Podcast appearances and mentions of michael fraiman

For the last three nights in a row, ever since Israel's military and the Mossad began the ongoing strikes on Iran's nuclear program, Maddy Eisenberg and Dave Heilbron—two Canadian tourists in the Holy Land—have been spending hours sheltering in a safe zone beneath a beachfront hotel in Tel Aviv. The two only met this week, while participating in a government-sponsored trip for Jewish LGBTQ leaders who were meant to attend Tel Aviv's famous Pride parade. That was supposed to take place on June 13—but the parade was hurriedly cancelled, and their itinerary curtailed, as news of the initial strikes broke. Since then, every time air raid sirens go off, or their phones alert them to incoming Iranian rockets and missiles, they rush down to the bomb shelter and ride out the anxious hours, together with other tourists and Israelis alike. While the death toll of Israelis killed and wounded continues to climb, and first responders try to dig out those still missing from direct hits on Bat Yam and other Israeli cities, the Pride delegates—who are required to stay within 100 metres of the hotel—are now also worrying about how they will get home, since all flights in and out of the country have been cancelled until further notice. Maddy Eisenberg, a broadcaster and communications strategist in Ottawa, and Dave Heilbron, a human resources executive and Jewish leader now living in the Netherlands, join North Star podcast host Ellin Bessner to describe what they're seeing on the ground. Related links What Global Affairs Canada is telling Canadians in Israel to do, in The CJN. Follow the IDF's official website account on “Operation Rising Lion”. How Canadian Dave Heilbron, a leader of a pro-Israel lobby organization based in Amsterdam, experienced the “pogrom” against Israeli soccer fans in his adopted country, in November 2024. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

Political observers are describing Canada's move as “unprecedented” after foreign minister Anita Anand announced on June 10 the country has joined 4 other allied nations in imposing travel and economic sanctions against two extreme-right wing, Israeli politicians for being part of West Bank settler violence against Palestinians. Canada has slapped similar sanctions on several civilian Israeli settlers three times already since 2024, accusing them of fomenting attacks on Palestinians and their villages–attacks which largely go unpunished. But the listing of Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, sitting members of a democratic, Western government that is a long-time ally of Canada, is being seen as an important diplomatic “signalling its extreme displeasure with the Israeli government”. Smotrich is Israel's current finance minister, while Ben Gvir is in charge of national security. Both men live in settlements on the West Bank, and both have made highly controversial remarks about Palestinians, about wanting to annex the West Bank and Gaza for Israel, even that there is no such thing as a Palestinian people. The International Court of Justice is now hearing a case about incitement to genocide because of some of these remarks. While progressive Jewish leaders in Canada have praised the sanctions on the two men, in practise, experts say Canada rarely enforces them. To explain the strategy behind Canada's team approach to the new sanctions on Israeli politicians and what message they're meant to send, on today's episode of North Star, host Ellin Bessner speaks with Thomas Juneau. He is a professor of political science and an expert in Middle East studies at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa. Related links How Canada, France and the U.K. rebuked Israel's renewed military campaign in Gaza and threatened sanctions about expanding settlements, on May 19, in a joint statement. How Canadian Jewish leaders express concerns about Carney's threat of sanctions on Israel. Here is Canada's announcement of sanctions against extremist settlers, published June 10 2025. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

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

Now into their third week as officially-sworn in members of Canada's 45th Parliament, newly elected Conservative MPs Tamara Kronis and Roman Baber are getting used to their new seats in the backbenches of the House of Commons. They have plenty in common: both trained as lawyers, grew up in Toronto, and, in the 2025 federal election, managed to flip their ridings blue for the first time in a decade. And on top of all that, both are the offspring of Jewish immigrant families, although Baber's Canadian passport is much more recent. This is Kronis's first time in political office, although she ran unsuccessfully for the Tories in the same Vancouver Island riding of Nanaimo—Ladysmith in the 2021 election. She comes from a prominent Conservative political family: her late father, Jules, was a party operative dating back to the days of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker. Roman Baber represented the heavily Jewish Toronto riding of York Centre provincially from 2018 to 2022, during the first Doug Ford government in Ontario. Before throwing his hat into the ring federally, he ran unsuccessfully for the federal Conservative leadership, losing to his current boss, Pierre Poilievre. With Parliament having resumed May 26, these two newcomers have been learning the ropes of their new roles while navigating some historic moments. They met King Charles during his recent visit and dove headfirst into speaking up about housing affordability, the national drug-overdose crisis and important Jewish issues including antisemitism and the recent desecration of the national Holocaust monument. On today's episode of North Star (formerly The CJN Daily), Tamara Kronis and Roman Baber join to share what their first whirlwind weeks have been like. Related links Read more about Roman Baber's political career, including running for the leadership of the federal Conservative party in the election which Pierre Poilievre ultimately won in 2022 Hear Tamara Kronis explaining the International Court of Justice's 2024 hearing brought by South Africa against Israel for genocide. How the April 28, 202 federal election brought longtime Conservative politician Roman Baber and candidate Tamara Kronis to Ottawa, this time as rookie Opposition MPs. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

For five weeks after Oct. 7, 2023, the two sons of Canadian Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver thought she was among the hostages from Kibbutz Be'eri who had been kidnapped into Gaza by Hamas terrorists. But after her house was destroyed that day, and they received no further word about her fate, her sons Chen, an archeologist based in Connecticut, and Yonatan, an Israeli social worker, threw themselves into campaigning for their mother's release, while also channelling her spirit in advocating for a non-violent solution to the war. In late November 2023, Israeli forensic experts notified Silver's family that her remains had been identified in the rubble of her burned-out kibbutz neighbourhood. She had been killed on the first day of the attack. Growing up, they had watched their mother's tireless efforts to build bridges between Jews and Palestinians, while they pursued their own, different lives and career paths. Now, as the two-year anniversary of their mother's murder approaches, Vivian Silver's sons are still mourning their mother, but also curating her legacy as “Vivian”, an internationally-renowned political anti-war symbol. On today's episode of The CJN's newly-rebranded North Star podcast (formerly The CJN Daily), host Ellin Bessner sits down with Chen and Yonatan Zeigen to explore how having a purpose helps with their grief, rather than seeking vengeance for past trauma. Related links Read more about the sons of the late Vivian Silver, fresh from their June 4 Toronto fundraiser/celebration of their mother's life, in The CJN. To learn about the Vivian Silver Impact award and to donate. Hear how Silver's family and friends gathered in November 2023 in Israel for her private funeral and then for a separate public memorial service, on The CJN Daily. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

Two years and eight months into her term on the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth, a high-profile advocate for the Jewish community and other marginalized groups, announced her resignation during a school board meeting on June 3. She was the only Jewish trustee on the school board. Kaplan-Myrth's tenure has been challenging, to say the least. When she advocated for mandatory masking during the COVID pandemic, she received countless antisemitic insults—even death threats—via social media and email, for which the police did lay charges against some of her critics. The school board has tried to censure her several times, prevented her from coming to meetings or speaking, and she has been in a running battle with a rival trustee over what she considers was racism against her because she is a white, Jewish Israeli-Canadian. But things came to a head recently after an email campaign by the National Council of Canadian Muslims to the board, accusing her of anti-Palestinian racism. Kaplan-Myrth said the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board is so “toxic” and “dysfunctional” that she had to quit, for her own mental health and for the safety of her family. She joins Ellin Bessner of The CJN Daily to explain how she hopes her resignation is a wake-up call to what's going on in school boards across North America—and why her problems may not be over. Related links Watch Dr. Nili-Kaplan Myrth's resignation speech at the June 3, 2025 OCDSB meeting: she begins at the 4 hour mark. Learn about the disgusting threats sent by an Ontario man to Dr. Nili Kaplan Myrth that resulted in his recent conviction in 2025, in The CJN. Hear a previous interview with Dr. Kaplan-Myrth when she was initially sanctioned by the Ottawa public school board in 2024, on The CJN Daily.  Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

