North Star with Ellin Bessner

On Sunday Aug. 10, Montreal’s 19th annual Pride parade is set to take place, and two local Jewish organizations have been once again been invited to participate—despite a turbulent few days in which the organizers originally barred both Ga’ava and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. The explusion stemmed from complaints Pride said it received that Ga’ava, a pro-Israel, Jewish 2SLGBTQIA+ group, had used “hateful discourse” in a recent CJN article when describing groups that objected to Zionists participating in the parade this year. The short-lived ban outraged many, since Pride is supposed to be inclusive and a celebration of 2SLGBTQIA+ people, and also because the festival receives over $1 million in government funding. While the reversal is being described by some activists as a victory—and Ga’ava and CIJA, who march together, are pushing for a large turnout ahead of the big day—some members of the Jewish queer community say the whole incident has left them feeling traumatized. There is also some concern about how their enjoyment of the annual Pride experience might be marred by the required heavy security that will be deployed to protect them. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner gets reaction from Claire Frankel, a recent graduate of McGill University and a board member with JQueer Montreal, as well as from retired Ontario justice Harvey Brownstone. Brownstone was Canada’s first openly gay judge, performed numerous same-sex marriages and, years ago, was the president of Chutzpah, a group created in the 1980s to support queer Toronto Jews who had been rejected by their families. Related links Why Montreal’s main Pride organization has reversed course and welcomed back two pro-Israel Jewish groups to participate, in The CJN. How Toronto’s  2SLGBTQIA+ community faced some hard decisions whether to participate in the 2025 Pride events, in The CJN. Learn more and follow Harvey Brownstone’s interviews show. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

While many Canadians are continuing to boycott products made in the United States, when it comes to mikvehs, nearly a dozen Canadian Jewish communities have no qualms about accepting their money. Mikvah USA is a Brooklyn-based charity that gives out financial aid, advice and technical support for renovating outdated mikvehs and building brand-new ones, and in the last few years, they’ve supported 10 clients in Ontario and Quebec. One of them is Ottawa’s Naomi Bulka Community Mikvah, which held its grand reopening on July 20, having completed a makeover of the 25-year-old facility, attached to Ottawa’s Soloway ewish Community Centre. While only 30 women have been using the mikveh each month, officials believe they will attract larger crowds who come for the religious experience in a bright, refreshed, spa-like atmosphere. The team in Ottawa received a grant to kickstart independent fundraising from Mikvah USA, which has been subsidizing mikveh projects across North America since 2004, mostly in smaller Jewish communities. The list includes London, Ont.; Quebec City; and a forthcoming mikveh in Saint-Agathe-des-Monts, Que., which is still under construction. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner is joined by some Canadian mikveh organizers who collaborated with the American charity to get their projects to the finish line: Dina Teitlebaum and her husband, Rabbi Levy Teitlebaum, in Ottawa, and Chana Carlebach and her husband, Rabbi Emanuel Carlebach, who are building the multimillion-dollar mikveh in Saint-Agathe-des-Monts. Related links Learn more or donate to the newly renovated Naomi Bulka community mikveh in Ottawa. Learn more or donate to the new community mikveh in Saint-Agathe-des-Monts, Quebec, built by Congregation House of Israel. Why this Chabad family in Kelowna, B.C. built the only mikveh between Vancouver and Calgary, in The CJN archives. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

