North Star with Ellin Bessner

There has been an outpouring of love and support from around the world for the late Vivian Silver, the Canadian-born peace activist whose remains were identified last week, five weeks after she was murdered by Hamas terrorists in the safe room of her home in Kibbutz Be'eri on Oct. 7, 2023. Silver was buried in a private ceremony on Nov. 17 at her kibbutz, with just her two sons and her siblings and a few soldiers as witnesses. The zone is still considered the front lines of Israel's war with Hamas, making access severely restricted. But the day earlier, hundreds gathered for a public memorial service on the lawn of a kibbutz she founded, Kibbutz Gezer, located between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. They paid tribute to the woman who made it her life's work to build bridges with Palestinians, founding charities and social justice organizations dedicated to solving the Israeli-Palestinian crisis—without violence. While the Jewish community of Winnipeg plans to hold its own memorial in the coming weeks, on today's episode of The CJN Daily, you'll hear sections from her memorial service and tributes from those she was close to: her brother Neil Silver; a childhood friend from Winnipeg, Lynne Mitchell; and Deborah Lyons, Canada's new special envoy for combatting antisemitism. What we talked about Read how Silver’s family learned her remains had been identified, in The CJN Watch the full memorial service for Silver from Kibbutz Gezer, on Facebook How Vivian Silver worked for peace and bridge building with Palestinians, 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.

The historic March for Israel in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 14 is already being described as the largest public rally by Jewish people in American history, with an estimated crowd of 300,000 people gathering at the capital’s National Mall. Among them were at least 2,000 Canadians. Some were driven in on buses from Jewish high schools, such as Yeshivat Or Chaim and TanenbaumCHAT; some flew from Montreal aboard a plane chartered by Federation CJA; others simply drove themselves on their own dime. One thing unites them: they all wanted to be part of the effort to support Israel, campaigning to free the 240 hostages in Gaza and fighting back against widespread antisemitism in the wake of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas. For nearly four hours, they heard speeches from top U.S. lawmakers, Israeli politician Natan Sharansky, families of Israeli hostages, actors such as Debra Messing, and live performances by Israeli pop stars Ishay Ribo and Omer Adam. On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, host Ellin Bessner speaks to several Canadians who made the long trip: Toronto’s Susan Osher and her niece Dani Schkolne, 23; Montrealers Rabbi Reuben Poupko and CIJA national chair Gail Adelson-Marcovitz; Toronto high school student Adin Bendat-Appell, 15, and his mother, Yael; and Jacob Rifkind and Akyva Spiegel, members of Shaarei Shomayim synagogue in Toronto. What we talked about Watch the March on Washington video on YouTube Read how Toronto’s Jewish, Iranian and Ukrainian communities rallied for Israel on Nov. 12 at Christie Pits park, in The CJN Why Canadian police aren’t doing more to stop antisemitic speech, 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 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.

Show notes Police in Montreal are redeploying their squad cars in different locations this week in an effort to better protect the city’s Jewish community. The move comes a week after bullets were fired through the doors of two Jewish schools; Molotov cocktails were thrown at a synagogue and a Jewish office; and three people were injured in a fracas over the Israel-Hamas war at Concordia University. Despite all this, however, there have been no reports of anyone being charged in Montreal over antisemitism. Local Jewish community leaders point to the incitement actually starting on Oct. 28, after a high-profile Muslim clergyman exhorted a large crowd of pro-Palestinian protestors to “exterminate Zionist aggressors”. Canada, of course, does have hate speech laws under the Criminal Code—but, historically, it’s been difficult to convict people with these provisions. And even when that does happen, the accused often appeal their sentences for years through the legal system. So how should Canadian police and provincial Crown prosecutors get control of people now targeting Canada’s Jewish community? Legal expert Mark Freiman thinks police could be doing a lot more, but hopes what the Calgary police department has done—charging someone for simply “disturbing the peace”—might just work for other law enforcement units across Canada. Freiman joins The CJN Daily‘s host Ellin Bessner to discuss whether Canadian police could do more to act upon this recent wave of hate-filled acts. What we talked about How Calgary police charged two men with crimes related to hatred against Jews in connection with the Israel-Hamas conflict, in The CJN Why Toronto’s police have quadrupled the size of their hate-crimes squad, in The CJN A security expert opines on Canadian Jews’ safety 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.

