North Star with Ellin Bessner

Canada's estimated 9,000 Jewish post-secondary students have been back at school for barely more than a month—and while things are quieter so far, the culture of rising antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment has not gone away. Just this summer, a student living in a residence dorm at the University of British Columbia had her mezuzah damaged twice, resulting in the police getting called in. A Muslim students' club at the University of Western Ontario demanded the school ban all pro-Israel clubs and Zionist rhetoric from campus. And just last week, members of York University's student union arranged for a training workshop on antisemitism—but scheduled it on a Jewish holiday, conducted by a pro-BDS organization. So what kind of reality are Jewish students facing these days? To understand what life is like on the ground, we're joined by two graduate students and activists in Calgary Toronto who are organizing events and fighting for Jewish pride on campus. What we talked about: Read: "York University’s student union had a pro-BDS group talk to them about antisemitism" (thecjn.ca) Read: "Pavilions of Promise: Israel and the Zionist Movement at World’s Fairs—watch it Wednesday" (thecjn.ca) Find Hillel Ontario's "Joint Statement of Solidarity with Jewish Students" 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 Abraham Global Peace Initiative is a new human rights think tank founded by Avi Benlolo. And If Benlolo’s name sounds familiar, it may be because he’s a prolific writer and commentator about Israel and Jewish issues, including antisemitism and the Holocaust. Benlolo spent two decades as head of the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies, until his sudden departure in the summer of 2020. His latest venture is the AGPI, and his supporters include prominent Canadian leaders, including Ed Sonshine, Paul Godfrey, Jerry Grafstein, Holocaust suvivor Max Eisen and politicians Bill Blair and Stockwell Day. This week, Benlolo plans to bring his venture to the United Nations, where he’s launching his think tank on the international scene and handing out an award in human rights to Canada’s Ambassador to the UN, Bob Rae. While Benlolo says that, in the fight against antisemitism, existing Canadian Jewish groups—including his former employer—have a role to play, he feels their approaches aren’t working. He believes it's time to try a new method to tackle the scary state of the world. What we talked about: Learn about the Abraham Global Peace Initiative at agpi.ca Read about the second Canadian-Israeli Afghanistan rescue story 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.

Bradley Okrant grew up in the heavily Jewish community of Thornhill, Ont. Ten years ago, after graduating high school, he was accepted to college in Thunder Bay. Within weeks of arriving, he met Danelle Clark, a First Nations woman. At first, she didn’t know he was Jewish—and he thought she was Asian. Nonetheless, they've been together ever since. The Okrants live in Danelle's hometown of Beardmore, a community in Northern Ontario of 250 people, two hours north of Thunder Bay. It's not always easy being the only Jew in town, but Bradley makes it work. Today, for Canada's first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the couple joins to discuss their lives, what they've learned about each other's cultures and why they'll be wearing orange shirts for Orange Shirt Day. We want to acknowledge that this podcast is made on the traditional territories of the Wendat, the Haudenosaunee, and the Anishinaabe peoples, whose presence here continues to this day. I also would like to acknowledge the land I make this podcast on is at the meeting place of two treaties, the lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit and those of the First Nations of the Williams Treaty. We thank them and other Indigenous peoples for sharing this land with us. What we talked about: Learn more about the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation at canada.ca Learn about the meaning behind Orange Shirt Day at orangeshirtday.org Listen to The CJN Daily episode featuring Carol Wylie, who paints survivors of the Holocaust and residential school system, 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.

You might remember the fanfare back in the fall of 2017, when Canada’s Holocaust memorial opened in Ottawa, just west of Parliament Hill. Until then, Canada was the only Allied country without a national monument to victims of the Holocaust. The government paid $4 million for the Daniel Libeskind–designed project, while Canada's Jewish community raised the other $4.5 million. Later that year, a Hanukkah celebration was held at the newly minted site. But after that, only one other event was staged, in April 2019 to remember the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. The monument has since been somewhat forgotten. And while the pandemic can be partly blamed for that, it doesn't tell the whole story. That longstanding vacancy ended on Sept. 14, 2021, when two men organized a memorial for the victims of the Babi Yar massacre, which happened 80 years ago this week. During the two-day slaughter, Nazi soldiers shot and murdered more than 33,000 Jews in a ravine near Kiev, Ukraine, marking the first and largest mass murder of Jews in the the Holocaust. We're joined today by the two men who organized the event, Joel Diener and Lawrence Greenspon, who explain why they did it and how they hope their event will serve as a wake-up call for the Jewish community to take advantage of the Ottawa monument more often. What we talked about: Learn more about Canada's National Holocaust Monument at ncc-ccn.gc.ca Learn about the Babi Yar massacre at yadvashem.org Read an essay by Laura Grosman about spearheading Canada's Holocaust memorial 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.

