North Star with Ellin Bessner

According to Robert Brym, a sociology professor at the University of Toronto, while two-thirds of Canada’s Jews currently feel unsafe and victimized in this country, and think it will get worse, his new study also shows most non-Jewish Canadians actually have positive feelings about Jews. His research was published before B’nai Brith Canada released its annual antisemitism audit earlier this week, in which the organization cited at least 5,791 incidents of violence, harassment, online attacks and threats against Jews in Canada in 2023—the highest level recorded since it began documenting this phenomenon more than 40 years ago. The worrying trends were also noted in a global report by the Anti-Defamation League and Tel Aviv University, which indicates “that the war in Gaza helped spread a fire that was already out of control.” But Brym calls both those reports “misleading” and he questions their “very flawed” methods. His findings, published in the spring 2024 edition of the academic journal Canadian Jewish Studies, measure people’s attitudes to Jews and Israel, not antisemitic incidents. While he found 83% of Canadians hold positive feelings about Jews, the antisemitism comes primarily from four specific groups in Canadian society—Muslims, white supremacists and leftists, non-Jewish university students, and Quebecois. As Brym tells The CJN Daily, his study should also be a wakeup call for Canadian Jewish leaders that they’re tackling the problem of antisemitism the wrong way. What we talked about: Read Robert Brym’s survey on Canadians’ attitudes towards Jews and Israel, published in Canadian Jewish Studies, Read B’nai Brith Canada’s 2023 antisemitism audit, and read The CJN’s coverage of its release Read the ADL/Tel Aviv University report on global antisemitic incidents in 2023 Credits: The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.

Organizers of the 36th annual March of the Living commemoration, in Poland, knew that this year’s three-kilometre walk at Auschwitz would feel even more poignant after Oct. 7. That’s why some Israeli Holocaust survivors were invited to join the procession, which honoured not just the memory of the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust—but also the 1,200 people in Israel who were murdered in the single worst slaughter of Jews since 1945. Yet it appears some groups in Poland weren’t willing to allow the annual March of the Living to proceed without conflating the ongoing Middle East war with Hitler’s systematic genocide. Pro-Palestinian protesters wore keffiyehs, waved flags and held signs saying “Stop the Genocide” as the marchers passed by. It was a scene one Canadian family will never forget. Harvey Wright, 85, whose grandparents were among Hitler’s victims; his son Erin Wright, of Edmonton, who served as the trip’s physician; and Erin’s daughters, Abby and Zoe, currently university students, all join The CJN Daily to explain why they joined the march this year and how they hope it will help them face an uncomfortable future for Canadian Jews. What we talked about: Read survivor Nate Leipciger’s message to travellers on this year’s Canadian delegation to the March of the Living, in The CJN Learn how the annual Canadian delegation to the March of the Living is scaled down for 2024, in The CJN Watch the March of the Living 2024 recorded broadcast Credits: The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.

Show notes Vancouver Holocaust speaker Rubin Pinsky fled a Nazi work camp in May 1942 and survived for more than two years in the forests of Poland, serving as a teenage Jewish partisan. Pinsky, a former yeshiva student, blew up trains, sabotaged telephone wires and killed Nazis and collaborators. One time, he even finished off a timber wolf attempting to hunt a wild rabbit the starving partisans had called dibs on, so to speak—they needed the game for their own next meal. Pinsky’s story of survival, including how he pretended to be a tailor with bad eyesight to enter Canada after the war, is now captured in a gripping new biography. Written by his son Bernard Pinsky, a lawyer and community leader in Vancouver, the book is called Ordinary, Extraordinary: My Father’s Life. The sweeping tale spans nearly a century, beginning and ending in the Pinsky family’s small bakery in modern-day Belarus, with stops in Germany, Montreal, Winnipeg, Regina and finally Vancouver, where Rubin died in 2001. For Yom HaShoah, The CJN Daily is joined by Bernard Pinsky, who explains why he took so long to publish his father’s story—and what he hopes readers will learn. What we talked about: Watch the Yom HaShoah National Memorial Ceremony from Ottawa on Monday, May 6, 2024, beginning at 11 a.m. EST Buy the book about Rubin Pinsky, and watch his video testimony done in 1983 through the Vancouver Holocaust Centre Read how one man is restoring Holocaust-era rural cemeteries in Hungary, one at a time, in The CJN Credits: The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.

