before a Torah reading—but may accompany a partner to do so. A Jew may not sell their hametz, leavened bread products, to their non-Jewish spouse. A non-Jewish spouse may perform “labour” that is typically religiously prohibited for Jews to do on Shabbat, as long as it's not directly asked for by the Jewish partner, though a young Jewish child may ask them to do so. Our rabbinic podcasters react to this set of rulings and wonder if the movement is trying to be “half-pregnant,” or deftly trying to walk the tightrope between tradition and modernity. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

One of Peter Cohen's favourite gelato shops in the world is San Crispino, in Rome, Italy. It's among the nearly 2,000 pins on the Montrealer's personal online World Gelato Map, which he's been curating as part of his passion—some may call it an obsession—with the frozen treat. For the last 15 years, Cohen has been travelling the world, visiting hundreds of shops, tasting and looking for the best Italian artisanal ice cream. His gelato hobby began in 2011 on a family trip to Italy. Since then, he's been developing a growing gelato-ratings system that covers shops beyond just Italy: Turkey, Cambodia and many more countries, including about two dozen gelato shops here in Canada. His children think he should monetize his map—but Cohen says he does all this out of a sense of community, and to explore unknown neighbourhoods and meet the gelato-making artisans behind the counters. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner travels to Montreal to sit down with Peter Cohen over some award-winning gelato at Fiore, one of his current favourite shops. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editing), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

On Aug. 7, Todd Shapiro was just finishing dinner in Summerland, B.C., when a wildfire outside the town “exploded” and prompted an immediate provincial emergency evacuation order. The former Montrealer, who had just moved to the Okanagan area last summer, grabbed his passport, a jar of peanut butter and some toilet paper, rounded up his teenage son and family dog, and fled the region. Shapiro is one of 20,000 residents of Summerland ordered to leave their homes as the fire, the size of the city of Burlington, Ont., is still out of control more than a week later. After an anxious journey, he shared, “I was kind of freaking out”, facing closed highways and uncertain of where to go. Shapiro and his family made it to Kelowna, where they were invited to sleep at the home of Jewish community leader Abbey Westbury. She runs a winery, but also is a Jewish Federation of B.C. “community connector”, who also has close ties to the local synagogue and the Okanagan Jewish Community Centre. Westbury has been making food for evacuees and the first responders fighting the wildfire. The smoke and ash from Summerland has been blanketing Kelowna, too, and made it difficult to just be outside. Despite suffering an asthma attack this week, local Chabad Rabbi Shmuly Hecht, with his wife, Fraidy, turned their Chabad of Okanagan centre in Kelowna into a supplies depot for evacuees and hosts. They've kept their summer camp running but switched to indoor activities. In Penticton, just up the road from Summerland, local Jewish resident Tami Bray, who works for an environmental organization, has been running a city-wide relief centre, but feeling frustrated that politicians aren't using the words “climate change” to describe what has caused this summer's devastation. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner hears from these four Jewish residents on the front lines of the out-of-control Bald Range fire. Related links: Learn more about how to donate to the Jewish Federation of B.C.'s Wildfires relief fund and to the Chabad of Okanagan's Fire relief efforts fund. Watch Rabbi Shmuly Hecht's supplies depot video Read about the August wildfire in 2023 that came within metres of Kelowna's Okanagan Jewish Community Centre, in The CJN . Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izizie Helenchilde (produder and video editing), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

On Aug. 5, a new national study of antisemitism on Canadian university campuses revealed a startling reality: 95.7 per cent of Jewish students surveyed said they had experienced or witnessed antisemitism in the past year. The report received wide coverage, including in The CJN, but there's more to this story than that disturbing number. The 1,200 anecdotes submitted by students paint a vivid picture of being targeted by peers and professors for their faith and identities. The research was originally commissioned by the office of Canada's Special Envoy on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism, Deborah Lyons, before Prime Minister Mark Carney's government scrapped both her office and the Islamophobia czar's in February 2026. When Carney announced the makeup of a new federal Advisory Council on Rights, Equality and Inclusion in June, he told the members to tackle antisemitism first, especially on campus. That's when the study's authors reminded the government it already had the research sitting there, which it had paid for. But what else does this report tell us? What do Jewish university, college and CEGEP students actually say happened to them? And now that we have the research, what happens next? On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast with Ellin Bessner, you'll hear several of the students who spoke out, along with Cary Kogan, a University of Ottawa professor who was an advisor on the report and helped make it public last week, who spoke with The CJN's Zenith Wolfe. Related links A new report finds nearly 95%, nearly all Jewish students surveyed, personally experienced or witnessed campus antisemitism last year, in The CJN Read the report on the Government of Canada's website , and please specially read the Jewish students' personal comments . Read about the class action lawsuit against McGill University, and other legal actions underway against three other campuses including TMU, Western, and Windsor, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer/video editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

In May, Jewish residents in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island were invited to celebrate the festival of Lag BaOmer around a bonfire. On Aug. 6, a kayak paddling excursion on Burnaby's Deer Lake attracted 30 members of that city's Jewish community. Coming up on Aug. 23, Jewish residents of Squamish and Whistler are planning a boat cruise to spot wildlife, followed by a brunch. These different events around British Columbia have something in common: they're part of a new project underway in the province in response to the measurable shift of Jewish people moving away from Vancouver's traditional Jewish corridor. Whether for affordability reasons or lifestyle choices, the populatin of Jews living outside Vancouver grew by 60 per cent, according to official figures. Jewish communities like Victoria are seeing tremendous population growth, while the Okanagan region is growing, too. That is why Vancouver's Jewish Federation officially changed its name this summer to the Jewish Federation of B.C., to better reflect the territory they intend to represent. As part of an annual budget of $1.2 million, they have hired nearly a dozen local Jewish leaders whose job it is to help boost Jewish life in places without easy access to a synagogue, kosher food and the like. Funding is also available for events and outreach, and plans are underway to hire another “community connector” for Prince George. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner checks in with two curent community connectors: Jessica Benoualid, a former Montrealer stationed in the Comox Valley, and Jenny Reznik, serving in Burnaby/New Westminster, who's fighting political battles at City Hall; and we speak with Mijal Ben-Dori, who oversees the entire outreach program and says other Jewish federations in Canada are taking notes. Related links Read more about the June 26 gathering in Whistler of B.C.'s small Jewish communities who are participating in the Jewish Federation of B.C.'s new connector program, in The CJN . Hear the Jewish Federation of B.C.'s Okanagan community connector Abbey Westbury, interviewed about Jewish life in Kelowna several years ago, on The CJN's “Yechupetzville” podcast. Learn how to contact Jewish Community Connectors in your part of British Columbia. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

