North Star with Ellin Bessner

Show notes Two Toronto community leaders have gone public about a legal fight involving one of Canada’s oldest Zionist organizations, which also runs Camp Shalom, a 75-year-old Jewish summer camp in Ontario. David Matlow, a CJN columnist who also lectures widely about Theodore Herzl, has taken the little-known Toronto Zionist Council to court over allegedly restricting who can be a member, claiming the organization only allows Jews who hold right-wing political views on Israel and Zionism. His legal case also alleges years of financial mismanagement by the organization’s former (and one current) directors, negatively impacting the TZC’s neglected Toronto headquarters at 788 Marlee Avenue, and Camp Shalom, in Gravenhurst, Ont. The lawsuit has been before the courts since August 2022. But while it continues, Matlow’s not-so-quiet pressure campaign has already resulted in a partial victory: the replacement of nearly all the longtime TZC directors at the centre of his allegations. Guidy Mamman, a Toronto immigration lawyer, was named the new president of the TZC board, and says he’s vowing to set things right. He wants to help Camp Shalom grow, fix the office building on Marlee, investigate any financial wrongdoing and even try to retrieve any allegedly missing money.  On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, we bring you the full fascinating back story with plaintiff David Matlow and with new TZC president, Guidy Mamman. What we talked about: Read our first part of the investigation into the squalid conditions of The Toronto Zionist Council’s headquarters at 788 Marlee Ave., in The CJN. Watch our tour inside 788 Marlee, on The CJN’s YouTube channel. See the 1995 letter from Revenue Canada revoking an affiliated charity that illegally sent money to the West Bank. 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 Mount Royal’s Member of Parliament, Anthony Housefather, has made headlines for the past three weeks for publicly mulling over whether to quit the governing Liberal party. He found himself torn after being one of just three members of his own party to reject an anti-Israel motion held in Parliament on March 18. But late on Friday, April 5, Housefather announced he will be staying a Liberal after all. Why? It’s partly because he says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau committed to doing even more to fight the rampant antisemitism in Canada since Oct. 7—and expects Housefather to play an important new role. The exact details will be formally announced sometime before Passover, he tells The CJN. He will likely work together with Canada’s special envoy on combatting antisemitism, Deborah Lyons, to tackle the relentless anti-Israel street protests replete with hateful language that have become regular events. He also wants to find better ways to help Jews feel safer, especially at Jewish buildings and on university campuses. Housefather joins The CJN Daily to explain why he made his choice, and what pushback he’s been receiving from Jewish voters and others who felt he should jump to the Conservatives because of that party’s stronger support for Israel. What we talked about Hear Housefather explain why he thought about quitting the Liberal party after March 18’s anti-Israel vote, on The CJN Daily Anthony Housefather intends to run again, in Mount Royal, in The CJN Why the Montreal Jewish community received a court injunction blocking aggressive protests outside Jewish buildings until early April, 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.

For the second time in less than two weeks, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is promising Canadian Jews that he has their backs after Oct. 7 in a way that, he says, Canada’s current prime minister no longer does. Poilievre told a crowd of 600 people at Toronto’s Beth Tikvah synagogue on April 7 that he wants more done to protect Canadian Jews’ rights to live and worship in the country. He called for a crackdown on campus antisemitism, pushed for expanded funding for security around Jewish buildings, and slammed Canadian lawmakers who recently voted in Parliament on March 18 to block arms sales to Israel. The message struck a similar tone to what Poilievre has been promoting in recent weeks—and he’s been finding a receptive audience among Canadian Jews. Many are frustrated with Canada’s resumption of funding for UNRWA, calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, the refusal to denounce a UN court case investigating Israel’s “plausible” genocide against Palestinians—not to mention the fact that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has not yet visited Israel, despite Hamas murdering eight Canadian civilians during the terrorist attacks six months ago. On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, we followed Poilievre during his weekend campaign through Jewish Toronto. You’ll hear from Rabbi Jarrod Grover, who invited him; Rabbi Adam Cutler, and community leaders Claire Horowitz, Karen Kizell and Stan Korolnek. Plus, we tracked down Ephraim Shore, the mysterious rabbi whom the Conservative leader often credits with sparking his support for Israel and the Jewish people decades ago. What we talked about See Pierre Poilievre’s Toronto speech to Beth Tikvah congregation on April 7, 2024, and also watch his speech at the Six Months in Hell Rally for the hostages at Nathan Philips Square on YouTube Read more about Poilievre’s stance on Jewish issues, from a November 2023 announcement he made at Shaarei Shomayim Synaogogue in Toronto, in The CJN Why Poilievre didn’t sanction three Conservative MPs who met with a far-right anti-immigrant European politician in 2023, 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.

