North Star with Ellin Bessner

As winter approaches and flu season begins, Canadians—especially children—are facing a significant health crisis. Top doctors in Ontario, Quebec, B.C. and Manitoba have all urged people to wear masks in public, mostly because children's hospitals are overwhelmed, cancelling surgeries and scrambling to open new ICUs for kids to handle the flood of young patients. The triple threat is not just COVID-19, but also RSV and the flu. And because so many people have stayed socially distanced these past two years, the rush of infections is hitting earlier and harder than usual, cutting swaths through classrooms. Meanwhile, exasperated parents seeking pain medicine for their kids are finding empty shelves in their pharmacies, while doctors are reporting a shortage of children's antibiotics. It's a perfect storm in an already overburdened health care system—and Dr. Kevin Schwartz is right in the thick of it. An infectious-diseases expert and a pediatrician, he works at St. Joseph's Health Centre in Toronto and recently published a study showing how wearing a mask during the pandemic significantly cut down cases of airborne illnesses. Schwartz joins today to explain how masks and vaccines are badly needed, and how Canadian parents can get through this tough winter. What we talked about: Follow Kevin Schwartz on Twitter @DrKevinSchwartz 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.

On Nov. 15, Manitoba's first Jewish lieutenant governor, Anita Neville, will find herself in the spotlight as she reads the government’s speech from the throne to mark the start of a new session of the province's legislature. Neville admits she's facing a big learning curve as she figures out what's expected of her and how she can put her own stamp on the office—which includes installing a mezuzah when she moves into a century-old government mansion in Winnipeg. Neville previously served as longtime Liberal MP and school board chair, along with being deeply involved in her synagogue and the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada. At 80 years old, Neville wasn't expecting to get the prime minister's call offering her this latest position. But she wasn't about to let her age stop her. Her appointment, coming as Manitoba adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism, is "a signal of positive acceptance and integration" for the Jewish community in her province. Today, we're airing an in-depth interview with Neville about why she took the job and what she hopes to accomplish. What we talked about: Read about Anita Neville's appointment in The CJN (Aug. 2022) Read about Neville's clash with Stephen Harper's government over Israel in The CJN archives (Feb. 2010) Read about Neville's stance on Jewish refugees in The CJN archives (Mar. 2011) Read about Neville's stance on ageism in The CJN archives (2011). 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.

Ethan Schachter was born with a rare genetic disease, nemaline myopathy type 2—a type of muscular dystrophy—that disproportionately affects Ashkenazi Jews. It's not always fatal, but Ethan, at 20 months, needs round-the-clock care, including a machine to help him breathe and a tube for nutrition. He can't walk or talk because his muscles are too weak. Currently, there is no cure. Doctors have only known about this form of the disease for about 15 years. And it's so rare—only one in 47,000 people have it—that couples trying to conceive aren't even screened for it in Canada, where Ethan is one of maybe four or five kids who live with the condition. Ethan's mother, Toba Cooper, wants to change things. She recently launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise more than a million dollars to help researchers develop a made-in-Canada treatment for her son's condition. And she hopes to raise awareness so the condition could be added to the list of eligible tests. Cooper joins The CJN Daily today along with Jim Dowling, a doctor at SickKids Hospital in Toronto, who is one of the world's foremost experts on this rare disease. What we talked about: Donate to Toba Cooper's crowdfunder Learn more about nemaline myopathy type 2 Learn about Jewish genetic diseases awareness testing 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.

On Sept. 13, 2022, at the Holten Canadian War Cemetery in the Netherlands, an early Remembrance Day memorial service was held to honour the more than 1,000 Canadian soldiers buried there. They fell in battle in the spring of 1945, shortly before the Second World War ended, liberating the area from Nazi occupation. Elliott and Jonathan Shiff were the only Jews on the trip. They were commemorating their great-uncle, Sgt. Harry Bockner, a former fur salesman from Toronto who was killed when his light anti-aircraft gun crew came under attack during a manoeuvre codenamed "Operation Cannonshot". More than 500 Canadians became casualties during that operation, including Bockner, a stocky redheaded sergeant who had already survived nearly 18 months on the front lines of Italy. The Shiff brothers join The CJN Daily today to discuss their great-uncle’s life and legacy, how they felt accepting an invitation to join a group of veterans’ children visiting the battlefields of Holland, and why they brought some earth all the way from Jerusalem and Toronto to place on his grave. What we talked about: Watch this short clip about the Canadian Army in Operation Cannonshot from April 1945 Read about Ontario making Holocaust education mandatory in public schools 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 learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

Robbie Waisman was the youngest of six children growing up in Poland, having just turned eight years old when the Nazis invaded. While his whole family was killed except for him and one sister, Waisman survived a ghetto, a slave labour camp, typhus and the Buchenwald concentration camp. After moving to Canada to start a new life, Waisman kept quiet about his time in Europe until prominent Holocaust deniers began making headlines in the 1980s. He decided it was time to share his story and revisit his past. Fast-forward several decades and Waisman, now 91, is a well-known educator and public speaker—whose story is now a book for young adults. Boy From Buchenwald came out last spring, but just won an award at the Toronto International Festival of Authors. To mark the 84th anniversary of Kristallnacht—when, on Nov. 9, 1938, Nazis burned Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues across Germany and Austria—Waisman and his co-author, Susan McClelland, join The CJN Daily to describe the impact they hope his life's story will make on young readers. What we talked about: Order a copy of The Boy From Buchenwald Learn about Waisman at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre Read about Waisman in The CJN archives (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 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.

