North Star with Ellin Bessner

On Oct. 11, the Canadian government announced it is mounting an emergency operation to fly Canadians out of Israel, possibly beginning as early as Thursday night. Several Canadian Forces transport planes will be sent to Tel Aviv to shuttle hundreds of Canadians and other passengers out of Israel to Greece, even as rocket fire continues raining down from Gaza, and mortars fall along the northern border with Lebanon. So far, according to Ya’ara Saks, the minister of mental health and addictions, who is the first Israeli-Canadian elected to Parliament, Canada has received 1,280 calls for travel help since the weekend, when Hamas terrorists swarmed across the Gaza border in southern Israel. Critics have blasted the Canadian Embassy in Tel Aviv for responding too slowly to appeals from desperate Canadians trapped in bomb shelters, especially after Air Canada and other airlines cancelled flights. Saks deflected the criticism, insisting her government is mounting an “all-hands-on-deck effort” to get Canadians out, including sending a negotiating team in for Canadians believed to be hostages in Gaza, including Vivian Silver, 74, originally from Winnipeg. Ya’ara Saks spoke to The CJN Daily’s Ellin Bessner about coping with her own personal grief over family members who’ve been killed, while helping Canadians caught up in Israel’s war with Hamas. What we talked about Learn more about three Canadian victims of Hamas: Adi Vital-Kaplun, 33; Vancouver’s Ben Mizrachi, 22; and Alexandre Look, also 33, of Montreal Ya’ara Saks becomes first Israeli-Canadian MP, in The CJN Canadians can register for emergency military airlift flights from the Government of Canada to get out of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, via Global Affairs Canada here 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, and 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.

One is a doctor. One is with a tank unit. One is in reconnaissance. All three sons of Toronto-born Ira Garshowitz were called up on the weekend to serve at the front with the Israel Defense Forces after the unprecedented Hamas attack on Oct. 7. Garshowitz’s daughter is also in uniform–and like her brothers, all are Canadian citizens but born in Israel. Meanwhile, Jonathan Shiff now has two married sons and a daughter in action since the weekend. The Canadian-born lawyer immigrated to Israel in 1989 and like Garshowitz, is also an IDF veteran. Between him and Garshowitz, they have seven children fighting in what’s been dubbed “Operation Iron Swords”, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed will “exact a price that will be remembered by [Hamas] and Israel’s other enemies for decades to come.” More than 150 Israeli soldiers have been killed to date in the war. Garshowitz and Shiff join _The CJN Daily _host Ellin Bessner to describe what life is like for them right now, their fears for their children in battle, and what their families are doing as civilians to help the war effort. What we talked about Donate to help Israeli soldiers via UJA Federation of Toronto, Vancouver or Mizrachi Canada Read how Jonathan Shiff and his brother retraced their great-uncle’s wartime footsteps to find his grave in Holland, in The CJN Why Ira Garshowitz’s brother went to England to mark the 80th anniversary of his uncle’s heroic Dambusters Raid in the Second World War, 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, and 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.

Iddo Moed arrived in Ottawa only six weeks ago to take up the post as Israel’s new ambassador to Canada. He hasn’t even presented his credentials to Governor General Mary Simon yet, which means he isn’t permitted to make direct contact with Canadian politicians until that ceremony takes place. Nevertheless, Moed is making Israel’s position clear on who is behind the unprecedented surprise attack by Hamas over the weekend that has killed at least 700 Israelis, wounded thousands more, and saw Palestinian terrorists kidnap over 100 people, including possibly two or three Canadians. While Moed said Iran was clearly the mastermind behind the Hamas onslaught that began Saturday Oct. 6, he suggested that the international community, including Canada, should rethink its habit of sending funds through the UN to help Palestinians in Gaza, since that money winds up instead being used to incite terrorists who carried out “barbaric” acts of hatred of Jews and Israel. Since 2016, when Canada resumed funding the UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East), the Liberal government has sent or pledged at least $300 million. Despite this contentious issue, Moed welcomed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s declaration of support for Israel now, including the move to light up the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill on Sunday with the Israeli flag. Moed joins _The CJN Daily’_s Ellin Bessner from Ottawa. What we talked about Register_ _with the Canadian government if you are in Israel Concerns over the Trudeau government adding another $103 million to help Palestinian refugees in Gaza and West Bank and other areas around Israel, in The CJN This former Winnipegger is now among the missing in aftermath of the Hamas attacks on southern Israel, 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.

On the morning of Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023, Gloria and Howard Wener woke up to the sound of rockets and an air raid warning. The Canadian couple immigrated to Israel 50 years ago as pioneers of Sde Nitzan, a moshav of 500 people, less than 10 km from the Gaza border. Now, two days into Israel’s latest war with the Hamas-controlled region, the Weners remain locked inside their home, angry and disillusioned. The couple has found themselves living near the frontlines of the most lethal attack in recent Israeli history. The surprise invasion by Hamas breached the Israeli border by land, sea and air into Israel’s southwestern towns and communities, killing (as of publication on Oct. 8) more than 600 Israeli people and wounding 2,000 Israelis. At least 100 people, mostly Israelis, have been kidnapped and are being held hostage. For now, the Weners are under orders to remain in lockdown, or even evacuate their home, while Hamas terrorists still roam their Eshkol Regional Council zone. Some of the Weners friends and neighbours have been killed or kidnapped. The Canadian couple is “fuming” and “disappointed” over the colossal inteIligence failure by the Israeli army, which didn’t see the attack coming and took hours to respond. They join The CJN Daily‘s host, Ellin Bessner, from their home on the front lines. What we talked about Read the warnings from Global Affairs Canada about travel in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Register with the Canadian government if you are in Israel Learn more about the Sde Nitzan moshav in The CJN archives (from 2008) 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, and 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.

