North Star with Ellin Bessner

Canada’s 44th Parliament is set to resume Monday at 1 p.m. In it are eight Jewish MPs, including two relatively new faces—Ya'ara Saks, the Liberal representative for York Centre, elected in a 2020 byelection; and Melissa Lantsman, the rookie Conservative just elected by the voters of Thornhill. Both will be sitting for the first time in the House of Commons—Saks has only Zoomed into meetings so far—and, while they sit on opposite ends of the aisle, both women are proudly Jewish, with similar plans for tackling antisemitism, addressing the nation's high cost of living and hanging a mezuzah on their office doors. Saks and Lantsman join to give us an insight look at what's going to happen Monday afternoon, where they disagree and where they share common goals. What we talked about: Visit Ya'ara Saks' website at yaarasaks.liberal.ca Visit Melissa Lantsman's website at melissalantsman.ca Learn about the flood relief plan by the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver at jewishvancouver.com/bcflood 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; find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

Thanks to the Netflix action film The Red Sea Diving Resort, many people have heard of Operation Moses, when Israel rescued 30 planeloads of Ethiopian refugees, bringing them to the Holy Land. That covert operation launched almost exactly 37 years ago. But even earlier, another secret mission took place to save several hundred Ethiopian Jews, which brought them not to the shores of the Mediterranean, but the banks of the St. Lawrence River. In the early 1980s, a group of Montrealers decided to do what the Israel government had still only been planning. The group of lawyers, social workers and students teamed up with Quebec politicians, Brian Mulroney and Steven Lewis, arranging visas by forging fake university acceptance letters, made-up job offers and bogus wedding invitations. Ultimately, they helped between 200 and 300 Ethiopians reach Canadian soil. Now, more than 40 years later, an American museum is sharing this story more widely. It tells the story from the perspective of one of the main operatives, Mark Zarecki, who joins us today to discuss the rescue mission that deserves its own Hollywood movie—but never got one. What we talked about: Learn about the museum exhibit featuring Mark Zarecki at pritzkermilitary.org Read about Operation Moses at mfa.gov.il Watch "Sterlin Castle: The Story behind RCR Lt. Mitch Sterlin's Gallantry in Italy in WWll by Ellin Bessner" on YouTube on Nov. 18 at 6 p.m. EST 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; find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

After years of relative stability and the election of a prime minister who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, Ethiopia has been mired in domestic warfare since November 2020. Sparked by postponed elections and the COVID-19 pandemic, the war sees the Ethiopian government facing off against rural militias, separatist groups and a paramilitary organization slowly advancing across the entire country. This leaves the nation's remaining Jews trapped and scared. So advocates are looking to Israel for help evacuating the country's Jewish populace, echoing Operation Moses from the 1980s and Operation Solomon from 1991, which brought thousands of Ethiopian Jews to the Holy Land. One of those advocates is Yaffa Tegegne. The Montreal-based lawyer is the daughter of Baruch Tegegne, the famous activist who spearheaded the campaign to save Ethiopia's Jews. Tegegne joins to discuss her parents' legacy, the people he saved and what Canadians need to know about the Ethiopian Jews trapped in the current conflict. What we talked about: Visit Tegegne's website at yaffategegne.com, and read her short biography of her father at yaffategegne.com/baruch-tegegne Listen to The CJN Daily episode, "At 13, he got an Apple Watch. At 14, he built a daily prayer app for it" at thecjn.ca/kid-genius. 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; find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

The debut NHL season for the Seattle Kraken has not been kind. They've won just four games so far, losing 10 and tying one. They rank last in their division, and have slunk near the bottom of the entire league. One of the few bright moments, however, came at the expense of the Montreal Canadiens—the Kraken beat the Habs 5-1 in their first-ever franchise victory. It was a bittersweet moment for Mitch Garber, who watched the historic game from the owners' box in Seattle. Garber—a lawyer, businessman, investor and respected philanthropist in his native Montreal—is a minority owner of the upstart hockey squad, and now finds himself making monthly trips to the West Coast to support his new team. Garber joins to discuss his involvement with the Kraken, the connection between Judaism and hockey, and how he torn feels when his new Kraken kids face off against his beloved Canadiens. What we talked about: Visit Mitch Garber's website at mitchgarberinvestments.com Read "This graffiti was found outside the Elgin Street courthouse in Ottawa" at thecjn.ca To hear the full interview, subscribe to Menschwarmers at thecjn.ca/menschwarmers 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; find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

The major international climate conference COP26 wrapped up this weekend. Canadians, now accustomed to seeing headlines about B.C.'s heat dome, wildfires in Northern Ontario and Alberta, melting Arctic ice and irregular farming seasons across the country, have much at stake in the conversation about climate change. The conference produced some worthwhile promises, but the question remains: Will they be enough? Will Canadians' actions matter on a global scale? And how can the country transition out of fossil fuels when those industries are still pivotal to our economy? To discuss these issues and more, we're joined by Seth Klein, an analyst, professor and the head of the climate emergency unit of the David Suzuki Foundation. Like his sister, Naomi Klein, he's also a published author, with his book, A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency, published Sept. 2020. What we talked about: Visit Seth Klein's webiste at sethklein.ca and find his book at ecwpress.com See the new menorah created by Ari Harel for Halifax’s Shaar Shalom Synagogue 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; find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