Today, Americans head to the polls in their midterm elections, choosing all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, plus one-third of all elected senators, various governors and other high-ranking state legislators. Analysts are predicting high voter turnout given what's at stake. Americans are mad about the rising cost of living, rampant inflation and a troubled economy—but also climate change, abortion access and immigration. In a political world where conspiracy theories run amok and political divisions run deep, both Democrats and Republicans feel a lot is on the line. They may be right. American democracy seems to be in turmoil, and historically speaking, when that's been true, it's rarely been good for the Jews. Canadian-born political commentator David Frum, who writes for The Atlantic and was formerly a speechwriter for George W. Bush, has penned 10 books on American politics. He says the country's democratic state is currently in a period of "regress" and joins The CJN Daily to explain what's at stake for Americans, Jews and even Canadians in today's elections. What we talked about: Find David Frum's books at davidfrum.com Watch B'nai Brith Canada's Jewish Remembrance Day ceremony on Nov. 11 Listen to Gil Troy discuss the U.S. midterms on Bonjour Chai 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 a recent Ottawa Redblacks football game, the team presented Suzi Shore Sauve with their "Wood Cookie" award. The distinction is given out at each home game to a community member making a difference; on this day, they honoured Shore Sauve for her multifaith volunteer initiative, From House to Home Ottawa. It all started two summers ago, after her father, David Shore, died. To honour him, she came up with a charity project—she would collect gently used furniture from people who wanted to get rid of it, then donate it to refugees who recently found houses but couldn't afford to furnish them. At first, she paid for this service entirely out of her own pocket, storing everything in her garage. But today, her charity stores all their donations in a giant warehouse, and Shore Sauve has hired staff to handle pick-ups and deliveries. To date, From House to Home Ottawa has helped 250 families, including 14 families in three days in just the last week. Shore Sauve joins to discuss her project and how they're planning to help some of the quarter-million refugees expected to arrive in Canada by 2026. What we talked about: Read about From House to Home in The CJN archives (2021) Learn about the charity at house2homeottawa.ca Learn about Rise Up Ottawa 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.

Nearly 40 years ago, Hart Snider was a camper at Camp BB Riback in Pine Lake, Alta., the summer after Jim Keegstra, an infamous teacher from the nearby town of Eckville, got fired for brainwashing his high school students against Jews. For years, Keegstra, who taught social sciences, told his teenagers that Jews were evil, Hitler was right and the Holocaust was fake. While he was later convicted of hate speech, that would be years later—in the interim, Alberta's local Jewish communities felt they had to try and help Keegstra's students deprogram their brains. And so, as unbelievable as it may sound, some of Keegsta's students were invited to the camp for a picnic—and a basketball game. Snider, who was nine years old at the time, made a film of his experience called The Basketball Game, which has now become a new graphic novel—just in time for Holocaust Education Month. On today's show, Snider joins to explain the book's message and how it can help today's young people deal with rising antisemitism and other forms of prejudice. What we talked about: Watch the short film on Hart Snider's website Read about Jim Keegstra's death in The CJN archives (2014) Listen to The CJN Daily episode with Dori Ekstein from May 2022 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.

Welcome to the fourth episode of The CJN Daily Dead Beat—which we're now calling the Honourable Mention, as we pay tribute to honourable menschen and women who passed away in recent months. As always, we're joined by The CJN's reporter emeritus Ron Csillag. In today's edition, we're focusing on four high-profile Canadian women and their contribution to society: Corinne Bronfman, 74, an artist turned economist and philanthropist; Helen Wolfe, 69, a teacher and advocate for people with disabilities; Sheila Goldbloom, 96, an activist and social worker; and Holocaust survivor Nancy Kleinberg, 95. Plus a profile of Kurt Rothschild, a philanthropist dedicated to religious Zionist institutions in Canada and Israel, 101; Harvey Rosen, the first Jewish mayor of Kingston, Ont. and Charles Taylor, a renowned Ottawa grocery magnate. What we talked about: Read The CJN's obituary of Sheila Goldbloom from July 2022 Read David Weinberg's tribute to Kurt Rothschild in The CJN from July 2022 Read The CJN's obituary of Helen Wolfe from Aug. 2022 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.

On Oct. 27, 2022, El Al flew its last direct flight from Canada for the foreseeable future. Leaving Toronto's Pearson airport at 7 p.m., the direct red-eye was packed with passengers both optimistic about their travel plans and sad about El Al's decision to cease operations in the Great White North. The milestone marked the end of nearly four decades of direct flights between the two countries on Israel's national carrier. People flew with El Al for many reasons, but mostly because of its representation of the Jewish state. During the pandemic, a private American Jewish family bought a controlling interest in the airline after a massive government bailout. They got El Al back in the air—but not without chopping some longstanding routes. The CJN Daily arrived at the terminal hours before takeoff to meet some of the passengers on this historic trip, including a young grandmother along with her daughter and two-week-old grandchild; an Israeli-Canadian couple heading to their native land to vote in the country's upcoming elections; and staffers handing out candy, chocolates and souvenirs. What we talked about: Read The CJN's coverage of El Al's decision to cease Canadian operations from June 2022 Listen to The CJN Daily episode about the Jewish community's reaction to El Al's decision 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.