Explore every episode of the podcast North Star with Ellin Bessner
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| This giant pumpkin with a Hebrew name is competing for top honours at Toronto's Royal Agricultural Winter Fair | 09 Nov 2026 | 00:24:32 | |
The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair opened to the public Friday Nov. 6 in Toronto for its 104th year, with its iconic butter sculptures, goat mascots and the World Cup equestrian show jumping event. But the Allen family, of Cambridge, Ont., is laser focused on their supersized, orange pumpkin – with the Hebrew name “Chani” – which their daughter Hazel, 20, entered into the farming exhibition’s prestigious agricultural competition. Hazel is studying biology and forestry at the University of Toronto, where she’s also involved with Hillel. She says it was important to her to let everyone know that her gourd, which also has the English name “Gertrude”, is at heart, a Jewish pumpkin. The Allens estimate their pumpkin weighs close to 300 pounds, which is significantly smaller than previous winners who have tipped the scales at over 1,000 pounds. But Hazel, a first-time contestant, says she’s thrilled to have successfully raised such a “beautiful” pumpkin, and already considers the effort a win, even before the final results have been announced. The student comes by her passion for produce honestly: her parents’ now-closed Little Louie’s burger restaurant in Cambridge was once featured on the Food Network show You Gotta Eat Here. Her father Steven Allen is a repeat winner at the Royal for his apiary honey products. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with Hazel Allen and her father about the family’s foray into the world of competitive agriculture growing, and asks what happens with their heavyweight pumpkin once the Royal ends Nov. 16 Related links
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| An Italian Catholic family hid the Stroms from the Nazis. Now Yad Vashem honours the rescuers in Canada | 06 Nov 2026 | 00:22:51 | |
In the fall of 1943, the Strom family, Polish Jews living in Rome, found themselves fleeing for their lives after the Nazis occupied most of northern and central Italy and began hunting Jews and deporting them to their deaths at Auschwitz. One day, while trying to avoid a German checkpoint, Dr. Alfredo Strom encountered a former patient, Donatello De Luigi, who quickly realized his Jewish physician was in imminent danger. De Luigi, a prominent Italian book publisher, immediately took the doctor, his wife and the Jewish couple’s two toddlers to his villa on the west side of Rome. De Luigi and his wife, Zelmira, sheltered the family for nine months until the Allies liberated Rome in June 1944. There were several frightening close calls as the Nazis rounded up more than 2,000 Roman Jews. Only 16 returned after the war. The two families remained close after the war. Many decades later, De Luigi’s nephew, Emilio De Luigi—now living in St. Catharines, Ont.—learned about Yad Vashem’s program honouring non-Jews who risked their lives to save persecuted Jews. Emilio had been a teenager in Rome during the war, regularly visiting his uncle’s home and helping keep the Strom family’s presence a secret. Wanting to share his family’s story, he applied to Yad Vashem in 2010 and even wrote a book about the tale. But for years the application went nowhere, because he had lost touch with the Stroms. Only recently did the surviving son, Roberto Strom, now 87, agree to share details about his family’s rescuers. In late 2025, Yad Vashem officially recognized Emilio De Luigi’s late uncle and aunt as Righteous Among the Nations, joining 28,707 others who have received the designation. Their names will be added to the Wall of Honour at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. On Nov. 10, Yad Vashem’s chairman, the Israeli ambassador to Canada, and the Italian ambassador to Canada will attend a ceremony in the Toronto area honouring the De Luigi family’s extraordinary act of humanity. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with Emilio De Luigi in St. Catharines, Ont. The nonagenarian remains haunted by what he calls “the moral failure” of the Italian authorities that enacted anti-Jewish racial laws and later cooperated with the Nazis during the Second World War. Related links
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| Canada's Holocaust survivors are dying. Who will carry their stories forward? | 04 Nov 2026 | 00:28:32 | |
About 40,000 Holocaust survivors settled in Canada after the war, and many later spent their retirement years teaching future generations about hatred and antisemitism. They helped found major Holocaust museums and school speaker programs, and pushed for mandatory Holocaust education in public schools. They were also instrumental in launching the annual Holocaust Education Week, now underway across Canada to coincide with the 88th anniversary of Kristallnacht, on Nov. 9, 1938. In the last few months, at least a dozen of Canada’s most prominent and beloved remaining Holocaust speakers and authors have died. They include Toronto’s Judy Weissenberg Cohen, 97, who created a website to document women’s experiences of the Holocaust; fellow Torontonian Rose Lipszyc, 97, an Order of Canada recipient whose story was published this February as the graphic novel Two Roses; Harry Rozendaal, 95, who died in Poland in May during his first March of the Living, undertaken so he could say Kaddish there for his murdered mother; Montrealer Ted Bolgar, 101, an orphan who advocated for fellow survivors; and Calgary’s Morris Dancyger, 86, who watched his father be shot and killed—a full year after liberation—by a former Auschwitz guard whom he had recognized at their displaced persons camp. The list continues with several Montreal survivors who have recently died, including Maxwell Smart, the subject of the 2023 feature film The Boy in the Woods; Sidney Zoltak; Paula Bultz; and David Barzilay. Also among those who recently died was Eva Olsson, from Bracebridge, Ont. On today’s special “Honourable Menschen” episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner is joined by The CJN’s obituary columnist, Heather Ringel, and Dara Solomon, executive director of the Toronto Holocaust Museum. They share memories of these survivors and discuss what motivated many of them to begin speaking publicly only many years after arriving in Canada. They also explore how Holocaust education is changing as the generation of first-person eyewitnesses disappears. Related links
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| Ahead of budget, $50 million needed for Toronto Jewish security upgrades, millions more for guards: JSN CEO | 02 Nov 2026 | 00:26:10 | |
Jewish leaders across Canada are looking to Ottawa later this week to see whether the Nov. 5 federal budget contains substantial funding increases and other commitments to protect Jewish communities from violent attacks. While the community has been sounding the alarm since Oct. 7, 2023, this is the first budget since a synagogue in Belleville, Ont., was attacked on Yom Kippur. It also comes amid recurring vandalism and threats, including the latest suspected hate crime at Montreal’s Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom on Oct. 29, when five windows were broken, likely by pellets fired from a gun. Last week, Canada announced its new National Security Strategy, although antisemitism was not mentioned. Just a month earlier, however, the government said “antisemitism could be a national security threat”. After three Toronto synagogues were shot at in March, Ottawa transferred $5.8 million to the Jewish Security Network (JSN). Then, in April, the federal fiscal update pledged $75 million over five years for community safety grants to at-risk faith communities across Canada. Toronto’s Jewish Security Network CEO, Jevon Greenblatt, says the community is “substantially safer” than it was when the organization launched in September 2024. It now has a 24/7 command centre and 30 staff, while $15 million has been spent upgrading security at the community’s 180 Jewish schools, camps, offices and synagogues. But Greenblatt also says there is “a long, long way to go.” Closing that gap will require tens of millions more, he says: about $50 million for physical security infrastructure, on top of the $20 million to $40 million “fortune” the community is already spending annually on security guards. But he’s optimistic the money will be forthcoming. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star, host Ellin Bessner speaks with Greenblatt about the behind-the-scenes work being done to keep Toronto’s Jews safe, where the threats are coming from, and how smaller Jewish communities can better prepare for attacks. Related links
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| CFB Wainwright's Jewish victim: Pte. Aidan Goulding’s family remembers their ‘ambitious’, ‘brilliant’ hero | 30 Oct 2026 | 00:25:18 | |
When Pte. Aidan Goulding was given his Hebrew name, his family chose Ilan, after Israel’s first astronaut, Ilan Ramon, who died in 2003, just a month before Goulding was born. Goulding, 23, was raised in an interfaith home. He attended Hebrew school at a Vancouver synagogue and celebrated Jewish holidays with his grandparents and extended Jewish family. Goulding was one of four soldiers serving with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry Regiment who died Oct. 17 at CFB Wainwright when a wildfire engulfed the terrain during a training exercise. He had been in the army for only eight months. His family says the young mechanic loved being in uniform and was “laser-focused” on a future serving his country. They remember him as “brilliant,” “very ambitious” and big-hearted. He hoped eventually to work as a police officer in a tactical unit. On Thursday, Oct. 29, Goulding’s body was released by the medical examiner’s office in Calgary and escorted by motorcade through the city, accompanied by Calgary police, RCMP and military members, to a local funeral home. His remains will be flown to Vancouver next week, The CJN was told, ahead of several services. An official military service is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 8, at the Seaforth Armoury in Vancouver, with a rabbi participating to honour Goulding’s Jewish roots. Before that, his father, Sean Goulding, and other family members will attend services Friday, Nov. 6, at Temple Sholom in Vancouver. There may also be a separate Catholic service. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner and The CJN’s news editor, Lila Sarick, speak with the young soldier’s grieving family about how they want him to be remembered.