While Israel's government is still engaged externally in a nearly 19-month long war with Hamas in Gaza, crucial elections are underway for Jews around the world–including beginning June 5, for Canada–for control of Israel's four main national Zionist bodies: the Keren Kayemeth/Jewish National Fund, the Jewish Agency for Israel, the Keren HaYesod/United Israel Appeal, and the World Zionist Organization. These historic non-governmental institutions take direction from the World Zionist Congress, based in Jerusalem, and described by founder Theodore Herzl over a century ago as the unofficial “Parliament of the Jewish People”. This election will choose the 500+ official Congress members for a five-year term, which begins this fall. Organizers say there is much at stake. This election is being described as a battle for the soul of Israel, as it pits centrist and progressive Jewish slates against an increasingly powerful coalition of Orthodox and Haredi groups, who are campaigning for Torah values including supporting more settlement building on the West Bank. The Zionist Congress controls not only the policies but who gets appointed to run these major Israeli agencies, and, as a result, where and how their multi-billion dollar budgets are spent. (A tiny fraction of the money comes back to Canada to fund Zionist programming here.) While Israel and the United States are allocated most of the seats, the rest of the Jewish Diaspora including Canada makes up the rest. Canadian Jews are being asked to vote until June 15 through an online ballot. So who is running in Canada's WJC elections this month? And how can you cast your vote? On today's episode of The CJN Daily, host Ellin Bessner speaks with vote organizer Stan Greenspan, the president of the Canadian Zionist Federation, and himself a candidate. Plus you'll meet candidates Jacob Kates Rose with the progressive Hatikvah Canada slate, and also Dr. Yizhar Hess, a high-ranking Jerusalem-based diplomat who came to Canada recently to drum up support for his slate known as Mercaz-Canada, which represents Conservative-Masorti Jewish values. Related links How Canadian Jews can vote in the WZO's elections from June 5-15, 2025.  What is the World Zionist Congress anyway? Read Ron Csillag's 2020 feature in The CJN. Why the American Jewish community was split over voting in the WZO elections, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

On the evening of June 1, a synagogue in Mississauga, Ont., will officially welcome nine new members of the Jewish faith, during Shavuot services. The conversion candidates have been studying for months, having undergone ritual baths and—in some cases—symbolic circumcisions, all to join the Tribe. The timing of the ceremony for these “Jews by choice” harkens back to the Biblical story we read on Shavuot about Ruth, a Moabite woman who joined the Israelites through marriage, and whose descendants included King David and Jesus Christ. For months, Canadian rabbis of all denominations have been reporting heightened levels of interest in conversions. Some candidates are looking to commit for their Jewish spouse; others proceeded solo on their own spiritual journeys. However, one thing many had in common: Oct. 7 has a lot to do with it. Why would anyone want to become Jewish, you ask, when antisemitism and anti-Zionism are becoming increasingly mainstream? We get answers on today's episode of The CJN Daily. Rabbis Taylor Baruchel of Holy Blossom Temple, the largest Reform congregation in Canada, and Stephen Wise, the spiritual leader of Shaarei-Beth El Congregation, in Oakville, join to explain the phenomenon. Related links Meet three Canadians who converted to Judaism after Oct. 7, despite everything, on The CJN Daily. Why Alexandria Fanjoy Silver converted twice, on The CJN Daily. Read more from Emily Caruso Parnell about the conversion process she underwent from both Orthodox and Reform pathways, in The CJN archives. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

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

Vitaly Beckman, a Vancouver-based illusionist, recently accomplished something only four other performers have ever done: stump famed American magicians Penn and Teller with an illusion… for the third time. Beckman wowed the legendary duo in an episode of their long-running reality TV series, Penn & Teller: Fool Us, at the Las Vegas theatre bearing their name. They awarded him a trophy before inviting him back to perform on April 26 as the closing act for their own live show. Beckman has been pursing magic and illusion for nearly three decades, ever since he got hooked by watching David Copperfield on his parents' television while growing up in Haifa. But like many Jewish immigrant families, his Soviet-born parents wanted their son to go into a more stable and respectable profession, so Beckman did a mechanical engineering degree at the Technion, Israel's university specializing in science and engineering, before coming to Canada and pursuing his passion for fine art, painting and illusion. And after performances in Times Square and off-Broadway—including a benefit for Ukrainian Jewish orphans with Sylvester Stallone—Beckman is back home in Canada these days, testing out some new material. As he tells Ellin Bessner on The CJN Daily, illusion and magic may be just the thing to help heal divisions and strife during our turbulent times. Related links Watch the March 28, 2025 Penn & Teller: Fool Us episode where Vancouver's Vitaly Beckman won for the 3rd time in a decade. Check out Vitaly' Beckman's website for news and future tour dates, and bookings. Learn how two Toronto Jewish magicians Ben Train and Jonah Babins pivoted during the pandemic to entertain their audiences online, on The CJN Daily. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

Last year, the 2024 UJA Walk With Israel was tinged with pain, coming just months after the Oct. 7 massacres and being marred by intimidating anti-Israel protesters. But participants at this year's event, held on May 25, felt a strong sense of Jewish pride and confidence, and refused to allow protesters to spoil the day—raising $1.4 million along the way, $200,000 more than last year. The 56th annual fundraiser was held under heavy security, coming just four days after a gunman, yelling “Free Palestine,” shot two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C. With that news still fresh in people's minds, thousands of police and security officers were on hand, officials told The CJN, and there were noticeably fewer protesters than the year before—just one arrest, compared to six arrests in 2024. Toronto police arrested one man at the event, charging him with mischief and causing a disturbance, after he was heard hurling antisemitic threats. But while the event went off mostly smoothly, attendees questioned why the police created “designated protest areas” on both sides of the last major intersection before the finish line, forcing the record-breaking 56,000 participants to pass through a gauntlet of pro-Pro-Palestinian yells and chants, along with smoke bombs. The CJN Daily‘s host Ellin Bessner brought her microphone and managed to stay dry despite the torrential downpour that drenched participants at the afterparty. On today's episode, you'll hear from Omri Kohavi, a survivor of the Nova music festival and Ilan Faktor, a music producer; Jesse Brown, who brought the Nova exhibition to Toronto; Rabbi Michael Dolgin of Temple Sinai, whose synagogue hosted the starting line for the walk; newly-elected Conservative MP for York Centre, Roman Baber; Steven Del Duca, the mayor of Vaughan; Melissa Lantsman, the deputy Conservative leader and re-elected MP for Thornhill; Matthew Taub, a community advocate; and Toronto city councillor Shelley Carroll, who chairs the city's Police Service Board. Related links Read how the City of Toronto's bubble legislation will keep protests 50 metres away from Jewish buildings, and come into force on July 2, in The CJN. Learn more about the exhibit about the Nova music festival now showing in Toronto until June 8, in The CJN. Learn more about the Tribe of Nova Foundation, which helps survivors and bereaved families of Nova victims. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

