North Star with Ellin Bessner

Every night this week, Daniel Kollek hasn't been at the ER at his usual hospital in Burlington, Ont. Instead, he's been working in wartorn Ukraine, driving between two different clinics near the Polish border for 12-hour overnight shifts. A member of the non-profit Canadian Medical Assistance Teams, the 64-year-old doctor is one of more than a dozen medical volunteers treating exhausted Ukrainian refugees, arriving by the busload after long journeys spent without medicine or access to proper health care. When the refugees arrive, they are met by a pop-up clinic the Canadians built from wooden fruit crates and a mattress on the floor. Kollek joins today to describe what he’s seen, the parallels between the current crisis and Holocaust, and why he took the time to say some prayers at the Belzec death camp, where 600,000 Polish Jews were murdered. What we talked about: Learn about Canadian Medical Assistance Teams at cmat.ca Click here to find out more about the campaign to find Bernie Grempel 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.

It’s estimated that about 50 women currently play hockey in Israel—at any level. There are no professional women's leagues. But despite these challenges, last summer, Esther Silver decided to try to get a national women's team together. The Toronto native used to play goalie in amateur games before moving to the Holy Land. She organized tryouts, and the Canadian embassy came through with financial support for some of the equipment. Last week, the fledgling national team arrived in Belgrade, Serbia, to lace up for a three-day tournament against other European countries. Israel scored just a single goal in the entire round robin, compared with 21 goals they allowed. But the team hopes their international debut will serve them well in their next challenge: competing in this summer's Maccabiah Games. To talk about their struggles and successes, we're joined by manager Esther Silver, 16-year-old centre Pnina Basov and team captain Chen Kotler. What we talked about: See the game schedule and results here on the IIHF website 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.

Julia Koschitzky was an internationally recognized philanthropist and community leader in Canada. She died of cancer on March 21 at the age of 78. Koschitzky has been described as Jewish royalty, a giant of activism and philanthropy. She spent many years as a leader with Toronto’s United Israel Appeal, raising money in annual campaigns to pay for community services such as schools, summer camps, libraries and Meals on Wheels for Holocaust survivors. In the 1990s, she helped raise US$100 million dollars from Canadian donors alone to help fly hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews to new lives in Israel. Messages of condolence and appreciation came flooding in after her passing, including from the president of Israel, Issac Herzog, and also Nachman Shai, Israel's minister of diaspora affairs. On today's episode of The CJN Daily, you'll hear stories of her life and accomplishments from six people who knew her well, including Gerald Sheff, a Toronto businessman and philanthropist; Daniel Held, a longtime executive director of The Julia and Henry Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Education; Linda Frum, a former senator and the board chair of the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto; a grandson, Yaniv Koschitzky; and two of her four children, Jonathan and Sarena. What we talked about: Read her obituary at thecjn.ca Watch her funeral on YouTube 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.

Sonia Bazar, an artist and poet, is reaching out to any Jewish Canadians whose relatives are buried in the historic Back River Jewish cemetery in Montreal. She's looking for people whose fascinating stories were buried along with their bodies, in hopes that more Jews will visit the beautifully macabre landmark. During the pandemic, in search of outdoor inspiration, Sonia Bazar decided to visit Montreal's Back River cemetery, a historic Jewish site in the city's east end. The souls resting in Back River date back 130 years, to the first waves of Jewish immigrants who arrived from Eastern Europe. Bazar looked into some of the 6,000 Jewish people who are buried in the Back River site—including her own relatives, who endured hardships and tragedy Bazar had never heard about before. It is the final resting place for generations of Montreal families who escaped Russian pogroms and the First World War, who helped the city's Jewish community grow and flourish. She transformed those stories into a new self-published book of poems and photos called Pathways, launching March 23 at a live event hosted by the Museum of Jewish Montreal. For a sneak preview and insight into her artistic process, Bazar joins The CJN Daily on the day of her book's debut. What we talked about: You can reach Bazar with stories by visiting soniabazar.net Read the full obituary for Juila Koschitzsky at thecjn.ca Find out more about Sonia Bazar’s new book and the launch at the Jewish Museum of Montreal Buy Pathways at blurb.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.

Valentyna Agapova hid in a bomb shelter for four days before making her escape. The 67-year-old hairdresser and widow, trapped in Ukraine after Russia invaded, subsequently went on a 1,000-kilometre trek by bus, train and foot to reach the Polish border from her apartment in the Zaporizhzhia area. She didn't live far from Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, which came under attack early in the war. Her ultimate destination was Winnipeg, where her son lives with his wife and children. They immigrated to Canada in 2017 as part of a Federation program called GrowWinnipeg, which has been bringing Jewish families to the city for more than 25 years. Now, with the help of a federal program that fast-tracks Ukrainian immigrants to stay in Canada for up to three years, Agapova is hopeful that she won't have to return to her war-torn country ever again, while she works on setting down roots in her new home. Agapova, her daughter-in-law and a translator join to help share Agapova's remarkable story of survival and escape that finally brought her to Winnipeg just two weeks ago. What we talked about: Read about Cantor Zelermyer’s first time singing the national anthem at the Bell Centre in 2010 at thecjn.ca Read about the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg's welcome to new immigrants on their Facebook page 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.