When Canadian First World War soldier Pvt. Albert Detmold was killed by German shelling on Aug. 15, 1917, while digging communication trenches on the front lines in northern France, he could never have imagined that more than a century later, both a Chabad rabbi from Toronto and a Ukrainian Catholic priest from Saskatoon would preside over his formal military burial. Detmold's remains were discovered by construction workers in a field near the French city of Lens in the summer of 2020. They'd lain there for over 100 years, sharing the fate of many hundreds of his comrades who lost their lives in the Battle for Hill 70, after Vimy Ridge. While Detmold's name was later engraved on the Vimy Ridge Memorial as missing with no known grave, in late 2025, DNA testing and historical sleuthing allowed Canada's Department of National Defence to make a positive ID. Arrangements were soon put in place to mount a formal reburial ceremony on July 9, in France, Detmold's actual birth date. He was born into a prominent European Jewish family before coming to Canada, so inquiries were made about the possibility of having a Star of David engraved on Detmold's gravestone. But officials ultimately decided to bury him under a cross, as the soldier had enlisted as a Presbyterian. Detmold's great-niece, Liana Walters, of Tees, Alta., traveled to France to represent the family at the service, and told The CJN she “would have liked to have seen the Star of David on the tombstone as well.” On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with chaplain Maj. (Rabbi) Arnold Noteh Glogauer, of Thornhill, Ont., who recently returned from officiating at the burial, and with Walters, the great-niece, about their surprisingly emotional farewell for the long-lost soldier. Related stories Read how Canada's Department of National Defence Casualty Identification Program spent five years doing DNA testing and tracing Pvt. Detmold's relatives, in The CJN. Watch our interview with the three Canadian experts who made the positive identification, on The CJN's North Star podcast, on YouTube from April 2026. See the Canadian Armed Forces' brief video of Detmold's burial service. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( info@thecjn.ca) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

For the past week, Canada has played host to more than 2,000 Jewish teen athletes from around the world, who competed at the 2026 JCC Maccabi Games. Competitors and their families came from 75 communities across Canada, the U.S.A, Israel, Europe and South America. Due to tight security, Monday night's opening ceremony—with 10,000 guests and Israeli entertainers Yuval Rafael and Nissim Black—was staged far outside the city. Even the locations of the main activity venues were being kept under wraps until after the final whistles on Aug. 6. The teenage athletes say they came first and foremost hoping to win medals in the myriad sports being played. But, as The CJN's North Star host Ellin Bessner discovered after spending a day with some of them, the Games were also about meeting other Jewish teens who may be the only person of their faith on their school or city teams. On this episode you'll hear from three Toronto baseball players chasing gold on home turf after missing this summer's Maccabiah in Israel; an Edmonton goalkeeper playing on a composite team with athletes from small Jewish communities; an Israeli volunteer spending his gap year mentoring vulnerable youth; a pioneering JCC Access athlete from Miami; and former Survivor winner Ethan Zohn, who shared his message of resilience with a new generation of Jewish athletes. Related stories Why the 2026 Toronto JCC Maccabi games are a family affair for cancer survivor Darryl Silverstein, the coach of a Toronto boys baseball team competing this week, in The CJN. 300 Canadian athletes were not able to compete in the Maccabiah Games in Israel this July, when Maccabiah Canada pulled out due to Middle East hostilities with Iran, in The CJN . Hear The CJN's Menchwarmers interview with two pro-basketball stars Tamir "Jewish Jordan" and NBA veteran Ricky "Buckets" Davis who gave clinics at this years JCC Maccabi Games. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editing), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Watch our podcasts on YouTube. Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) https://thecjn.ca/north

This summer, Toronto is a host city to one of the biggest sporting events in the world. No, not the World Cup—it's the JCC Maccabi Games, held in Canada for the first time in 40 years. This year, the organizers have brought in two memorable names from basketball history to run skills clinics and help kids learn the sport: Tamir Goodman, once dubbed the “Jewish Jordan,” and 12-year NBA veteran Ricky Davis, a.k.a. “Ricky Buckets,” join the Menschwarmers podcast to share what brought them to Toronto. Before the interview, Gabe and Jamie take a deeper look at reports of antisemitic chants directed at Israeli striker Dor Turgeman during a New England Revolution match in Montreal. Were the crowds really chanting "Death to Israel", or was it actually a French phrase anglophones didn't catch? Then they chat about the Jewish connections to the recently launched Women's Pro Baseball League, unpack Harrison Bader's late-night scooter crash into a fire truck, and praise Robert Stock's return to the majors. Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Kosha Dillz Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) https://thecjn.ca/menschwarmers

The prospect of summer grilling season might bring a tear to the eye of any patriotic Canadian, but it's the eye-watering prices in the meat aisle that are stirring up the most emotion this year. The cost of beef remains stratospheric—up nearly 63 per cent since 2021 and over 12 per cent over the past year alone, according to Statistics Canada. Even switching to less expensive meats, such as chicken thighs, offers little relief. But for Jews who eat only kosher meat, those prices are almost enviable. A major fire on July 28 at one of the largest kosher meat-processing plants in the United States threatens to drive up kosher meat prices ahead of the High Holidays. The fire at AgriStar Meat & Poultry in Postville, Iowa, destroyed at least 75 per cent of the plant and put more than 600 people out of work, city officials said. While the damaged facility will likely mean a shortage of kosher beef and chicken in the United States, the Kashruth Council of Canada is reassuring Canadian Jews that it does not foresee any disruption to the domestic kosher meat supply chain. But that doesn't change the fact that the rising cost of living is squeezing meat off many dinner tables this year—and some kosher Jews are ahead of that curve, cutting out meat already to hold an easier kosher life, and going full vegetarian or vegan. Today on the podcast, our rabbinic podcasters ask: How did meat come to play such a significant role in Jewish culture and cuisine? What is its spiritual and emotional significance in the community? And does it have to be this way? Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

More than 135 descendants of Moncton, N.B.'s founding Jewish families returned over the August long weekend for a sold-out centennial reunion at Tiferes Israel Synagogue, sharing memories, meals and hopes for the future of one of Canada's oldest Jewish communities. The reunion, dubbed “Kum A Heim“, filled the historic Orthodox synagogue on Steadman St., which served as a central hub for the events—including two plaque dedications, a tree planting, a walk through the community's cemetery, Shabbat services, and greetings received from King Charles and other government officials. “We wanted everybody to feel like they were coming home,” organizer Sandra Rose told The CJN. “They're really here in the synagogue and it is their home, whether they came from, you know, New York or whether they came from down the street.” The weekend also demonstrated a bittersweet reality: many younger attendees have long since moved away, the current synagogue congregation is aging, and the building itself needs crucial repairs. Yet the organizers say they are determined to keep going and begin a second century, albeit with a very different Jewish community than the one that built it back in the 1920s. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner hears from organizer Sandra Rose, who now lives in Fredericton; her cousin Anne Jochelman, who ran the shul's kitchen for the entire weekend; and Audrey Lampert, who spoke about her city's Jewish history during the Friday night welcome dinner in the shul banquet hall. Related links Learn more about the Moncton synagogue's Kum A Heim Centennial weekend, see photos, on the event website. Read about when Moncton's city council tried to ban the annual Hanukkah menorah-lighting ceremony in 2023, in The CJN. Listen to The CJN's Y ehupetzville podcast from 2021 about what Jewish life was like in Moncton. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/donate/ https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube. Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) https://thecjn.ca/north