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| Hear the courtroom drama over a Winnipeg synagogue's fight with former members | 28 Oct 2026 | 00:22:45 | |
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| Meet the Israelis travelling from Canada to vote in the Knesset election | 26 Oct 2026 | 00:31:58 | |
An estimated 67,000 Israelis living abroad say they planned to fly back to the Jewish State to vote Tuesday Oct. 27 in the historic national election – the first one since Oct. 7, 2023. Many Israelis living in Canada are among those making the long trip. Most of the voters who spoke to The CJN say they hope to see the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defeated, the weakening of the power of the Haredi bloc and also the far-right religious “Messianics” in the country’s life, and the creation of a renewed path for peace with the Palestinians. But “Bibi” still has his admirers in Canada, too – even though they blame him for Oct. 7’s horrific terrorist attack. The long-serving Israeli leader is being praised for his audacious exploding pager operation against Hezbollah and the assassination of many Islamist leaders, as well as for expanding the Jewish presence in the West Bank, and presiding over a strong economy. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner sits down with four Israelis who are making the long trip from Canada to try to make a difference: Marty Strub and Debbie Strub from Hamilton, and Eviatar Tron of Toronto, on why they are voting for change, while Avi Miller, also of Toronto, will likely vote to keep the government as is. Related links:
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| What's at stake in this month's votes in Ontario, Quebec, B.C. and the Prairies? The CJN's Political Panel weighs in | 23 Oct 2026 | 00:33:39 | |
It’s hard to remember when Canadians have had so many elections in such a short span. In three weeks this October, there will have been seven—including municipal and provincial votes, plus the referendum in Alberta. Albertans voted “No” on Monday, Oct. 19, to consider a Brexit-style split from Canada, while on Oct. 5, Quebecers elected a separatist government, with only 28 per cent of the popular vote. Meanwhile, in B.C., they’ve just finished a municipal election that saw Vancouver city hall sweep left and include a majority of politicians who signed anti-Israel pledges. In Toronto, the race for mayor comes into the final stretch this weekend before the municipal election on Monday, Oct. 26, where Jewish community safety and the front-runners’ stances on antisemitism and Israel are in focus. Manitobans also hold municipal elections this coming week, while voters go back to the polls this weekend in British Columbia in a snap provincial election that is seeing NDP Premier David Eby’s treatment of a Jewish cabinet minister in 2024 come back to haunt him. Now that same former NDP cabinet minister, Selina Robinson, joins The CJN’s political panellists Dan Mader, a Conservative strategist with Loyalist Public Relations, and David Birnbaum, a former Quebec Liberal MNA, to talk immigration, separation, and why Israel-Palestine is being seen in some races as more important than filling potholes and fixing homelessness. Related links
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| 'This is my Torah scroll': Artist's travelling exhibit of 54 parshas opens in Toronto | 21 Oct 2026 | 00:18:14 | |
Montreal artist Sheila Nemtin Levine didn’t plan to fulfill the final commandment of the Torah, which says that every Jew should write their own Old Testament. But that’s what ended up happening after she painted 54 vibrant, mixed-media canvases—one for each parashah in the Torah—and imbued each with a modern take on the ancient Biblical verses. Her exhibit, Tablet Tableaux, has just opened for a three-month tour of prominent Toronto synagogues. It begins at Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda this week, then heads to Holy Blossom Temple until the end of December, and finally moves to Darchei Noam for all of January 2027. Nemtin Levine calls the panels a journey of exploration. Audience members are encouraged to physically engage with the works by touching the grains of sand, family photos and architectural blueprints for the Israelites’ portable desert tabernacle. Her works have been displayed at several synagogues across Montreal and, last month, at Ottawa's JCC. Jewish high schools have used them for special b’nei mitzvah study modules. The project has also spawned a coffee table book, a free audio guide, and a forthcoming documentary video series. On today’s episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, we bring you Nemtin Levine's interview with host Ellin Bessner, who visited the artist's studio in Montreal in July 2025. Related link
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| [Menschwarmers] Welcome to the golden age of Jewish NHL players | 19 Oct 2026 | 00:45:56 | |
Ellin is off today, so we're bringing you the latest episode of Menschwarmers, The CJN's Jewish sports podcast. Hear more at thecjn.ca/menschwarmers Jewish hockey is having a moment. Players like Adam Fox, the Hughes brothers, Zeev Buium, Zach Hyman, Jake Walman and Devon Levi are having a major impact on the ice—and with more Jewish players joining the NHL each year, fans are holding them up as role models for the community’s youth. Jonny Lazarus has lived through both sides of that story. The Long Island native played Division I hockey at UMass Amherst and Mercyhurst and represented the United States at the 2017 Maccabiah Games. But during the COVID shutdown, realizing he wasn’t going to make it pro, he pivoted to making hockey content. These days, he co-hosts Morning Cuppa Hockey and is working on a new interview series with Bleacher Report. Lazarus joins Menschwarmers to give a wide-ranging preview of the 2026-27 NHL season. They chat about major Jewish players to watch—including Lazarus’s childhood friend and former campmate, Adam Fox—and Lazarus shares his own journey of breaking into the hockey-talk industry. Plus: the Jewish MLB postseason comes to an end, the PWHL approaches its new season, NBA hopefuls Noam Yaacov and Lajae Jones fight for roster spots, and the boys preview the incoming crop of International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame inductees. Credits
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| Canadian Jewish military member takes legal action after nearly 30 discrimination claims rejected | 16 Oct 2026 | 00:24:24 | |
Note: This episode contains explicit and offensive language. When the Canadian Armed Forces issued an official apology in October 2025 for decades of racial discrimination and harassment experienced by its members, Toronto-based Capt. Rabbi Jonathan Jaffit, a Jewish officer, was one of many who subsequently applied to a Federal Court–approved claims process to receive financial compensation and restorative justice. The landmark $150-million class action lawsuit at the source of the compensation package was filed in 2016 by three military veterans who were released from their service early after years of bullying and harassment because they were Black or Indigenous. The military settled without accepting liability. Deloitte was mandated to process the claims. The claims portal closed Thursday, Oct. 15— and, as The CJN reported in our full-length investigative story, nearly 30 Jewish claimants have had their applications rejected. Like Jaffit, they received the same form letter from Deloitte saying their racial identity made them ineligible. The court-approved Final Settlement Agreement uses a broad scope to define racial discrimination, including race, ethnicity, colour and/or Indigeneity. So why has Deloitte told the Jewish claimants it is applying only the narrower Employment Equity Act requirements, and adhering to the categories of “visible minorities” as per the national census? Capt. Jaffit has now taken legal action on behalf of the Jewish members. His lawyer applied Thursday, Oct. 15, to the Federal Court to become an intervener in this class action case. He joins a second application, by a non-Jewish French Canadian officer whose claim was also rejected, which was filed earlier this fall. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner brings you the latest developments and an interview not with Jaffit—who is not allowed to speak to the media—but with a second Jewish member whose claim was rejected. We have disguised their identity to protect their career. Related links
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| After 22 years at the TDSB, Shelley Laskin has a message for her successors | 14 Oct 2026 | 00:30:20 | |
After six terms and 22 years of public service, Shelley Laskin is stepping away from the Toronto District School Board. The board's longest-serving active trustee has decided not to run again on Oct. 26, when Ontario voters head to the polls and choose their next local leaders. In doing so, one of Toronto's most prominent Jewish advocates at the school board level leaves during a sensitive time. The TDSB has been mired in issues surrounding antisemitism and anti-Zionism ever since Oct. 7, 2023. Last year, the board was commandeered by the provincial government, which, Laskin says, left trustees without resources and parents without elected representatives who can properly act on their concerns. But Laskin can point to significant accomplishments, too. She's proud to have helped usher in citywide Holocaust education and her work with the TDSB's Jewish Heritage Committee, which built resources and partnered with other heritage groups on cross-cultural programming. On today's episode of North Star, The CJN's education reporter Zenith Wolfe speaks with Laskin about public education, Jewish inclusion, local democracy and what she wants the next generation of trustees to understand. Zachary Kauffman sits in for Ellin Bessner. Correction: We said Laskin's first term was 2014. Indeed, she has served since 2010. The CJN regrets the error. Credits
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| Grieving Out Loud: Inside Toronto’s new open mic for loss | 09 Oct 2026 | 00:20:25 | |
When Rachel Carmela’s mother died just before the COVID pandemic, her family was able to sit shiva. But the sudden lockdown in March 2020 curtailed communal gatherings where she could say Kaddish for the rest of her year of mourning. At the time, Carmela was working as a music and mindfulness teacher. She began writing songs to help cope with her grief and immersed herself in books and courses on the subject. When pandemic restrictions ended, Carmela found there were few spaces where young adults like her could publicly express grief through song and poetry after the initial loss. So she created one. She calls it Grieving Out Loud, a series of pay-what-you-can gatherings in Toronto that launched in late August. The second session, on Oct. 1, sold out, with about 75 people registered, although only a few performed at the microphone. Carmela is now trained in expressive arts therapy. Over two hours, with yoga mats and tea available, she helps people living with grief find community without requiring them to talk about a specific loss, whether a person, pet or life circumstance. While most participants have not been Jewish, Carmela plans to expand the open-mic gatherings to include events specifically for Jewish audiences, including opportunities to process collective grief over Oct. 7. She joins host Ellin Bessner on today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast to discuss the open mics where grief takes the stage. Related links
