North Star with Ellin Bessner

The Toronto-raised social media professional Cindy Seni gained fame by appearing on Netflix’s popular Jewish Matchmaking reality TV series to find a husband. Instead, she found the man who is now her basheret all on her own. In fact, Seni met him last summer, when filming was already underway for the eight-part dating show. Their meet-cute happened through her day job with an organization that helps wounded Israeli soldiers, Brothers for Life. The pair have been dating secretly for about 10 months, all while Seni, now 29, went on arranged dates with her potential Netflix suitor. She also led the show’s obsessed fans to believe she was romantically linked to another show cast member, Noah Del Monte. Despite initial misgivings because her now-fiancé, Eldad Cohen, is an introvert and shuns the limelight, Seni credits the show’s resident matchmaker Aleeza Ben Shalom with helping her get to the chuppah. Her real-life love popped the question on Seni’s birthday, July 3, at her Jerusalem apartment. Then she quickly made him do it over, formally, at Judaism’s holiest site, the Western Wall. Seni returns to The CJN Daily to catch us up on her big news—even with an invite to her wedding. What we talked about Read about Jewish Matchmaking, when it debuted in May, in The CJN Hear Cindy Seni describe the behind-the-scenes reality behind “Jewish Matchmaking”, on The CJN Daily from May 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 intern is Ashok Lamichhane (@jesterschest on Twitter).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.

It was billed as a “Day of Disruption” in Israel as protesters blockaded the country’s main airport, hundreds of army reservists threatened to refuse to serve, and police arrested at least 77 demonstrators across the country. Although Israel has seen 27 straight weeks of political turmoil, Israelis have taken to the streets in massive numbers this week in a revitalized round of protests. These were called after the Netanyahu government gave first reading Monday to a law that would curb the power of Israel’s Supreme Court to use the so-called “reasonableness” test to overrule lawmakers’ policies. Amid all the flag-waving, drumming and horn-blowing, The CJN Daily producer Zachary Kauffman, who’s in Jerusalem studying at a yeshiva this month, is in the thick of it—literally. He’s even staying in the same apartment complex where the Netanyahus live. So Kauffman grabbed his microphone to hear from protesters, and now joins the show to share stories from professor Veronika Cohen, who used to teach in Calgary; Amos Guiora, an American-Israeli law professor from Utah; and Chaviva Sheffer, an environmental lawyer at Reichman University in Herzliya. What we talked about Hear more about Zachary Kauffman’s course of study and the mood in Jerusalem after the Jenin raids, on Bonjour Chai What former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett thinks his country needs to do now, to save itself, in The CJN Vivian Bercovici and Aron Heller explain the significance of Israel’s historic protests, from March 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 intern is Ashok Lamichhane (@jesterschest on Twitter).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.

Over the past year, The CJN Daily has run a regular tribute to prominent members of Canada’s Jewish community who have passed away. We’ve highlighted more than 50 honourable menschen and women from coast to coast. In this latest episode, we profile two Canadian women who led their communities: Mira Koschitzky of Toronto and Gladys Rose of Saskatoon. Plus, three beloved Holocaust educators have died, including Vancouver’s Alex Buckman, Calgary’s Sidney Cyngiser and Cantor Moshe Kraus of Ottawa. Meanwhile, the oldest of our honourable menschen, the late Lorne Winer, a Second World War veteran, died in Toronto at age 105. And we recap the accomplishments of two prominent Jewish judges, Horace Krever and Ted Matlow. On today’s episode The CJN’s emeritus reporter Ron Csillag returns to The CJN Daily to tell us more about the people behind the headlines, and we discuss why obituaries are often the most read section of newspapers. What we talked about Read about the late Mira Koschitzky from the pages of The CJN and watch her funeral here. Learn more about the late Gladys Rose, of Saskatoon, the first woman president of a Canadian Conservative synagogue. Discover how The CJN covered Cantor Moshe Kraus’ passing, on May 29, 2023. Why the late Alex Buckman was a tireless force for Holocaust education, in The CJN. The late Sidney Cyngiser was considered Calgary’s Elie Wiesel, in The CJN. Veteran Lorne Winer, 105, raised countless dollars for Jewish war veterans, 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 intern is Ashok Lamichhane (@jesterschest on Twitter).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.