Last week, if you were in Toronto, you may have spotted a striking yellow-and-black Tesla Cybertruck cruising around the city. Behind the wheel was Shloime Zionce, the Toronto-raised White House correspondent for Ami Magazine and YouTube creator. He grew up in Toronto's Orthodox Jewish community before moving to the U.S. to attend yeshiva. While visiting his parents and extended family in his native city, Zionce launched his cross-continent mitzvah mission at a July 21 event outside the Promenade Shopping Centre in Thornhill. He will take the self-driving Cybertruck on the road, on his two-year quest to drive through all 50 U.S. states. He's encouraging Jewish pride and mitzvot in response to the surge of antisemitism since Oct. 7. Zionce is paying for the project himself to honour his late friend, Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan, who was kidnapped and murdered by Islamic terrorists in the United Arab Emirates in 2024. The eye-catching design is intentional. “Overall we need eyeballs on this thing because if you want to connect with Jews, the Jews have to notice you and see that you're there. And this vehicle is pretty hard to to go unnoticed.” On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner gets a private tour including climbing aboard for a ride through Zionce's grandmother's Thornhill neighbourhood, as he explains the mission behind one of the most unusual Jewish outreach vehicles on the road. Related links: Read more about slain Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan from his friend Rabbi Yehuda Sarna, a Montrealer who is Chief Rabbi of the Jewish community in the UAE, in The CJN from 2024 . Learn more about Shloime Zionce's new Cybertruck mitzvah campaign to bring Jewish pride and yiddishkeit to all 50 states and Canada in honour of his slain friend, Rabbi Zvi Kogan, killed by terrorists in 2024 in the UAE, at Mitzvahtruck.com Watch Shloime Zionce's reporting from the White House and his travel stories, on YouTube Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Watch our podcasts on YouTube. Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) https://thecjn.ca/north

Canada's largest public Jewish construction project, the JWest campus in Vancouver, has reached a significant milestone. About two weeks ago, on July 16, Vancouver's city council approved an updated rezoning proposal for the $235 million redevelopment that will build a new Jewish community centre, with a revamped Holocaust museum and a day care, a theatre and space for 20 Jewish agencies, and also a larger King David High School right next door. Eventually, the builders hope to erect two apartment towers offering 630 rental units, including some non-profit housing. Groundbreaking for the new JCC is expected this fall, according to Alex Cristall, the chair of the JWest Foundation, the fundraising arm. Meanwhile, in Edmonton, work has been underway for months on a new JCC for the Alberta capital, which hasn't had one since 2012. Edmonton's construction is expected to be finished by early in the winter of 2027, according to Stacey Leavitt-Wright, the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Edmonton. The $6 million project to refit an old Boy Scouts regional headquarters will build “a living room” for the city's Jewish community, she said. Unlike Vancouver's massive undertaking, Edmonton's will be on a much smaller scale. It won't have a gym or a pool. But both communities share a common goal: creating new brick and mortar hubs to provide a much-welcome meeting place for Jews who have been seeking stronger community connections since Oct. 7, 2023. On today's episode of The Canadian Jewish News' North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with Alex Cristall and Stacey Leavitt-Wright about where each project stands to date, and why they are a bet on the future growth of Jewish life in Western Canada. Related links Read about the federal funding announced for Vancouver's JWest campus project in The CJN from 2022 , Hear “North Star's first interview with Alex Cristall, JWest's chair, from that year. Learn more about JWest and Edmonton's new JCC project . Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/newsletters/ https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube. Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receip) https://thecjn.ca/north

“Everything I did was about making my parents proud,” said retired Ontario Court of Justice judge Harvey Brownstone, summing up his lifetime struggle for acceptance. Rejected and cut off at age 19 when he told his parents he was gay, Hamilton native Harvey Brownstone went on to succeed in school, in the legal profession, and now in the world of show business. But his new book, “Without Prejudice: My Life as a Gay Judge” , which was released earlier this summer, reveals the heart-breaking personal cost of fighting homophobia from his family, at university, Bay Street law firms, and even from the top level of the Ontario government. But as Brownstone turned 70 last week, on July 24, he is thrilled that his life story is now touching a chord with so many readers both in the gay community and beyond. His book has been on the bestseller lists. Soon, a new Hollywood bio-pic of his life, starring David Arquette, based on the manuscript, is to be released this fall. And while Brownstone doesn't have his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, nearly five years post-retirement from the bench, he's already interviewed hundreds of famous movie stars since he launched his second career as a celebrity talk-show host in 2021. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, Harvey Brownstone returns to the show to talk about the reaction to his new book: he shares how he finally forgave his mother, why the Ontario court system — specially family court — needs a serious remake, and he gives his advice for any young people considering when to “come out” to their families. Related links Follow Harvey Brownstone Interviews at his website and buy his book there, too. Harvey Brownstone was a guest on The CJN's _North Sta_r podcast in 2025 when Zionist groups were being banned from Pride parades across Canada. Why former Ontario Court justice Harvey Brownstone warned divorcing families to stay out of family court, if they can help it, in The CJN, from 2009. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Watch our podcasts on YouTube. Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) https://thecjn.ca/north

Shomrim Toronto became the public face of the massive volunteer effort to help Toronto police search for 14-year-old Esti, an autistic Jewish teenager who went missing from her home for two weeks in May. Hundreds of volunteers from the Jewish community and beyond came out to help in the civilian-led search, putting up posters and flyers, bringing food, supporting the family, and raising funds for a $25,000 reward for information. On May 28, Toronto police announced they'd located her, safe and sound, in a basement apartment many kilometres away from her home. While there won't be any charges laid, and police have now said the case is closed, the impact of the mission—their biggest ever since their founding five years ago—has left a deep impact on Shomrim Toronto's volunteers. In this exclusive interview with The CJN's North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner sits down with Avi Grinberg and Kevin (Menachem) Silver of Shomrim Toronto, who explain how they became the hub of the massive community civilian search, how Esti's family is doing now, and how the experience will shape the organization's future. Related stories Learn about why Shomrim launched in this story from 2021 in The CJN. In 2024, Shomrim and other volunteer security groups were profiled for helping protect Jewish Toronto and York Region, both in the community and, in some cases, on campus, in The CJN. Some of The CJN North Star's coverage of the successful search for Esti from May 2026. To volunteer or learn more about Shomrim, check out their website . Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter h https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube. Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) https://thecjn.ca/north

As darkness fell last night, Jews around the world sat on synagogue floors and listened to the chanting of Eicha, the Book of Lamentations, marking the beginning of Tisha B'Av. Traditionally the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, it is a day of mourning for the calamities that have befallen the Jewish people over the centuries—chief among them the destruction of the First and Second Temples and the devastation of Jerusalem. While the community survived and continued going through the motions of worshipping the god of their forefathers, surely many Jews—in the generation that saw the Temple burn, and the streets of their holy city strewn with starved and butchered bodies—must have lost their faith. And today, as Jews read Lamentations and refrain from eating, drinking, washing, wearing leather shoes or even greeting one another, some may participate in rituals they no longer entirely “believe” in. On this episode of Not in Heaven, rabbis Avi Finegold and Yedida Eisenstat ask how closely Jewish observance has to line up with personal conviction or theological belief. Sparked by the new Israeli television series Behasture, about a secret group of Jerusalemites who outwardly live fully haredi, strictly religious lives despite having lost their faith long ago, they explore why people remain in communities they no longer internally align with; the pressures of living with the cognitive dissonance between practice and belief; and the costs of searching for a community whose rituals and values perfectly mirror your own commitments. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