Show notes: At least five Canadian university campuses are now home to temporary tent cities erected by pro-Palestinian students protesting Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. The U of T, McGill, Western, the University of Ottawa and the University of British Columbia have all become focal points for protestors insisting they won’t leave until their schools divest of financial ties to Israel, among other demands. Other schools like TMU are coping with sit-in protests. So far, local police departments have not forcibly cleared out the compounds, as happened earlier this week at Columbia University in New York, where the movement began. But protests on this side of the border are equally polarizing: some Jewish students and faculty have joined the protests, while Hillel and other Jewish organizations argue these demonstrations aren’t peaceful, and call for the destruction of Israel and kicking Zionists off campus and out of Canada. So what’s behind the phenomenon? And where will it go next? On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, we hear from Opher Baron, a management professor at the University of Toronto who’s worried that protests could derail an important annual conference he’s hosting next week; then we’re joined by Arno Rosenfeld, the Forward’s antisemitism beat reporter, who’s been covering the chaos from Columbia to UCLA, the University of California, Los Angeles. What we talked about: Read more about McGill encampment, in The CJN Follow Arno Rosenberg’s work and get his Antisemitism Notebook newsletter in the Forward Learn more about Opher Baron at Rotman’s School of Management Listen to Wednesday’s interview with three Canadian Sunday school students who took home the top prizes at the International JewQ contest, run by Chabad, on The CJN Daily Credits: The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.

The youngest child traditionally asks the Four Questions at Passover. But Daniel Marquez, 8, of Mississauga, Ont., could probably have answered all the questions by himself: the Grade 3 student won the 2024 JewQ competition, an annual tournament of Jewish knowledge hosted by Chabad. Marquez hoisted his trophy onstage during a live game show on April 7–held an hour away from the Lubavitch movement’s headquarters in Brooklyn. To reach that point, he had to beat around 4,000 Chabad Sunday school kids from 25 countries during local, regional and national playoffs. It’s an especially remarkable achievement for Daniel because this is his first year of formal Jewish education. His twin brother, David Marquez, also attends the Miriam Robbins Chabad Hebrew School in Mississauga—and he also made it to the JewQ finals, winning a gold medal. A third pupil from the same school, Sofia Mejia Perfiliev, 13, took home gold in her older age group. On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, host Ellin Bessner meets the three Canadian scholars and their teacher Sara Slavin—then tries to answer some of their quiz questions, with surprising results. Listen and play along to ask yourself: do you know Jewish better than a third grader? What we talked about: Watch the 2024 JewQ International Torah Championship broadcast Take the Grade 7 test yourself, and the other tests from Gr. 3 up. Learn more about Mississauga’s Chabad Jewish Discovery Centre and its founding Credits: The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.

Show notes It’s coming up on five months since Paul Finlayson, a business instructor in the Toronto area, was suspended from teaching at the University of Guelph-Humber, in Nov. 2023. Finlayson, who is not Jewish, is the subject of an internal investigation after several students and staff members filed complaints in the aftermath of Oct. 7. They told the university they felt unsafe on campus after seeing one of his personal social media posts on LinkedIn, in which Finlayson sided with Israel and denounced Hamas’s murder of 1,400 Israelis, saying they want a “barbaric primitive Islamic caliphate and hate all post-enlightenment values.” He suggested that someone who said “From the River to the Sea” was a Nazi, wants dead Jews and supports Hitler. Finlayson took his LinkedIn post down in a matter of days, but a week later, the school suspended him. The complaint—led by a Palestinian colleague—said the professor’s words incited hatred, Islamophobia and possibly even physical violence against Muslims, adding that his post “dehumanized Palestinians”. On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, host Ellin Bessner sits down with Finlayson to find out why he is still fighting for his rights to free expression, despite a climate where “Zionist” has become a dirty word on Canadian campuses. What we talked about: Read more from Finlayson and follow his Substack, called “Freedom to Offend” Learn more and donate to a Go Fund Me fundraising campaign to help Finlayson with his legal battle See LinkedIn posts made by complainant prof. Wael Ramadan Credits: The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.

