North Star with Ellin Bessner

Back in the 1990s, after directing Schindler's List, Steven Spielberg kickstarted a global effort to film the testimony of as many Holocuast survivors as possible. Teams of interviewers were sent out to film survivors in the U.S., Israel, Canada and beyond. Today, more than 50,000 videos sit in the archives of Spielberg's Shoah Foundation at the University of Southern California. It has become the world's largest collection of Holocaust and genocide survivor testimonies, all freely accessible to schools and researchers. In 2018, years after the project wrapped up, the foundation's organizers renewed their efforts to speak with people who didn't participate the first time—not just survivors of the European concentration camps, but also Russians, North Africans, hidden children, children from displaced-person camps, war veterans and others. It's called the Last Chance Testimony Collection. It's taken time to track down people to speak with, and organizers now have a waitlist of hundreds of people. The Canadian branch just launched yesterday, with officials from the California-based institution joining members of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre and Liberation75 for an online event. We're joined today by Marilyn Sinclair, herself the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, who's running the Last Chance Collection in Canada. What we talked about: Learn about the Last Chance Collection in Canada at liberation75.org/testimony Watch Pinchas Gutter's testiomony for the USC Shoah Foundation on YouTube Browse the USC Shoah Foundation's existing Canadian testimonials online at iwitness.usc.edu/register Register for "The Cattle Car: Stepping In and Out of Darkness at Trinity Bellwoods Park" at eventbrite.ca Read "Holocaust survivors’ testimonies get digitally preserved" 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.

The Atlantic Jewish Council is unique in North America, as the only federation that deals with Jews who live in different cities—even across provincial borders. The organization represents an estimated 4,000 Jews who live in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. And this month, its executive director, Naomi Rosenfeld, is leaving her post after five years in the job. She and her husband are expecting their first child in November, and the couple has decided to leave Halifax and move back to their native Toronto, so they can be close to their extended families. Rosenfeld joins today to explain her reasoning, how she feels about the move, her legacy, and the future of Atlantic Canada's Jewish community. What we talked about: Read the letter announcing Rosenfeld's departure View the job posting at theajc.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.

When hostilities broke out in May between Israel and Hamas, 13 Israelis were killed and more than 300 others were wounded. Staff from OneFamily, an Israeli charity with strong Canadian roots, which offers support to terror victims in Israel, swung into action, visiting hospitals and figuring out what resources were needed. It’s been this way for 20 years, over which time their annual hike across Israel—happening this week, spearheaded by the charity's Canadian branch—has become a signature event. This year, hikers are hoping to raise $300,000 as they trek the hills of the Ein Gedi nature reserve with some victims of terrorism and their families. It’s a smaller group than usual, with just 29 Canadians and a couple of Americans, due to the pandemic. However, as usual, the hike still brings the charity's volunteers face-to-face with the Israeli families supported by their efforts and donations. They tackle the terrain together—even if some of the hikers are in wheelchairs. OneFamily supporters Bruce Cowley and Robyn Mirsky join today, along with the organization's executive director, Toby Rosner. What we talked about: Read more about Lt. Daniel Mandel at daniel-mandel.co.il Learn about the OneFamily Fund at onefamilyfund.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 Oct. 17, at the Canadian Jewish Literary Awards, Montrealer Sigal Samuel won an award for her new children’s book, Osnat and Her Dove: The True Story of the World's First Female Rabbi. It tells the real-life story Osnat Barzani, a Kurdish-Jewish scholar who lived about 400 years ago in Mosul—and had an unconventional upbringing. Barzani's father ran a yeshiva, but didn’t have sons to share his knowledge with. Instead of forcing his daughter to do chores and get married young, he taught her Torah, the Talmud, midrash, Kabbalah and Hebrew, leading Barzani to eventually become the head of her father’s yeshiva. Sigal Samuel could empathize with Barzani's story: her Orthodox father also taught her Jewish studies, although despite her training, she didn't become a rabbi. The author and journalist's first novel The Mystics of Mile End also won a Canadian Jewish Literary Award in 2016. Samuel joins today with Rabbi Lila Kagedan, the first-ever Canadian born Orthodox female rabbi, to discuss Barzani's life and its implications for women rabbis centuries later. What we talked about: Buy Osnat and Her Dove at levinequerido.com/osnat-and-her-dove Read: "Canadian Yeshivat Maharat graduate hired by Orthodox synagogue" (thecjn.ca, 2016) 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.