Debbie Wasserman has spent nearly four decades volunteering with the National Council of Jewish Women in Canada. Now she's taken on her highest profile role yet: she's the new president of the International Council of Jewish Women (ICJW), a century-old umbrella NGO representing Jewish women's organizations in 36 countries on five continents, from Argentina to Nigeria to Croatia. The organization advocates for women's rights on a global stage, including at the United Nations and the Council of Europe. Their members speak out on issues including human trafficking, domestic violence, antisemitism, and, after Oct. 7, security for Israel and raising awareness about the sexual violence Hamas terrorists carried out against Israeli women. Wasserman got her start in public service as a young mother in Toronto, including helping run the National Council of Jewish Women Toronto branch's famous annual Passover food basket campaign. Today, after many leadership positions with the Canadian affiliate, she's now only the second Canadian woman in history to lead the historic international NGO. In this episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, Wasserman joins host Ellin Bessner to discuss the priorities she'll be tackling over the next four years, including an exciting project launching first right now in Canada: “The Power of Small Conversations”, an initiative to fight antisemitism, which Wasserman hopes can become a model for Jewish communities around the world. Related links: Follow Debbie Wasserman and her work with the International Council of Jewish Women and read her inaugural speech May 19, 2026. Read more about when Toronto's Debbie Wasserman was elected president of the National Council of Jewish Women of Canada, in 2017, in The CJN . Learn more about The Power of Small Conversations initiative being launched this fall by the Canadian organization, NCJWC, with Wasserman's involvement. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Watch our podcasts on YouTube. Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

Vancouver Holocaust survivor Adam Policzer, 87, is marking three major milestones this summer: the publication of his first English-language Holocaust autobiography in the form of a 60-page graphic novel, The House Across the Street; the premiere of a documentary about his life; and the 80th anniversary of his reunion with his father after the Second World War in July 1946. Eighty years ago, Policzer was reunited with his father, who had fled Hungary before the outbreak of the Second World War and found safety in Chile. But the child and his mother didn't get out in time before the Nazis invaded Hungary. So, Policzer's mother arranged to hide her young son with the Christian family living across the street in the city of Miskolc. She was later deported to Auschwitz, and eventually perished in a Nazi slave-labour camp in Poland. Policzer eventually moved from Chile to Vancouver, B.C. in the 1970s, where he worked as an architect. He and his wife wanted to leave a memoir for their grandchildren, so he drew his story as a graphic novel, published in Canada in June by Dirty Water Comics. Policzer believes he is one of the few child survivors who vividly remembers the Holocaust, and possibly one of the only survivors to tell his story as a graphic novel with his own drawings. The story has also inspired a new documentary about him which recently premiered at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival. On today's fresh episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, Adam Policzer joins host Ellin Bessner to explain how drawing his images helped him deal with his Holocaust trauma, while paying tribute to the Christian family that repeatedly risked their lives to save his, but never qualified for recognition by Yad Vashem. Also joining are the filmmakers Jamie Michaels and Liam Karp, both from Winnipeg. Related stories Learn more and buy the book “The House Across the Street” by Adam Policzer, published by Dirty Water Comics, in Winnipeg. Watch the trailer for the new documentary about Adam Policzer, called “I draw them the Best I Can”, which had its world premiere at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival on June 8, 2026. Check out director Jamie Michael's 2019 graphic novel “Christie Pits” in The CJN , and also co-director Liam Karp's solo Holocaust short film called “Tattoo” (2023), which also screened at the TJFF in June. 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 Watch our podcasts on YouTube. Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

This episode originally aired on July 25, 2025. Ellin Bessner will return with new episodes next week. If you happen to be in the Laurentians one Friday afternoon this summer, near the Saint-Agathe, a resort area north of Montreal that's popular with Jewish families, you might hear clapping, singing and loud Jewish music blasting from a flotilla of boats tied together in the middle of a lake. The gatherings represent two concurrent pre-Shabbat get-togethers, where Jewish cottagers motor out, tie up in a circle and welcome in the Sabbath. Attendees have raved about the trend, praising it for bringing badly needed Jewish resilience and inspiration that lasts long after the boat owners set their feet on dry land. In fact, the idea has been such a success that it's multiplied. There are, in fact, two different spiritual celebrations each Friday, organized and operated by separate people. Both groups of boats listen to Jewish music alongside candles, challah, a rabbi and seafaring shmoozing, but don't mix them up—each organizer is quick to point out key differences in flavour and religious observance. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with Howard Stotland, who runs the event from Ivry-sur-le-Lac, and Rabbi Emanuel Carlebach, who runs a different Pre-“Shabb'o'at” program out of the Congregation House of Israel in nearby Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (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) https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@TheCJN

This episode of Menschwarmers originally aired on July 9, 2026. Subscribe at thecjn.ca/menschwarmers. __ The recent FIFA World Cup match between Egypt and Argentina became a surprising battleground for—what else?—the Israel-Palestine debate. The Egyptian coach, who had been waving a Palestinian flag during the competition, grew frustrated when Argentinian fans began waving Israeli flags at him. It's the latest culmination of a longstanding anti-Zionist (and weirdly antisemitic) dislike of Argentinian star Lionel Messi, who has been accused of being a Jewish Zionist by Egyptian officials in the past. So is Messi an honorary Jew now? According to antisemites: yes he is. And you know what? Sure, we'll take him. Outside of the soccer pitch, a Jewish baseball newcomer Cole Carrigg is making noise in Colorado; veteran Alysha Clark is still making appearances on WNBA courts; and Max Homa is enjoying a mid-season comeback on the greens. Our Jewish sports podcasters explain it all on the latest episode of Menschwarmers. Plus: take a first listen to our brand new theme song by Kosha Dillz. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (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) https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@TheCJN

This episode originally aired on July 26, 2023, when this podcast was called The CJN Daily_. We will resume all-new stories next week._ There were whistles and angry shouts of “Go back to New York” and “Get lost” on July 19, 2023, at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, as a group of observant Jewish women known as Women of the Wall conducted their monthly morning prayer service—complete with a small Torah scroll they'd smuggled in with them. Using the scroll is against the rules set down by the holy site's authorities, which still only permits men to have the sacred scrolls or to chant prayers out loud. And as has happened for years, the women had to run a gauntlet of security forces who searched them for religious items. They also had to endure noisy insults and even physical attacks from Haredi men and women who oppose the women's non-Orthodox methods of praying at the Kotel. Some threw red juice at the women's prayer shawls. The Israeli courts have just handed a legal victory of sorts to the women, thanks to a ruling by a Jerusalem judge that says they can no longer be subjected to invasive special searches of their bags and purses for religious articles. However, the ruling stopped short of legalizing their requests to use Torahs. On this Tisha b'Av episode of The CJN Daily, producer Zac Kauffman took his recording gear into the crowd to bring us this special on-the-ground report. He talks to the women involved in the service, and to some protesters, including one with Canadian roots, who came to drown them out. What we talked about Learn more about the Canadian woman with the Women of the Wall, Rachel Cohen Yeshurun, working to expand egalitarian prayer services at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, on The CJN Daily . Read when Israel's government proposed to expand prayers for non-Orthodox at the Kotel, in 2017, in The CJN. Anat Hoffman, founder of Women of the Wall, bringing social change to Israel, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (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) https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@TheCJN