Jules Freedman, Max Sucharov and Archie Adelman have a few things in common. All three served in the Canadian military; all three were killed in 1944; all three were Jews. But history would bind them together in a different way, too: for decades, on each of their gravestones in the Bretteville-sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery in Normandy, France, was not a Jewish Star of David, but a Christian cross. It took six months and several emails and calls flying between The CJN Daily host Ellin Bessner, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and Martin Sugarman, the archivist for the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women, in London, England—but, eventually, the error was corrected. Today, all three tombstones bear the proper Star of David, cementing their legacy as Canadian Jewish war heroes. Sugarman joins the show to discuss how the mistake was made and how it was resolved. Sugarman has made it his personal mission to find incorrect or missing Jewish soldiers' graves around the world and fix any errors. He's helped 200 fallen soldiers over 30 years so far—and is still working on more. What we talked about: Watch the WW2TV episode with Ellin leading a virtual tour of Bretteville-sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery on YouTube Read "Britain to replace crosses for 3 Jewish Canadians killed in WWII" at ellinbessner.com Watch the ceremony of Lawrence MacAulay awarding the Veterans Affairs Canada Commendation medal to the late Rabbi Reuven Bulka of Ottawa 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; find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

After 9/11, Canada sent 40,000 troops to Afghanistan. One of those was Tamar Freeman. She spent 25 years in the military, including a deployment in 2006 to the Central Asian country, where she treated Canadian troops and Afghan women and children who suffered burns and abuse. When she arrived, insurgents were setting off roadside bombs; while Taliban rockets were routinely killing Western soliders. She lost friends and colleagues in the half-year she spent there, and endured strange looks from Afghan nationals who were surprised to see a short, blonde-haired female soldier—and they didn't even know she was Jewish. Coming up, to help mark Remembrance Day, Freeman joins to recall her experiences as a Jewish soldier in Canada’s last war, how she marked the Jewish holidays in Afghanistan and why watching the Taliban retake the country has been so sad and frustrating. What we talked about: Listen to "Shalom chaverim" played on Parliament Hill Nov. 11, beginning 11:45 a.m. EST, at ourcommons.ca Learn about the film featuring Tamar Freeman, Sisters in Arms, at sistersinarms.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; find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

On this week 73 years ago, Israel officially enacted a law recognizing its new national flag: the classic blue-and-white Star of David we recognize today. Ever since, the Israeli flag has evoked pride and a sense of belonging for Israelis and most Jews in the diaspora. But it has also, increasingly in recent years, become a geopolitical lightning rod, burned by opponents of Israel in the Middle East and smeared by anti-Zionist protesters around the world. How would the flag's designers react to this controversy today? Did they know how powerful the symbol would become? And why did they choose that final design to symbolize the State of Israel? To help answer these questions, we're joined by historian and collector David Matlow, who pens the recurring Treasure Trove column for The CJN. What we talked about: Be one of the first 50 people to email David Matlow through his website, herzlcollection.com, to receive a special envelope with the first day cover stamp Listen to "Meet the family doctor personally vaccinating hundreds of Ottawans" 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; find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

As the Canada-U.S. land border reopens today, officials are expecting it will be busy. Canadian snowbirds will begin their annual migration south to places like Florida and Arizona, but government restrictions and social distancing regulations will inevitably slow things down, and traveller hesitance will prevent numbers from reaching pre-pandemic levels for some time. Add the cost of travel insurance and expensive COVID-19 tests required by the Canadian government to return, plus the tests your destination country needs—not just for vaccinated adults, but unvaccinated children as well. It adds up. To discuss these issues and more, we're joined by three Jewish travel agents: Dinah Reich-Kuttner, from El Al's Canadian office; Jay Mandelker, a senior travel advisor with YYZ Travel; and Neal Chark, a senior travel advisor and sports tourism expert with Uniglobe Carefree Travel Group in Vancouver. What we talked about: Visit the agents' websites at yyztravel.com, uniglobecarefreetravel.com and elal.com/en/Canada 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; find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

Saul Rubinek has had a prolific career dating back to the 1960s. He's acted at the highest echelons of Canadian theatre, enjoyed stints on popular sitcoms like Warehouse 13 and Frasier, and played supporting roles in classic films such as Unforgiven, True Romance and The Trotsky. Coming off some of his most visibly Jewish roles—a main character in Amazon's Hunters, about Nazi hunters in the 1970s, and guest spots on Jewish shows Schitt's Creek and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel—the veteran actor, now in his 70s, is taking on a more personal project. He's diving into his family history with a new play he wrote, called All in the Telling, which dissects how the Holocaust affected his family—starting with his parents, who are both Polish survivors. Until he can get it produced in a theatre after the pandemic fades away, Rubinek is previewing parts of it himself, for Canadians for the first time, at a virtual Kristallnacht memorial event being put on by the Centre for Holocaust Education and Scholarship in Ottawa. He joins today to discuss his inspiration and process in telling this delicate story for the first time. What we talked about: Register for the Ottawa event, "All in the Telling," at chesatottawa.ca Buy So Many Miracles on Amazon and watch the documentary on Vimeo Learn more about Time For My Story at timeformystory.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; find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.