With over 41,000 members and counting, the Everything Jewish Toronto Facebook group has found itself serving as an unofficial online public square for Canada’s largest Jewish community. The group was created a decade ago by two Toronto sisters–Jennifer Stallman and Brittney Waxman Sultan–as a vehicle to promote Jewish businesses, for a fee, to a Jewish audience. It has since morphed into a popular online space where Jewish people who aren’t necessarily members of a synagogue or of other formal Jewish organizations, could connect: find a hairdresser, book a lawyer or even rent an apartment. But since Oct. 7, Everything Jewish Toronto has exploded with hundreds of posts per day from members reporting on the Israel-Hamas war, on efforts to free the hostages, and updating when they encounter instances of antisemitism, boycotts, vandalism and threats as a result of the anti-Israel protests happening in Toronto-area schools, hospitals, stores and especially on the streets. So who is behind Everything Jewish Toronto? How do they decide who can join, who can post, and how do they keep the level of discourse civil in a space that can often be flooded with online trolls and hate? On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, we meet the founders: sisters Jennifer Stallman and Brittney Sultan. What we talked about: Learn more about Everything Jewish Toronto on Facebook. See Entertain Kids on a Dime, a related website run by one of the sisters. If you missed Ellin on ‘Bonjour Chai’s last episode about whether Canada is really so antisemitic (because it sure feels like it), listen here on The CJN website. 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.

Just two months after Justin Trudeau held a closed-door meeting with Toronto’s Jewish leaders, the Canadian prime minister spent an hour last week doing the same thing at a Vancouver synagogue, Temple Sholom. Trudeau met privately with four leading community rabbis and the local Federation’s chair of the community security committee. Sources tell The CJN the meeting was arranged in advance by the Liberal MP for Vancouver Granville, Taleeb Noormohamed. While there are 10 members of the Rabbinical Association of Vancouver, the meeting was kept small. Several told The CJN they received criticism from their community for attending, because the meeting came a week after the Liberal government supported an NDP motion on March 18, in the House of Commons, that resulted in halting arms sales to Israel, resuming funding for UNRWA, and—before the language was hastily amended—would have seen Canada unilaterally recognize Palestine as a state. On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, Rabbi Dan Moskovitz of Temple Sholom explains why he felt it was important to “take the prime minister to task” on a half-dozen key issues. What we talked about: See and sign the petition to stop the B.C. Ministry of Education from including the Nakba (meaning “The Catastrophe”, what Palestinians call Israel’s 1948 War of Independence) in the provincial social studies curriculum Watch Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s speech at Beth Israel Beth Aaron synagogue in Montreal on March 26, 2024 When Justin Trudeau quietly met with Toronto Jewish leaders in Jan. 2024—and why some rabbis left dissatisfied, 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.

I got to be a guest on The CJN's 'Bonjour Chai' this week, and actually gave my personal opinions about the past 6 months of being a Jewish journalist in Canada. On The CJN Daily, I don't usually state my opinions, so this is a big debut for me! Here's the show as a special bonus Sunday episode. A slew of headlines came out this week, within Canada and beyond, warning of a rising tide of antisemitism within Canada. It’s not just Fox News and the National Post—_when the Times of Israel is reporting on Canadian Jews worrying their “golden age” is over, and the _Globe and Mail warns of a “dangerous slide into antisemitism“, you know things have gotten bad. Nobody knows this better than Ellin Bessner, host of The CJN Daily, who has been reporting on day-to-day antisemitic acts, political shifts and everything else in the Jewish community since she started her breaking-news podcast in May 2021. To help understand the cultural shift, as well as Canadian government’s recent actions and internal divisions vis-a-vis Israel, she joins for a macro view of everything that’s happened in the last month (and longer). What we talked about Subscribe to The CJN Daily at thecjn.ca Hear Ya’ara Saks explain her now-infamous photo with Mahmoud Abbas on The CJN Daily Hear Anthony Housefather waver on whether he’ll stay in the Liberal Party, on The CJN Daily Credits Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy. Zachary Kauffman is the producer and editor. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a co-production from The Jewish Learning Lab and The CJN, and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast, donating to The CJN and subscribing to the podcast’s Substack.