Only one Jewish rookie out of 244 was selected at the NHL 2023 draft, held from June 28-29: Andrew Cristall. If the surname sounds familiar, it’s because the 18-year-old is the son of Alex and Jodi Cristall, leaders and philanthropists who are deeply involved in Vancouver’s Jewish community. On July 7, Cristall signed his three-year, $2.85-million (USD) entry-level contract with Washington, after completing development camp and orientation in D.C. While he didn’t get the chance to meet any of the team’s current players—including superstar captain Alexander Ovechkin, who, like Cristall, also plays left wing—he now intends to spend the rest of the summer back home in Canada preparing for his rookie camp, which this year, just happens to fall on Rosh Hashanah. Cristall loves challah, he calls NHL star Zach Hyman his favourite Jewish athlete, and he hopes to represent his own community the way Hyman does. Cristall joins Ellin for his first feature interview, on this special crossover episode of The CJN Daily, along with Gabe Pulver, co-host of The CJN’s Jewish sports podcast, Menschwarmers. What we talked about Watch Andrew Cristall being drafted into the NHL on YouTube Read how Andrew Cristall’s father, Alex Cristall, played rugby for Team Canada at several Maccabiah Games in Israel, in The CJN Hear how Alex Cristall is helping spearhead the development of Vancouver’s JWest, the Jewish community campus, on The CJN Daily from Sept. 2022 Subscribe to _Menschwarmers _on The CJN Podcast Network 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 intern is Ashok Lamichhane (@jesterschest on Twitter).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.

Although they count just 100 member families, Saskatoon’s Congregation Agudas Israel believes there is a bright future for Jewish life in their Prairie city. Which is why the Conservative egalitarian synagogue has just completed a lengthy $3.8 million dollar renovation of their post-war-era building. Aside from improved security and accessibility, and a mikveh, it also now includes bigger space for a small but modern Jewish Community Centre, recently named after Sherwood and Elaine Sharfe: the prominent local family of philanthropists are the lead donors to the project. On the weekend of Friday June 23, current synagogue members and also former Saskatoon residents returned to the grounds of the building for three days of festivities to mark the official rededication and reopening. On this episode of The CJN Daily, we speak with the synagogue’s president, Kevin Sharfe–it’s his parents’ names on the venue–and also with his cousin Grant Scharfstein, who spearheaded the multimillion dollar Legacy Project. What we talked about Learn about the renovation project at Saskatoon’s historic Agudas Israel synagogue, on The CJN Daily, from 2021. Watch a promo video from the Saskatoon synagogue while under renovations, on YouTube. Read more about the history of the Jewish community of Saskatoon, in The CJN, from 2016. 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 intern is Ashok Lamichhane (@jesterschest on Twitter).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.

It’s an uncertain time for the future of journalism in Canada. Bell Media announced layoffs and closed radio stations; Postmedia and the Toronto Star’s parent company are talking about merging; and Google and Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, threatened to block Canadian news from their platforms because of an ongoing feud with the federal government. That move leaves Canadians, including The CJN’s audience, in danger of having less access to vital information about our world, and threatens the country’s journalism industry as a whole—which relies heavily on visibility on social platforms and search engines to reach our audiences. So what does the future hold, and how will it impact what you can read, hear and watch? We’ve assembled a panel of experts to break it all down and offer tips for what you can do while the dust settles. On The CJN Daily, we’re joined by three key players in the country’s media landscape: Paul Godfrey, the former executive chairman and founder of Postmedia; Yoni Goldstein, the CEO and editor in chief of The CJN; and author Jeffrey Dvorkin, currently a lecturer at Massey College in Toronto, who has formerly been the head of CBC Radio and the ombudsman at NPR. What we talked about Learn how you can bypass Facebook and Google by supporting The CJN directly. Read about how The CJN pivoted during the pandemic to a new business model, in The CJN Learn more about Jeffrey Dvorkin’s book, Trusting the News in a Digital Age, and where to buy it 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 intern is Ashok Lamichhane (@jesterschest on Twitter).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.

As Canadian Jewish kids begin settling into their cabins and tents at overnight camp this month, they’ll find some of the camps are offering something extra: mental health support teams. Whether an on-site emotional support dog or a nighttime ritual of journaling positive achievements, camps are adding mental health components including 24-hour support professionals. They’re called “camper care directors” or “spiritual coordinators”. With training and degrees in social work and child psychology, they make sure the campers (and also camp counsellors) have the emotional support they need to deal with anxiety, bullying, eating disorders, severe homesickness and other mental health challenges that arise while they spend weeks away from the familiarity of parents and home. On this episode of The CJN Daily, we speak with Toronto social worker Lynda Fishman, the camper care team lead for Camp Shalom, in Gravenhurst, Ont., about why parents shouldn’t grab their car keys if they feel worried by their kids’ first letter home. What we talked about Read about Canada’s first summer camp for Jewish LGBTQ children opening, in The CJN Read about the fire at Camp B’nai Brith of Ottawa over the winter, in The CJN Why visitors’ day was virtual at summer camps in 2022, 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 intern is Ashok Lamichhane (@jesterschest on Twitter). 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.

