North Star with Ellin Bessner

We're taking a short break for Passover, and will be returning on Monday. In the meantime: we want to hear your stories. How did you handle the seder during the sixth wave of COVID? Were masks mandatory? Did you hand out rapid tests with a side of maror? Did you keep the door open all night, both for Elijah and air flow? Send your stories, either video or audio, to Ellin at ebessner@thecjn.ca and you might get featured in some of our Passover coverage next week. Until then, happy Passover! Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Victoria Redden 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.

Historically, Canada's Reform movement has been most prominent in Toronto and Montreal. Head east of Quebec, for example, and all you'd find are Orthodox and Conservative shuls. But that history isn't stopping Rabbi N. Siritsky from challenging the status quo. After working in Kentucky and holding virtual services for congregants in Florida, the Canadian-born rabbi has joined the thousands of home-seekers who flocked to Nova Scotia during the pandemic. Once there, they discovered many local Jews outside the traditional framework who were looking for ways to connect, including Russian newcomers, interfaith couples, LGBTQ Jews and those who simply don't identify with the Conservative or Orthodox movements. That led them to spearhead a historic project to establish the first Reform congregation east of Montreal. Their kickoff event is a virtual seder, happening this Friday and open to all Jews in Atlantic Canada. So far, 25 families have asked to participate. Rabbi Siritsky joins to share why they're taking Reform Judaism out to where the people are, rather than starting with a bricks-and-mortar model. What we talked about: Click here to register for the rabbi's virtual seder Learn about Seder Night in Canada at sedernightincanada.com Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Victoria Redden 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 Wednesday, the student council at Simon Fraser University will vote to approve a motion entitled "Establishing an SFSS Issues Policy on Palestinian Liberation". The motion supports resisting "Israeli settler colonialism" and pushes for the end of "colonization of all Arab lands"—though it doesn't define what those lands are. Regular listeners of this podcast can be forgiven for thinking they've heard this story before. Simon Fraser has become the latest in a recent string of student councils that have passed, or are on the verge of passing, pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel policies that support the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. The four other schools have been the University of Toronto, McGill, Concordia and the University of British Columbia. What exactly is behind this trend? Why is it happening now, and why should Jewish Canadians not simply dismiss the actors as a bunch of radical students passing toothless motions in a campus echo chamber? To answer these questions, we're joined by Gillie Cohen, a 22-year-old who works for Hillel in B.C., and Jonah Fried, a 21-year-old history student and activist at McGill, who are living through this battle in real-time. What we talked about: Read the BDS motion put forward to the Simon Fraser Student Society Watch the Beth Tikvah event, "Antisemitism at University of Toronto: An Ongoing Concern" Listen to The CJN Daily episode, "Which Canadian campuses are safest for Jews? Anywhere outside Toronto" Read "McGill University vows unspecified ‘action’ after student union adopts anti-Israel policy" at thecjn.ca Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Victoria Redden 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.

A few weeks ago, out of the blue, Harvey Engelberg received a letter from a farmer in Bassenville, in northern France. The writer was looking for information about a downed Second World War plane that had crashed into her fields on D-Day, back in 1944. She wondered if he knew anything about the event. Reading the letter from his home in Montreal, Engelberg couldn't believe it. That plane carried his father, Cobby Engelberg, who was 24 and in the Royal Canadian Air Force as a wireless operator during Operation Tonga. On the night before D-Day, his father, along with two pilots and a navigator, took off with a load of 22 British paratroopers. The men were to drop behind German lines to destroy bridges and prevent Nazi forces from reaching the infamous Normandy beaches where, hours later, tens of thousands of Canadian and British soldiers would make a surpise landing, turning the tide of the war. Engelberg’s plane, however, was hit and caught fire. The elder Engleberg barely survived the crash, and his life was saved by farmers in a nearby house. On today's episode, Harvey Engelberg joins to discuss his trip to the farm, what it means to have stood on the grounds of his father's final mission, and what special gift he was given when he arrived in France. What we talked about: Watch a French TV report on the event on Facebookj Read more about the Canadian Jews of the Second World War in Ellin's book, Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military, and World War II Watch a documentary about Faye Schulman, Holocaust photographer, on CBC Gem Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Victoria Redden 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.

Boris Brott, who was killed this week at 78, was an iconic Canadian violinist, composer and conductor who tried to make people fall in love with classical music by making it accessible. He brought energy and levity to his performances like few of his contemporaries could. The sudden news of Brott’s death has left his fans, colleagues and students in shock, while tributes and messages have been pouring from from around the world for the internationally acclaimed star who studied with Leonard Bernstein, founded several orchestras and played for two popes. To commemorate Brott, we're joined by a few artistic collaborators who knew him well: Gideon Zelermyer is a classical tenor turned cantor in Montreal; Deborah Corber is the chair of the board of the Orchestre classique de Montréal; and violinist Janna Sailor, after working as Brott's apprentice, now leads an all-female orchestra in Vancouver. What we talked about: Learn about Brott's planned tribute symphony to Ukraine Read Brott's obituary at thecjn.ca Learn more about Janna Sailor at jannasailor.com and Gideon Zelermyer at shaarhashomayim.org Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Victoria Redden 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.