It's been a tumultuous week in diplomatic relations between Israel and Canada. The most shocking news, of course, has been the recent murder of two Israeli embassy staff members in Washington, D.C., who were gunned down on May 21 by a man calling for “Free Palestine”. Amid the international condemnations, Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was “devastated and appalled” by the attack, calling it “a violent act of antisemitism.” But even before that incident, Carney was making news in Israel. Canada joined France and the United Kingdom in threatening sanctions against the Jewish State over the West Bank, and "actions" if it did not stop the renewed war in Gaza and begin allowing aid into Gaza. Carney's new minister of foreign affairs, Anita Anand, made similar condemnations. And while Israel did begin allowing aid trucks into the Gaza Strip, hours after the joint statement, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a rare press conference and openly promoted American president Donald Trump's plan to push Palestinians out of Gaza and take complete control of the strip. And in the midst of all this, members of the Israel Defense Forces fired warning shots near a group of foreign diplomats—including two Canadians—in the West Bank city of Jenin. As a result, Anand formally “summoned” Israel's ambassador to Canada for a meeting on May 21. If you can't keep all the chaos straight, we don't blame you. That's why The CJN Daily host Ellin Bessner wanted to sit down with Artur Wilczynski, a former Canadian ambassador and diplomat—and a veteran security and intelligence expert—to help make sense of what feels like one of the most dangerous political weeks in recent memory. Carney's new government has put its foot down against Israel, punching above its weight on the international stage. What should we make of this? What concerns should Canadian Jews have about Israel and Canada's longstanding friendship? Related links Hear Israel's ambassador to Canada, Iddo Moed discuss the newly-strained relations between his country and Canada, on The CJN Daily from earlier this week. Read a timeline of Canada-Israel diplomatic relations, in The CJN. Why former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper became one of Israel's staunchest supporters, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

While many Canadians were enjoying a long weekend for Victoria Day, Canada's new Liberal government issued what many observers feel is this country's strongest criticism since Oct. 7, 2023, of how the Israeli government is carrying out its military operations in Gaza. Canada joined the leaders of the United Kingdom and France in issuing a joint statement on May 19 demanding Israel immediately stop its renewed assaults on Gaza and allow in significantly more humanitarian aid. If Israel fails to comply, the three Western allies say they will take “concrete action”, possibly imposing targeted sanctions, although they were not specific in the threat. The communique deplores Israel's “unacceptable” denial of aid to Palestinians in Gaza since March, when the Netanyahu government stopped allowing trucks in as a way to pressure Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages, living and dead. The leaders also slammed some Israeli politicians who have been encouraging Palestinians to relocate from Gaza. Israel says it allowed nine trucks to cross into Gaza on May 19, and 93 others went in the following day, carrying baby food, flour and medical supplies. But the United Nations says that amount is merely a drop in the bucket for what's needed to help nearly two million Palestinians in the war-ravaged zone. On today's episode of The CJN Daily, we analyze what's behind Prime Minister Mark Carney's government's first major diplomatic moves on the Middle East crisis. Iddo Moed, Israel's ambassador to Canada, and Maytal Kowalski, executive director of JSpace Canada—an organization that is welcoming the strongly worded Canadian move—both weigh in with their perspectives. What we talked about: Read Canada's joint statement with France and the U.K. on May 19 rebuking Israel's “egregious” military escalation in Gaza. Read what Prime Minister Mark Carney told Israel's president Isaac Herzog about releasing the hostages, Hamas having no role in Gaza, and boosting humanitarian aid when the two men met while at the Vatican on May 18, 2025. Why the JSpace Canada organization launched a letter writing campaign to thank Prime Minister Mark Carney for his “principled leadership” after the rebuke of Israel. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

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

Tilda Roll usually carries a can of coyote repellent with her when she walks around her neighbourhood in Vaughan, Ont. But ever since she was the target of an antisemitic incident while leaving her synagogue after Shabbat services on Jan. 6, 2024, the lawyer says she has been more afraid of running into the antisemitic attacker again, since he lives in her neighbourhood. At the time, police quickly located the suspect, and charged him with a couple of assaults—spitting on Roll and her husband, hurling Nazi threats at them and making the Heil Hitler salute—and breach of probation. After a three-day trial this March, the man was convicted, but was not held in custody. Earlier this week, on May 13, an Ontario judge sentenced Kenneth Gobin, 35, to a year in prison, with two more years of probation tacked on due to his lengthy criminal record. With the man now off the streets, Roll says she can finally begin to process what happened, including how anxious and angry the incident made her. On today's episode of The CJN Daily, Tilda Roll explains how she hopes her court fight will encourage Jewish Canadians to fight back against rampant antisemitism. Related links Read the judge's sentencing report sending Kenneth Gobin to prison for 12 months for two counts of assault and one of breach of probation. Why Jews are still the target of the most religious-based hate crimes in Toronto in 2024, in The CJN. A Quebec man who posted swastikas in his town was found guilty and fined $7,000, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

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

A report from city staff is expected to be released May 14 on whether Toronto should adopt a new “bubble” bylaw that would help protect Jewish buildings from raucous, sometimes violent, anti-Israel and antisemitic protests. The bill would cover all vulnerable communities and faith-based groups, but Jews are the ones most often targeted by hate crimes. The decision marks one of two upcoming key tests for the city's mayor, Olivia Chow, as she tries to strengthen her relationship with the city's Jewish community. The other? The 2025 UJA Walk With Israel. At a recent gathering for Jewish leaders during Passover at Toronto City Hall, Chow said that “Jewish people must feel safe” in the city. She explained why it has taken the city a long time to study the feasibility of passing such a bubble bylaw, and told _The CJN Daily _ that it would help things at the local level if Prime Minister Mark Carney keeps his campaign promise to pass similar legislation at the federal level. Meanwhile, many people are wondering whether Chow will attend the UJA Walk With Israel on May 25. While the mayor has been invited, she did not attend in 2023 or 2024. Her office told _The CJN Daily _that Chow's schedule for May has not been finalized. On today's episode, we speak to Mayor Olivia Chow, and we hear from some Jewish leaders about what they are looking for from the mayor: City Councillor James Pasternak; CIJA's chair, Elan Pratzer; and Michael Gilmore, the executive director of Kehillat Shaarei Torah synagogue, which has been vandalized more than a half-dozen times. Related links Read more about Mayor Olivia Chow's relationship with the Jewish community in The CJN from 2024. Hear why Toronto city council deferred bringing in a draft bylaw to protect Jewish buildings in December 2024, on The CJN Daily. Learn more about how Mayor Olivia Chow voted to defer “bubble legislation” bylaw last May 2024 back to city staff for a report, in The CJN. In 2024, The CJN's Doorstep Postings columnist Josh Lieblein advised the Jewish community not to work so hard to seek a better relationship with Olivia Chow. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

Sammy and Leo Marcus, of Winnipeg, have turned their own sensitivities to the startlingly loud automatic toilets in public washrooms, into a prize-winning science project that's shedding a light on the plight of young kids and also people who wear hearing aids. The teens, who are 13 year old twins, measured hundreds of devices in hundreds of bathrooms across the Manitoba capitol, to document just how loud are those whirring automatic hand driers, the paper towel dispensers, the urinals and the hands-free flushing toilets. They found that not only do these noises cause anxiety, but also often blow past the acceptable legal noise levels that can lead to hearing damage, over a sustained period of time, and require ear protection, especially for janitors and others who work in bathrooms. Curiously, they found that of all the buildings in their survey, the Jewish ones have the quietest restrooms. Their scientific research just won the duo top prize for their age category in Winnipeg's city-wide annual science fair. They call their project The Royal Flush. And while the research has ended, for now, the hope is their work will prompt real change in how bathrooms are designed–not just for maximum hygiene, but also keeping hearing safety in mind. On this episode of The CJN Daily, Sammy and Leo Marcus join to reveal the best and the worst of their findings, and how they coped with strange looks, strict librarians, and grungy stalls. Related links Read more about the Winnipeg Schools' Science Fair where the Marcus teens presented alongside 130 other projects. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