This episode originally aired on Not in Heaven on July 9, 2026. Subscribe to Not in Heaven here. How much does motive matter when it comes to hate crimes? In recent years, Canadian Jews have been rocked by a series of attacks on their community institutions, including late-night shootings at schools and synagogues, attempted arson, and smashing community centres' windows. Many Jews have met the situation with a profound sense of dislocation and disbelief; a feeling that the country they once thought they knew had radically shifted around them, that their non-Jewish neighbours were not who they thought they were. But last month, new information emerged about the alleged perpetrators of these crimes. According to reports in both Toronto and Montreal, some significant portion of these attacks were carried out by ‘gig-criminals', a kind of gun-for-hire network of young people getting paid thousands of dollars from anonymous clients to shoot at targets as varied as waste managment plants, the American embassy, tow truck companies—and Jewish instiutions. This prompted our rabbinic podcasters to ask: if the perpetrators of at least some of these shootings were motivated by financial gain, and not animus towards Jews in particular (as one arsonist has claimed in court as recently as this week), how does that change our community narrative? Will collective pressure on politicians to combat antisemitism actually help the situation, if the criminals are not motivated by antisemitism? And, on a deeper level, do you need to feel hate to commit a hate crime? Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (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!)

The recent FIFA World Cup match between Egypt and Argentina became a surprising battleground for—what else?—the Israel-Palestine debate. The Egyptian coach, who had been waving a Palestinian flag during the competition, grew frustrated when Argentinian fans began waving Israeli flags at him. It's the latest culmination of a longstanding anti-Zionist (and weirdly antisemitic) dislike of Argentinian star Lionel Messi, who has been accused of being a Jewish Zionist by Egyptian officials in the past. So is Messi an honorary Jew now? According to antisemites: yes he is. And you know what? Sure, we'll take him. Outside of the soccer pitch, a Jewish baseball newcomer Cole Carrigg is making noise in Colorado; veteran Alysha Clark is still making appearances on WNBA courts; and Max Homa is enjoying a mid-season comeback on the greens. Our Jewish sports podcasters explain it all on the latest episode of Menschwarmers. Plus: take a first listen to our brand new theme song by Kosha Dillz. Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Kosha Dillz Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Menschwarmers

This episode originally aired Aug. 7, 2024. Sharon Chodirker and Chaim Bell consider themselves lucky: they were among the tens of thousands of tourists and residents in Jasper who were evacuated from the forest fires that devoured a third of the buildings in the iconic Rocky Mountain resort town on July 24. The Toronto couple, who were on a hiking trip, managed to escape Jasper while smoke and ash rained down on their rental car. When they reached a safe spot across the border in British Columbia, they slept in their vehicle and dined on kosher snacks they'd stored in their portable cooler. Two days after their frightening journey, flames up to 100 metres high swept right through where their hotel stood, destroying several buildings. Now they're sharing their survival story from the safety of their Toronto home, while the town of Jasper remains off-limits except for emergency crews—and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who visited on Aug. 5. On today's episode of The CJN Daily, we hear from the Toronto couple personally, as well as Rabbi Dovid Pinson of Canmore who runs the new Chabad community centre outside Banff and hosted the evacuees. We'll also hear from Heidi Coleman, the head of the Jewish community in Kamloops, B.C., who felt like she was starring in the musical Come From Away when she helped a busload of stranded Jasperites in her city. What we talked about When Rabbi Dovid Pinson ran the annual Hanukkah car menorah parade in Edmonton during COVID in 2021, in The CJN Learn more about Chabad in the Rockies   Hear how Heidi Coleman came from Montreal to Kamloops and became their Jewish leader, on the podcast Yehupetzville Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (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!)

How much does motive matter when it comes to hate crimes? In recent years, Canadian Jews have been rocked by a series of attacks on their community institutions, including late-night shootings at schools and synagogues, attempted arson, and smashing community centres' windows. Many Jews have met the situation with a profound sense of dislocation and disbelief; a feeling that the country they once thought they knew had radically shifted around them, that their non-Jewish neighbours were not who they thought they were. But last month, new information emerged about the alleged perpetrators of these crimes. According to reports in both Toronto and Montreal, some significant portion of these attacks were carried out by ‘gig-criminals', a kind of gun-for-hire network of young people getting paid thousands of dollars from anonymous clients to shoot at targets as varied as waste managment plants, the American embassy, tow truck companies—and Jewish instiutions. This prompted our rabbinic podcasters to ask: if the perpetrators of at least some of these shootings were motivated by financial gain, and not animus towards Jews in particular (as one arsonist has claimed in court as recently as this week), how does that change our community narrative? Will collective pressure on politicians to combat antisemitism actually help the situation, if the criminals are not motivated by antisemitism? And, on a deeper level, do you need to feel hate to commit a hate crime? Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Not in Heaven (Not sure how? Click here )