On July 30, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced that, come September, Canada will officially recognize Palestine as a state, during the United Nations General Assembly meetings in New York. In making the announcement in Ottawa earlier this week, Carney said he had received three “commitments” from the head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas: to hold elections in 2026, to reform the P.A.’s governance and to demilitarize the territories. Carney said Canada couldn’t wait any longer for a two-state solution to happen on its own, and needed to act quickly. Why? Because Hamas continues to pose a “pervasive threat” to Israel and its right to exist after the “heinous terrorist attack of October 7, 2023.” But he also blamed Israel for planning to expand settlements and annex the West Bank, for letting extremist settlers continue attacking Palestinians, and for allowing a humanitarian crisis to unfold in Gaza. The news has Canadian Jews divided. Some mainstream organizations reacted to the news with alarm; B’nai Brith Canada called the decision “dangerously premature”, while the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs warned of “another failed Palestinian pseudo-state controlled by terrorists”, adding their deep concern that the recognition doesn’t hinge on the release of the hostages and the removal of Hamas first. Meanwhile, some progressive Jewish groups commended Carney for the move, including Canadian Friends of Peace Now and JSpace Canada. The latter praised “this significant and courageous step” as being “shared by the majority of Canadian Jews,” and that a two-state solution “remains the only just and sustainable resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with two senior international affairs analysts on opposite sides of the issue. Alan Kessel is a former Canadian diplomat and legal advisor to Global Affairs Canada, and his former colleague Jon Allen was Canadian ambassador to Israel from 2006-2010. Related links Read more about Canada’s pledge to recognize Palestine in September, in The CJN. Read Prime Minister Mark Carney’s official announcement on why Canada will recognize Palestine. Hear the former Palestinian envoy to Ottawa say there can't be elections because Israel is occupying East Jerusalem, the Palestinian capital, on CBC News. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

For nearly three weeks now, members of Canada’s Druze community have been desperately sounding the alarm after an outbreak of ethnic violence in the Sweida area of Syria resulted in the deaths of roughly 1,000 people, mostly civilians. Tensions erupted on July 11 between local Sunni Bedouin clans and the majority Druze population living in Syria’s southern province. But the Druze say when the Syrian army was sent to the scene, the government soldiers carried out mass killings. Images have emerged of burned-out buildings, bodies on the ground and uniformed soldiers forcibly shaving and tearing off the moustaches of Druze elders. After days of attacks, Israel took the unprecedented step of launching air raids on Syrian military positions, in support of the Druze people living in northern Israel and their relatives across the Syrian border. It’s been an agonizing time for Canadian Druze residents, including Hend Raad of Barrie, Ont., who lost 10 members of her family in the recent violence. Jamil Ammar of Niagara Falls says his relatives who were visiting Sweida from elsewhere in the Middle East and Europe are now stuck with no fuel and no way to get out. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with Hend Raad and Jamil Ammar about the situation facing their loved ones in the aftermath of the fighting in Sweida, and what they want Canada to do. Related links Read more about the Toronto Druze community’s efforts to raise awareness about the massacre of their people in southern Syria, in The CJN. Learn more about the Beit El Jebel Organization of Druze in Toronto, and how to donate. Meet an Israeli Druze IDF veteran who was wounded after Oct. 7, who came to Canada to recover, in The CJN Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

On July 25, Iain Aspenlieder pleaded guilty in court to a charge of mischief for defacing Canada's National Holocaust Monument. Before dawn on June 9, Aspenlieder—a former lawyer with the City of Ottawa—cycled to the monument with three cans of bright red paint to write the words "FEED ME". He meant the phrase as a political statement about the humanitarian condition of Palestinians in Gaza, he admitted. He had also just started a hunger strike, which lasted nearly a month, to call attention to the cause. After his guilty plea, a Superior Court justice released Aspenlieder on bail until the sentencing process starts in the fall. He must leave Ottawa and remain under supervision until then at his parents' home near Alliston, Ont. He is under what the Crown Attorney described as "extremely strict" bail conditions, including wearing a GPS-tracking ankle bracelet, staying off social media, and keeping away from Jewish or Israeli buildings. He is also banned from discussing the conflict in Gaza with anyone except mental health specialists. The prosecutor argues this was a hateful act, and the government intends to ask the judge for a prison term because of the fear he instilled in the Jewish community. But Aspenlieder's defence maintains their client was "driven by a profound sense of compassion and moral urgency—not by hatred or prejudice." On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner gets reaction from Ottawa's Jewish community, including Mina Cohn, the chair of Ottawa's Centre for Holocaust Education and Scholarship, and lawyer Lawrence Greenspon, who is co-chair of the National Holocaust Monument Committee. Related links An Ottawa judge originally denied bail to the man who later pleaded guilty to defacing the National Holocaust monument. Why the Ottawa police hate crime team and the Ontario Crown prosecutor laid three charges, including criminal harassment, against the suspect Iain Aspenleider. Why Ottawa’s Jewish community held an interfaith rally June 15 at the Holocaust monument site after the June 9 defacing. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