Construction has begun at the site of the Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Jewish Community campus in Vaughan, Ont. for the Honey and Barry Sherman Arena. The $52 million dollar arena–to be attached to the existing JCC complex–is a gift from their son Jonathan Sherman to the Toronto Jewish community. The late Sherman’s three surviving daughters are not participating. It would make the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto the only JCC in Canada, and in North America, to own its own indoor ice hockey arena. With two NHL-sized rinks, stands, dressing rooms and a kosher snack bar, the arena is designed to provide badly-needed ice facilities for Jewish youth players and figure skaters, too. It will also be open to rentals by the wider community, where ice time is at a premium. Jonathan Sherman admits the announcement brings “heavy emotions” because the 2017 murders of his billionaire philanthropist parents have not been solved. But on this day, Sherman says he wants to focus on continuing their legacy of community building. On this episode of The CJN Daily, we hear from Adam Minsky, the CEO of the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto; Christopher Ainsworth, the city councillor for the City of Vaughan where the project got the green light, and words from Jonathan Sherman himself. What we talked about Read about the construction of the Joseph and Wolf Lebovic campus in Vaughan over the years in The CJN, including the official opening in 2012. After the murders of Barry and Honey Sherman in 2017, their legacy of philanthropy was in the spotlight, in 2018 in The CJN. Learn why the northern campuses of TanenbaumCHAT high school and Leo Baeck day schools closed in 2017 and 2019 respectively, at the Lebovic Jewish campus, 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 intern is Ashok Lamachhane @jesterschest. 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.

Talk about an identity crisis. For his whole life, Canadian actor Noam Tomaschoff, 31, thought he was the son of a Jewish couple with roots in Israel and Montreal. Tomaschoff went to Jewish day school, speaks Hebrew and has visited Israel. But last summer, his life changed when his parents learned he was planning to take a DNA test, for fun, while on holiday at the cottage. So they sat him down to reveal a three-decade-old secret: due to fertility problems, they used an anonymous sperm donor to conceive. The donor is no longer alive. The shocking news prompted Tomaschoff to start searching for answers. He’s since discovered his birth father’s details, including that the man was not Jewish—and Tomaschoff now has 35 half-siblings scattered around the world. Now Tomaschoff has put the experience into a new show, called Our Little Secret: The 23 & Me Musical, debuting July 6 at the Toronto Fringe Festival. Noam Tomaschoff joins The CJN Daily, along with his parents, Gideon Tomaschoff and Sylvie Leone-Tomaschoff. What we talked about Learn more about Noam Tomaschoff and his play To buy tickets, check the play’s website Read how The CJN covered Noam Tomaschoff and his friends in Grade 12 at TanenbaumChat high school when they wrote their first musical in 2009 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. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Welcome to one of the most squalid Jewish-owned office buildings in Canada: 788 Marlee Ave. in midtown Toronto. Over the years, it’s been home to countless Zionist organizations and Jewish charities—including Mazon Canada, Canadian Young Judaea, Sar-El Canada, Camp Shalom, Machane Lev summer camp, the Association for Soldiers of Israel, Canadian Friends of Yad Sarah, and more. Some tenants have been complaining for years about the conditions, including a rat infestation; mould on lobby ceilings; extensive water damage from a leaky roof and broken skylights; elevators that haven’t been inspected since at least 2020; bathrooms with no lights and broken sinks; and a toilet with human feces that wasn’t cleaned in eight months. The city has cited the building several times for garbage violations and uncut grass. The conditions have become so bad that at least one tenant moved out permanently in May. Others choose not to work in their offices much, except to drop off the rent. On top of it all, there are two lawsuits filed in the Ontario courts against the longtime owners of the building, the Toronto Zionist Council. Among the lengthly list of allegations in the court documents are accusations of wilful negligence, misappropriation of money (particularly by one of the directors, Paul Rotenberg, to the tune of at least $70,000), forgery, deliberate misconduct and allowing the once-proud symbol of the Zionist movement in Canada to fall into “appalling” conditions. The TZC also owns a 75-year-old summer camp in Gravenhurst, Ont., called Camp Shalom, which is also discussed in the court documents, amidst questions wondering where the money to upgrade the camp has gone. The CJN will be publishing several reports as part of this exclusive investigation. To start, on today’s episode of The CJN Daily, we take you inside 788 Marlee Ave. You’ll hear from Mazon’s Izzy Waxman; Jessie Lash, the owner of a catering business; and Roni Perez, who served on the board of the ground-floor synagogue known as The Marlee Shul. What we talked about Take a video tour of 788 Marlee Ave. on The CJN’s YouTube channel Toronto Zionist Council director Paul Rotenberg has spoken out often in favour of expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank, including in 2016 in The CJN Read why the Canada Revenue Agency revoked charitable status of the Toronto Zionist Council’s charity, the Zionist Organization of Canada Charitable Fund, in 1995, for funnelling money illegally to settlements in the West Bank A new charity has been set up with a similar name by the same directors of the Toronto Zionist Council, now called the Ontario Jewish Education Association, in Toronto, since July 24, 2020. 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. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.