Helmut Oberlander came to Canada in 1954. He was married, raised a family and became a successful real estate developer in Waterloo, Ont. But in 1986, a secret spilled out into public, when a retired Quebec judge, Jules Deschênes, held an inquiry into Nazis secretly living in Canada. Deschênes named Oberlander among those who were. Years of legal battles ensued, in which the federal government stripped Oberlander of his citizenship four times for lying about his wartime past. The case languished in legal purgatory for decades—until this week. On Sept. 20, 2021, Oberlander died in his home, surrounded by family. That he was allowed to pass away peacefully, without serving any jail time, is now being called a black mark on Canada's judiciary system. One critic is Steven Rambam, a private detective and Nazi hunter based in New York, who was intimately involved in tracking down war criminals in Canada. Rambam joins today to point out where, and how, the Canadian government and the Jewish community failed to bring Oberlander to justice. What we talked about: Read The CJN's coverage of Oberlander's death at thecjn.ca/news/helmut-oberlander-obit Learn more about Steven Rambam's investigative agency at pallorium.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.

It sounds like it could be a movie—and maybe, one day, it could become one. In late August, just before the United States pulled out of Afghanistan, an effort began to save some of the athletes on the Afghan women’s national cycling team from the impending Taliban takeover. This mission was partly spearheaded by Sylvan Adams, a Canadian-Israeli billionaire with a passion for cycling. After moving to Israel in 2015, Adams helped found the country's first professional cycling team, called "Israel Start-Up Nation", which has competed globally. Adams personally paid for the rescue of the Afghan cyclists, who will make their way to Canada as refugees. Adams joins to share the details and origins of this nerve-wracking rescue. What we talked about: Read "The secret rescue of the Afghanistan women’s cycling team: helped by Canada’s Jewish community" at thecjn.ca Learn about Israel Start-Up Nation at israelcyclingacademy.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.

Ahead of today's election, the People's Party of Canada is polling at around 10 per cent nationally. Much of their rise can be attributed to leader Maxime Bernier, whose presence at large-scale anti-lockdown rallies across Canada has sparked a grassroots populist movement grounded in distrust of governments, health care systems and public institutions. But working within that same movement have been infamous Canadian antisemites, white supremacists and Holocaust deniers. Figures such as Chris Sky, Brian Ruhe and Paul Fromm have been driving across the country to attend anti-lockdown rallies and events, where they can easily and quickly spread their dangerous messages. The People's Party, with its stated intent to scrap laws that party members believe hamper free speech, has proven to be fertile ground for this kind of hateful agenda. On today's episode of The CJN Daily podcast, Evan Balgord, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, joins to discuss his group's findings and the connections between this far-right network. What we talked about: Learn more about the Canadian Anti-Hate Network at antihate.ca Read why The CJN won't be reporting on the election until Thursday at thecjn.ca/news/election-out-of-office/ 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 44th Canadian election is happening Monday. Up for grabs are 14 ridings that are notable for Jewish voters, either because of their large Jewish populations or high-profile Jewish candidates. Sporting some of the highest profiles are Annamie Paul and Avi Lewis, who will try and make their marks by winning difficult seats; elsewhere, traditional battlegrounds in the Toronto area are proving to be tight races that could swing either to the Liberals or Conservatives. On today's special weekend edition of The CJN Daily, longtime CJN reporter Ron Csillag joins to walk us through the 14 ridings to watch for Jewish Canadians. What we talked about: Read "Canada Votes: A forshpeiz..." at thecjn.ca Read "Artist Charlotte Salomon comes to life in this new Canadian animated film" 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.

In July 2021, the Minister of Public Safety Bill Blair attended an event at a Chabad Lubavitch centre in Markham, Ont., where he announced the government would spend $8 million to help non-profit faith community groups update their buildings' security. The money is meant to go towards projects like fortifying doors, installing cameras, erecting fences, training security guards and improving lighting. Recipients can include places of worship, private schools and community centres—anywhere that might be the target of a hate crime. In the last week, the ministry in charge of dispensing these funds extended the deadline for a new round of grants, and issued a reminder to organizations to submit their applications by Oct. 6. Vancouver's Jewish community has been taking advantage of the funding over the years, including for the JCC of Greater Vancouver, which is undergoing a multimillion-dollar rebuilding campaign. Blair visited the site in August to see firsthand how the money was being used. One of the men accompanying Blair was Bernard Pinsky, a lawyer and longtime volunteer who heads up the security advisory committee for Jewish Vancouver. He joins to give some advice about security plans and strategies, and what fears keep him up at night. What we talked about: Read: "Toronto is getting pop-up sites to help report antisemitic incidents during High Holidays" (thecjn.ca) Watch Bill Blair's announcement for a new round of security grants at the Chabad center in Markham on Public Safety Canada's Twitter 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; find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

Last night, The CJN and CIJA hosted an election debate on issues that matter to the Jewish community. Our participants were Marco Mendicino, the Liberal minister of immigration; Michael Chong, the Conservative shadow critic for foreign affairs; and Hal Berman, a doctor and NDP candidate in Toronto. The subjects ranged beyond Israel and combatting antisemitism. There are Jewish connections to climate change, Indigenous reconciliation and Canadian foreign policy beyond the Middle East. We asked hard questions to each candidate: Could Berman clarify the NDP's stance on the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement? How can the Conservatives reconcile a credible climate strategy with support for the oil and gas industry? And why do the Liberals continue to fund UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, despite its evident flaws? In today's episode, we've packaged the highlights from the evening, plus key takeaways from our post-show political panel as well. What we talked about: Watch the full debate at thecjn.ca/news/canada/2021-debate Learn more about CIJA's federal election guide at cija.ca/election 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.