If you happen to be in the Laurentians one Friday afternoon this summer, near the Saint-Agathe, a resort area north of Montreal that’s popular with Jewish families, you might hear clapping, singing and loud Jewish music blasting from a flotilla of boats tied together in the middle of a lake. The gatherings represent two concurrent pre-Shabbat get-togethers, where Jewish cottagers motor out, tie up in a circle and welcome in the Sabbath. Attendees have raved about the trend, praising it for bringing badly needed Jewish resilience and inspiration that lasts long after the boat owners set their feet on dry land. In fact, the idea has been such a success that it’s multiplied. There are, in fact, two different spiritual celebrations each Friday, organized and operated by separate people. Both groups of boats listen to Jewish music alongside candles, challah, a rabbi and seafaring shmoozing, but don’t mix them up—each organizer is quick to point out key differences in flavour and religious observance. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with Howard Stotland, who runs the event from Ivry-sur-le-Lac, and Rabbi Emanuel Carlebach, who runs a different Pre-“Shabb’o’at” program out of the Congregation House of Israel in nearby Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts. Related links Learn more about Rabbi Emanuel Carlebach and his Congregation House of Israel’s Pre-Shabb’o’at on a Lake Near You program. Send a note to The CJN to register for the weekly Shabbat on the Lake/Shabbat Sur Le Lac which Howard Stotland runs in Ivry. Watch videos of Shabbat On the Lake and Pre Shabb’o’at on A Lake Near you on The CJN’s YouTube Channel Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

In her first media interview since stepping down early as Canada’s Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, Deborah Lyons spoke to The CJN frankly about why she left. There were no medical or mental health issues that prompted her decision, she says. It was, in part, exhaustion after spending nearly two years “waking up every day to a fight”. It was hard to get people to speak up for the community. Some wouldn’t even agree to speak with her personally. Over time, she grew “despondent and despairing” over how few Canadians have stood up against the anti-Jewish hatred that has flared up in this country since she took the job, soon after Oct. 7, 2023. Despite serving a term as Canada’s ambassador to Israel from 2016 to 2020, her appointment raised eyebrows in some quarters—including in the Jewish community—because she herself is not Jewish. Nonetheless, she maintained to The CJN how important it was for her to accept the job to show what allyship can look like and to fight for a better Canada. Now, however, she is leaving the post highly critical of various Canadian sectors. Canadian business leaders, religious leaders and politicians have failed to support the Jewish community. Governments, she believes, found it easier to hold summits to fight carjackings and tariffs—yet could not cooperate when it came to combatting hate. On today’s episode of The CJN’s flagship news podcast North Star, Deborah Lyons sits down with host Ellin Bessner for an in-depth interview to explain her resignation and why Canadians need to stop being bystanders in what she calls a fight for the future of our country’s children. Related links Read reaction from the Jewish community as Ambassador Deborah Lyons announces she is stepping down on July 17, in The CJN. Hear Deborah Lyons’ first interview after being appointed Special Envoy to replace Irwin Cotler, in The CJN, and her later one after releasing the new IHRA handbook in the fall of 2024. Her last initiative before resigning was a study of antisemitism in Ontario public schools, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