Since Oct. 7, 2023, many progressive Canadian Jews have found themselves increasingly unwelcome by mainstream community members and organizations. But instead of keeping quiet, they have, over the past nearly two years, created their own spaces to have open and honest dialogues about Israel-Palestine, and their own relationship to Judaism. Recently, hundreds of these progressive Jews gathered for a series of peace summits in Toronto and Montreal, with smaller gatherings in Ottawa, Winnipeg, London and Vancouver. These coincided with a larger peace conference in Jerusalem now underway May 8-9, called It's Time, helmed by Israeli and Palestinian peace activists, including the granddaughter of Shimon Peres. The Toronto summit was organized under the auspices of Toronto Friends of Standing Together, an Israeli charity working to bridge the divide between all peoples living in Israel, and more immediately to stop the cycle of grief and violence preventing a peaceful co-existence when the war ends for good. On today's episode of The CJN Daily, hear what happened when host Ellin Bessner visited the conference—what the speakers and attendees had to say. You'll hear from Jeff Carolin, a criminal lawyer and dispute mediator who, after Oct. 7, started hosting regular meetings for progressive Jews in his living room; and siblings Noam and Ido Citrin, a pair of university students who are building new connections and having difficult conversations in unexpected places. Related links Learn more about the It's Time peace summit in Jerusalem. Read how the Israeli NGO "Standing Together" has launched several chapters in Canada beginning in 2024, in The CJN. Listen to The CJN Daily interview with Yafa Sakkehja, a Canadian entrepreneur of Palestinian original, member of Standing Together Toronto, who organized the Canada Peace Summit on April 24. You can watch the recording of the Canada Peace Summit on YouTube. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

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

Just in time for Jewish Heritage Month, the team behind the iconic Heritage Minutes—60-second short films about notable Canadians throughout history—is spotlighting Bora Laskin, the first Jewish justice appointed to the country's Supreme Court. Laskin became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court soon after. He served from 1970 until his untimely death from pneumonia in 1984 at the age of 71. The son of Jewish immigrants to Fort William (now Thunder Bay) in Northern Ontario, Laskin was a gold-medal law student in Toronto during the 1930s. With widespread antisemitism in the profession in those days, it was challenging for Laskin to find an articling position, which he ultimately did—with a Jewish firm. Laskin then went on to complete multiple degrees, including from Harvard. After nearly two decades teaching law at the newly founded U of T law school–where the library now bears his name-Laskin was appointed to the provincial court in Ontario, where he developed a reputation as a champion of the labour movement. After former prime minister Pierre Trudeau appointed Laskin to the Supreme Court, Laskin's judgments led to patriating the Canadian Constitution, enshrining the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and equalizing women's marital property rights. This new minute-long short film stars veteran Canadian Jewish actor Victor Garber, who was reportedly eager to take on the role due to his own heritage. It will be broadcast on more than 70 television stations and also online beginning May 7. On today's episode of The CJN Daily, we're joined by Sam Rosenthal, one of the creative team members behind the project, who explains the drive and meaning behind the project. Shelley Laskin, his niece and a Toronto school board trustee, also joins. Related links Watch the Bora Laskin new Heritage Minute by Historica Canada on YouTube beginning May 8. Learn more about Bora Laskin, in The CJN. Read more in The Canadian Encyclopedia. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Marc Weisblott (editorial director) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

About 200 Canadian students, their chaperones and nearly a dozen Holocaust survivors were going through airport security at Ben Gurion International when they heard the blast. It happened on Sunday May 4, as the group was returning from a March of the Living trip–which took them to Poland and Israel–when a Houthi missile launched by Islamic terrorists from Yemen evaded Israel's air defences and exploded on the airport's access road. The Canadian group, along with thousands of other travellers, were ordered to scramble into safe areas or bomb shelters inside the airport until authorities gave the all-clear about a half-hour later. While eight people were taken to hospitals in Israel, none of the Canadians was injured. Many international airlines have cancelled or suspended flights for coming days. The March of the Living group used charters to reach Warsaw, then boarded a LOT Dreamliner aircraft, which landed in Toronto on Sunday night. The Houthi attack came after a tumultuous trip for the group, who had experienced the country's biggest wildfire, which burned the forests between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem before Israel's Independence Day on May 1. On top of that, the Iran-backed forces in Yemen have been escalating their ballistic missile attacks. Sunday's hypersonic missile was the only one the IDF failed to intercept, leaving a significant crater in the airport roadway and damaging part of Terminal 3. On today's episode of The CJN Daily, we hear from anxious March of the Living parents Jasmine Albagli of Ottawa; Mark Diamond and his wife Sharon, also from Ottawa; and Adam Cohen of Toronto. Aviva Klompas also joins: the Toronto-born author and Israel advocate, also happened to be at Ben Gurion airport when the attack struck. What we talked about: Hear how anti-Israel protestors at Auschwitz tried to spoil the 2024 annual March of the Living while one Edmonton family showed resilience, on The CJN Daily. Read why fewer participants joined the 2024 March of the Living since it was the first after October. 7, and how the itinerary changed, in The CJN. Read about the 2023 March of the Living when the late Alex Buckman, a Vancouver Holocaust educator, accompanied the trip, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Marc Weisblott (editorial director) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

Friday May 2 has been declared an official day of remembrance and mourning in British Columbia after last weekend's horrific attack on a Filipino cultural festival in Vancouver. To date, 11 people died and dozens more remain wounded after a 30-year-old man drove an SUV into a crowd at the city's Lapu Lapu festival on April 26. The suspect has been charged with multiple counts of second-degree murder, but the investigation continues. Leaders of the Filipino community say they feel deeply touched by the heartfelt outreach and solidarity being shown by Canadian Jewish groups. In Vancouver, Jewish residents have mounted prayer vigils and also set up an emergency fundraising campaign. The outpouring of support is being described as an example of kapwa, the Filipino tradition of solidarity and unity, as that community processes the grief while seeking answers on how the mental health system failed so badly to prevent the massacre. On today's episode of The CJN Daily, we're joined by two members of Canada's Filipino community, who also share deep ties with the country's Jews: David Decolongon, who works in Vancouver for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), has family and friends who attended the festival and witnessed the horrific attack; and Primrose Madayag Knazan, from Winnipeg, is an award-winning Filipinx-Jewish author and playwright with expertise on how the Philippines helped rescue European Jews during the Holocaust. Related links Where to donate through the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver's  Filipino Community Emergency Support Fund. When Canadian Jews fundraised in 2013 to help disaster relief efforts in the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan struck the country, in The CJN. When the Philippines rescued 1,200 European Jews during the Holocaust, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Marc Weisblott (editorial director) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

