North Star with Ellin Bessner

With more than 6,000 candidates running for a council seat in 400 villages, cities and towns, plus 37 school boards, there’s a lot to keep tabs on with Ontario’s upcoming municipal election. But the challenge doesn’t daunt Michael Teper. Teper calls himself an an enemy of antisemitism and a fan of open government. In his private life, he’s a tax expert with a big Toronto accounting firm. But in his spare time, he seeks out anti-Zionists and antisemites running for public office. He files numerous freedom of information requests to uncover what officials are writing in their emails and on social media, and when the story seems big enough, he goes public with it. Teper sat down with The CJN Daily to explain why he does what he does, how Israel and Palestine figure into Ontario's school boards, and what happened during some of the higher-profile antisemitic incidents that inspired him to act. What we talked about: Follow Michael Teper on Twitter @michaelteper1 Read B'nai Brith's election primer for Toronto Read The CJN's coverage of a former Timmins Catholic school teacher whose licence was revoked over Holocaust denial Read Josh Lieblein's column featuring Michael Teper Read how Ukrainian Jews celebrated Sukkot in Montreal this year Credits The CJN Daily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 learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

In September, newly minted Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre appointed rookie MP Melissa Lantsman to his advisory board, naming her one of two deputy leaders of the party. It's a meteoric rise for a politician who's marking her one-year anniversary as an elected official this fall. Lantsman represents Thornhill, a riding in Ontario with the highest percentage of Jewish voters in Canada. And while some Jews have been nervous about the Conservative leader's warm support for the trucker convoy, which harbored antisemitic symbols and proponents, Lantsman insists Poilievre is good for the Jews. Today, she joins The CJN Daily to chat about her first year on the Hill, dive into the Laith Marouf scandal and recap her heated confrontation with the prime minister from February, in which he accused the Conservative Party of standing with swastikas. What we talked about: Watch the House of Commons exchange from February between Melissa Lantsman and Justin Trudeau Read Josh Lieblein's Doorstep Postings column on the incident Listen to The CJN Daily episode from Fall 2021 on Lantsman and Ya'ara Saks heading to Parliament Hill 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 learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

Earlier this month, an estimated 50,000 people came out to a rally organized by Iranian Canadians in downtown Richmond Hill, Ont. The event was a show of support for the freedom protests currently going on across Iran being led by women and girls, a reaction to the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who is largely believed to have been beaten to death by police for not covering enough hair with her hijab. Meanwhile, the Canadian government has announced sanctions on Iran, banning 10,000 members of the Iranian goverment and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from entering the country and laundering money here. Watching all this unfold has been Dyanoosh Youssefi, a Jewish lawyer and human rights activist living in Toronto. Born in Iran, she and her family lived through the Iranian Revolution and escaped in 1982, when Youssefi was 11, with just the clothes on their backs and some jewellery sewn into their coats. Youssefi joins The CJN Daily to break down the current situation and explain why it matters to Canadian Jews. What we talked about: Visit Dyanoosh Youssefi's website, dyanooshyoussefi.ca Read Youssefi's 2014 essay on being mistaken for a Muslim woman in The CJN archives Visit Omnitsky Kosher's website at omnitskykosher.com 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 learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

Ontarians head to the polls on Oct. 24 to vote for their municipal governments. And while some storylines seems set—Toronto Mayor John Tory looks poised to win for a third time—races in Vaughan, Ottawa, Hamilton, Richmond Hill and Brampton are far less certain. The outcomes are even less predictable given how low voter turnout was in the province's 2018 municipal elections, when just 38 per cent of eligible voters cast their ballots. What does all this mean for Jewish voters? To analyze the issues, we're joined by Steve Adler, a lobbyist with the communications strategy firm NATIONAL. Adler previously worked around the Ontario legislature with the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, and has been watching the 2022 municipal elections closely, including what's going on with various district school boards, which have become frequent battlegrounds between Zionists and Palestinian activists. What we talked about: Read NATIONAL's Ontario election primer Read Josh Lieblein's Doorstep Postings column on Toronto city council candidate Philip Davidovits Learn about the "For the Child" photographic exhibition happening at Ottawa City Hall 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 learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

Back in the 1990s, Martin Rutte earned his most prominent byline co-writing one of the famous Chicken Soup for the Soul books, which focused on incorporating spirituality into the workplace. Now residing in Charlottetown, PEI, Rutte is again working on a spiritual level—and the scale is far greater than just offices. A sought-after speaker and consultant, Rutte's newest endeavour, Project Heaven on Earth,_ translates the concept of tikkun olam to the wider world, questioning why humans can't create greater peace with themselves and their communities. While the project launched years ago, his book of the same name (2018) is especially timely now, as Jews move on from Yom Kippur and begin thinking about how they can better themselves and the world in the coming year. Rutte spoke with The CJN Daily earlier about his work, but also about how Jews in his home province struggled to keep high holiday services going during the recent post-tropical storm Fiona. Hear how he met a stranded American Jewish tourist on the island. All these struggles only underscore the importance of his messages of perseverence, altruism and faith. What we talked about: Learn about Project Heaven on Earth 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 learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