A century after Chicago 58 Food Products’ late founder, David Bernholtz, borrowed $500 dollars to open a kosher butcher shop in Toronto’s Kensington Market, his grandchildren—and great-grandson—are still running the business. Chicago 58 threw a 100th anniversary barbecue for suppliers and customers last week, complete with fresh hot dogs and steaming brisket sandwiches on rye. For 80 years, the Chicago 58 all-beef salamis, Lanky Franky hot dogs and beef pastramis were made with the founder’s secret old-world recipes at the company’s original factory on Lippincott Street. Diners could find them at famous Ontario delis, including Pancer’s, Shopsy’s and even The Pickle Barrel. But by the 2000s, new health rules—plus family disputes and union issues—convinced the Bernholtzes that it was time to leave the aging warren of rooms in the historic Jewish neighbourhood. In 2005 they moved to a modern industrial building in the northwest Toronto suburb of Woodbridge. Today, Chicago 58 no longer makes their own meat and deli products in-house. They contract it out. And they have expanded into distributing other food lines, too, like lasagna, cheese, coffee, tuna and even bacon, supplying restaurants and grocery chains like Farm Boy, Metro, Sobeys Longos and Loblaws. Now, on the company’s centennial, the family is working to preserve the founders’ old-fashioned ways of doing business, while adapting to modern customers’ eating habits. The CJN Daily‘s Ellin Bessner visited the warehouse to speak to current president Teddy Bernholtz, a grandson of the founder, and also to Yittie Starkman, his aunt, aged 96 and a half, who worked at her father’s plant for decades. What we talked about Read more about Chicago 58’s story and watch a documentary video on the history of the company Is the deli dying? Read more in The CJN (from 2009) The owner of Vancouver’s Omnitsky Kosher Deli is looking to close or sell, 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, and 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 the fallout continues from the Canadian Parliament applauding a 98-year-old former member of a Nazi-led Ukrainian Waffen SS unit, the spotlight is focusing on how the former soldier Yaroslav Hunka and thousands of other enemy troops like him, were permitted to come to Canada in the first place. For decades, Jewish groups have been calling on the Canadian government to release the complete files from the Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada—known as the Deschênes Commission—which, from 1985 to 1986, looked into how many Nazi war criminals were here and what Canada could do about it. While the final report led to a few (mostly unsuccessful) prosecutions, much of the detailed information, including the names and cases of hundreds of other suspects, was never released. The papers are held by Library and Archives Canada, the Department of Justice and the RCMP. Now, however, some are hoping the international public embarrassment might convince the federal government to finally reckon with Canada’s past and release all these historic files. On The CJN Daily, we meet the main Canadian historian, Alti Rodal, who worked for the Deschênes Commission nearly 40 years ago. Then we speak to David Matas, B’nai Brith’s senior legal counsel, who intervened in those hearings in 1985 and continues to lobby for the full records to be made public. What we talked about Why Edmonton’s Jewish community wants two monuments honouring Ukrainian Nazi soldiers finally taken down, in The CJN Read the B’nai Brith Canada brief to Parliament on why Canada should release the Deschênes Commission documents in full and read the Canadian government’s update (1998) on names of suspected war criminals and what happened to their cases What the political fallout will be on Canada’s “blunder” to give two standing ovations to a former Ukrainian soldier in the Waffen SS’s 14th Division, 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, and 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.

Artur Wilczynski has choice words to describe what happened in the Canadian House of Commons on Sept. 22, when lawmakers gave two standing ovations to a 98-year-old former Ukrainian solider who served with a Nazi unit during the Second World War. Wilczynski, a former diplomat and senior civil servant in Ottawa—and the grandson of a Holocaust survivor—calls the scandal an “absolute public relations disaster for Canada.” Wilczynski was stunned as he watched the incident unfold during Friday’s official ceremony in the House to welcome Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Canada. After the leader of the war-torn country made his formal speech, the Speaker of the House, Anthony Rota, recognized the presence of Yaroslav Hunka in the public gallery. Rota called Hunka, who lives in Rota’s riding of North Bay, a Canadian hero—but it soon was discovered that, in fact, he had actually fought for the Nazis and against the Russians, as part of a notorious Waffen-SS unit known for massacring Jews during the Holocaust and committing atrocities against Polish civilians. The Speaker has since announced his resignation, effective Wednesday night. But observers, including Wilczynski, say the damage will have long-lasting repercussions on Canada, NATO and the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Wilczynski joins The CJN Daily to unpack how such a failure in protocol could have happened—and what Canada needs to do to fix things. What we talked about Read CJN editor Lila Sarick’s interviews with Jewish Canadian leaders about Speaker Anthony Rota resigning, in The CJN Why the Canadian government’s poor record of prosecuting Nazi war criminals is considered a failure by Jewish groups, in The CJN (from 2017) Why this Nazi hunter called Helmut Oberlander’s peaceful death in his Waterloo, Ont., home in 2021 a disgrace, on The CJN Daily What we talked about Read Lila Sarick’s interviews with Jewish Canadian leaders about House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota resigning over the Ukrainian former Nazi SS war criminal he personally invited as his guest to Parliament last week, in The CJN. Why the Canadian government’s poor record of prosecuting Nazi war criminals is considered a failure by Jewish groups, in The CJN. Why this Nazi hunter called the death of Helmut Oberlander in his Waterloo, Ont. home in 2021 a disgrace, 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, and 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. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