Last week, after a fiasco at the Academy Awards resulted in Will Smith assaulting Chris Rock with a slap heard around the world, Rabbi Joshua Corber prepared a special sermon for his congregation at Beit Rayim in Toronto. He revealed that he, like Jada Pinkett Smith and 147 million more people around the world, suffers from alopecia—the autoimmune disorder that causes missing patches of hair and often results in baldness. Rabbi Corber ended up posting the text of his sermon to his Facebook page, where more than a hundred people have commented and reacted to his honesty. He says he didn't go public with this news for attention or sympathy, but rather to use it as a teaching moment, to discourage body shaming and direct Jews to passages in the Torah that deal with lashon hara, or malicious speech. Rabbi Corber joins to unpack these thoughts and talk about his own experiences with alopecia. What we talked about: Read Rabbi Corber's post on Facebook Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Victoria Redden 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, delivery trucks will be rolling out across Canada, driving thousands of boxes of kosher-for-Passover groceries, meals and seder items to people in need across the country. In Montreal, the MADA Community Center is delivering 2,000 Passover food baskets and 8,000 ready-made meals; Jewish Family Service Calgary has prepared 55 packages; Vancouver is sending nearly 600 parcels, plus 400 seders-in-a-box; and in Toronto, at least 3,000 boxes are heading to Jews in need, thanks to the local Federation and the National Council of Jewish Women of Canada. In every city, local agencies are seeing sharp rises in the number of food boxes required to keep up with demand. On average, since the pandemic, there's been a 20-percent increase in donations. How are these non-profits handling the surge? We're joined by Romy Pilarski, a volunteer in Toronto, and Shelly Feldman and Eva Karpati of the National Council of Jewish Women of Canada. What we talked about: Donate to the MADA Passover food campaign in Montreal Learn more about the NCJWC's Toronto Passover Food Drive Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Victoria Redden 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.

Every year, starting as early as February, Jeff Dobro calls supermarkets around Toronto for months leading up to Passover. His question? Whether or not they have a special kind of Coca-Cola in stock—the kind that's kosher for Passover. While normal Coke is made with high-fructose corn syrup, Passover Coke is made with cane sugar, as many observant Jews are not allowed to consume corn-based products during the holiday. Many Coke drinkers—including non-Jews—prefer it, because it tastes sweeter, they say. The Passover varietal also brings about a sense of nostalgia for the good old days, back when Coca-Cola was made with real sugar, before cheap corn lured the drink-maker to cut costs in the mid-1980s. On today's episode, we learn how Coca-Cola's bottling plant sanitizes its line to product the kosher product, what the origins are and how Jeff Dobro feels about this must-have addition to his seder table. What we talked about: Find the Kosher Chef on Facebook Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Victoria Redden 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.

When Stacey Leavitt-Wright, the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Edmonton, booked a vacation to Israel, she had no idea she'd end up in the middle of the worst terror spree the country has seen since 2009. But that's exactly what happened. In the last month, 11 Israelis have been killed in three separate attacks that occurred in Beersheba, Hadera and Bnei Brak. They struck just as Israel's government welcomed Arab foreign ministers to a milestone peace summit in the Negev desert—and also shortly before the start of Ramadan. Questions are now being asked about the efficacy of Israel's intelligence system and the connection some gunmen have to ISIS. Now, as police and army patrols continue hunting down collaborators and restricting border crossings, Israeli streets are quieter than usual. To understand what life is like on the ground, we'll hear from two Canadians in the Holy Land: Stacey Leavitt-Wright and Adir Krafman, a former spokesperson for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, who has left the organization and moved to Israel. What we talked about: Watch Stacey Leavitt-Wright's dispatches from Israel on Jewish Edmonton's Instagram page Read about the terror spree at the BBC Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Victoria Redden 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.

For legions of mahjong players, this is the most exciting time of year. In the next week or two, the new 2022 version of the official card rules will be arriving from the National Mah Jongg League headquarters in the United States. For untold numbers of mahjong fans—including many Jewish Canadians—the new card poses new challenges, but also brings uncertainty. The COVID pandemic has severely impacted how people played the game these last two years —if they could play at all. To chat about what mahjong lovers can expect, we're joined by Shirley Hanick, a majhong teacher and collector from Toronto; Carol Seidman, her friend and fellow collector; and Aviva Reinitz, who teaches the game in Montreal and Florida. What we talked about: Learn about the National Mah Jongg League at nationalmahjonggleague.org Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Victoria Redden 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.