Only two Canadians joined a recent trip to Ukraine put together by the Jewish Federations of North America. Linda Frum, board chair of Toronto's Federation, and Adam Minsky, its president and CEO, travelled to the Polish-Ukrainian border to see firsthand where the millions of dollars raised by Canadians—including $4 million by Jewish Canadians alone—are going. The United Nations now says 10 million Ukrainians have left their homes because of the war—a quarter of the entire country’s population. Money raised by Canadian Federations has so far mainly gone to help two groups doing work on the ground, the American Jewish Joint Distrubution Committee and the Jewish Agency for Israel. But what does that look like? What is the scene like on the ground, and how are Jewish NGOs helping? Frum and Minsky join to share what they saw, what they learned and why they don't expect many Ukrainian refugees to arrive on Canadian soil. What we talked about: Watch a video of their trip from the UJA Federation's YouTube channel Read the StatsCan report on Canadian hate crimes in 2020 at www150.statcan.gc.ca Read "The Jewish community in Canada has now raised $4 million for Ukraine—and it’s preparing for the imminent arrival of refugees" 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.

Last week on The CJN Daily, we brought you an interview with Canadian writer Rosemary Sullivan. Her latest book, The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation, details a team of historians and researchers that argue it was a Dutch Jewish notary who sold out the Franks to the Nazis. Sullivan defended her work and argued the Dutch need to face the fact that one-third of all Dutch Jews in hiding were betrayed, resulting in the death of 75 per cent of the country's Jewish population. But the Dutch are angry at the book—especially one Dutchman, Ruben Vis. The CEO of a Dutch Jewish organization called NIK, who is also the son of Holocaust survivors who hid for their survival, Vis has since embarked on a PR campaign to force the book's publisher to stop printing copies. He also believes his research refutes several accusations from The Betrayal of Anne Frank, a book which he describes as a painful hit on Dutch Jews. Vis joins from Amsterdam to explain what Sullivan's book got wrong and why his fight to stop the book is going to heat up even more next week. What we talked about: Listen to Rosemary Sullivan discuss her book on The CJN Daily at thecjn.ca Watch Sullivan's full interview with The CJN on YouTube Learn about the event, "The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Refutation", in which local Dutch historians and family members go into details about their counter-findings, at spui25.nl 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.

In 2021, a producer for the game show Family Feud Canada reached out to Rabbi Stephen Wise, hoping to boost the diversity pool of their show's contestants. When asked if he knew anyone from the community who might want to participate, Rabbi Wise didn’t need to look very far: his wife, Cheryl, and her whole family are game show fanatics. That's how he joined his in-laws, the Kestelmans, on live TV in March 2022, winning three matches against three other families and walking away with about $2,500. Plus, they managed to teach host Gerry Dee a bit about Jewish life—an easy ask for a rabbi, the principal of TanenbaumCHAT and the director of a synagogue's afternoon school. Renee Cohen, the school principal, gives a behind-the-scenes scoop on what it was like being on the show and how they felt representing Jewish Canadians on national TV. What we talked about: Watch the Kestelmans' episode of Family Feud Canada on CBC Gem Hear The CJN Daily episode "TikTok star Josh Zilberberg dishes on his Canadian Jewish roots" on thecjn.ca Read "From hamantashen to art shows, Canadians find creative ways to help Ukraine" 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.

If you haven't heard, Toronto is getting a new Holocaust museum. The $27-million institution will be located in the new Prosserman Jewish Community Centre, and will do more than simply commemorate the past: it aims to make the Holocaust relevant to modern visitors, world events and Canadian life, using augmented reality, tablets and video of survivors to tell its stories. But work began only recently, and it will take at least a year before its doors open to the general public. In the meantime, the city's old Holocaust museum has closed down and a rash of antisemitic incidents has been sweeping across Toronto's public schools. How can the museum's organizers stay relevant at a time when their presence is arguably needed most? The CJN Daily's Ellin Bessner took a tour of the construction site to get a sneak peek at the developments, and spoke with the museum's executive director, Dara Solomon, as well as fundraiser Glenys Lindenberg, to discuss. What we talked about: Learn about the museum at holocaustcentre.com/revitalization-project Read "Why is every Holocaust museum in Canada undergoing a massive overhaul right now?" at thecjn.ca Watch a video about JRoots and the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center partnering up to help Urkainian refugees in Poland on Vimeo 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.

What do Seth Rogen, Dave Barrett and Cornelia Oberlander have in common? They're three of hundreds of notable people featured in a new coffee table book celebrating British Columbia's Jewish community. Looking Back, Moving Forward: 160 Years of Jewish Life in BC comes out today. It was created to mark the 50th anniversary of the Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia, and recounts the fascinating history of Jews in the province, dating back to before Canada was a country. Home to the third-largest Jewish community in Canada, B.C. has been home to trailblazing Jewish politicians, influential artists and powerful business tycoons. Michael Schwartz, the director of community engagement for the museum and the book's editor, joins to discuss how he hopes his organization's endeavour will mitigate the rising trend of antisemitism by showcasing Canadian Jews' myriad contributions to the country—and why why he thinks this story should be made into a miniseries. What we talked about: Learn more about the book Looking Back, Moving Forward: 160 Years of Jewish Life in BC at jewishmuseum.ca/looking-back-moving-forward Listen to The CJN Daily episode "Still demanding justice: 27 years since Argentina’s largest unsolved terror attack" 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.