In the summer of 2022, coin expert Brian Iseman stumbled on a trove of long-forgotten personal military possessions belonging to the family of Lt. Myer Tutzer Cohen. Cohen, from Toronto, was the first Canadian Jewish soldier to win the Military Cross for bravery in the Great War—and possibly the first in Canadian history to do so. Iseman quickly realized he needed to buy the collection to save it from being sold off, even though at the time, he didn’t know who Cohen was, nor was he aware of the young soldier’s remarkable achievements fighting against the Germans on the western front during the First World War. Cohen was the son of one of the founders of Toronto’s Holy Blossom Temple, and attended Harbord Collegiate high school. He was killed holding the line and badly outnumbered on the rain-soaked, muddy battlefields at Passchendaele on Nov. 3, 1917. His death came just a few weeks after he had been awarded the British Commonwealth’s second-highest military medal, the Military Cross, for taking out two German patrols in no man’s land in France, then capturing the rest as prisoners. Iseman has rescued an important piece of Canadian history, and connected with Cohen’s surviving family in Israel while documenting the young officer’s life. Now, he is looking for suggestions on where he can best share Cohen’s colourful story with the world. As we approach Remembrance Day this Saturday Nov. 11, The CJN Daily host Ellin Bessner visited Iseman at his Richmond Hill office to see the lost Lt. Myer Tutzer Cohen collection. What we talked about Learn more about Lt. Myer Tutzer Cohen in The CJN archives. See a display about Lt. Myer Tutzer Cohen in the lobby of Beth Tzedec synagogue in Toronto until the end of this week. How Canadian Jews contributed to the country’s military history, in The CJN’s “Northern Lights” book. 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.

Being a Jewish post-secondary student on Canadian campuses this semester has become an uncomfortable experience in the past month. Students have received death threats; mezuzot have been ripped down; professors have injected anti-Israel rhetoric into their lectures; and student councils—even entire departments—have issued declarations condemning Israel. All this while Jewish students, wanting to support Israel, are suffering from the same mental health crisis that’s gripped the broader Jewish Diaspora community. The world of academia has been fertile ground for anti-Zionism, where Israel is widely considered an oppressive colonial state within anti-racism frameworks. But in the past month, college campuses have become flashpoints, pitting Canadian Jewish students against vocal antisemitism from so-called progressive teachers and classmates. This has culminated in a series of lawsuits launched by Jewish students on Nov. 2, 2023, against some of Canada’s most high-profile institutions—Toronto Metropolitan University, Queen’s, UBC and York—accusing them of negligence in failing to address antisemitism for decades. The CJN Daily‘s producer, Zachary Kauffman, spoke with four Canadian students to find out what they’re encountering on campus. He’s joined by Hannah Alper, who attends Western University in London; Ido Ziv-li, from the University of Toronto’s Mississauga campus; Morgan Rosenberg, from McMaster in Hamilton; and Emily Broitman, at Queen’s in Kingston. What we talked about Learn more about antisemitism on Canadian university campuses this month in The CJN Hear why Canadian police have charged nine people so far with hate-related crimes related to the Hamas-Israel protests, on The CJN Daily York University is ordering its student union to retract solidarity statement with Palestine, in The CJ 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 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.

Toronto police have arrested and charged a 32-year-old Toronto man after he allegedly tried to stop someone from putting up posters of missing Israeli hostages along Yonge Street. Police say further hate-related charges could be laid. Meanwhile late Monday, Ottawa police announced they have laid various charges against a 29-year-old man after death threats were made during a phone call with Rabbi Idan Scher, of Congregation Machzikei Hadas last Friday. The charges brings the total so far to 9 people who have been arrested and charged in Canada since Oct 7, when the barbarous Hamas attack on southern Israel killed 1,400 people and prompted Israel’s declaration of war against Hamas in Gaza. Jewish communities from Vancouver to Regina and Winnipeg and Ottawa to Montreal and Moncton have been targeted with antisemitic incidents. These have included damaged mezuzot; a bomb threat made to an elementary school; a weapon fired in the dead of night through the front door of a Jewish home; restaurant patrons being harassed; and death threats made against Canadian Jews. All this to say nothing of Hamas and ISIS flags being waved in the streets. Canada just announced a one-time pot of $5 million for security guards and equipment to protect Jewish and other religious groups’ offices and day care centres. But can the police do more? Should Canadian Jews stay away from schools and synagogues and events? CIJA’s director of community security, Gerry Almendrades, tells _The CJN Daily _host Ellin Bessner that’s actually the worst thing Jews can do: give into the fear. What we talked about Read the Public Safety Canada announcement on temporarily expanding funding for security at Jewish and other buildings, issued on Nov. 6. Why Toronto police charged a man with a hate-motivated assault in connection with an incident involving someone putting up Israeli hostage posters in Toronto, in The CJN Read the sections of Canada’s Criminal Code dealing with hate. 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 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.