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

It will be a very different kind of Yom ha-Zikaron in Israel for the family of Ben Brown. In July 2024, a Hezbollah rocket injured the 20-year-old from Thornhill, Ont., while he was on duty with the Israel Defense Forces' Golani army unit at a strategic base overlooking the Lebanese border. No one else was hurt, or killed. Now, as the Jewish State remembers more than 25,000 soldiers and also victims of terrorism who've fallen throughout Israel's history, Brown's family is commemorating in their own way—on the ground in Israel, where there son is still in hospital. Brown has spent months receiving treatment, after being in a coma, with a traumatic brain injury. The former yeshiva student is out of danger now, but he still receives hours of daily therapy. His family and friends keep a constant vigil, as he cannot yet speak properly for long, or walk distances unassisted. Despite a controversial progressive media website publicly listing Ben Brown among 85 Canadians who've served in the IDF over the years, Brown's family says they're not focusing on the unwanted negative attention. Instead, the family is marking Israel's Memorial Day together in Israel, and plan to attend local events—including the 77th anniversary of Israel's independence the following day. They want Canadians back home to understand why their son felt he had to defend the Jewish State—especially after Oct. 7. On today's The CJN Daily, Ben Brown's father, Jeffrey Brown, joins from Israel to explain. Related links Read more about Ben Brown's injury after Oct. 7, in The CJN. Hear how the Jewish community in Toronto came together to support Ben Brown's family through prayer, on The CJN Daily. Why those Canadians who served in the IDF and were on a new list published by an anti-Israel paper are fighting mad, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Marc Weisblott (editorial director) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

It's Election Day in Canada. By last count, there are at least 26 Jewish candidates running in the 2025 federal election for all major parties, including the Conservatives (10), Liberals (7), NDP (5), People's Party of Canada (2), Green (2). Despite polls pointing to a Liberal victory, several Jewish candidates are running in ridings deemed too close to call. On today's show, we're zooming into a few of those ridings, to take a better look at what the issues are on the ground. In Mount Royal, incumbent Anthony Housefather has been fending off attacks about his party's perceived anti-Israel stance from new challenger Neil Oberman; in Toronto–St. Paul's, Conservative Don Stewart won a tight by-election less than a year ago, but may lose if the longtime Liberal stronghold returns red. To talk about those ridings and others—including races to watch in Winnipeg, York Centre, Outremont, Davenport, Thornhill, Eglinton-Lawrence, Toronto Centre and elsewhere—we'll hear from two reporters with The CJN. Joel Ceausu is our Montreal correspondent, and Jonathan Rothman has been reporting from Toronto. Both join The CJN Daily for an election-day preview of what are the issues at stake. Related links The CJN's Jonathan Rothman takes the temperature of Jewish voters across Canada ahead of the April 28 federal election. The CJN's Joel Ceausu reports from the riding of Mount Royal where incumbent Anthony Housefather faces off against Neil Oberman for the Conservatives. Lila Sarick reports on York Centre, in The CJN. Phoebe Maltz-Bovy on why she voted Liberal, in The CJN. What's at stake in Winnipeg, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Marc Weisblott (editorial director) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

With just a few days left in Canada's federal election campaign, U.S. president Donald Trump has once again inserted himself onto the ballot question: the American leader repeated on Wednesday that Canada would “cease to exist” without the United States. Trump also threatened to further increase tariffs on Canadian cars and auto parts. The sabre-rattling about Canada's future, on economic independence and our status on the world stage should be top of mind for voters in Monday's election, says Alan Kessel. And he would know: Kessel has spent more than 40 years as one of the Canadian government's most senior legal advisors and diplomats. Kessel, of Ottawa, recently retired from the public service, leaving him to speak more freely about some of the critical international files he's handled, and what's at stake, especially the North American free trade agreement Canada signed in 2018 with the U.S. and Mexico—which Trump now wants to blow up. Kessel also worked on cases involving Israel that were brought to the United Nations' International Court of Justice, and to the nearby Criminal Court, which recently issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On today's episode of The CJN Daily, Alan Kessel joins to discuss why Trump's trade war on Canada is illegal, what Canada's next leader should do about it, and what's behind the recent Liberal government's completely different approaches when it comes to supporting Ukraine, but not Israel. Related links Read more about the impact of Trump's tariff trade war on Canadian Jewish business owners, in The CJN What Canadian leaders think about the ICJ's ruling on Israel's conduct in Gaza, in January 2024, in The CJN. Why rising antisemitism is convincing some Canadian Jews to vote Conservative this election. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Marc Weisblott (editorial director) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

Eighty years after a Holocaust survivor from Canada saved a wounded, young Jewish orphan by hiding him in his crawl space underneath a washroom in Warsaw, a ceremony in Israel this week will honour the late Peter Jablonski's wartime heroism. But it won't be part of the official annual state Yom HaShoah ceremony run by Yad Vashem, the organization in charge of Holocaust Remembrance for the State of Israel. They confer Righteous Among the Nations medals only to non-Jews, not to ordinary Jews. They do spotlight Jews who saved Jews, especially Jewish partisans and resistance fighters, in their museum and education programs. Instead, Jablonski's courage for rescuing that young boy, Walter Saltzberg of Winnipeg, and a handful of others, will be honoured by B'nai Brith International and the KKL/Jewish National Fund at a gathering Thursday April 24 in the Martyrs' Forest in Jerusalem. The two groups created the event decades ago to honour Jews who rescued Jews, and they have been campaigning ever since for Yad Vashem to change its policy. Jablonski was 23 when he rescued Walter Saltzberg, who was just 13 at the time–and was badly injured by falling German bombs that destroyed the pair's first hiding place. Jablonski treated the boy's injuries, protected him from other hidden Jews who wanted to kill the boy when his moans risked giving their new location away to the Nazis. After five months, they were liberated, in 1945. Jablonski helped arrange surgery for Saltzberg to fix his deformed leg, and eventually Saltzberg was able to leave Poland for his new home in Canada, where as luck would have it, the two survivors reunited decades later. On today's The CJN Daily, we speak to the late Walter Saltzberg's son, George Saltzberg, of Toronto, who is in Israel now where his late father's rescuer will posthumously receive the Jewish Rescuers' Citation. He joins to explain why he's made it his mission to ensure Jablonski's selfless acts aren't forgotten. Related links Watch the B'nai Brith International/KKL-JNF ceremony honouring the heroism of the late Peter Jablonski live from Israel on Thursday April 24, 2025. Read more about Peter Jablonski's Holocaust story, and buy the book written by the young cousin he also saved, George Mandelbaum. Watch the Yad Vashem Yom HaShoah national ceremony live broadcast from Israel on Wednesday April 23, 2025. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Marc Weisblott (editorial director) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

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

With just a week left in the 2025 federal election, it remains unclear which way Jewish voters will lean. Will they give stock to the parties' promises on the economy, housing and sovereignty? Or will they be single-issue voters and focus on security within their own community? And how will they decide which party's stance is more aligned with their views on Israel and the ongoing conflict with Hamas? Although Canadian Jews make up just one percent of the population, surprisingly, all the main federal party leaders have made promises about these very issues, including during both of last week's nationally televised debates. While many polls are predicting a Liberal majority government, the members of The CJN Daily‘s political panel are not unanimous in their prognostications. On today's episode, we assemble David Birnbaum, is a former Liberal member of the Quebec National Assembly; Emma Cunningham, a former NDP riding executive in Pickering, Ont., who now serves as a school board trustee east of Toronto; and Dan Mader, a Conservative party strategist with Loyalist Public Affairs in Toronto, who also volunteers for CJPAC, the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee. Related links The CJN's Jonathan Rothman takes the temperature of Jewish voters across Canada ahead of the April 28 federal election. The CJN's Joel Ceausu reports from the riding of Mount Royal where incumbent Anthony Housefather faces off against Neil Oberman for the Conservatives. Get The CJN political columnist Josh Liebleine's Passover take on the election campaign, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Marc Weisblott (editorial director) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

