North Star with Ellin Bessner

Le Château was a fashion fixture across shopping malls in Canada during its heyday in the 1970s and ’80s. Founder Herschel Segal, a Montrealer who recently died, is credited with bringing bell-bottom jeans to the masses—and later helping to launch the David’s Tea brand. Segal is one of the five prominent Canadian Jewish leaders we’ve lost since this spring, and whose larger-than-life achievements left a clear mark on the community. Today, we honour those men and women with another episode of our recurring podcast series, Honourable Menschen. Also in today’s show: Larry Robbins, 94, known affectionately as “Zaidy Larry”, was one of the original founders of Toronto real estate development giant Great Gulf Homes. In his later years, he pivoted from putting up private homes to helping young people develop stronger ties with their Jewish identity. Elly Bollegraaf, of Ottawa, started life as a hidden child in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands, before becoming a scientist and well-known Holocaust educator in Canada. David Attis rose to fame when he took on a notorious Holocaust denier who was a teacher in the school system of Moncton, New Brunswick. And Rabbi Mordechai Feuerstein, 78, spent many years as the spiritual leader of Vancouver’s Orthodox Congregation Schara Tzedeck synagogue, maintaining close ties with the Reform Jews who once shared the building. On today’s episode of Honourable Menschen on North Star (formerly The CJN Daily), host Ellin Bessner is joined by The CJN’s obituary columnist, Heather Ringel, to share their personal encounters with these prominent community members. Related links Read about the life of philanthropist Larry Robbins in The CJN. How Elly Bollegraaf went from hidden Dutch child to Canadian scientist, in The CJN. Rabbi Mordechai Feuerstein of Vancouver built ties between his Orthodox Schara Tzedeck synagogue and local Reform Rabbi Philip Bregman, in The CJN. Why Moncton-native David Attis fought against an infamous Holocaust denier teacher, in The CJN. Herschel Segal came from Montreal garment industry royalty to found Le Chateau stores, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

Michael Levenston has long known about his father’s heroism in the Second World War. But he didn’t know his father dated a Dutch woman there, a nurse, who helped rescue downed Allied pilots—and he had no idea his father had gifted the Resistance member several personal keepsakes, including a battered Canadian flag, his army beret and a radio. The woman kept those artifacts until her death in 2014. Having recently discovered his father’s wartime romantic past when he sorted through old wartime photos and letters, he felt suddenly compelled to repatriate the flag, especially after hearing U.S. President Donald Trump taunt Canada as “the 51st state” and Prime Minister Mark Carney retaliate with the country’s “Elbows up” campaign. Levenston, from his home in Vancouver, contacted the woman’s family, and asked them to try to find the flag. The flag arrived recently back in Canada, in relatively good condition, despite some insect holes and dirt stains, and now Levenston plans to fly it proudly to celebrate Canada Day 2025. On this special Canada Day episode of The CJN’s _North Star _podcast, host Ellin Bessner sits down to hear the full flag story with Michael Levenston—and also calls across the pond to speak with the Dutch ex-girlfriend’s son, Rein Putman Cramer, who lives in Naarden, the Netherlands. Related links Read more about the late Gerald Levenston’s role in accepting the German surrender in May 1945. Watch a video of the late Gerald Levenston describe why he got Canadian troops to rescue hundreds of priceless Van Gogh and Picasso paintings after the Canadian Army liberated the Netherlands from the Germans in 1945. Buy the book about Gerald Levenston’s wartime romance with Ada Hugenholtz, a Dutch nurse in the Resistance. 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)