About our Guests: Fran Balamuth, MD, PhD, MSCE, is division chief of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Balamuth's research interests focus on pediatric sepsis recognition using epidemiologic and translational approaches, for which she has received NIH and foundation funding. She is the co-PI of the PROMPT BOLUS trial, a multinational pragmatic trial comparing saline vs balanced fluids in pediatric sepsis, which will be the largest acute care pediatric trial in history. In addition, she co-leads the CHOP Pediatric Sepsis Program, which supports and promotes local clinical, research, educational, and quality-improvement initiatives related to sepsis. She is an internationally recognized sepsis leader, and has been invited to serve on the national steering committee for the Improving Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes quality collaborative through the US Children's Hospital Association, and 2 international task forces focused on defining pediatric sepsis through the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Society of Critical Care Medicine.Scott L. Weiss, MD, MSCE, FCCM, is a Professor of Pediatrics & Pathology and Genomic Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University and division chief of Critical Care Medicine at Nemours Children's Hospital, Delaware. Previously, Dr. Weiss was on the faculty at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where he earned recognition as an international expert in pediatric sepsis. Dr. Weiss' NIH-funded research focuses on epidemiology, fluid resuscitation, and mitochondrial dysfunction in pediatric sepsis. Dr. Weiss is an international expert in pediatric sepsis and served as the co-PI of the PRoMPT BOLUS trial.Nathan Kuppermann, MD, MPH, is Executive Vice President and Chief Academic Officer of Children's National Hospital and Director of the Children's National Research Institute. He also serves as chair of the Department of Pediatrics and associate dean of Pediatric Academic Affairs at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. He is an internationally recognized clinical trialist in pediatric trauma, pediatric DKA, and acute pediatric infections. As the original chair of the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Applied Research Network (PECARN); his research is focused on clinical trials and clinical prediction rules using large cohorts of acutely ill and injured children. Dr. Kuppermann served as the senior investigator of the PRoMPT BOLUS trial.Selected References:Weiss SL, Balamuth F, Long E, Thompson GC, Hayes KL, Katcoff H, Cook M, Tsemberis E, Hickey CP, Williams A, Williamson-Urquhart S, Borland ML, Dalziel SR, Gelbart B, Freedman SB, Babl FE, Huang J, Kuppermann N; Pragmatic Pediatric Trial of Balanced Versus Normal Saline Fluid in Sepsis (PRoMPT BOLUS) Investigators of the PECARN, PERC, and PREDICT Networks. PRagMatic Pediatric Trial of Balanced vs nOrmaL Saline FlUid in Sepsis: study protocol for the PRoMPT BOLUS randomized interventional trial. Trials. 2021 Nov 6;22(1):776. doi: 10.1186/s13063-021-05717-4. Erratum in: Trials. 2025 Oct 7;26(1):390. doi: 10.1186/s13063-025-09164-3. PMID: 34742327; PMCID: PMC8572061.Weiss SL, Balamuth F, Thurm CW, Downes KJ, Fitzgerald JC, Laskin BL. Major Adverse Kidney Events in Pediatric Sepsis. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol. 2019 May 7;14(5):664-672. doi: 10.2215/CJN.12201018. Epub 2019 Apr 18. PMID: 31000518; PMCID: PMC6500940.Semler MW, Self WH, Wanderer JP, Ehrenfeld JM, Wang L, Byrne DW, Stollings JL, Kumar AB, Hughes CG, Hernandez A, Guillamondegui OD, May AK, Weavind L, Casey JD, Siew ED, Shaw AD, Bernard GR, Rice TW; SMART Investigators and the Pragmatic Critical Care Research Group. Balanced Crystalloids versus Saline in Critically Ill Adults. N Engl J Med. 2018 Mar 1;378(9):829-839. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1711584. Epub 2018 Feb 27. PMID: 29485925; PMCID: PMC5846085.Questions, comments or feedback? Please send us a message at this link (leave email address if you would like us to relpy) Thanks! -Alice & ZacSupport the showHow to support PedsCrit:Please complete our Listener Feedback SurveyPlease rate and review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts!Donations are appreciated @PedsCrit on Venmo , you can also support us by becoming a patron on Patreon. 100% of funds go to supporting the show.Please remember that all content during this episode is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. It should not be used as medical advice. The views expressed during this episode by hosts and our guests are their own and do not reflect the official position of their institutions. If you have any comments, suggestions, or feedback-you can email us at pedscritpodcast@gmail.com.  You can also check out our website at http://www.pedscrit.com. Thank you for listening to this episode of PedsCrit!

Ellin Bessner is off on a well-deserved summer vacation, so we're bringing back some favourite episodes from the archives. This episode originally ran on May 31, 2021. Has there ever been a better home for Jews than Canada? That's the bold question being asked in a new collection of essays, No Better Home?: Jews, Canada, and the Sense of Belonging. The book's editor, David S. Koffman, joins to discuss the merits behind the argument: how Canada might be the most inviting, safe and tolerant country for Jews in the world. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (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!)

There's been a major new development in the controversy surrounding the Canadian Museum for Human Rights' new Nakba exhibit. Canada's Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture, Mark Miller, toured the exhibit before the show opened last weekend, and has now publicly criticized some of what he saw. In an interview published Monday June 29 by The Canadian Press, Miller said some wording “should be rectified”, and suggested that the museum's board should have been shown the exhibit before it opened. He also said it was a “failure” that curators chose not to describe Hamas as a terrorist organization, or state that Jewish Israelis were targeted during the Oct. 7 attacks. The museum told The CJN it stands by its word choices, but has sent Miller's concerns to its curation team, which has a content revision process. Before the minister's comments became public, The CJN's Izzie Helenchilde travelled to Winnipeg as one of the journalists invited inside the exhibit Friday,June 26 for a media preview. On this episode of “North Star”, she joins host Ellin Bessner to describe exactly what she saw and whether the exhibit matched the controversy that's been surrounding it. You'll also hear from some of the people she interviewed: the Museum's CEO Isha Khan; Fouad Sahyoun, a Palestinian Canadian whose experience is one of the few video testimonials in the exhibit; Gail Asper, whose family founded the museum; and Rabbi Yosef Benarroch, just retired as spiritual leader of Winnipeg's Adas Yeshurun Herzlia synagogue. Related stories Minister responsible for Canada's museums says Nakba exhibit “should be rectified”, in The CJN. Nakba exhibit opens amidst protests and controversy, in The CJN. The Canadian Museum for Human Rights' only Jewish trustee explained why he quit, on The CJN's North Star podcast. **** Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (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!)

When people think of the Calgary Stampede, they probably picture rodeos, chuckwagon races, the famous parade, or perhaps deep-fried Mars bars on the midway. But how about kosher pancake breakfasts, Israeli tech entrepreneurs, and the Jewish businessman who created Calgary's iconic white cowboy hat in 1949? For more than a century, Calgary's Jewish community has woven its own traditions into Alberta's “Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth.” What began with Jewish homesteaders, ranchers and merchants has evolved into one of the busiest weeks on the Jewish community's calendar. Even before the 114th Calgary Stampede officially begins on July 3, the Jewish community has already hosted two kosher pancake breakfasts: the Calgary Jewish Academy's Mishpacha & Maple Syrup celebration June 14, while the House of Jacob-Mikveh Israel's annual community pancake breakfast held on June 27 attracted hundreds for flapjacks and pony rides. It's co sponsored by the Calgary Jewish Federation and the city's Paperny Family JCC. Still to come later this week are the annual “Spuds & Suds” gathering, co-hosted by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) and Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee (CJPAC), where Jewish leaders and elected officials mingle over kosher latkes; and the Israeli Embassy's ShukTech showcase at the Stampede is also set to highlight Israeli innovation and entrepreneurship. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner is joined by historian Saundra Lipton, president of the Jewish Historical Society of Southern Alberta, and by David Silver, president of the House of Jacob-Mikveh Israel synagogue, who moved to Calgary from Toronto nine years ago, to discuss how Jewish Calgarians have been part of one of Alberta's defining civic traditions for over a century. elated stories: Putting the “Oy” in cowboy: former CJN podcaster David Sklar investigated the Jewish roots of Alberta in 2022, on “Bonjour Chai”. Read more and buy the new book “Building Community: Historical Traces of Jewish Calgary”, by the Jewish Historical Society of Southern Alberta. Why the separation referendum question is dividing Alberta's Jews, in The CJN . See photos of previous years' House of Jacob-Mikveh Israel synagogue's Kosher Pancake Breakfast. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (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!)