Fresh from a hectic Passover weekend of assisting in conducting services at his Beth Sholom Synagogue in Toronto, and also leading a community seder there, Rabbi Louis J. Sachs says he has been trying to ignore the “noise” of the surprise lawsuit brought against him late last month by his previous congregation. Sachs' former synagogue, Beth Torah congregation–about a ten-minute drive north from his new job–filed a lawsuit March 27 in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice alleging breach of contact and suffering financial losses from their former rabbi's conduct before he moved. Beth Torah wants the court to award them $750,000 in damages, including future lost membership. While none of these allegations have been proven in court, Rabbi Sachs insists he disagrees with what Beth Torah is saying about him–that he violated his contract by slacking off on his duties for them, while doing a series of events for the new shul before officially leaving his old one. In his view, he gave Beth Torah plenty of notice. He left after a little more than two years because he says he was unsatisfied he had to do so much administration work: the new place has more staff, which would allow him to focus on carrying out the rabbinical and pastoral work for which he was trained. Sachs joins The CJN Daily's Ellin Bessner today to explain why he intends to “clear his name” in court and what his message is to both congregations. Also on the episode, we hear from Beth Sholom's president Margaret Lindzon and from Rabbi Avi Finegold, The CJN's resident rabbi, on why rabbis leave. Beth Torah declined to do any interviews with The CJN. Related links Read Beth Torah's allegations in the lawsuit filed March 27, 2025 in the Superior Court of Justice, and what Beth Shalom and our resident Rabbi Avi Finegold think, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Marc Weisblott (editorial director) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

Eighty years ago, on April 15, 1945, the notorious Nazi death camp Bergen-Belsen, in Germany, was liberated by Allied troops. To their horror, British artillery crews discovered about 60,000 starving and deathly ill survivors, as well as 10,000 corpses lying, unburied, on the ground. It was a sight and smell that the late Jack Marcovitch never forgot. The Ottawa veteran had only turned 22 when he arrived there as an army private in the closing weeks of the Second World War. His family believes he played a role in one the war's most iconic scenes: the arrest of Bergen-Belsen's commandant, Josef Kramer, notoriously dubbed "The Beast of Belsen". Marcovitch rarely spoke about his experiences at Bergen-Belsen, where Anne Frank had died of typhus just a few months earlier. Now, on the milestone anniversary of the camp's liberation, Marcovitch's daughters—Linda Eisenberg and Gloria Borts—join The CJN Daily to share what their father brought home with him and how the trauma marked him for life. Related links Watch Jack Marcovitch at Bergen Belsen on an old CBC interview. Learn about some of the Canadians who survived Bergen-Belsen including the late Cantor Moshe Kraus of Ottawa, Learn about some of the Canadian soldiers who helped the survivors of Bergen-Belsen, on the Veterans Affairs Canada website, as well as about Bernie Delson, and Sol Goldberg. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Andrea Varsany (producer),Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Marc Weisblott (editorial director) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

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

Just in time for Passover, Fern Levitt has a message of freedom for Canadian audiences—about elephants. On April 11, her new documentary, Lucy: The Stolen Lives of Elephants, will begin streaming nationwide on CBC Gem. The film casts a harsh spotlight on nearly two dozen elephants owned by parks and zoos in Canada, most notably Lucy, of the Edmonton Valley Zoo, whom protesters have called to be released in recent years due to her age and declining health. To make this film, Levitt spent three years reporting on what she and others believe are irrefutable animal rights abuses. And it isn't the first time she's done it: her last film focused on the mistreatment of sled dogs in Alaska's iconic Iditarod race. After learning that some sled dogs were gassed to death, she couldn't help but draw comparisons to the Holocaust, which had been a previous artistic focus of hers. On today's episode of The CJN Daily, Levitt joins Ellin Bessner to explain why she went undercover to document the treatment of elephants around the world, including Lucy and the approximately 20 living at Ontario's African Lion Safari—whose management she says has since threatened to sue her. Related links Watch the documentary “Lucy: The Stolen Lives of Elephants”, on CBC Gem, beginning April 11. Learn more about the volunteers lobbying for Lucy's freedom, on their website Leap for Lucy. Read about Fern Levitt and her family volunteering to help an orphanage in South Africa, in The CJN, in 2008. Read the transcript on our website at Thecjn.ca Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Mark Weisblott, editorial director. Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

Sobeys, one of the three biggest grocery store chains in Canada, has vowed to “rectify any issues" after allegations that the manager of its longtime kosher food store in Thornhill, Ont., crossed the line as part of an ongoing feud with the CEO of a rival supermarket. In the first week of April, just ahead of a hectic Passover shopping weekend for Canadian Jews, the CEO of the Olive Branch—a five-month-old kosher market in the Promenade mall, just a four-minute drive down the same street from the Sobeys in question—alleged that the nearby Sobeys manager had threatened kosher caterers looking to do Passover business with both companies. According to a widely distributed letter, Olive Branch's Justin Lesnick alleged that vendors he hired to sell prepared Passover take out food such as meatballs and kugels at his store were told they would lose their much larger contracts with Sobeys if they did so. The confrontation bled out into social media, where Lesnick's complaints about corporate bullying took the story viral. Now many customers are vowing to boycott Sobeys over what happened. But is this a true David-versus-Goliath fight? Or is it the latest in a long-simmering war between the two businessmen—neither of whom is Jewish? And what should customers know? On today's episode of The CJN Daily, host Ellin Bessner digs into the story. She spoke to Lesnick and Sobeys and some concerned customers to understand how the face-off is dividing the community before Passover. Related links Learn more about when the U.S. based Savours company entered the Toronto kosher food scene by buying Hartmans, in 2017, in The CJN. When Montreal's MK Kosher and Toronto's COR Kashrut organization were feuding over hechsher for Sobeys' Thornhill location, in 2013, in The CJN. Why Passover food will be exempt from Trump's extra tariffs this year, on The CJN Daily. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer),Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

As this chapter of my podcast journey comes to a close, I want to express my deepest gratitude to The CJN for the incredible opportunity to share these stories and conversations. With their support, I was able to highlight voices in our community that are not often heard. Thank you to my producer Michael Fraiman. Michael took a complete and sometimes challenging beginner and guided me on this journey. To my listeners—thank you for tuning in, sharing, and engaging in these discussions. Your support has meant everything. But this isn't goodbye! Stay tuned for the next chapter of Rivkush, coming soon wherever you get your podcasts. I can't wait to continue this journey with you. Until then, take care and keep the conversations going!

Today, on Monday April 7, the human rights advocacy group B'nai Brith Canada is set to release its annual antisemitism audit, tracking what's likely to be another record level of online hate speech, graffiti, threats, arson and gunshots targeting Canada's Jewish community. Last year, the group revealed its highest ever tally: 5,791 incidents happened in 2023–double the year before. And while those numbers may seen surprisingly high, they did come during the surge in antisemitism on Canadian shores after Oct. 7. But experts say that number doesn't tell the whole story. A new Statistics Canada report on hate crimes handled by Canadian police–4,777 total, including 900 hate crimes against Jews—contains some disturbing findings. According to the data, 72 percent of all hate crimes didn't get solved in 2023, and more than half of all alleged suspects are known to police as repeat offenders. If there is any good news in the new report, Statistics Canada says that no one got hurt, in the vast majority of hate crimes against Jews in recent years, or 90 percent. Most were crimes of mischief against property, including synagogues and other Jewish community buildings. So what do the numbers mean, and what message should Canadian Jews be demanding of politicians, law enforcement and the courts? On today's episode of The CJN Daily, we're joined by two of Canada's leading experts on police-reported hate crimes: from Statistics Canada, Warren Silver—himself a former Montreal police officer—and Mark Sandler, a criminal lawyer who chairs the Alliance of Canadians Combatting Antisemitism. Related links Read Statistics Canada's new report on police-reported hate crimes for 2023 and early 2024. Why antisemitic hate crimes top the police charts in Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa.), while Jews in British Columbia report being victims of one or more antisemitic incidents. B'nai Brith's annual audit of antisemitic incidents has surprisingly high numbers. How can this be? On The CJN Daily from 2023, Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Marc Weisblott (editorial director). Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