As Canadian public schools and universities wind down the 2024-2025 academic year this week, Jewish students can enjoy a desperately needed break from what has, by many accounts, been a difficult year for antisemitism in classrooms and on campuses. In the past school year alone, The CJN has reported on more than 70 stories involving protests, vandalism, harassment, lawsuits, school board policies and other incidents that have occurred since Oct. 7: masked anti-Israel protesters smashed buildings at McGill University; a high school in Ottawa played a pro-Hamas song during the Remembrance Day ceremonies; a professor offered students extra marks for cutting class to join, and write essays about, a pro-Palestinian protest; Jewish teachers and at least one pro-Israel school board trustee have been accused of anti-Palestinian racism. Unsurprisingly, enrolment in private Jewish day schools has been soaring, as worried Jewish parents transfer out of the public system so their kids won’t be bullied—or worse. And the pro- and anti- Israel battle playing out in Canada’s classrooms, school board meetings and most recently during convocation and graduation ceremonies has been impacting Jewish teachers and faculty and students in many ways. On today’s episode of North Star, host Ellin Bessner sits down with The CJN’s education beat reporter, Mitchell Consky, to take stock of the biggest stories of this past academic year and what the upcoming fall semester could look like. Related links Read more about how, if at all, Canadian universities moved to adopt any of the divestment requests of the pro-Palestinian encampments’ students, in The CJN. Learn how Jewish students on campus are publishing their own newspapers because pro-Israel, Zionist views are banned from longtime legacy campus outlets, in The CJN. Hear why the former dean of U of T’s medical school, Arnie Aberman, gave back his honorary degree in protest over campus antisemitism. 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)

A direct hit by two Iranian missiles on June 15 caused an estimated $500 million worth of damage to the campus of Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, in Rehovot, Israel. They destroyed a major cancer research building and a chemistry building that was still under construction. Four days later, Iran targeted the area of Beersheba’s Ben-Gurion University campus, directly hitting its teaching hospital, the Soroka Medical Center. A surgical wing was hit, injuring about 70 people, including some patients. The impact also damaged at least half of the university’s 60 buildings. Meanwhile, a new strike just yesterday on June 24 in the city killed four Israelis, when the missile hit an apartment complex, rendering many more university staff homeless. Since 2003, the Canadian fundraising chapters of Weizmann and Ben-Gurion have sent over $320 million in donations to these two universities in Israel. The gifts purchased research equipment, built labs, funded scholarships and in some cases, had buildings or departments named after them, including the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Theoretical Physics at Weizmann and the Azrieli National Centre for Autism at Ben-Gurion. Seeing the scenes of destruction has been heartbreaking for Canadian philanthropists. But after the initial shock of the last weeks, Canadian supporters are now swinging into action, launching emergency fundraising campaigns to rebuild—even, as they say, if it takes years. On today’s episode of North Star, The CJN’s flagship news podcast, host Ellin Bessner checks in with Susan Stern, CEO of Weizmann Canada, and Andrea Freedman, the CEO of Ben-Gurion University Canada. Related links Learn more about Weizmann Institute Canada’s emergency fundraising recovery fund. Find out what Ben-Gurion University’s Canadian branch is doing to raise funds to rebuild labs and classrooms. How some Canadian wings of Israeli-Jewish charities quietly, and not so quietly, launched appeals for funds after hundreds of Iranian missiles targeted the Jewish State since June 13, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