As the Jewish world prepares for Yom Kippur and Yizkor, The CJN Daily team has been thinking a lot about death and grieving—and how the pandemic upended many rituals familiar to Jews around the world. Among those changes is how technology is changing the death business. One example has been Keeper, a company that puts QR codes on tombstones which link to virtual memorials for the deceased, somewhat like social media profiles pages for the dearly departed. It's a dedicated online space where loved ones can post photos, comments, memories and family trees. The entrepreneur behind the app is Mandy Benoualid, a Montreal native and former assistant funeral director who moved to Hamilton, where her husband, Jeremy Cohen, is a professor at McMaster University. The couple also runs a popular educational website about death and dying called Talk Death, where they tackle touchy topics such as human composting, cremation and how a chevra kadisha works. Benoualid joins to discuss the latest trends in the funeral industry and what the future might look like. What we talked about: Visit Keeper's website at mykeeper.com Visit Talk Death at talkdeath.com Listen to The CJN Daily episode about Rabbi Avraham Plotkin, who wrote a book about bereavement 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 learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

Alan Schwarz was one of 10 Jewish boys in Oshawa who spent 1973 studying for their b'nai mitzvah. It was the biggest coming-of-age cohort the small Jewish community has ever seen. But in the subsequent 49 years, the Hebrew school pals, unsurprisingly, lost touch; many left the city to start careers and families elsewhere. Schwarz, whose family members were seminal in Oshawa's Jewish community, wound up in the production industry. During the pandemic, he found himself with enough time to follow a project close to his heart: tracking down his nine childhood friends. He pitched a documentary series to Bell Fibe TV that would follow his investigation and tell the stories of these 10 boys, their hometown and the cultural bonds that held them together. Tracking the Ten premiered this month. Joining The CJN Daily to tell their tale and describe the filmmaking process are two of the series' subjects—Evan Kalnitsky, a retired social services worker; and Dave Swartz, an emergency room doctor—as well as Schwarz himself. What we talked about: Learn about the series on Bell Fibe TV Read about Leo Klag's Holocaust story 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 learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

At 74, acclaimed cookbook author Bonnie Stern has just published her first new cookbook in more than a decade. Don't Worry, Just Cook compiles 125 recipes, many Jewish, marking the next step in Stern's nearly 50-year career. Not only is this the first cookbook Stern has co-written with her daughter, Anna Rupert, 37, but it's also the first book published in the social media age. The food industry has changed dramatically, and it wasn't always obvious that Stern would be able to adapt. But with the help of her children—Anna and her brother, Mark Rupert, oversaw photography and social media—the latest edition of Stern's bibliography comes out just in time for the High Holidays and Canadian Thanksgiving. Stern and her daughter join the episode to discuss their process and drive home the theme they learned through the last two years of pandemic life: that, as society re-emerges from pandemic and people can gather again, it's family that matters most—and nothing brings family together quite like a comforting meal. What we talked about: Order the book on Penguin Random House Listen to The CJN Daily episode on JWest in Vancouver Listen to The CJN Daily episode on the Sherman murders 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 learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

This week, about 30 members of the Temple Sons of Israel Synagogue in Sydney, Nova Scotia, gathered for Rosh Hashanah services in a building that was cold, wet and lacked electricity. The building was one of many in the Maritimes battered by a post-tropical storm from Hurricane Fiona, pushing winds of up to 170 km/hr and dumping seven inches of rain across the region. But since a rabbi had already arrived from Halifax and a cantor flown in from Israel, congregants decided to go ahead with the High Holiday services—although not every Atlantic Jewish community did. And while power outages forced at least one community member to throw away kosher food imported from Toronto, and cleaning up the downed power lines and fallen trees will take days, the community is in relatively good spirits, having found ways to celebrate the new year. Shayna Strong, a community member in New Waterford, just northeast of Sydney, joins to discuss how the island's Jews are coping during these difficult times. What we talked about: Read about the Sydney synagogue's centennial in The CJN archives Learn about the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism Watch the press conference where Alberta Premier Jason Kenney discussed his government's actions on combatting antisemitism 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 learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

The Sons of Jacob Congregation, Belleville's only synagogue, has been servicing the town's tight-knit local Jewish community for nearly a century. During the Second World War, its numbers swelled due to the number of Jewish soliders stationed in the area; today, however, fewer than 30 paying members support the historic institution. They managed to keep things going even during the pandemic, but this week, despite the best efforts of their long-serving president, they announced that they couldn't hold regular High Holiday services for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur—because they couldn't find anyone qualified to lead them. The shul can’t afford to pay what they call "Toronto prices" for someone who will—even if that person isn't a rabbi or a cantor. Norm Weddum, the congregation's president, joins to discuss the situation—and how it's hardly unique in the country. What we talked about: Visit the Sons of Jacob website at sonsofjacobsynagogue.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. Production assistance by Gabrielle Nadler and YuZhu Mou. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We're a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.