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| Canada’s first Oct. 7 memorial inside a Jewish cemetery is in Calgary | 07 Oct 2026 | 00:22:36 | |
When Calgary’s new sculpture, Shattered Into Light, was transported from the artist’s California studio in a wooden crate, Calgary Jewish cemetery operators thought it looked like an artifact from the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. The sculpture and an adjacent plaque were installed in a renovated community space inside Calgary’s historic Erlton cemetery, now called the Garden of Remembrance. Dedicated during a community ceremony in late August, the metal artwork stands 1.86 metres tall, or just over six feet—about the height of a full-size refrigerator. Other Canadian Oct. 7 memorial projects have been created in recent years—locations include a garden at a Vancouver synagogue, two Jewish community centres in Toronto, and outside the Ottawa JCC. But the Calgary monument is believed to be the first permanent Oct. 7 memorial inside a Canadian Jewish cemetery—and possibly among the first of its kind in North America. Organizers felt they needed to provide a peaceful place where people could honour those lost on Oct. 7 and in the ensuing conflict. Calgary is home to the brother of murdered Canadian peace activist Vivian Silver, as well as Israelis impacted by the 2023 terrorist attack. The sculpture has already attracted visitors, including non-Jews. While the local Chevra Kadisha isn’t actively soliciting funds for the project, which was covered by local sponsors, financial contributions to its upkeep are welcome. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, artist Charles Sherman joins host Ellin Bessner, along with Harold Lipton and Susan Dvorkin of the Calgary Chevra Kadisha, to discuss the new garden, the Oct. 7 sculpture and why the community wanted this memorial now. Related links
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| New antisemitic flyers in Belleville raise alarm: 'This is where these ideas begin” | 05 Oct 2026 | 00:22:59 | |
When Belleville resident Debbie Hoskin’s husband discovered an antisemitic black and white, two-sided flyer on their front lawn on Oct. 1, she knew right away it was Jew hatred, as she calls it: the text blames Jews for everything from profiting off COVID-19 to being the promoters of abortion. Although Hoskin is of Jewish heritage, her home wasn’t the only one on her street to wake up to these posters on their lawns. Other homes had them, too. This street is just a few blocks from the Sons of Jacob synagogue, which two weeks ago was the target of a horrific shooting by a now-dead antisemitic gunman. The synagogue president also found four of these posters on the building. Hoskin called Belleville police, who are now investigating and looking for security camera video in the area to check for a suspect or suspects. Hoskin is upset, but not surprised at the latest manifestation of antisemitism in the Canadian city. She believes there is uncensored Jew-hatred being given free reign on some social media accounts, although she doesn’t know whether the Goyim Defense League-linked flyer she got was sourced in Belleville. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with eyewitness Debbie Hoskin and with Prof. Karen Blair, an expert in Holocaust studies and the psychology of the Holocaust, at Trent University in Peterborough, who warns that hate begets hate. Blair cautions anyone who encounters this specific kind of right-wing hate propaganda not to click on it. She had eerily similar flyers placed on her house in 2023, for which police in Peterborough eventually arrested a man and charged him with a hate crime. Related links
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| Honourable Menschen: The King of Kensington’s creator, a Holocaust historian, an Elvis-loving philanthropist and two rabbis | 02 Oct 2026 | 00:28:19 | |
Television producer Perry Rosemond, who died Sept. 11 in Las Vegas, helped create some of the most iconic Canadian television of his generation, especially The King of Kensington, but also brought Mr. Dressup and Hockey Night in Canada to the small screen. The kid from Winnipeg’s North End went on to make it big in Toronto and Hollywood over a 50-year career, helping launch the careers of Martin Short, Howie Mandel and other Canadian comedians. Rosemond is one of five notable Jewish Canadians who recently died and whose lives we profile in the High Holidays Yizkor episode of Honourable Menschen, a recurring series on The CJN’s North Star podcast. We also pay tribute to another Winnipegger, philanthropist Tova Vickar, the daughter of Holocaust survivors who left her beloved adopted country of Israel for what she thought would be a short adventure in Manitoba. Her devotion to helping others—including Winnipeg’s Filipino community—was matched by her love of Elvis Presley’s music. Canadian Holocaust historian and author Franklin Bialystok received a new liver, that extended his life by nearly 30 years. During that time, he became an expert on the experiences of Holocaust survivors after they arrived in Canada. We also remember two Montreal rabbis. Rabbi Leigh Lerner, a social justice pioneer, served at Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom for nearly a quarter-century, fighting human trafficking and advocating for the inclusion of LGBTQ+ Jews and interfaith couples in the Reform congregation. About five kilometres away, Conservative Rabbi Ronnie Cahana led Congregation Beth-El until a devastating stroke left him quadriplegic. He continued teaching and creating from his bed in long-term care for another 15 years. On today’s episode, The CJN’s obituary columnist, Heather Ringel, joins host Ellin Bessner with audio and anecdotes about these five memorable Canadians. Related links
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| Israel votes October 27. The real political drama may come after | 30 Sep 2026 | 00:26:15 | |
Israel's election to form the country's next government is less than four weeks away, with voters in Israel going to the polls on Oct. 27. Long serving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is once again leading the right-wing Likud party's hopes to return to office ,which he has held on and off for nearly 19 of the last thirty years, since 1996. This election comes after Israel's longest war since Independence in 1948, with the Oct. 7 Hamas massacres and resulting wars in Gaza weighing heavily on the voters. Ongoing military campaigns on other fronts including Lebanon, Syria and with Iran are also shaping the campaign. And just this week, Netanyahu appeared at an IDF air force base, vowing to continue hunting down Oct. 7 perpetrators, while warning Israel's enemies not to think about launching an attack on the country to disrupt the elections. So who's likely to win this crucial ballot? Can the diverse left, centre and right opposition slates, with five rival leaders known as "the change bloc" – Gadi Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett, Yair Lapid, Avigdor Liberman and Yair Golan - who met this weekend to seal a joint statement of principals, win enough together to oust Netanyahu, as happened briefly in 2021. Or will the growing religious-Zionist and ultra-Orthodox smaller parties remain strong enough and agree to help send Bibi back to power?And what role will the Arab parties play, now that Israel's election authority just disqualified two of them from the election, for supporting Hamas. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, Prof. Nikolenyi breaks down the Israeli election for us, including the 38 different lists of candidates, the main leaders, their backroom deals, and why it might be closer to December before Israel actually has a sworn in government. Related links
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| After Winnipeg's Jewish archives flooded, an enormous recovery effort is underway | 28 Sep 2026 | 00:25:08 | |
It’s been nearly four months since a massive rainstorm hit Winnipeg on June 9, causing a flood in the basement of the Asper Jewish Community Campus. That’s where half the archival collection of the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada was being stored: among the collection were some of the 70,000 photographs, old Jewish newspapers, Torah covers, and other cloth and textiles donated by generations of Jewish families from Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario. If it hadn’t been for the quick response by archivist Ava Garfinkel, and some volunteers, the collection could have suffered serious damage from mould, and been ruined within a day or two. They raced against time and worked all night to move the sodden boxes upstairs, then called in a restoration company in Ottawa that specializes in saving water-damaged collections and paper, through deep freezing. Garfinkel believes they managed to save everything, except for one photograph. But big challenges remain before the collection can be returned to Winnipeg: raising $100,000 – enough funds to build a safer, drier space in the same building to protect 130 years of Jewish history. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner takes the archivist Ava Garfinkel back to that frantic, stormy night to recount what happened, to update us on the current status of the frozen archives, and to outline what measures are needed to make sure this doesn’t happen again. Related links
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| Canada's Jewish leaders call for armed guards, more police at all their institutions | 25 Sep 2026 | 00:23:39 | |
Warning: This podcast contains a clip of hateful language. Both B’nai Brith Canada and Montreal’s Jewish federation, Federation CJA, have issued a call to change legislation in some provinces, including Quebec, that currently prevents private armed guards from working at Jewish institutions. B’nai Brith Canada also wants “a sufficient police presence at every Jewish institution in Canada.” CIJA, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, also called for more resources to keep Jewish communities safe. Police and provincial officials in Belleville told a media conference Sept. 24 that the synagogue shooter had the motivation, means and materials to carry out a mass-casualty attack aimed at the Jewish community that could have destroyed the Sons of Jacob synagogue on Yom Kippur evening. While the police force did not have prior intelligence warnings about the shooter, who died in hospital on Sept. 21, Chief Murray Rodd said the former army corporal carried out a deliberate attack, “a hate crime,” and that proactively stationing an on-duty police officer at the synagogue “was the right place at the right time.” His message to Canadian police forces: “It is clearly time that we all be proactive.” Canada’s ministers of justice and public safety have condemned the Belleville attack. In a document released the same day as the Belleville police chief’s media conference, Ottawa pledged to do more to stop antisemitism, which the government now describes as “a threat to national security.” The report also defines modern antisemitism as a phenomenon that can include anti-Zionism. On today’s episode of North Star, Yair Szlak, president and CEO of Federation CJA, speaks about security issues for Canada’s second-largest Jewish community and what they want to see happen. The interview was taped before the Belleville attack. Related stories