In the early days after the shock of Oct. 7, many Diaspora Jewish communities including Canada swung into action to send military equipment, clothing and medical supplies to Israel–along with emergency financial help. But with the conflict in its sixth month and over 130 Israeli hostages still being held in captivity, grass roots groups have sprung up from coast to coast to coast, as Canadians take their all their grief and worry from the past few months and try to do something positive with it: some with their hands, some with their feet, and some with light. They are getting out in the world and encouraging others to start moving towards hope-even if it’s just for a few blocks (or a few hats or prayers). On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, we meet members of Run for Their Lives: Toronto’s Tovit Neizer, Thornhill’s Michelle Factor and Vancouver’s Daphna Kedem, plus Calgary’s Michele Doctoroff, who runs, too, but also helms the Knitzvah Project: creating warm hats for IDF soldiers. And you’ll hear about Gale Star’s growing Candles4Israel initiative, now taking place in homes every Friday night in her Toronto neighbourhood. What we talked about: Learn more about Run for Their Lives campaign and find a chapter near you. Read more about Daphna Kedem’s activism in Vancouver, in The CJN. See the pattern to knit toques for IDF soldiers, and learn more about other knitting projects for the IDF, 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.

Just days after Canadian lawmakers voted to stop further export permits of arms sales to Israel, the Israeli ambassador to Ottawa, Iddo Moed, hinted the move would not go unanswered. He told The CJN that Canada’s decision to halt weapons sales—even though the motion was non-binding on the government—sent “the wrong message at the wrong time.” However, Moed denied that Canada’s new policy would make it harder for Israel to defend itself in its current war against Hamas. This is a walk back from comments the ambassador made earlier last week to other media organizations. So how does Israel now view Canada’s pivot in military support for Israel after the March 18 House of Commons vote? What does Israel make of Canada becoming the first G7 country to renew funding for UNRWA, before the UN’s own internal investigation is finished? Is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau even welcome in Israel anymore? Moed returns to _The CJN Daily _nearly six months after his first interview with us, which took place just hours following the Oct. 7 massacre. What we talked about Follow Iddo Moed on Twitter to see his daily posts about the remaining hostages Hear Moed’s first interview with The CJN Daily after Oct. 7, on The CJN.ca (transcript available) 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.

Canadian Liberal MP Anthony Housefather is clear about one thing: he will run for office again in the riding of Mount Royal—and he expects to win. But he’s undecided about whether he’ll stick with the federal Liberals, or choose instead to cross the aisle or even sit as an independent. The 51-year-old, who has represented his riding since 2015, says has been “reflecting” on his political future since Monday, after he found himself one of only three Members of Parliament from the governing party who voted against a motion outlining Canada’s official stance on the Israel-Hamas war. Housefather has been a loyal Liberal for 30 years, but this past week he hinted that he wasn’t sure whether he still fits. His House of Commons speech, entitled “I am a Canadian, I am a Jew, I am a Zionist,” was a cri de coeur _outlining the anxiety and fear that many Canadian Jews now feel amidst a spike in antisemitism seen after Oct. 7. In his view, the federal government has shifted towards a harder stance against the Israeli government’s actions in response to the Hamas massacre. So what’s Housefather’s next move? Might he leave the federal scene for a second career in provincial politics? How has he been handling the alarming antagonism from both the right and left? To answer these questions, Housefather sat down with Ellin Bessner on _The CJN Daily for an extensive and insightful interview. Related links Read Anthony Housefather’s interview with The CJN Daily in print form, on The CJN.ca Watch Anthony Housefather’s speech to Parliament How the NDP channelled Vivian Silver and the Holocaust in pushing for Canada to recognize Palestine, 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.

Embattled cabinet minister Ya’ara Saks says it was her “choice” to meet with the leader of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas last week in Ramallah, and that includes posing for photos that show him holding her arm and hand. The Liberal MP for a heavily Jewish Toronto riding, the Canadian-Israeli has been heavily criticized by community members since those photos were posted March 14 on the official social media account of Canada’s foreign minister Mélanie Joly. (They were not posted on any of the accounts belonging to Saks herself.) Saks says she “was asked to go” with Joly on a diplomatic swing through Israel and the West Bank, and is adamant that despite the optics, it was “important for me to be in that room.” Ya’ara Saks joins The CJN Daily to explain the background to THAT photo, what she told Abbas and why she voted “yes” to a controversial NDP motion passed Monday in the House of Commons that many say rewarded Hamas terrorists. What we talked about: Read Ya’ara Saks statement on her Facebook page or on her Twitter(X). Ya’ara Saks on protests in Toronto since Oct. 7 in The CJN, and read Josh Lieblein’s opinion column, in The CJN. Learn more about the World Wide reciting of the Shema prayer set for Thursday 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time. 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.