For over a week now, we have been reporting stories about Canadians stranded in Israel since that country launched its pre-emptive attack on Iran on June 13. But slowly, and under the radar for security reasons, The CJN has been speaking to some of the first tourists who found ways to evacuate Israel–mostly without any help from the Canadian government. We couldn’t report their stories until it was safe to do so. But now that many of the Canadians we interviewed last week are either home or well on their way, we can bring you some of their amazing stories–whether it was boarding that all-expenses paid, chartered luxury Israeli cruise ship for a party-filled voyage to Cyprus or taking an anxiety-filled secret bus trip through Israel to Jordan and then a flight to Cairo, and finally on to Europe, all while hiding their Jewishness and the fact they are gay. Leonard Temes is an architect and interior designer from Toronto who came to Israel for on a Pride mission with a Jewish Federations of North America group, but left clandestinely five days ago. He had the added fright of finding himself on the same plane as those extremist pro-Palestinian protesters who tried to participate on the global March on Gaza, but were kicked out of Egypt by local authorities. Meanwhile Philip Lerner, a Thornhill data scientist, came to Israel to volunteer with an Orthodox youth group connected to the AISH movement. Lerner was offered a berth on that Israeli cruise ship chartered by Birthright, via Ashdod to Cyprus. He’s dubbed the overnight voyage “The Jew Cruise”. But Lerner says despite what social media videos you might have seen of the 1,500 Jewish young people dancing and partying on the pool deck, the overall journey was anything but smooth sailing. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with both Leonard Temes and Philip Lerner, about how they got out. Related links Hear why some Canadian young people on subsidized Israel-volunteer programs like Birthright and Olami got out of the country, while those with MASA did not, yet, in The CJN. How a Canadian survived a direct missile hit in Tel Aviv, by praying and channeling Queen Esther, her personal heroine, on The CJN’s North Star podcast. Read more about Philip Lerner and his advocacy for people with autism, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

In the early hours of Monday, June 16, Alana Ruben Free was sheltering in a friend’s safe room—with her friend, several other women and three cats—when they heard the loudest boom any of them had ever experienced. The six-storey apartment building in a popular Tel Aviv district was one of many that was destroyed or badly damaged by a powerful Iranian missile in the barrage that morning; in this case, the missile exploded in the parking lot directly across the street right smack in the neighbourhood’s central plaza. The playwright and visual artist, who is originally from Fredericton, N.B., does not even live in Tel Aviv, but in Jerusalem. She was spending a weekend visiting friends and family, including several who had come from Canada for the city’s famous Pride parade.and was staying as a guest in a friend’s apartment. We aren’t saying where it was, following the Israeli military’s current censorship protocols. It took Israeli emergency crews a long time to free the four shaken survivors, but except for a cut knee from broken glass, they and their feline friends were fine. Now Ruben Free is crediting her miraculous story to reciting prayers and to reflecting on the story Queen Esther of Persia, her personal Jewish heroine. Alana Ruben Free explains why on today’s episode of The CJN_‘s_ flagship news podcast, North Star. Related links Hear more about how Canadians in Israel are being impacted by the Iranian missiles, on the North Star podcast of The CJN. Learn more about Alana Ruben Free. Read more about Alana Ruben Free’s art show in Israel, in the archives of The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

Eva Kuper, a Holocaust survivor from Montreal, spent the first five years of her life hiding from the Nazis in German-occupied Poland. Now, the well-known Holocaust educator is stranded in Israel together with a group of university and CEGEP students on the “Journey of Hope”, a trip supported by Montreal’s Federation CJA. After visiting Auschwitz with the students two weeks ago, and taking them to see the sites in Poland where Kuper grew up between 1940 and 1945, the delegation landed in Israel a week ago—just before Israel launched its surprise air raids on Iran on June 13. Since then, Iran has been retaliating with nightly barrages of missiles and drones that have now killed 24 people and injured more than 600 others. The action curtailed the Canadians’ trip, and the group is now spending its time confined to their hotel, rushing down to bomb shelters when the air raid sirens go off. While the students—and their worried parents—have been anxious, Kuper has been impressed by the scenes of resilience she has observed. She joins _North Star _host Ellin Bessner from Israel. In this episode, you’ll also hear from Yair Szlak, the CEO of Federation CJA of Montreal, who explains what his organization is doing to help bring people home, and from Glenn Nashen, a parent of a teenager now on Birthright who is also stranded in Israel. Related links Read more about Eva Kuper, a prolific Holocaust educator, in The CJN. Order a copy of Eva Kuper’s autobiography A Beacon of Light, from the Azrieli Foundation survivors memoirs. Learn about the Journey for Hope sponsored by Montreal’s Federation CJA. 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 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)

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)