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| 'Someone was protecting us': Belleville's guest Rabbi Oded Peles on surviving the Yom Kippur attack and what's next | 23 Sep 2026 | 00:28:52 | |
Israeli Rabbi Oded Peles was a few minutes late starting the Yom Kippur evening service in Belleville, Ont., on Sept. 20, because he paused to help two female congregants light extra candles outside the sanctuary. Seconds later, a hail of bullets tore into the stained-glass windows beside the pulpit at Sons of Jacob synagogue, where Rabbi Peles would have been standing to lead the congregation in prayer. Rabbi Peles was unharmed, and no one else in the building was injured. Outside, as we now know, a 29-year-old former Canadian soldier armed with a shotgun—who’d been released from the Forces several years ago for reasons the military is not disclosing—opened fire, critically wounding a Belleville policeman stationed on duty for the High Holiday event. The policeman remains in hospital in critical but stable condition. The shooter died in hospital on Sept. 21, police said. This was Rabbi Peles’s second year officiating at the small Canadian synagogue as a guest slot from his regular duties at a synagogue in Jerusalem. He praised the shaken community for continuing on with services as best as they could. He said he drew inspiration from the lessons of his father, who survived the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Now he believes the response must go beyond prayer. He’s vowed to help strengthen the small Belleville Jewish community and draw attention to antisemitism, starting by building bridges of peace today in Rome at some previously scheduled interfaith meetings at the Vatican. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, we hear Rabbi Peles’s firsthand account of the attack, his reflections on faith and survival, and his hopes for what comes next. We’ll also hear from synagogue member Douglas Lobel, who’s been watching antisemitism grow in Belleville since Oct. 7, 2023, and warned city officials something like this could happen. Toronto’s Derek Kreindler also joins to explain why he launched a grassroots fundraising campaign to help support the wounded Belleville police officer, Const. Jeff Smith. Related links:
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| Deborah Lyons: Canada’s Advisory Council to Combat Antisemitism Must Deliver | 18 Sep 2026 | 00:23:55 | |
Amb. Deborah Lyons has stayed out of the public eye for the past year, ever since she abruptly stepped down as Canada’s last special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism. Lyons resigned three months early from her high-profile role, in July 2025, at the time telling The CJN she felt “despondent and despairing” over how few Canadians stood up against anti-Jewish hatred since Oct. 7, 2023. In February 2026, the federal government scrapped her role, along with her entire office—and did the same with the special representative for Islamophobia. The work, Ottawa announced, was to be folded into a new advisory council reporting to the minister of Canadian identity and culture. In June, Prime Minister Mark Carney promised this council’s first job is to tackle antisemitism, even though critics noted the council included appointed members who held publicly anti-Israel positions. But Lyons came out of retirement on Sept. 15 to put the federal government, this new council and Prime Minister Carney on notice. During a talk at a high-profile conference in Toronto on antisemitism and democracy, Lyons revealed she disliked how the council was launched. She says she told the public servant in charge of the council that “they must deliver soon. We cannot get to Hanukkah without some real results and deliverables from the council, in my view, because a lot of work has already been done. They just need to pick it up.” On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, Lyons explains why she expects more from the Carney government than just money for security. We also hear from former U.S. Antisemitism Special Envoy Deborah Lipstadt, who joined Lyons in a panel discussion, and from Irwin Cotler, Canada’s first antisemitism czar. Related links
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| Israel’s new Toronto consul general says boycotts are not the solution | 14 Sep 2026 | 00:23:54 | |
Nadav Zysblat has just begun his posting as Israel’s new Consul General in Toronto and Western Canada at a particularly difficult moment in Canada-Israel relations. In the days surrounding his arrival, Canada announced it would bring forward measures to ban trade in goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, while a boycott campaign targeted pro-Israel singer Boy George’s Vancouver concert. Zysblat, a career Israeli diplomat, says his job is to strengthen—not retreat from—the relationship. Pushing back against calls for boycotts, he wants to expand trade and business ties at the provincial level, restore direct flights between Canada and Israel, and support local Holocaust education initiatives. Zysblat has served previously in Washington and Shanghai. Two days before the Carney government’s West Bank announcement, Zysblat sat down with The CJN’s North Star podcast host Ellin Bessner to record his first Canadian interview. He told Bessner he wants to find new areas of cooperation with Ontario, the Prairies and B.C., particularly in sectors including natural resources, health care, AI, quantum computing and secure technology. They talked about how boycotts are not helpful to building relationships, how they hurt Canada’s interests rather than solve the problem in the Middle East, and why he feels Israel could actually be “an answer” to Canada’s current push to diversify its economy, amidst the economic trade war with the U.S. Related links
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| Beth Tzedec, Canada’s largest synagogue, erecting perimeter fence for High Holidays | 11 Sep 2026 | 00:24:39 | |
Work crews affixed a row of black metal fence posts into cement around the front and along both sides of Beth Tzedec Congregation in midtown Toronto on Sept. 10, laying the foundation for a new permanent security fence at Canada’s largest synagogue. The unprecedented installation is happening just one day ahead of Rosh Hashanah and subsequent High Holidays, which begin on the evening of Sept. 11. Synagogue officials say the fence won’t be finished before the start of the holiday, but is being done to minimize the potential for a shooting from the street as large crowds gather over the next month. It’s also to prevent people gaining unauthorized access close to the building. The fence will cover the entire property, except for the rear of the building where fencing has long been in place around the parking lot and school playground. The installation comes two days after Toronto police and Mayor Olivia Chow held a media conference outlining stepped-up security plans for the Jewish community between the High Holidays and Oct. 7 commemorations. “Jews, Jewish institutions and even Jewish neighbourhoods are being targeted. It is despicable,” Chow told reporters on Sept. 8. At Beth Tzedec, the security budget has doubled since the spike in antisemitism following Oct. 7, 2023, and is now approaching $500,000 a year, according to Senior Rabbi Steven Wernick. He says the synagogue estimates it needs another $1.5-2 million to reach what he calls the “maximum reasonable safety” it can achieve. The growing security environment includes lockdown drills, bollards, reinforced doors and armed police. But Rabbi Wernick also laments the normalization of safety measures which Jewish people have come to expect, simply to enter a synagogue in Canada. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with Rabbi Wernick about the difference between being safe and feeling safe—and why the new fence will be a striking sight for congregants arriving for services. Related Links
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| New Israeli Oct. 7 film about to premiere at TIFF, amid boycott calls | 09 Sep 2026 | 00:25:40 | |
This week, the Toronto International Film Festival will take over the city’s downtown. Among the many films slated for red-carpet premieres is Our Loves, the latest by award-winning Israeli filmmaker Avi Nesher, which will receive its worldwide debut on Sept. 13.– the second day of Rosh Hashana. The film follows ordinary people navigating troubled relationships when Hamas’s massacre unfolds on Oct. 7—but the plot stays focused on how it affects their personal lives, rather than digging into the graphic horrors of that day. Some anti-Israel activists have called for the film to be boycotted from TIFF, and some Israeli media outlets report that there will be protests. Last year’s festival was mired in controversy over Barry Avrich’s The Road Between Us, a Canadian documentary about one Israeli man’s journey to save his son during Oct. 7, which was scheduled for a debut, then cancelled abruptly—and ultimately reinstated, with an apology from TIFF’s CEO. But Nesher told Ellin Bessner, host of The CJN’s North Star podcast, that he sees his film’s global debut here in Canada as a victory against the growing international boycott of Israeli art and artists. Listen to the full episode to hear why he still believes TIFF is not a political festival, and how he feels about fictionalizing stories surrounding Oct. 7 only three years after the tragedy. Related links
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| Federal court orders Carney government to release more Nazi war criminal documents | 04 Sep 2026 | 00:42:26 | |