Maya Winkler, 19, was supposed to be taking classes at Reichman University in Herzliya this year—but is instead spending her days collecting supplies for Israeli soldiers and babysitting their kids. Leora Prutschi, 18, was supposed to be on a reverse Shinshinim project—a year of service for Diaspora teens in Israel—but is instead commuting from Eilat to Timna, 30 km north, to teach English to displaced Israeli kids whose homes were destroyed. Meanwhile, Joey Lipetz, 18, studies at a yeshiva in Mevaseret Zion, near Jerusalem, where he also assembles piles of ritual green prayer shawls for soldiers and recites psalms for them. These three teenagers are among an untold number of young Canadian Jewish students who went to Israel for a gap-year program, or to do a year of university studies, only to find their plans dramatically upended by the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and subsequent war. And while many in their cohort have returned to Canada, these three have chosen to remain in Israel, despite pressure from their families. Winkler, Lipetz and Prutschi spoke to The CJN Daily host Ellin Bessner about why they feel safer staying to help Israel, even as they face rocket attacks in a country traumatized by the barbaric murders of 1,500 Israelis and foreign tourists near the Gaza Strip a month ago. What we talked about Learn more about Maya Winkler and her brother Zachary's famous fundraising charity events for SickKids in The CJN archives (2018 and 2014) Hear the hostages’ families plead with Canada to do more to help free their loved ones held by Hamas in Gaza, on The CJN Daily Meet the social worker who helps bereaved Israeli families identify the remains of their loved ones murdered by Hamas, 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.

Just ahead of her first visit to Canada as Israel’s newly-appointed Special Envoy on Combatting Antisemitism, Michal Cotler-Wunsh had strong criticism of the Trudeau government’s decision to abstain last week on a vote at the United Nations’ General Assembly about the Israel Hamas war. Cotler-Wunsh calls the decision by Canada to abstain, rather than vote “No”: “worse than silence”. The new special envoy arrives in Canada today for talks in Ottawa on Parliament Hill, and then speaks in Toronto at a fundraiser for a Jewish group. Cotler-Wunsh is Israeli, but grew up in Canada, the daughter of professor Irwin Cotler, human rights crusader and Canada’s own first Special Envoy fighting antisemitism – a position he just finished last week. Cotler-Wunsh was apppointed to her new post just three weeks before the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas on Southern Israel killed over 1,400 people and kidnapped over 239 more, using tactics which she calls “genocidal”. She’s working feverishly now to explain to the world why Jews and allies must fight “this existential war” on the Jewish State and people, and why Hamas’s tactics have roots in age-old antisemitism now disguised as modern anti-Zionism. As you will hear, some moments of panic ensued when Cotler-Wunsh joined The CJN Daily host Ellin Bessner from her office in Tel Aviv right in the middle of a rocket attack. What we talked about Learn more about Michal Cotler-Wunsh and her previous work as an MK in Israel’s Knesset, in The CJN. How Michal Cotler-Wunsh co-founded an inter-Parliamentary task force to combat online hate on social media, in The CJN. Read Michal Cotler-Wunsh writing in The CJN in 2016 about her father’s legacy. 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 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.

If you ask some relatives of the nearly 240 Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, they will say “there hasn’t been enough pressure” to free their loved ones. That’s one of the key messages they emphasized during private meetings with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and with other Canadian politicians and journalists, on Oct. 30. The Israeli group said they are getting little to no information on their loved ones’ status from their own government, which they’ve accused of failing to protect their families. They called on Canada to break off diplomatic and financial ties to organizations and countries that help Hamas, and they want Canada to pressure Israel to make hostage recovery the top priority. On today’s The CJN Daily, host Ellin Bessner brings you the powerful words of several relatives, including Winnipeg-born hostage Vivian Silver’s son, Chen Zeigen; Aharon Brodutch, a Canadian-Israeli physicist whose sister-in-law and three young children were kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza (including his niece, Ofri, 10, who attended Camp Gesher in Ontario this summer, and nephews Yuval, 8, and Uriah, 4); Harel Lapidot, a Regina-born Israeli lawyer, whose niece Tiferet Lapidot, 22, was murdered at the Supernova music festival, and Itay Raviv, with three relatives held hostage and one uncle murdered at Kibbutz Nir Oz. What we talked about Why Vivian Silver’s close friend thinks she would want to be freed from Hamas peacefully, on The CJN Daily Watch the full press conference by families of the Hamas victims on CPAC’s YouTube channel Read more about the hostage families’ anguish 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 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.

As Israeli tanks and infantry forces began a limited push into Gaza over the weekend, ahead of an expected full-scale ground invasion, families and friends of the now-230 hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 want to make sure their loved ones aren’t forgotten. That’s why Toronto social worker Lynne Mitchell, a longtime friend of kidnapped Canadian-Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver, is speaking out. She’s telling the world who Silver is and how her friend went to Israel to devote her life to helping forge peaceful relationships between Palestinians, Israeli Arabs and Jews. She believes Silver, a widow, would not want to be freed through violent raids—but rather by mediation or negotiation. It’s been more than three weeks since Silver, 74, was captured by Hamas while hiding in her safe room inside her Kibbutz Be’eri home, where 130 residents were later found slaughtered. Mitchell joins The CJN Daily to share how Silver’s family has been navigating this tense moment—and what she hopes will happen next. What we talked about Learn more about Vivian Silver in The CJN Join the “Missing Vivian Silver” Facebook group Read about the funeral for Alexandre Look, a Canadian murdered at the music festival in Israel, in The CJN Register for the Toronto rally on Nov. 1 in support of the hostages 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 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.