Over the past few weeks, Canadian grocery stores in Jewish neighbourhoods have been ravaged by a bizarre calamity: they're all out of Wacky Mac. From Kosher Quality in Montreal to Savours in Toronto to the Sobeys on Taylor in Winnipeg, Wacky Mac—a kosher staple for families craving macaroni and cheese—has completely disappeared from store shelves. The cheese-powder drought has led Jewish Canadians to social media, where eager shoppers are hunting down the country's few remaining boxes, while others sit clueless as to where all the funny-shaped pastas have vanished. On today's episode, we’ll hear from one Canadian woman who's been trying to get to the bottom of the Wacky Mac shortage, as well as a few kosher grocers who are going to extraordinary lengths to get their hands on as much of the cheddar treat as possible. What we talked about: Visit the Wacky Mac website at wackymac.com Find Wacky Mac in Toronto at savoursonline.ca See the winners of the 2021 Canadian Jewish Literary Awards at cjlawards.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 Oct. 2, a plane of Afghan refugees touched down in Albania after a five-day journey. The group included 120 women—police officers, judges, cyclists and others. It's the second effort coordinated by Israel's largest relief agency, IsraAID, along with Canadian-Israeli businessman Sylvan Adams and a few friendly Arab countries, such as the United Arab Emirates, to rescue Afghan refugees from the Taliban's recent takeover. Today, Adams is flying to Albania to meet with the refugees, who are being kept in a local hotel as they await a decision by the Canadian government over whether or not they can make it onto Canadian soil. And that's become a sticking point in this whole operation: rescuers, including the people at IsraAID, are growing increasingly frustrated at the slow pace of Canadian immigration bureaucracy—which they say is preventing them from saving even more Afghans. Yotam Polizer, the CEO of IsraAID, joins today to discuss his concern with the Canadian government and tell the inside story of how they got this latest group out of the fragile Central Asian country. What we talked about: Listen: "How billionaire Sylvan Adams helped rescue Afghanistan’s women cyclists" (thecjn.ca) Read: "Canadian Jewish community eager to help Afghan refugees; private sponsorships are on hold for now" (thecjn.ca) Watch: "How Jews and Arabs worked together to pull off an impossible rescue mission" (cnn.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.

The latest Apple Watch is being released worldwide this week. With it, you can monitor your blood oxygen levels, send emails, wear it while swimming—and, thanks to a high school student in Toronto, you can also use it to help recite your daily Jewish prayers. The new free app, called WatchSiddur, shows you which prayers to read each day and at what times, so you don't have to carry around a physical book all day. It was created by Eitan Steinfeld, a 14-year-old student at CHAT in Thornhill, Ont., who taught himself how to code during the pandemic. Inspired by the Apple Watch his grandmother gave him for his bar mitzvah, Steinfeld set out to create the world's first free daily siddur app for the platform. Steinfeld joins today to discuss his project and what it took to build. What we talked about: Download WatchSiddur from the Apple App Store 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.

In the recent election, David Freiheit stood out as arguably the most popular candidate running for the People's Party of Canada—apart from its leader, Maxime Bernier. The Montreal-based lawyer spends most of his days recording YouTube videos for his more than 400,000 fans across YouTube, Twitter and other social platforms, who know him as "Viva Frei". These days, in his videos, when Freiheit isn't commenting on prominent legal cases in his videos, he's arguing against vaccine mandates, lockdowns and elected politicians. He’s called Ontario Premier Doug Ford a fascist and despises Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. On his show, he hosts controversial right-wing speakers such as Robert Barnes and notorious conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Offline, Canadians might recognize Freiheit from his purple campaign signs erected around Montreal’s Westmount and NDG areas this past fall. He was the PPC candidate for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount, a riding long held by Liberal cabinet minister Marc Garneau. Today, Freiheit joins to discuss why he decided to jump into politics, how he feels about winning around 1,500 votes and what he sees as the future of the PPC, which drew more than 800,000 votes nationwide. What we talked about: Watch Viva Frei's videos at youtube.com/c/VivaFrei Register for Leonard Cohen’s 5th yahrzeit lecture with Rabbi Aubrey Glazer here 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 Oct. 6, in a downtown park in Toronto, a ceremony was held to unveil a new plaque commemorating the Phillips garment factory fire of 1950. The plaque was installed near the site where 9 people were killed more than 70 years ago. Among the victims was the factory’s owner, Phillip Chikofsky. His 18-year-old son, Sidney, managed to escape—but ran back inside to help, and ended up dying as well, along with 7 other workers, including recent Jewish immigrants who had survived the Holocaust. The recent public ceremony was meant to help bring some closure to the families, but it also brought out the long-held private anguish, which both the workers' families and the owner's family carry with them to this day. What we talked about: Donate to Threads of Life at threadsoflife.ca Read "City of Toronto to memorialize Phillips garment factory fire of 1950" 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.

Last week, Israel's prime minister, Naftali Bennett, made his debut on the world stage at the United Nations General Assembly. Bennett has just passed the 100-day mark of his administration, after his coalition came together in June. How has Bennett's government fared in those hundred-odd days? Canada's former ambassador to Israel, Vivian Bercovici, would give the new team an A if she were writing their report card. Bercovici was a lawyer in Toronto when Stephen Harper appointed her as Canada's ambassador to Tel Aviv in 2014. She was let go just over two years later, after Justin Trudeau took office. (Her lawsuit against the Liberal government over her termination was settled earlier this year, but a non-disclosure agreement prevents her from speaking about it.) Despite losing that job, Bercovici remained in Israel, where she continues to work as a business consultant, public speaker and writer. She joins today to discuss her thoughts about Canada’s relationship with Israel, the ongoing controversy over the U.S. funding the Iron Dome, how Israel has handled the pandemic and more. What we talked about: Follow Vivian Bercovici on Twitter at @VivianBercovici Read: "Bercovici seeks to add PMO chief of staff to lawsuit" (thecjn.ca) Watch the short documentary Periphery 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; find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.