The Federal Court has ordered Canada to release another group of Nazi war criminal documents from the 1985 Deschênes report laying bare the government's controversial immigration policies that allowed several thousand collaborators into Canada after the Second World War. The federal Library and Archives Canada has fought the release for years citing privacy laws protecting longstanding diplomatic intelligence agreements with allies including Ukraine, Russia and even the United States to keep the information secret. Much of the Deschênes report has been made public, albeit with redactions, but the second part, with the list of names, has not. For decades, B'nai Brith Canada and others have lobbied and used court challenges to force the government to be more transparent about the chapter in Canadian history. In his ruling ordering the release, issued Sept. 1, the Federal Court justice Simon Fothergill described almost all the information on the eight disputed pages as "innocuous", citing the passage of time. However, B'nai Brith Canada's lawyers weren't successful in winning the release of one other page, which deals with a secret pact between U.S. post-war intelligence and Canada's RCMP. Government lawyers argued releasing it would heighten current tensions between Canada and the American government during this period of great tension over tariffs. The judge rejected Ottawa's "bald" statement, writing it was "not a sufficient basis to refuse disclosure of very specific information related to efforts by the United States to resettle suspected Nazis and Nazi collaborators in Canada following World War II." B'nai Brith Canada's director of research Richard Robertson told The CJN in an interview Sept. 3 that the trade war argument was "incredibly frustrating" but the human rights organization views the latest court win as "all part of moving the needle". "All Canadians, should know that the parts of the [Deschenes] report that have been released indicate that our government colluded or even went as far as working at the direction of the United States to allow Nazi war criminals to enter Canada, "Robertson said. "And this is something that the government has seemingly tried to withhold from Canadians, and so decisions like this bring us just that little bit closer to understanding this whole story and enabling us as a society to learn from our mistakes and to heal from some of the trauma that they caused." The documents have not yet been released to B'nai Brith Canada, and the judge did not set a timeline for this to be done. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, hear the background to this case, in an encore presentation of an interview host Ellin Bessner did in February 2025, with historian Howard Margolian, who worked with the Justice Department to investigate Nazi war crimes, and with Sam Goldstein, a former legal director for B'nai Brith Canada. Related links:
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| Why Toronto’s Orthodox Rabbis won’t officiate at MAID funerals, or provide burial plots | 02 Sep 2026 | 00:30:09 | |
A landmark letter on MAID, approved recently by Toronto's main Orthodox rabbinical council—also called the Vaad HaRabbanim—is sounding the alarm about what the group notes is the increasing prevalence of medically assisted death making "inroads" into the local Jewish community. Citing the figure of 5,000 patients in Ontario in 2023 who the council describes as being "euthanized by medical practitioners", the leading Orthodox rabbis said they need to take steps to "curb this disturbing trend": going forward, they will not officiate at the funerals of MAID patients and will refuse to permit MAID patients to be buried in plots in their synagogues' cemetery sections. The letter was adopted a while ago, but had not been made public. The CJN received a copy of it in the summer of 2026. On August 28, one of the Vaad's presidents, Rabbi Yacov Felder, sent the MAID statement out in an email blast to his own congregation, Shomrai Shabbos Chevrah Mishnayos. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner unpacks the Vaad HaRabbanim's MAID policy on funeral rites. She hears their wider concerns about the proliferation of MAID over the past decade and discusses the reaction to the statement coming from other rabbinical leaders, starting with Rabbi Jennifer Gorman, the current president of the Toronto Board of Rabbis. Gorman's group of 56 rabbis has now issued its own new statement in response to what she called the Vaad's "surprising" and "harsh" approach to Jews and their families, whom her board feels are entitled to be treated with compassion—even though their statement does not endorse medically assisted death. We also hear from Montreal Orthodox leader Rabbi Reuben Poupko, who explains why – despite his own strong opposition to MAID – he believes the Toronto Vaad’s approach stigmatizes people who choose MAiD and penalizes their families. Related links:
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[Ed. note: An earlier version of the podcast incorrectly identified Rabbi Green as a member of the Toronto Vaad] | |||
| CBC changed its terrorism policy for 9/11—but still not for Hamas | 31 Aug 2026 | 00:23:32 | |
A leaked memo to CBC journalists last week ordered them not to call the 9/11 al-Qaida attacks "terrorism" in forthcoming coverage of next month's 25th anniversary. It prompted backlash within Canada and beyond. Not long after Toronto Sun journalist Warren Kinsella broke the story on Aug. 27, the head of the FBI, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, CSIS, two Canadian cabinet ministers and several politicians all condemned the CBC's internal journalistic guidelines for 9/11 coverage, especially since 24 Canadians were among the 2,977 people who were murdered in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania by the Islamic terrorist attacks. It didn't take long for the CBC to issue a clarification. On Aug. 28, the CBC issued an update to its policy, but just for 9/11: journalists can now call what happened on that historic day "terrorism" and they can call the hijackers "terrorists". But the rules still remain for newer conflicts: journalists have to attribute the T-word designation to governments, experts or other sources, rather than using the label themselves. Since Oct. 7, 2023, many Jewish viewers and groups have been lobbying the CBC; its oversight body, the CRTC; and the federal government to allow journalists to call Hamas "terrorists", and what they did on Oct. 7 as "terrorism". After all, Canada designated Hamas a banned terrorist group in 2002. But the federally funded broadcaster insists it needs to use neutral language in covering modern conflicts. CBC News' editor-in-chief and general manager, Brodie Fenlon, came on The CJN's North Star podcast on Oct. 19, 2023, to explain why their policy exists. On today's episode, we're bringing you that conversation with host Ellin Bessner. Related stories
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| Jewish groups 'relieved' after Montreal softens controversial anti-Israel vote | 28 Aug 2026 | 00:24:43 | |
Earlier this week, on Aug. 24, Montreal’s City Council adopted a motion expressing solidarity with the Palestinians and all civilians affected, and supporting international investigations into genocide claims and human rights violations, acknowledging that International Criminal Court arrest warrants have been issued for for Israeli leaders, and that Canada placed sanctions on Israel. But three “divisive” and “irresponsible” parts of the original motion – put forward in June by the opposition party Projet Montreal – accusing Israel of genocide and apartheid, and forcing the city to cut ties with Israel – were removed. But three “divisive” and “irresponsible” parts of the original motion – put forward in June by the opposition party Projet Montreal – accusing Israel of genocide and apartheid, and forcing the city to cut ties with Israel – were removed. The 54-6 vote came after six weeks of campaigning by Jewish groups and allies in the city’s Hellenic, Christian and Italian communities of Montreal, and business leaders, who sent letters and petitions with hundreds of names to the lawmakers, opposing the anti-Israel rhetoric. Ahead of Monday’s council meeting, mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada and her team worked behind the scenes to cut those parts out of the motion and negotiate a final version. And while during the debate, she said the city stands in solidarity with Palestinians and an eventual Palestinian State and recognizes the grave humanitarian crisis, she urged the politicians to focus on issues that unite residents of their city. Some Jewish leaders are calling the final wording “a win”, but unease remains that the issue won’t go away. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with Paola Samuel, the regional director of B’nai Brith Canada, who was in the council chamber and heavily involved in the campaign to block the original anti-Israel motion. Related links
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| Canadian Jewish milk and honey farmers on Trump’s trade war: 'You can’t concede on sovereignty' | 26 Aug 2026 | 00:27:19 | |
When trade negotiations between Canada and the United States broke off Aug. 19, mere weeks before Rosh Hashanah, Prime Minister Mark Carney described the situation as being “at war”. Farmers are now finding themselves caught in the crosshairs; among them are Jewish producers of festive staples this upcoming High Holidays season: milk and honey. Canadian milk products and natural honey are among the $28 billion of exports now subject to a new 50 per cent American import tariff. On our side of the border, on Aug. 25, Canada announced it will follow up with dollar-for-dollar tariffs, charging American milk and honey producers exactly the same extra dues in reverse, effective Sept. 8. Natural raw honey producer Yoav Sasportas is directly affected by all of this. His company, Urban Dvash—which manages hives of 10 million honey bees throughout the Montreal area—exports some honey to customers south of the border. Sasportas admits he’s already scaled back expansion plans. Despite this, he says Canada should go further and bar all foreign honey from coming into our country—and foreign live bee imports, too. Meanwhile, 600 km away, on their historic dairy farm west of Hamilton, Ont., the Loewith family is also feeling the pinch. They don’t sell milk outside of Canada, but their business is facing rising prices for equipment and flavourings. But both the farm families firmly support Canada’s tough stance against U.S. President Donald Trump in the renewed cross-border trade war, even if it will bring pain and layoffs in many sectors of the Canadian economy—including theirs. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner learns about the Jewish front of this tariff war from Dave Loewith and his nephew Ben Loewith, and from Yoav Sasportas, who is deep in the middle of his annual honey harvest, right before the Jewish New Year. Related links
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| Back to school: TanenbaumCHAT and OJCS's two new heads of school on Jewish education, safety and joy | 24 Aug 2026 | 00:28:03 | |