There are two framed medical certificates missing from the wall of Dr. Michael Kalin’s office in his medical clinic in Montreal. Kalin, who owns Santé Kildare, earned them years ago from the College of Family Physicians of Canada, which oversees 45,000 family doctors. But the College has ordered him to take them down, after Kalin publicly resigned his membership and withdrew his application to sit on their board, following the College’s publication of a controversial article in their official magazine. Kalin—along with hundreds of his colleagues and Canadian Jewish medical associations—believes the article, titled “The Day the Pagers Exploded”, praises members of Hezbollah, a banned terrorist organization in Canada. The piece in question was written by a Lebanese doctor living in Beirut who has no apparent ties to Canada. She treated hundreds of wounded Hezbollah members in her local emergency ward in September 2024 on the night thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies suddenly exploded, as part of the stunning Israeli operation to take out terrorists who planned attacks on the Jewish State after Oct. 7. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, Kalin explains to host Ellin Bessner what the reaction has been to his protest. Because they refused to retract the story or explain how it was published in a peer-reviewed journal that usually talks about care standards for Canadian patients, he speaks frankly in saying there is no longer a place for him in the Canadian organization of family physicians. Related links Read the Canadian Family Physician magazine article about the wounded Hezbollah patients and the complaints and the CFPC response. Find out more about Santé Kildare, Dr. Michael Kalin’s family medicine clinic in Côte Saint-Luc, Quebec. Learn more about the exploding pagers operation in Lebanon, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

On July 18, Jewish communities will mark the 31st anniversary of the AMIA terrorist bombing in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in which Hezbollah, backed by Iran, murdered 85 people and wounded hundreds more at the city's Jewish Federation building. Until Oct. 7, 2023, the AMIA bombing had been the worst mass attack against Jews since the Holocaust. For Irwin Cotler—the acclaimed lawyer, former justice minister and chair of the Montreal-based Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights—commemorating this anniversary brings a deeply unsettling sense of déjà vu. For two decades, he has been pushing the Canadian government to take stronger measures against the Islamist regime, resulting in an Iranian murder plot planned against him. Today, Cotler will be speaking on a national Federation panel entitled "The Islamic Republic's Long Shadow of Terror". On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner sits down with Cotler in his home in Montreal to hear exactly how Canada's lax policies on Iran have come home to roost. Related links Watch the July 18 official ceremony and panel on the Islamic Republic’s Long Shadow of Terror, live at 11 am EDT Friday, sponsored by Canada’s Jewish Federations. Hear how Winnipeg’s Argentinian Jewish community remembers the 1994 AMIA bombing by Iranian-backed terrorists. Read more about the search for justice in the 1994 AMIA terrorist bombing of Argentina’s Jewish community, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

It has been three weeks since a ceasefire on June 24 paused the brief war between Israel and Iran. As a recap of what happened: the Israel Defense Forces launched surprise air strikes on Iran’s nuclear bomb-making facilities and other targets. The Israeli government said Iran was weeks away from having working nuclear missiles, which officials say would pose an existential threat to the Jewish State. Teheran retaliated by firing 550 ballistic missiles at Israel and dropping more than 1,000 bombs via drone. Despite Israel intercepting most of those missiles and bombs, the Iranian strikes managed to kill 30 Israelis, while Israeli attacks resulted in an estimated 900 Iranian deaths. Thousands of civilians were wounded on both sides. U.S. President Donald Trump sent forces to bomb three of Iran’s main nuclear facilities, ultimately pushing Iran and Israel to call off hostilities. When the IDF launched its surprise attack, many Canadian-Iranian dissidents initially expressed support for Israel. Some hoped the war would prompt a regime change and bring back democracy and freedom to their homeland. But Trump vetoed the removal of Iran’s leaders, and now initial optimism in Canada has shifted to concern amidst reports of renewed crackdowns by the Islamic republic on its domestic opponents. On today’s episode of The CJN’s flagship news podcast, North Star, reporter Alex Rose sits down to speak with Kaveh Shahrooz, a Canadian lawyer and international human rights activist, on what the brief war achieved and what he fears comes next. Related links Read more about how Iranian Canadians are now concerned for their homeland, after initial hope during Israel’s raids on the nuclear bomb building sites in June, in The CJN. How Canadian government agencies are preparing for Iranian domestic threats, in The CJN. Why Iran’s terror regime is creating common bonds between Jewish and Iranian Canadians, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)