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

For decades, the Canadian government has held more than a million pages of war-criminal investigation files secret, citing privacy laws and international agreements with foreign countries. Many Canadian organizations, including Jewish ones, have lobbied—unsuccessfully—for the government to release the names, which include many suspected Nazis. It turns out, the names were already public. Jared McBride, a history professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, recently led his students on a class project that discovered more than a thousand pages of historic Royal Canadian Mounted Police war crimes files—all freely available online. These typed and handwritten files from the 1980s show suspects' names, locations, case numbers, alleged crimes, and the results of the Mounties' investigations, including collaboration with Israel, Germany and Soviet authorities. They appear to match the still-secret parts of Canada's official 1986 Deschênes Commission of Inquiry's records on alleged or actual Nazi war criminals who got into the country. Not knowing about these publicly available documents, Jewish groups and some media outlets still have lawsuits pending to force Library and Archives Canada to release its war crimes holdings. But, as the UCLA students found out, the archives already released the RCMP documents five years ago. And nobody did anything with them—until now. On today's episode of The CJN Daily, Jared McBride joins to to unpack what, and how, he and his students uncovered in this breakthrough moment for national justice. Related links Hear B'nai Brith Canada's former legal director, and a former war crimes investigator turned historian both weigh in on the importance of Canada releasing the names of suspected Nazi war criminals who entered the country, on The CJN Daily. Why Canada was reluctant to prosecute suspected Nazi war criminals who entered the country, in The CJN. Get the secret RCMP war crimes files officially released by Canada in Jan. 2020, after an Access to Information request. The files are all hosted now on the Canadian-based Investigative Journalism Foundation's public database collection. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Marc Weisblott (editorial director) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

When Elliot Gluck recently tried to figure out how to vote in the upcoming Canadian election from abroad in Israel, he was left scratching his head. The 23-year-old Vancouver native, currently interning at a green tech company in Tel Aviv, knew there had to be a better way to help his fellow Canadians exercise their democratic rights. So the political science graduate spent a few days last week creating a new website, IsraelVotes.ca, which is already live. His goal is to make it easier for those eligible voters among the estimated 40,000 Canadians currently living in Israel to receive their ballots and cast their votes in what he's calling "one of the most consequential elections in recent memory," scheduled for April 28. Gluck's website is non-partisan and completely free, and facilitates ballot delivery, including to and from the Canadian embassy in Tel Aviv. He joins Ellin Bessner on The CJN Daily to explain his motivations, the nasty antisemitic comments he's received online, and why it matters that Jewish Canadians make their voices heard this month. Related links Check out IsraelVotes.ca to learn more about how to vote from Israel in the April 28, 2025 Canadian federal election. Elections Canada's website also explains about how to vote in Canadian elections if you are Canadian abroad, no matter how long you've lived outside of Canada. When Canada originally barred citizens living in Israel from voting from abroad, in The CJN, from 2015. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Andrea Varsany (producer), Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

Canadians have been bracing for a trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump for months—and this week, it might actually kick into high gear. Washington has already imposed 25-percent tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, and is expected to add auto parts to the list as early as April 3. These acts are having devastating effects on Canada's economy—especially Canadian entrepreneurs. Many domestic business owners are pivoting. Some are focusing more on the Canadian market. Others are looking to expand in Europe and Australia. At least one Jewish business owner in Quebec moved his product assembly to Vermont, helping him keep his Canadian factory open. On today's episode of The CJN Daily, we check in with two Canadian Jewish business owners, who give us their perspective on the trade war. Noah Tepperman is the co-owner of Tepperman's, a furniture and appliance retail chain headquarted in Windsor, Ont., celebrating its centennial this month; and Michael Wiesel joins from Knowlton, Quebec to explain how he's trying to save his DIY craft kit business, Kiss Naturals, which relies on U.S. customers for 80 percent of its business. Related Links Hear how this Vancouver kosher grocer prepared to handle expected tariffs on imported U.S. Passover foodstuffs (which have since been exempted) on The CJN Daily. Why tariffs might send more Jewish poor to food banks, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

In 1942, while Nazis were forcing the Jews of Krosno, Poland to move into the local ghetto, they missed at least one: an eight-month-old Jewish infant, left in a ditch by her frantic mother, wrapped only in a blanket, with just a birthdate and false first name pinned to the wool. A passing Polish couple found the child, brought her home and raised her as a Christian. She never knew her real name or identity, despite—she told people years later—always feeling that she was Jewish. It wasn't until 2017 that a band of keen Jewish genealogy researchers, including the late Stanley Diamondof Montreal, managed to crack the mystery and confirm that Maria Vasitinskaya was really Rivka Silber. And despite her parents and two older siblings being murdered in the Holocaust, Diamond was able to reconnect the child survivor, then 78, with her extended family, including approximately 100 relatives in Israel and around the world. In April 2025, this remarkable true story is being published as a new non-fiction book, One in Six Million, by Amy Fish, a Canadian author. Fish joins The CJN Daily to explain how the tale fell into her lap—and how an unexpected genetic twist made telling it literally part of her own DNA. Related links Learn more about the book One in Six Million here. Read about the late Stanley Diamond's passion for reuniting Holocaust survivors, in The CJN. Hear Stanley Diamond profiled on our newest Honourable Menschen podcast. Learn more about free DNA tests for Holocaust survivors. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

Just 24 hours into Canada's federal election campaign, The CJN has put Jewish issues on the agenda. On Monday morning of Mar. 24, in a hotel near the Toronto airport, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre met with about 40 journalists from significant diaspora communities as part of a media roundtable reserved for “ethnic” news outlets—one of the first media opportunities since the federal election was called over the weekend. Poilievre fielded questions from outlets publishing in Mandarin, Punjabi, Ukrainian, Arabic and Vietnamese—and The Canadian Jewish News was there, too. While the focus was on Poilievre's general platform—including why he would be better to handle Canada's trade war with the U.S. than newly elected Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney—he also explained how he plans to tackle hate crimes against Canada's Jewish community and address the Liberals' recently announced $100 million in aid for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Hear what he has to say, on today's episode of _The CJN Daily _with host Ellin Bessner. What we talked about: Why the families of the Oct. 7 victims are suing the Canadian government for funding UNWRA, as is the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, in The CJN. How Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre spent the spring of 2024 courting Canada's Jewish community, on The CJN Daily. In 2023, Canada committed $100 million over four years in funding for UNWRA, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