It’s going to be a special Passover seder this year in Victoria, B.C. for The Klezbians, an all-woman musical group that performs Klezmer music. They’re marking 10 years since the band formed to play professionally in 2014. And even before that, the band and their wider group of Jewish lesbian friends have been holding annual inclusive seders, by invitation only, at a private home. These seders started as an alternative to the women’s unpleasant memories of their experiences as lesbians at their own traditional family seders, which were usually not welcoming spaces for them or their partners. Over the years, guests have created their own seder rituals, including making their own haggadah. The seder is usually accompanied by live klezmer performances of their favourite Passover songs. For a special Erev Passover edition of The CJN Daily, we’re joined by two of The Klezbians to hear their heartwarming story: Debby Yaffe is a retired women’s studies professor from the University of Victoria who plays guitar, and Susan Dempsey is a psychotherapist and counsellor who plays the accordion. What we talked about: Read more about the Klezbians on their official Facebook page Check out their music on YouTube Check out Bonjour Chai’s “Third Annual Great Canadian Seder” Credits: The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.

Show notes: In just a few weeks, Ruby Grinberg will be packing her red ball gown and heading to Montreal to compete in the 2024 Miss Canada competition. The 20-year-old Toronto-born political science student will vie for the tiara against 20 other young women in the venerable contest—a pageant that, when it started in the 1940s, was all about beauty and bathing suits, but these days is more about personality. Grinberg isn’t your typical pageant contestant. In fact, she actually entered the event as a bit of a lark. But she isn’t totally unqualified: she’s a world-champion public speaker, debating coach and award-winning community volunteer. She hopes to use her voice and upcoming national platform to raise awareness about cancer, a disease that has directly impacted her own family. However, Grinberg is also acutely aware that being a Jewish woman competing in a public event these days likely will open her up as a target for some ugly antisemitism post Oct. 7, which is why she’s played down that important part of her life… for now. To hear more about her strategy, Grinberg joins The CJN Daily, and later, CJN podcast producer Zac Kauffman tells the history of Connie Gail Feller, his aunt’s sister, who was the first Jewish Miss Canada in 1961. What we talked about: Read more about Ruby Grinberg’s efforts to win Miss Canada, and learn how to vote Read about previous Canadian Jewish pageant contestants, from the archives of TheCJN.ca Read about the first Jewish Miss Canada from 1962, Connie Gail Feller (Salomon). Credits: The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.

The week before Passover is always a busy time for supermarkets’ kosher meat sections. But this year, the meat you’ll find is likely different, because of a change in how kosher cows are being slaughtered in Canada. As The CJN Daily reported on earlier this year, the country’s two main kosher certifying bodies, the Kashruth Council of Canada and the Jewish Community Council in Montreal, which runs MK Kosher, have launched a high-profile legal dispute against the Canadian government. At issue are newly enforced regulations designed to make the killing process more humane for animals—but Jewish groups say they are based on bad science and also violate Jewish freedom of religion; plus, they warn, if they have to continue following them, the added costs could effectively end kosher slaughter in Canada. So who is right? How painless is Jewish ritual slaughter of beef, and what does science say? Is this a Charter case or mainly about money? To discuss the issue, we’re joined by Rabbi Allan Nadler, an Orthodox Montreal commentator and professor, and Dr. Joe Regenstein, a food scientist professor emeritus from Cornell University in New York, who is also one of the world’s foremost experts on ritual slaughter. What we talked about: Hear why MK Kosher and COR are suing the Canadian government on The CJN Daily Learn about a similar, previous threat to the kosher veal industry in Canada, in The CJN (from 2018) Why a Canada-U.S. trade dispute led to higher prices for all kosher imports, in The CJN Credits: The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.

A delegation of 17 Canadians from British Columbia spent an anxious Saturday night hunkered down in Tel Aviv, watching the skies and waiting for air raid sirens, as Iran made good on its threat to retaliate for the Israeli airstrike that killed two top Iranian military commanders in Syria earlier this month. The overnight barrage of 200 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles launched from Iran were been mostly intercepted, according to the Israel Defense Forces, with help from U.S. and other allied forces in the region. There have been few reports of injuries in what Israel’s army calls a major escalation of hostilities. And stuck in the middle of it all is a delegation led by Vancouver’s Jewish Federation that’s been visiting Israel with provincial and municipal politicians, an Indigenous leader and local donors. They were staying inside while booms and sirens blared in the country. On this breaking-news episode of The CJN Daily, Ezra Shanken, the CEO of Vancouver’s Jewish Federation, joins from his hotel in Tel Aviv to describe what the last 24 hours have been like. What we talked about: Watch Ezra Shanken’s videotaped message from Tel Aviv on the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver’s X (Twitter) account Register for the Jewish Federations of North America special briefing on Israel under Iran attack, on Sunday April 14 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time Follow The CJN’s continuing coverage of the Iran attack on Israel, on TheCJN.ca Credits: The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.