This fall, two well-known Canadian Jewish schools will introduce new heads of school—and both leaders share similar visions for what students and parents and staff can expect when classes begin the first week of September. TanenbaumCHAT, Canada’s largest pluralistic Jewish high school, in Toronto, is welcoming Dr. Amy Platt, who joins after nearly a decade leading one of the city’s elementary/middle schools, Paul Penna Downtown Jewish Day School. Meanwhile, Dr. Laura Segall is the new leader of the Ottawa Jewish Community School, an elementary/middle school. Both women have experience as being the first female heads of school at different stops in their careers: Platt makes that history at TanenbaumCHAT, while Segall was the first female head of school at her former post, Montreal’s Hebrew Academy, an Orthodox K-11 school. Platt describes her move as one of size and scope, moving from a small urban elementary school to one with over 1,400 students. Segall, meanwhile, is moving into a school half the size of her old one, in a city with one-sixth the Jewish population. Yet both women share plans and priorities for the new school year: they want their schools to be places for Jewish joy, balancing an atmosphere of safety against threats and attacks from protesters, antisemitism and anti-Zionism. Both also want to curate a robust menu of Zionist and Israeli programming and culture. Segall wants to involve the wider Ottawa community more, while Platt is forecasting more opportunities for Tikkun Olam. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, Amy Platt and Laura Segall join host Ellin Bessner for a preview of their plans for the first day of school—and the first weeks, months and beyond. Related Links
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| Late Holocaust survivor Eva Olsson spoke to over 1.5 million students | 21 Aug 2026 | 00:12:18 | |
The late Holocaust survivor and speaker Eva Olsson died Aug. 4 in Port Carling, Ont. She was 101. She once estimated that she had given 4,300 presentations over the years. Her family says she likely reached over 1.5 million people with her story of resilience and courage. Although she only started speaking about her life in her 70s, 15,000 people wrote her letters saying how moved they were. The Order of Canada winner and author spent over a quarter-century sharing her story of surviving the Holocaust in Hungary, then slave labour camps, and both Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen before her liberation in 1945. Her message was always to fight hatred and not be a bystander. We here at The CJN’s North Star podcast wanted to pay tribute in our way, so today we’re rebroadcasting Ellin Bessner's last interview with Eva Olsson, which aired back in October 2021. She was just about to turn 97 and Yad Vashem was going to honour her with a birthday celebration—online, of course, via Zoom, because the world was in lockdown in the early part of the COVID pandemic. Related stories and links
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| Meet the man who has been chasing the world's best gelato since 2011 | 19 Aug 2026 | 00:23:05 | |
One of Peter Cohen’s favourite gelato shops in the world is San Crispino, in Rome, Italy. It’s among the nearly 2,000 pins on the Montrealer’s personal online World Gelato Map, which he’s been curating as part of his passion—some may call it an obsession—with the frozen treat. For the last 15 years, Cohen has been travelling the world, visiting hundreds of shops, tasting and looking for the best Italian artisanal ice cream. His gelato hobby began in 2011 on a family trip to Italy. Since then, he’s been developing a growing gelato-ratings system that covers shops beyond just Italy: Turkey, Cambodia and many more countries, including about two dozen gelato shops here in Canada. His children think he should monetize his map—but Cohen says he does all this out of a sense of community, and to explore unknown neighbourhoods and meet the gelato-making artisans behind the counters. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner travels to Montreal to sit down with Peter Cohen over some award-winning gelato at Fiore, one of his current favourite shops. Credits
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| B.C. wildfires: Jews open their homes, kitchens and rally to help evacuees | 17 Aug 2026 | 00:27:42 | |
On Aug. 7, Todd Shapiro was just finishing dinner in Summerland, B.C., when a wildfire outside the town “exploded” and prompted an immediate provincial emergency evacuation order. The former Montrealer, who had just moved to the Okanagan area last summer, grabbed his passport, a jar of peanut butter and some toilet paper, rounded up his teenage son and family dog, and fled the region. Shapiro is one of 20,000 residents of Summerland ordered to leave their homes as the fire, the size of the city of Burlington, Ont., is still out of control more than a week later. After an anxious journey, he shared, “I was kind of freaking out”, facing closed highways and uncertain of where to go. Shapiro and his family made it to Kelowna, where they were invited to sleep at the home of Jewish community leader Abbey Westbury. She runs a winery, but also is a Jewish Federation of B.C. “community connector”, who also has close ties to the local synagogue and the Okanagan Jewish Community Centre. Westbury has been making food for evacuees and the first responders fighting the wildfire. The smoke and ash from Summerland has been blanketing Kelowna, too, and made it difficult to just be outside. Despite suffering an asthma attack this week, local Chabad Rabbi Shmuly Hecht, with his wife, Fraidy, turned their Chabad of Okanagan centre in Kelowna into a supplies depot for evacuees and hosts. They’ve kept their summer camp running but switched to indoor activities. In Penticton, just up the road from Summerland, local Jewish resident Tami Bray, who works for an environmental organization, has been running a city-wide relief centre, but feeling frustrated that politicians aren’t using the words “climate change” to describe what has caused this summer’s devastation. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner hears from these four Jewish residents on the front lines of the out-of-control Bald Range fire. Related links:
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| Jewish students speak out after landmark campus antisemitism study | 14 Aug 2026 | 00:26:54 | |
On Aug. 5, a new national study of antisemitism on Canadian university campuses revealed a startling reality: 95.7 per cent of Jewish students surveyed said they had experienced or witnessed antisemitism in the past year. The report received wide coverage, including in The CJN, but there’s more to this story than that disturbing number. The 1,200 anecdotes submitted by students paint a vivid picture of being targeted by peers and professors for their faith and identities. The research was originally commissioned by the office of Canada’s Special Envoy on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism, Deborah Lyons, before Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government scrapped both her office and the Islamophobia czar’s in February 2026. When Carney announced the makeup of a new federal Advisory Council on Rights, Equality and Inclusion in June, he told the members to tackle antisemitism first, especially on campus. That’s when the study’s authors reminded the government it already had the research sitting there, which it had paid for. But what else does this report tell us? What do Jewish university, college and CEGEP students actually say happened to them? And now that we have the research, what happens next? On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast with Ellin Bessner, you’ll hear several of the students who spoke out, along with Cary Kogan, a University of Ottawa professor who was an advisor on the report and helped make it public last week, who spoke with The CJN’s Zenith Wolfe. Related links
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| Finding their people: How B.C.’s small Jewish communities are growing | 12 Aug 2026 | 00:25:55 | |
In May, Jewish residents in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island were invited to celebrate the festival of Lag BaOmer around a bonfire. On Aug. 6, a kayak paddling excursion on Burnaby’s Deer Lake attracted 30 members of that city’s Jewish community. Coming up on Aug. 23, Jewish residents of Squamish and Whistler are planning a boat cruise to spot wildlife, followed by a brunch. These different events around British Columbia have something in common: they’re part of a new project underway in the province in response to the measurable shift of Jewish people moving away from Vancouver’s traditional Jewish corridor. Whether for affordability reasons or lifestyle choices, the populatin of Jews living outside Vancouver grew by 60 per cent, according to official figures. Jewish communities like Victoria are seeing tremendous population growth, while the Okanagan region is growing, too. That is why Vancouver’s Jewish Federation officially changed its name this summer to the Jewish Federation of B.C., to better reflect the territory they intend to represent. As part of an annual budget of $1.2 million, they have hired nearly a dozen local Jewish leaders whose job it is to help boost Jewish life in places without easy access to a synagogue, kosher food and the like. Funding is also available for events and outreach, and plans are underway to hire another “community connector” for Prince George. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner checks in with two curent community connectors: Jessica Benoualid, a former Montrealer stationed in the Comox Valley, and Jenny Reznik, serving in Burnaby/New Westminster, who’s fighting political battles at City Hall; and we speak with Mijal Ben-Dori, who oversees the entire outreach program and says other Jewish federations in Canada are taking notes. Related links
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| This Canadian soldier waited 109 years for his funeral Kaddish | 10 Aug 2026 | 00:25:32 | |
When Canadian First World War soldier Pvt. Albert Detmold was killed by German shelling on Aug. 15, 1917, while digging communication trenches on the front lines in northern France, he could never have imagined that more than a century later, both a Chabad rabbi from Toronto and a Ukrainian Catholic priest from Saskatoon would preside over his formal military burial. Detmold’s remains were discovered by construction workers in a field near the French city of Lens in the summer of 2020. They’d lain there for over 100 years, sharing the fate of many hundreds of his comrades who lost their lives in the Battle for Hill 70, after Vimy Ridge. While Detmold’s name was later engraved on the Vimy Ridge Memorial as missing with no known grave, in late 2025, DNA testing and historical sleuthing allowed Canada’s Department of National Defence to make a positive ID. Arrangements were soon put in place to mount a formal reburial ceremony on July 9, in France, Detmold’s actual birth date. He was born into a prominent European Jewish family before coming to Canada, so inquiries were made about the possibility of having a Star of David engraved on Detmold’s gravestone. But officials ultimately decided to bury him under a cross, as the soldier had enlisted as a Presbyterian. Detmold’s great-niece, Liana Walters, of Tees, Alta., traveled to France to represent the family at the service, and told The CJN she “would have liked to have seen the Star of David on the tombstone as well.” On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with chaplain Maj. (Rabbi) Arnold Noteh Glogauer, of Thornhill, Ont., who recently returned from officiating at the burial, and with Walters, the great-niece, about their surprisingly emotional farewell for the long-lost soldier. Related stories