On Sept. 26, Temple Sholom in Vancouver is hosting two of the leaders of Israel's months-long protests: Jerusalem professor Michal Muszkat-Barkan and Ora Peled Nakash, a computer engineer who lives on a kibbutz outside Haifa. The pair will speak about their grassroots efforts these past nine months to stop the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government. The two women are being flown in on the invitation of progressive Jewish groups including JSpace Canada, ARZA, the New Israel Fund, UnXeptable and the America-Israel Democracy Coalition. This is the first time anyone from the self-described pro-democracy protests (which have attracted hundreds of thousands of people every weekend for the past nine months) has made the journey to Canada to drum up support from the world's third-largest Diaspora community. They're also speaking the next day in Seattle before heading home for Sukkot. On The CJN Daily, host Ellin Bessner speaks with Muszkat-Barkan and Peled Nakash about why they are coming to Canada—and then we catch up with Joan Garson, of Toronto, active in a wide range of local and international Reform and other Jewish organizations. She travelled to New York to protest against Netanyahu while the Israeli leader was speaking at the United Nations a few days ago. What we talked about Learn more about the Jerusalem-based protest group “Safeguarding our Shared Home”, which broadcasts its weekly demonstrations from outside the president’s residence every Saturday night live on Facebook Register to attend the event in person in Vancouver or watch the event live on Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. PST on Temple Sholom’s website Join the Safeguarding our Shared Home WhatsApp group for English speakers Read more about UnXeptable’s Canadian chapters: the pro-democracy organization was formed by expatriate Israelis, 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. This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Last Monday, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board voted to determine if trustee Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth breached the board’s code of conduct by sending a series of arguably bullying text messages to another trustee in trying to garner allies as she attempted to reinstate a mask mandate in Ottawa schools. In her messages, Kaplan-Myrth wrote that trustees opposing her motion didn't care "if Black and Indigenous children get sick… If children in poverty get sick… If children with disabilities and immunocompromised family members can’t safely go to school." She later implored her colleague to not "vote with white supremacists." The chaotic special meeting devolved into a shouting match before the final tally, when the motion failed by a single vote. In response to the debacle, The CJN's political columnist Josh Leiblein wrote a piece criticizing Kaplan-Myrth—and she responded to our publication with a lengthy three-page rebuttal. We share a bit of her response in this re-airing of our conversation with Kaplan-Myrth from May 2021. With her name back in the news—and with COVID season starting up again—we wanted to revisit this interview, recorded during her rise to prominence as an outspoken proponent of masking, back when she was hosting large-scale vaccination events known as "jabapaloozas". 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, and 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.

Many Jews around the world will be reciting the Yizkor memorial prayer as Yom Kippur approaches this weekend. And while most synagogues maintain traditional memorial wall displays, with columns of bronze or brass yahrzeit plaques, a growing number of Jewish congregations in North America and even Europe are embracing new technology and replacing the hardware with interactive digital memorials. Not only can you put longer, fuller biographies and photos on the digital memorial, but they can be also be accessed from anywhere in the world, even on your phone. It’s a modern solution for synagogues that are merging, as well as for others that are running out of wall space. And, yes, you can set the memorial so it will not violate the ban on using technology during Shabbat and holy days. Beit Rayim Synagogue and School in Vaughan, Ont., is the latest shul in Canada to install a digital kiosk, although Ottawa's Kehillat Beth Israel has had a digital display for several years, as has Winnipeg's Shaarey Zedek. Now other congregations in Toronto and Montreal are considering the concept. Already some 65 congregations in the United States have installed them. On today’s The CJN Daily, Beit Rayim’s vice president, Lorraine Bloom, joins host Ellin Bessner, along with Heshy Spira, a partner with the W and E Baum company based in New Jersey, which makes the machines. What we talked about Learn more about the digital yahrzeit memorial kiosk at Beit Rayim Synagogue and School in Vaughan, Ont_._ See more styles of digital yahrzeit memorial boards installed in the United States at the W&EBaum company website and the Winnipeg-based company which also sells them, Plannedlegacy.com Hear about putting QR codes on gravestones, and other future technological trends in the funeral business, 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, and 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.