About 2,000 anti-Israel protesters turned up in downtown Toronto on March 23 for the annual Al-Quds Day march in support of a free Palestine. Ahead of the event, calls to ban these events in cities across Canada were especially loud this year. The rallies—which happen globally—have seen protesters dressed up as suicide bombers, explicit calls for the destruction of Israel, Holocaust distortion, and flags for nationally-banned terrorist organizations, including Hezbollah, Hamas, Samidoun and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. While Toronto police had vowed, days earlier, to beef up their presence at the event and look out for hateful activity, their response has been called a “Band-Aid” approach to address spiking antisemitism in the country. Police did ensure that roughly 25 pro-Israel counter-protesters stood peacefully across the street from the main activity, playing “O Canada” loudly, on repeat, while waving Israeli and Canadian flags. The CJN Daily‘s host Ellin Bessner went to cover the event and clearly heard antisemitic chants of “Go Back to Europe” aimed at the tiny but loud group of Jews. She saw anti-Israel Jews calling Zionism Satanism. And she herself was followed, harassed and chased out of a public city sidewalk and street by anti-Israel protesters when they discovered she worked for a Jewish news organization. Related links Why Jewish groups and some politicians feel the annual Al-Quds marches in Canada need to be banned as hate fests, in The CJN. Why is Canada doing nothing about terror-banned group Samidoun leaders travelling to Beirut for Hezbollah leader's funeral, in The CJN. How to submit your opinion before May 1, 2025 to Toronto city council about how they should police protests outside places of worship, the so called "bubble legislation." Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

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

On Monday March 17, Toronto Police Services announced that they arrested and laid 29 charges against a suspect allegedly behind a spree of hate-motivated attacks on Toronto's Jewish community in 2024—and then, revealed a judge had released him on bail. Amir Arvahi Azar, 32, was arrested on Jan. 11, 2025, in the Willowdale neighbourhood of Toronto. He was kept in custody for two months, until this week's release order. Police highlighted the fact that they brought three “very rare” hate-speech charges against the suspect, including advocating genocide against Jews, wilful promotion of genocide and public incitement of hatred. The Ontario attorney general's office had to agree to lay these charges, but went further than that and tagged the charges as “terrorist activities” under the Criminal Code, opening the door to a life sentence if convicted. There is a publication ban on revealing too many details about the case. All this has led Jewish leaders to ask: why was the suspect released on bail at all? On today's episode of The CJN Daily, we speak to Rivka Campbell, executive director of Beth Tikvah Synagogue, whose premises were hit by arson in April 2024, and also with Guidy Mamann of the Tiferet Israel congregation, where a pro-Israel sign was torched in August. Related links Read more reaction in The CJN from Jewish leaders about the arrest, charging with hate crimes, and then court-ordered release on bail of a suspect alleged to be behind terrorism-related spree of attacks on Toronto Jewish community buildings and people last year. Read the Toronto Police Service's news release announcing the suspect's arrest and bail conditions, March 17. Hear how Toronto's most targeted synagogue, Kehillat Shaarei Torah on Bayview Avenue, became more resilient after each of its eight attacks, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

On the second Honourable Menschen of 2025, we pay tribute to five Canadians from four provinces who left a mark on our community and who passed away in recent months. Dianne Kipnes, an Edmonton clinical psychologist and philanthropist who, together with her husband Irving fought to find and fund better treatment for people with cancer-related conditions. Sandy Keshen, executive director for 41 years of Toronto's Reena organization, which was created to help her own daughter and other persons with disabilities find facilities and inclusion in the community. Michael Mostyn, the former CEO of B'nai Brith Canada, a Toronto lawyer who revitalized the Jewish advocacy organization to fight antisemitism on a national stage, while also assisting seniors, youth and the poor. Lou Hoffer, a Holocaust survivor from the less well known area of Transnistria in Romania, who became a tireless advocate for the victims of the Nazis murdered in that part of Europe. And Stanley Diamond, a Montreal genealogy expert whose quest to learn more about his family's genetic blood disease, Beta thalassemia, helped so many Jewish people find their lost European relatives roots after the Holocaust, including Douglas Emhoff, Gwyneth Paltrow and Alan Dershowitz. On this episode of The CJN Daily‘s Honourable Menschen, we're joined by our obituary writer Heather Ringel and also by Lila Sarick, The CJN's News Editor, for more insights into the community leaders we have lost.     Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

Last week, a senior Israeli official told the media that the country's goal is to establish full diplomatic relations with Lebanon soon, a move that follows a November ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah that has kept Northern Israel relatively safe in recent months. In that light, the Israeli government has been urging displaced Israeli families from the region—more than 60,000 people who fled after Hezbollah began firing rockets at them after Oct. 7—to finally come home. But not everyone is convinced. Some fear the ceasefire won't last. Even the mayor of Metula, where 60 percent of the buildings were damaged—including the Canadian-built hockey and sports complex—has warned residents not to return yet. On today's episode of The CJN Daily, we're joined by Michal and Nir Zamir, a Metula couple with deep Canadian ties. She's returned to her empty home in northern Israel just recently, while he stays in Edmonton,where some of their children live. Then we'll hear from Dr. Esther Silver, a former Torontonian who toughed out the war in her home in Kfar Vradim, a small town about an hour to the southwest of Metula in the Upper Galilee. Related links Why Israel's military escalation with Hezbollah impacts Canadians in Northern Israel on The CJN Daily from Jan. 2024. What Esther Silver said after the IIHF banned Israel's national hockey teams (temporarily) in 2024 from international competition, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

Some people might argue there's nothing funny about what's happening in the Middle East. But try telling that to Eric and Ryan Turkienicz, the Toronto-based brothers who created the Jewish parody news website The Daily Brine after Oct. 7. Some sample headlines: “Hamas' Work-From-Tunnel Policy Absolutely Ruining Office Culture.” “US Proposes Letting Hamas Rule The Country On Weekends Plus Every Other Thursday.” “Jewish Voice For Peace Excited To Decolonize Shavuot Just As Soon As Someone Explains To Them What Shavuot Is.” The Daily Brine started off as a side gig, an outlet for Eric Turkienicz—a lawyer by day—to leverage the time he spent performing and writing comedy at The Second City. Ryan, who works in real estate, handles the graphic design and social media. Now, with more than 20,000 followers across Instagram and Twitter, the Canada brothers have grown their part-time hustle to the point that the president of Israel invited them for an in-person meeting last week. On today's The CJN Daily, host Ellin Bessner meets the Turkienicz brothers to discuss the real meaning behind the project: to provide uplifting, biting, and amusing pro-Israel content that punches up at the antisemites and the powers that be. Related links Follow The Daily Brine on their website, or on Instagram, Facebook and X/Twitter. Learn more about buying their merchandise, including T-shirts. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here)

A pro-Israel student is suing Toronto Metropolitan University for $1.3 million, arguing the school allowed violations of campus policies that created a toxic atmosphere for Jews—and even cost her a job. Eslewhere, Jewish members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada—whose dues get donated to Palestinian causes like the United Nations Relief & Works Agency—are outraged that a senior official in the union has been posting pro-Hamas slogans to social media. What connects these stories, and more than 500 others? These Canadians sought help from the new CIJA Legal Task Force, a free initiative created by the lobbyist organization the Centre for Israel Jewish Affairs. Created years ago as a professional development group, the task force has, since Oct. 7, evolved into a “rapid response” pro bono legal team that combats antisemitism directly—by taking the issues to court. Officials behind the group say that politicians, police officers, school boards, unions and hospitals have failed to take the problem seriously, prompting them to take matters into their own hands. On today's episode of The CJN Daily, we're joined by former federal crown prosecutor Nanette Rosen, who co-chairs the legal task force, and Richard Marceau, a lawyer and CIJA's general counsel. Related links Learn more about the CIJA Legal Task Force and how to apply for help. Why CIJA is helping some families of the Canadians murdered on Oct. 7 to sue Ottawa for resuming funding to UNRWA, in The CJN. Read the legal brief filed at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice last April by a Toronto Metropolitan University student against her school, alleging toxic antisemitic conditions. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Dov Beck-Levine Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to The CJN Daily (Not sure how? Click here) Read transcript