Over the past school year, The Canadian Jewish News' Local Journalism Initiative reporter, Mitch Consky, who covers education, has introduced readers to some exceptional students through his "Chai Achievers" series. He has profiled young Jewish Canadians making a difference on their post-secondary campuses or high schools, with leadership and community service. As exams come to an end this week, Consky brought six such leaders together for a roundtable conversation about their actions and inspirations. They discuss how young Jews are responding to challenges on campus and at home, and why building connections, volunteering and creating opportunities for others is crucial to ensure a strong future for Jewish Canadians. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, reporter Mitch Consky takes over the hosting duties, to interview: Maya Fuerstenberg, a TanenbaumCHAT graduate, who founded the Dalhousie Jewish Society in Halifax Anastasia Zorchinsky, founder of the StartUp Nation club at Concordia, in Montreal Levi Moskovitz of Vancouver's King David High School, who recently completed his term as BBYO's international treasurer Toronto twins Ava and Ezra Freiheit, and their friend Emma Rovner, who also attend TanenbaumCHAT, who founded "Chains for Change" to raise funds for Special Olympics athletes in Ontario Related stories Read more about the students selected as The CJN Chai Achievers including: a trio who fundraises for Special Olympics ,  a CHAT graduate who built a Jewish club at Dalhousie University , a Vancouver leadership official with BBYO Internationa l, and the founder of the pro-Israel StartUp Nation club at Concordia University. Hear our interview with Levi Moskovitz on The CJN's “North Star” podcast from Dec. 2025 on how he raised nearly $1 million for BBYO. Meet Yair Shpiler, who built Jewnity Sports, a 2025 CJN Chai Achiever . Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (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!)

Mark Berlin initially supported the Canadian Museum for Human Rights creating a Nakba exhibit on the experiences of Palestinian Canadians displaced during the Israel War of Independence in 1948. But the Ottawa human rights lawyer and professor who served for years as the only Jewish member on the Winnipeg museum's board of trustees, resigned abruptly on Monday June 22. His letter was sent just days before the controversial exhibit is scheduled to open this weekend. Berlin says he spent months in a fruitless effort to push the museum from the inside to tell a more complete story. He alleges that the museum never showed the board any of the exhibit's content materials. He fears the Nakba exhibit, which opens June 27, will be a one-sided, anti-Israel “ideologically political-oriented story”, which he calls “curation by omission”. The museum website exhibit material blames the Israeli military for the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians, but doesn't give any wider context that five Arab countries invaded the fledgling Jewish State at the time. Museum officials tell The CJN that while the board was not given specific details of exhibit wording, photos and the like, trustees have been “regularly briefed” since 2021, “with a high-level overview of the schematic design and interpretive plan for the exhibit, as well as with reports on how the Museum was managing its relationships and risks. There were lengthy conversations on these matters.” Berlin also decried what he calls an “institutional anti-Zionism bias” at the museum, not just with this exhibit but he cites numerous examples including anti-Israel messages on public display inside the building, and on social media channels, and pro-Palestinian protesters permitted to do a die-in after Oct. 7 while Jewish groups were denied a chance to hold a similar event. Prominent Canadian Jewish community leaders and philanthropists were invited to the museum recently for a meeting to discuss the exhibit, but Berlin and a second source described what happened May 13 as “egregiously, outrageously dismissive of us”. On today's episode of The CJN's flagship podcast North Star, host Ellin Bessner sits down with Berlin for his first broadcast interview to hear what he's experienced these past two plus years that made him realize it was time to leave. They also talk about what he wants the federal Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture to do next. Related links Read Mark Berlin's letter of resignation to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture. Why Gail Asper, the daughter of the museum's founder, and law professor Bryan Schwartz, called for the Nakba exhibit to be paused and revised, on The CJN's North Star June 1, 2026. Criticism of the planned exhibit's storytelling and lack of transparency began back in November 2025 after the museum announced the show would go ahead, in The CJN. **** Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (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!)

Canada Day and the Fourth of July are coming up, which means flags are popping up across North America like summer flowers. But Jewish Canadians — and Jewish Americans — have fair reason to be skeptical of nationalism. Jewish parents would be forgiven for feeling uneasy seeing their children pledge allegiance to a national flag — and that's even before getting into the extreme evolution of modern nationalism movements that, in North America and Europe, tend to skew anti-Jewish. So on this week's episode, we're looking at flags. Specifically, flags in synagogues. Whether the flag is Canadian, American or Israeli, not everyone will feel comfortable with broad national symbols on the bimah. Some view them as "idol worship". Others insist they're a unifying force for the majority of congregants. No one is right, so how do community leaders bridge the divide? Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Not in Heaven (Not sure how? Click here )

A police officer and a Jewish civilian have been killed after a gunman opened fire in a deadly ambush that unfolded Monday mid-morning June 22 in one of Montreal's busiest Jewish districts. The shooting appears not to have targeted Jews, although many community members initially worried it was antisemitic terrorism. Nevertheless, the “nightmare” event, as police have called it, has left the Jewish community reeling because of the loss of life and because it happened in Snowdon, a community hub in Côte-des-Neiges where many Montreal Jews live, shop and gather. Media reports say the shooter was part of the “incel” community, and left behind a manifesto about how he hated women, but investigators have not confirmed this to The CJN. The chaotic day had residents and hotel guests either in lockdown or scrambling to safety in a nearby Jewish social services agency, MADA. Wide swaths of the city were shut down as hundreds of police tried to locate other possible suspects, although by day's end the chief said there was only one shooter and he was killed. As the investigation continues, the identities of the slain policeman and also the slain Jewish bystander have now been released. The CJN's Quebec correspondent, reporter Joel Ceausu, has been following developments since the first emergency alerts were issued. He knew of both of the victims. And like so many Jewish Montrealers, he also has a personal connection to the neighbourhood where this tragedy unfolded. Joel joins host Ellin Bessner on today's special breaking news edition of The CJN's North Star podcast to help us understand what happened, who the victims were, and how this devastating event has affected Montreal's Jewish community. Related links Read The CJN's continuing coverage of the June 22 Montreal ambush and shootings in the Jewish neighbourhood of Côte-des-Neiges, at thecjn.ca Watch what it was like for shoppers trapped inside the PA Supermarket as Montreal police stormed through searching for suspects, on The CJN's YouTube Channel. Learn more about Montreal's Jewish community from the latest Canadian census data, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde, (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!)

“I didn't know there was a need.” Two years ago, Dr. Irv Siegel, a past president of Beit Rayim Synagogue in Vaughan, Ont., heard about growing food insecurity in York Region, one of Canada's wealthiest suburbs, where one in five families faces food insecurity. He was surprised to learn that hundreds of public school kids in Thornhill and Richmond Hill often come to school without lunch. So for the past two years, volunteers from the synagogue have shown up every Thursday morning with fresh produce and bagels to feed students they will never met. Siegel's successful Feed the Children School Lunch program hit a milestone last week: it's now provided 7,000 nutritious lunches to students in four York Region public schools. They don't write a cheque: instead they bring all the food, wash and assemble all the lunch bags on site, and deliver the meals to the school office before the bell rings. School staff say these meals are sorely needed. The program doesn't operate anonymously. For organizer Irv Siegel, the Star of David on every lunch bag is intentional. He wanted students, families and educators in York Region's diverse public schools to know that a Jewish community was reaching beyond its own walls to help its neighbours. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner takes you inside this noteworthy response to childhood hunger. And full disclosure: she volunteers there, too. Related links Learn more about Beit Rayim synagogue's Feed the Children School Lunch program and how to donate or volunteer. Read how memorial and yahrzeit plaques have now moved into the digital sphere with a portable kiosk at Beit Rayim, in The CJN from 2023 . Discover how rising cost of groceries was impacting Jewish families in the Greater Toronto Area at Passover, in The CJN. **** Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer), Michael Fraiman (Director of Digital Content), 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!)