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| ‘In my baseball team, I’m the only Jewish kid’: What the JCC Maccabi Games mean to its athletes | 07 Aug 2026 | 00:26:23 | |
For the past week, Canada has played host to more than 2,000 Jewish teen athletes from around the world, who competed at the 2026 JCC Maccabi Games. Competitors and their families came from 75 communities across Canada, the U.S.A, Israel, Europe and South America. Due to tight security, Monday night’s opening ceremony—with 10,000 guests and Israeli entertainers Yuval Rafael and Nissim Black—was staged far outside the city. Even the locations of the main activity venues were being kept under wraps until after the final whistles on Aug. 6. The teenage athletes say they came first and foremost hoping to win medals in the myriad sports being played. But, as The CJN’s North Star host Ellin Bessner discovered after spending a day with some of them, the Games were also about meeting other Jewish teens who may be the only person of their faith on their school or city teams. On this episode you’ll hear from three Toronto baseball players chasing gold on home turf after missing this summer’s Maccabiah in Israel; an Edmonton goalkeeper playing on a composite team with athletes from small Jewish communities; an Israeli volunteer spending his gap year mentoring vulnerable youth; a pioneering JCC Access athlete from Miami; and former Survivor winner Ethan Zohn, who shared his message of resilience with a new generation of Jewish athletes. Related stories
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| Moncton's Tiferes Israel Synagogue celebrates 100 years with reunion, plans for second century | 05 Aug 2026 | 00:23:23 | |
More than 135 descendants of Moncton, N.B.'s founding Jewish families returned over the August long weekend for a sold-out centennial reunion at Tiferes Israel Synagogue, sharing memories, meals and hopes for the future of one of Canada’s oldest Jewish communities. The reunion, dubbed “Kum A Heim“, filled the historic Orthodox synagogue on Steadman St., which served as a central hub for the events—including two plaque dedications, a tree planting, a walk through the community’s cemetery, Shabbat services, and greetings received from King Charles and other government officials. “We wanted everybody to feel like they were coming home,” organizer Sandra Rose told The CJN. “They’re really here in the synagogue and it is their home, whether they came from, you know, New York or whether they came from down the street.” The weekend also demonstrated a bittersweet reality: many younger attendees have long since moved away, the current synagogue congregation is aging, and the building itself needs crucial repairs. Yet the organizers say they are determined to keep going and begin a second century, albeit with a very different Jewish community than the one that built it back in the 1920s. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner hears from organizer Sandra Rose, who now lives in Fredericton; her cousin Anne Jochelman, who ran the shul’s kitchen for the entire weekend; and Audrey Lampert, who spoke about her city’s Jewish history during the Friday night welcome dinner in the shul banquet hall. Related links
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| From Toronto to Texas: Why Shloime Zionce is driving his Cybertruck cross-continent on a mitzvah mission | 31 Jul 2026 | 00:25:59 | |
Last week, if you were in Toronto, you may have spotted a striking yellow-and-black Tesla Cybertruck cruising around the city. Behind the wheel was Shloime Zionce, the Toronto-raised White House correspondent for Ami Magazine and YouTube creator. He grew up in Toronto’s Orthodox Jewish community before moving to the U.S. to attend yeshiva. While visiting his parents and extended family in his native city, Zionce launched his cross-continent mitzvah mission at a July 21 event outside the Promenade Shopping Centre in Thornhill. He will take the self-driving Cybertruck on the road, on his two-year quest to drive through all 50 U.S. states. He’s encouraging Jewish pride and mitzvot in response to the surge of antisemitism since Oct. 7. Zionce is paying for the project himself to honour his late friend, Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan, who was kidnapped and murdered by Islamic terrorists in the United Arab Emirates in 2024. The eye-catching design is intentional. “Overall we need eyeballs on this thing because if you want to connect with Jews, the Jews have to notice you and see that you’re there. And this vehicle is pretty hard to to go unnoticed.” On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner gets a private tour including climbing aboard for a ride through Zionce’s grandmother’s Thornhill neighbourhood, as he explains the mission behind one of the most unusual Jewish outreach vehicles on the road. Related links:
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| Building Jewish Canada out West: Vancouver's JWest reaches milestone, Edmonton's new JCC well underway | 29 Jul 2026 | 00:27:06 | |
Canada’s largest public Jewish construction project, the JWest campus in Vancouver, has reached a significant milestone. About two weeks ago, on July 16, Vancouver’s city council approved an updated rezoning proposal for the $235 million redevelopment that will build a new Jewish community centre, with a revamped Holocaust museum and a day care, a theatre and space for 20 Jewish agencies, and also a larger King David High School right next door. Eventually, the builders hope to erect two apartment towers offering 630 rental units, including some non-profit housing. Groundbreaking for the new JCC is expected this fall, according to Alex Cristall, the chair of the JWest Foundation, the fundraising arm. Meanwhile, in Edmonton, work has been underway for months on a new JCC for the Alberta capital, which hasn’t had one since 2012. Edmonton’s construction is expected to be finished by early in the winter of 2027, according to Stacey Leavitt-Wright, the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Edmonton. The $6 million project to refit an old Boy Scouts regional headquarters will build “a living room” for the city’s Jewish community, she said. Unlike Vancouver’s massive undertaking, Edmonton’s will be on a much smaller scale. It won’t have a gym or a pool. But both communities share a common goal: creating new brick and mortar hubs to provide a much-welcome meeting place for Jews who have been seeking stronger community connections since Oct. 7, 2023. On today’s episode of The Canadian Jewish News’ North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with Alex Cristall and Stacey Leavitt-Wright about where each project stands to date, and why they are a bet on the future growth of Jewish life in Western Canada. Related links
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| Rejected by his parents for being gay, Harvey Brownstone turned pain into a best-selling memoir | 27 Jul 2026 | 00:38:30 | |
“Everything I did was about making my parents proud,” said retired Ontario Court of Justice judge Harvey Brownstone, summing up his lifetime struggle for acceptance. Rejected and cut off at age 19 when he told his parents he was gay, Hamilton native Harvey Brownstone went on to succeed in school, in the legal profession, and now in the world of show business. But his new book, “Without Prejudice: My Life as a Gay Judge” , which was released earlier this summer, reveals the heart-breaking personal cost of fighting homophobia from his family, at university, Bay Street law firms, and even from the top level of the Ontario government. But as Brownstone turned 70 last week, on July 24, he is thrilled that his life story is now touching a chord with so many readers both in the gay community and beyond. His book has been on the bestseller lists. Soon, a new Hollywood bio-pic of his life, starring David Arquette, based on the manuscript, is to be released this fall. And while Brownstone doesn’t have his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, nearly five years post-retirement from the bench, he’s already interviewed hundreds of famous movie stars since he launched his second career as a celebrity talk-show host in 2021. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, Harvey Brownstone returns to the show to talk about the reaction to his new book: he shares how he finally forgave his mother, why the Ontario court system — specially family court — needs a serious remake, and he gives his advice for any young people considering when to “come out” to their families. Related links
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| The search for Esti: Inside Shomrim Toronto's biggest mission ever | 24 Jul 2026 | 00:40:16 | |
Shomrim Toronto became the public face of the massive volunteer effort to help Toronto police search for 14-year-old Esti, an autistic Jewish teenager who went missing from her home for two weeks in May. Hundreds of volunteers from the Jewish community and beyond came out to help in the civilian-led search, putting up posters and flyers, bringing food, supporting the family, and raising funds for a $25,000 reward for information. On May 28, Toronto police announced they’d located her, safe and sound, in a basement apartment many kilometres away from her home. While there won’t be any charges laid, and police have now said the case is closed, the impact of the mission—their biggest ever since their founding five years ago—has left a deep impact on Shomrim Toronto’s volunteers. In this exclusive interview with The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner sits down with Avi Grinberg and Kevin (Menachem) Silver of Shomrim Toronto, who explain how they became the hub of the massive community civilian search, how Esti’s family is doing now, and how the experience will shape the organization’s future. Related stories
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| Meet the Canadian now leading one of the world's oldest Jewish women's organizations | 22 Jul 2026 | 00:27:28 | |
Debbie Wasserman has spent nearly four decades volunteering with the National Council of Jewish Women in Canada. Now she’s taken on her highest profile role yet: she’s the new president of the International Council of Jewish Women (ICJW), a century-old umbrella NGO representing Jewish women’s organizations in 36 countries on five continents, from Argentina to Nigeria to Croatia. The organization advocates for women’s rights on a global stage, including at the United Nations and the Council of Europe. Their members speak out on issues including human trafficking, domestic violence, antisemitism, and, after Oct. 7, security for Israel and raising awareness about the sexual violence Hamas terrorists carried out against Israeli women. Wasserman got her start in public service as a young mother in Toronto, including helping run the National Council of Jewish Women Toronto branch’s famous annual Passover food basket campaign. Today, after many leadership positions with the Canadian affiliate, she’s now only the second Canadian woman in history to lead the historic international NGO. In this episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, Wasserman joins host Ellin Bessner to discuss the priorities she’ll be tackling over the next four years, including an exciting project launching first right now in Canada: “The Power of Small Conversations”, an initiative to fight antisemitism, which Wasserman hopes can become a model for Jewish communities around the world. Related links:
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| He survived the Holocaust as a child. Now he has drawn those memories | 20 Jul 2026 | 00:25:28 | |
Vancouver Holocaust survivor Adam Policzer, 87, is marking three major milestones this summer: the publication of his first English-language Holocaust autobiography in the form of a 60-page graphic novel, The House Across the Street; the premiere of a documentary about his life; and the 80th anniversary of his reunion with his father after the Second World War in July 1946. Eighty years ago, Policzer was reunited with his father, who had fled Hungary before the outbreak of the Second World War and found safety in Chile. But the child and his mother didn’t get out in time before the Nazis invaded Hungary. So, Policzer’s mother arranged to hide her young son with the Christian family living across the street in the city of Miskolc. She was later deported to Auschwitz, and eventually perished in a Nazi slave-labour camp in Poland. Policzer eventually moved from Chile to Vancouver, B.C. in the 1970s, where he worked as an architect. He and his wife wanted to leave a memoir for their grandchildren, so he drew his story as a graphic novel, published in Canada in June by Dirty Water Comics. Policzer believes he is one of the few child survivors who vividly remembers the Holocaust, and possibly one of the only survivors to tell his story as a graphic novel with his own drawings. The story has also inspired a new documentary about him which recently premiered at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival. On today’s fresh episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, Adam Policzer joins host Ellin Bessner to explain how drawing his images helped him deal with his Holocaust trauma, while paying tribute to the Christian family that repeatedly risked their lives to save his, but never qualified for recognition by Yad Vashem. Also joining are the filmmakers Jamie Michaels and Liam Karp, both from Winnipeg. Related stories
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| [Greatest Hits] Nautical nachas: This summer, welcome Shabbat on a boat in the Laurentians | 17 Jul 2026 | 00:28:18 | |
This episode originally aired on July 25, 2025. Ellin Bessner will return with new episodes next week. If you happen to be in the Laurentians one Friday afternoon this summer, near the Saint-Agathe, a resort area north of Montreal that’s popular with Jewish families, you might hear clapping, singing and loud Jewish music blasting from a flotilla of boats tied together in the middle of a lake. The gatherings represent two concurrent pre-Shabbat get-togethers, where Jewish cottagers motor out, tie up in a circle and welcome in the Sabbath. Attendees have raved about the trend, praising it for bringing badly needed Jewish resilience and inspiration that lasts long after the boat owners set their feet on dry land. In fact, the idea has been such a success that it’s multiplied. There are, in fact, two different spiritual celebrations each Friday, organized and operated by separate people. Both groups of boats listen to Jewish music alongside candles, challah, a rabbi and seafaring shmoozing, but don’t mix them up—each organizer is quick to point out key differences in flavour and religious observance. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with Howard Stotland, who runs the event from Ivry-sur-le-Lac, and Rabbi Emanuel Carlebach, who runs a different Pre-“Shabb’o’at” program out of the Congregation House of Israel in nearby Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts. Credits
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| [Menschwarmers] Apparently Egypt losing in the World Cup is a Zionist conspiracy | 15 Jul 2026 | 00:34:06 | |
This episode of Menschwarmers originally aired on July 9, 2026. Subscribe at thecjn.ca/menschwarmers. __ The recent FIFA World Cup match between Egypt and Argentina became a surprising battleground for—what else?—the Israel-Palestine debate. The Egyptian coach, who had been waving a Palestinian flag during the competition, grew frustrated when Argentinian fans began waving Israeli flags at him. It’s the latest culmination of a longstanding anti-Zionist (and weirdly antisemitic) dislike of Argentinian star Lionel Messi, who has been accused of being a Jewish Zionist by Egyptian officials in the past. So is Messi an honorary Jew now? According to antisemites: yes he is. And you know what? Sure, we’ll take him. Outside of the soccer pitch, a Jewish baseball newcomer Cole Carrigg is making noise in Colorado; veteran Alysha Clark is still making appearances on WNBA courts; and Max Homa is enjoying a mid-season comeback on the greens. Our Jewish sports podcasters explain it all on the latest episode of Menschwarmers. Plus: take a first listen to our brand new theme song by Kosha Dillz. Credits
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| [Greatest Hits] Despite a victorious court ruling, women are still second-class citizens at the Western Wall | 13 Jul 2026 | 00:19:28 | |
This episode originally aired on July 26, 2023, when this podcast was called The CJN Daily_. We will resume all-new stories next week._ There were whistles and angry shouts of “Go back to New York” and “Get lost” on July 19, 2023, at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, as a group of observant Jewish women known as Women of the Wall conducted their monthly morning prayer service—complete with a small Torah scroll they’d smuggled in with them. Using the scroll is against the rules set down by the holy site’s authorities, which still only permits men to have the sacred scrolls or to chant prayers out loud. And as has happened for years, the women had to run a gauntlet of security forces who searched them for religious items. They also had to endure noisy insults and even physical attacks from Haredi men and women who oppose the women’s non-Orthodox methods of praying at the Kotel. Some threw red juice at the women’s prayer shawls. The Israeli courts have just handed a legal victory of sorts to the women, thanks to a ruling by a Jerusalem judge that says they can no longer be subjected to invasive special searches of their bags and purses for religious articles. However, the ruling stopped short of legalizing their requests to use Torahs. On this Tisha b’Av episode of The CJN Daily, producer Zac Kauffman took his recording gear into the crowd to bring us this special on-the-ground report. He talks to the women involved in the service, and to some protesters, including one with Canadian roots, who came to drown them out. What we talked about
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| [Not in Heaven] Do you need to feel hate to commit a hate crime? | 10 Jul 2026 | 00:38:15 | |
This episode originally aired on Not in Heaven on July 9, 2026. Subscribe to Not in Heaven here. How much does motive matter when it comes to hate crimes? In recent years, Canadian Jews have been rocked by a series of attacks on their community institutions, including late-night shootings at schools and synagogues, attempted arson, and smashing community centres' windows. Many Jews have met the situation with a profound sense of dislocation and disbelief; a feeling that the country they once thought they knew had radically shifted around them, that their non-Jewish neighbours were not who they thought they were. But last month, new information emerged about the alleged perpetrators of these crimes. According to reports in both Toronto and Montreal, some significant portion of these attacks were carried out by ‘gig-criminals’, a kind of gun-for-hire network of young people getting paid thousands of dollars from anonymous clients to shoot at targets as varied as waste managment plants, the American embassy, tow truck companies—and Jewish instiutions. This prompted our rabbinic podcasters to ask: if the perpetrators of at least some of these shootings were motivated by financial gain, and not animus towards Jews in particular (as one arsonist has claimed in court as recently as this week), how does that change our community narrative? Will collective pressure on politicians to combat antisemitism actually help the situation, if the criminals are not motivated by antisemitism? And, on a deeper level, do you need to feel hate to commit a hate crime? Credits
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| [Greatest Hits] After escaping the Jasper forest fires, this tourist couple found safety in the Jewish community | 08 Jul 2026 | 00:28:22 | |
This episode originally aired Aug. 7, 2024. Sharon Chodirker and Chaim Bell consider themselves lucky: they were among the tens of thousands of tourists and residents in Jasper who were evacuated from the forest fires that devoured a third of the buildings in the iconic Rocky Mountain resort town on July 24. The Toronto couple, who were on a hiking trip, managed to escape Jasper while smoke and ash rained down on their rental car. When they reached a safe spot across the border in British Columbia, they slept in their vehicle and dined on kosher snacks they'd stored in their portable cooler. Two days after their frightening journey, flames up to 100 metres high swept right through where their hotel stood, destroying several buildings. Now they're sharing their survival story from the safety of their Toronto home, while the town of Jasper remains off-limits except for emergency crews—and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who visited on Aug. 5. On today's episode of The CJN Daily, we hear from the Toronto couple personally, as well as Rabbi Dovid Pinson of Canmore who runs the new Chabad community centre outside Banff and hosted the evacuees. We'll also hear from Heidi Coleman, the head of the Jewish community in Kamloops, B.C., who felt like she was starring in the musical Come From Away when she helped a busload of stranded Jasperites in her city. What we talked about
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| [Greatest Hits] The best country for Jews to live in is... Canada? | 06 Jul 2026 | 00:10:34 | |
Ellin Bessner is off on a well-deserved summer vacation, so we're bringing back some favourite episodes from the archives. This episode originally ran on May 31, 2021. Has there ever been a better home for Jews than Canada? That's the bold question being asked in a new collection of essays, No Better Home?: Jews, Canada, and the Sense of Belonging. The book's editor, David S. Koffman, joins to discuss the merits behind the argument: how Canada might be the most inviting, safe and tolerant country for Jews in the world. Credits
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