Last month, during a ceremony to award the Jerusalem Unity Prize, Israeli President Isaac Herzog greeted the audience with a warning about “a terrible process of brutalization” that has been threatening Israeli society. He singled out extremist Jewish Israelis living in the West Bank, who he called an “anarchist mob,” and whose ongoing attacks against Palestinians “defiled every moral, legal, and Jewish norm.” Herzog isn't alone in criticizing the current situation on the West Bank. Israel's military chief recently issued similar warnings, as did the Israeli defence minister. The Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called it vigilantism. Earlier this month, Canada joined several European countries in announcing a fifth round of sanctions against extremist settlers, slapping financial and travel bans on two Israelis and five groups whom Canada says are enabling Jewish settler violence. Yet the violence continues. Last year, the Israeli Defence Forces reported 867 such attacks in the West Bank. Extremists have set fires to Palestinian homes and mosques, and also near Christian sites including a church. They've destroyed orchards, stolen livestock, drained water tanks, and beaten—and even killed—Palestinian civilians. Last year, on June 29, the extremists turned against their own army: an IDF battalion clashed with a group of Jewish settlers in the West Bank, who threw stones and beat the soldiers.   One Canadian wanted to take action. Ronit Yarosky is a Montreal-based peace activist who flew to the region this month, as part of a mission of volunteers who oppose the recent escalation in attacks. For a week, she stayed with Palestinian Bedouin families' homes on the outskirts of Taybeh, a mainly Christian village near Ramallah, in the hope that her presence—together with other Jewish and Israeli peace activists—might deter attackers from setting up new illegal Jewish outposts.  Yarosky joined The CJN's North Star podcast from Taybeh to share what she's seen. We also speak with Maytal Kowalski, the executive director of JSpace Canada, from Vancouver, who has done similar volunteer work herself. Related stories: Hear Ronit Yarosky on her struggle to hold on to her friendship with a Muslim man post-October 7 on The CJN's In Good Faith podcast, from Nov. 2025. Hear more from Maytal Kowalski of JSpace Canada, when she joined The CJN's North Star podcast in May 2025 to explain why Canada brought in its first round of sanctions on Israel, over the humanitarian aid situation in Gaza. Learn more about Torat Tzedek , the Israeli NGO supported by New Israel Fund, that is sending observers such as Ronit Yarosky to provide “protective presence” to Palestinians in the West Bank who are facing home demolitions, dispossession and Israeli settler violence. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (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!)

Too often, when people talk about Jewish life in Canada, they are really talking about Jewish life in Toronto and Montreal. But the truth is more than a quarter of Jewish Canadians live outside those cities. Yes, many still live in large cities, but Jews live in mid-sized and smaller communities, from the coasts of Nanaimo, B.C., to Sydney, N.S. These communities have a different texture, richness, set of challenges, and needs than those in the largest Jewish population centres. Today on Not in Heaven, our resident rabbis talk about some of the work happening to support Jewish life and leadership in smaller communities. We'll discuss the Jewish Federation of British Columbia's Community Connector program, which partners with local Jewish leaders across the province to facilitate whatever Jewish culture looks like in their grassroots community, and the Shalom Hartman Institute's Courageous Leadership Canada Initiative, which brought together lay and professional leaders from small and mid-sized communities to study, collaborate, and reflect on common challenges. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Not in Heaven (Not sure how? Click here )

The FIFA World Cup has taken over Toronto, Vancouver and cities across the United States and Mexico. Here in Canada, its early days were marred by pro-Palestinian activists protesting Israel's membership in FIFA. Our sports podcasters ask: Do these people know Israel isn't competing in the World Cup? FIFA head Gianni Infantino, meanwhile, is once again moving in the opposite direction, pushing to create a friendly match between Israel and Palestine's under-15 teams. Both examples point to a bizarre trend: using the World Cup, a major sporting event spotlighting dozens of countries worldwide (none of which are Israel), to focus on Israel. Can we just focus on the sport, please? Meanwhile, online trolls are injecting antisemitism into yet another sport that's largely devoid of Jews. After the New York Knicks won the NBA Championship last week, a strange amount of attention is being paid to its Jewish celebrity fans and their comments (Jerry Seinfeld)—or lack of comments (Alana Haim)—about Palestine. The Menschwarmers dig into all this, plus Jalen Brunson's Jewish wife, the Carolina Hurricanes' Jewish general manager, and Belgium's Jewish-adjacent soccer goalie. Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, " Organ Grinder Swing ") Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here )

The Menschwarmers received an anonymous tip last year that a rising star in the NBA has Jewish heritage. We dug into it, and are the first to report that it is true: basketball star Chet Holmgren is ethnically Jewish. Holmgren, the seven-foot centre for the reigning league champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder, comes from a long line of deeply involved Jewish community members in Minneapolis, by way of his mother, Sarah Harris. Her father is Ray Harris, a prominent and respected developer who passed away in 2025; his celebration of life was held at Temple Israel Minneapolis, a Reform synagogue. (Ray's father—Holmgren's great-grandfather—was Leo Harris, a Polish Jewish immigrant who arrived in 1870 and wound up founding a company that dredged the Mississippi River locks.) Ray Harris's delightfully quirky obituary mentions his daughter Sarah and grandson Chet. Ray Harris's late wife, Alta Harris—Chet's maternal grandmother—passed in 2019, and her obituary also directs donations to Temple Israel. In case there was any doubt that the whole Harris clan is Jewish, Chet's maternal uncle Dan Harris (brother of Sarah, son of Ray and Alta) also explicitly calls himself Jewish in a travel blog from 2016. So there is no doubt that Chet Holmgren is ethnically, halachically Jewish. Whether or not he considers himself a member of the tribe is another question. Currently playing in the Western Conference Finals against the San Antonio Spurs, the 24-year-old is coming off a breakout season, in which he was named an All Star, Third Team All-NBA and First Team All-Defense—all for the first time in his young career. Having helped the Thunder win the championship title last year, Holmgren has found himself under an enormous spotlight fairly quickly. Being openly Jewish, or even discussing his Jewish heritage, could invite hateful backlash. Holmgren got a taste of this last summer when a video emerged online of him working out at the gym of Shalhevet High School, an Orthodox Jewish school in Los Angeles, where many NBA stars like to practice, due to its high security and premium hardwood courts. (Jayson Tatum, Joel Embiid and James Harden have all worked out there.) In the video, Holmgren is seen shooting hoops with some Israeli flags in the background, leading to an onslaught of online insults, assumptions about his political leanings, and the epithet "Chetanyahu". The CJN reached out to the Oklahoma City Thunder multiple times, but never received a response. Given's Holmgren's immense success, the Menschwarmers felt it appropriate to celebrate Holmgren's heritage, and bring some Jewish joy to fellow Jewish NBA fans watching OKC's possible road to a repeat championship. In this episode, they break down what they learned about his family tree, discuss why it's understandable that he prefers to avoid the subject—and express hope that he will embrace it publicly. Credits Hosts: James Hirsh and Gabe Pulver Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Coby Lipovitch (intro), chēēZ π (main theme, " Organ Grinder Swing ") Support The CJN Follow the podcast on Twitter @menschwarmers Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Menschwarmers (Not sure how? Click here )