North Star with Ellin Bessner

KlezKanada and the Ashkenaz Festival are some of the largest Jewish and Yiddish arts celebrations in North America, and both are being held mostly virtually this year because of COVID-19. As the pandemic has upended cultural events around the country, so too has it forced these two renowned annual celebrations to figure out new ways to reach fans of Yiddish and Jewish culture. Despite the hurdles, both events are gearing up for innovative programs this year, and organizers from KlezKanada have even said their audiences have grown in 2021, because technology has swung open their doors beyond geography. On today's episode, we’ll hear from the artistic director of Ashkenaz and the executive director of KlezKanada about what to expect this year from both festivals. Plus, the host of Winnipeg’s Jewish radio hour joins to explain why she feels the pandemic may have actually saved Yiddish music. What we talked about: Learn more about KlezKanada at klezkanada.org Learn more about the Ashkenaz Festival at ashkenaz.ca Listen to the Jewish Radio Hour at podomatic.com/podcasts/jewishradiohour Sign up for KlezKanada's digital Backwards March at Eventbrite Check out the in-person and live-streamed after-party for both festivals at ashkenaz.ca/event/klezkanada-after-party 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 CJN Daily continues its brief summer hiatus, we're bringing subscribers another compilation of some of our favourite stories. Today, two episodes in one: Canadians remember the Iraqi Farhud, a pogrom in 1941, as well as Argentina's AMIA bombing in 1994, which remains the country's biggest unsolved terror attack. What we talked about: Learn about the museum in Israel dedicated to the history of Iraqi Jews at bjhcenglish.com Find Joseph Samuels's book, Beyond the Rivers of Babylon, on Amazon Listen to our original broadcast about the AMIA bombing and the Farhud at thecjn.ca 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 worst race riot in Canadian history happened on a Toronto baseball field exactly 88 years ago today. Just a few months after Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, in the midst of a global depression, the dictator's ideas were already taking hold in some parts of Canada. By the summer, pro-Nazi agitators showed up to a baseball game where a Jewish team was facing off against a Protestant team. Agitators unfurled a big banner with a swastika on it, and citywide violence ensued: within hours, an estimated 10,000 people were slugging it out, both in the park itself and in nearby neighborhoods across Toronto. To mark this anniversary, we're joined by Eli Yarhi of Historica Canada, which recently published a short video about the event, and Jamie Michaels, the author of a graphic novel about the riot. Plus: There's a federal election happening on Sept. 20. That's 36 days away—double chai. Will this be an auspicious election for Jewish Canadians? Hear what The CJN Daily has planned for the next month of coverage. What we talked about: Watch the Historica Canada video on YouTube Find the graphic novel Christie Pits, by Jamie Michaels and Doug Fedrau, at dirtywatercomics.com/christie-pits Find the graphic novel The Good Fight by Ted Staunton at Indigo.ca 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.

While The CJN Daily is on a week-long summer vacation, we're bringing you some of our favourite stories from the past few months. Today, enjoy a compilation of our coverage of Indigenous issues and how the Jewish community can help. Episodes referenced: Mourning in Kamloops: How has the local Jewish community reacted? (June 2, 2021) Meet the Jewish artist painting Holocaust and residential school survivors (June 21, 2021) 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 CJN Daily will be taking a brief summer vacation for the next week, returning on Aug. 23. In the meantime, we have a semi-new episode: here's a re-airing of an episode we ran in May 2021, "The life and legacy of partisan photographer Faye Schulman". We'll have more favourites coming to you during our break. Plus, we have an update on the first Canadian Birthright trip to Israel since March 2020. It happened on Aug. 9, and brought a small busload of 18 university students from across the country. A second Canadian group was supposed to fly out on Sunday—but that's been postponed. What we talked about: Read "Canada successfully sent one Birthright Israel trip in summer 2021. The next was cancelled" at thecjn.ca/birthright-israel-canada-2021 Read "Wartime photographer Faye Schulman captured lives of the partisan resistance" at thecjn.ca/faye-schulman-partisan-photographer Learn more about Judy Batalion and find her books at judybatalion.com 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 United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East, better known as UNRWA, provides health care and education for more than five million displaced Palestinians in the Middle East. But UNRWA has been in the news a lot in the last few years, as several of its employees and teachers have been accused of sharing violent or disturbing antisemitic and anti-Israel content online. This week, UN Watch, an organization based in Geneva, released a new report alleging 22 UNRWA teachers, principals and staff members have posted content on Facebook that glorifies terrorism, quotes Hitler or erases Israel from maps. UN Watch has released several similar reports in the past, finding more than 100 such cases since 2015. Despite these claims, Canada is still on track to donate more than $90 million to UNRWA over the next three years. Hillel Neuer, the Canadian-born executive director of UN Watch, joins to discuss his organization's latest report and what he expects from the Canadian government. What we talked about: Read the 60-page report, Beyond the Textbooks, at unwatch.org See examples of the antisemitic content UN Watch found at their Facebook page, facebook.com/unwatch Learn more about UNWRA at unrwa.org 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 Aug. 8, 2021, officials in Edmonton unveiled the first sculpture of Anne Frank anywhere in Canada. The world’s newest memorial to her—a life-sized bronze sculpture gifted by a Dutch-Canadian group based in Alberta—now sits in a park in Edmonton. It's is a replica of one that stands in Utrecht, Netherlands. The unveiling marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Holland in the Second World War, and gives thanks to the Canadian soldiers who freed their country from Nazi Germany in 1945. But there's a second meaning behind the timing—and it's a strange coincidence. On this weekend, 77 years ago, Nazis raided the secret annex in Amsterdam where Frank and her family had been hiding for nearly two years and arrested them. A few days later, they were sent to the Westerbork transit camp, and later they would be shipped to Auschwitz. Today, we’ll hear from the people who pushed for the statue and raised $75,000 to create and erect it, and we're joined by Gillian Horwitz, who runs Holocaust programming for the Jewish Federation of Edmonton, and Steve Shafir, the federation's president, who were at the unveiling ceremony in person. What we talked about: Watch the full statue unveiling on YouTube Read about the Canadian Society for Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Site at Earl Bales Park at yadvashem.ca 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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

Eighty years ago this summer, in July 1941, Nate and Susan Bluman stepped off a boat in Vancouver's port. It had been a perilous journey for the young Jewish couple, who'd escaped from German-occupied Poland to Lithuania, which was then occupied by the Russians. From there, they received transit visas thanks to a Japanese diplomat named Chiune Sugihara. Sugihara is often referred to as the "Japanese Schindler." He helped more than 2,000 Jews escape Europe, via Vladivostok and Japan, during the early years of the Second World War. In doing so, Sugihara, who was helped by his wife, disobeyed orders from Tokyo—and he never spoke publicly about his actions until the 1980s. Since then, the Sugiharas have been celebrated by the global Jewish community and regarded as righteous gentiles by Yad Vashem. He's been the focus of films, books, commemorative gardens and statues. This week, the Japanese department store Takashimaya is mounting a special travelling exhibit to showcase Sugihara and the descendents of those he saved. One of those descendents is George Bluman, son of Nate and Susan. George joins today to share his family's story, explain why he lent his father's visa to the new exhibit and argue why Sugihara's name should be better known than it is. What we talked about: Learn more about the Takashimaya exhibit at chiune-sugihara.jp/en Browse the full list of those saved by Sugihara at secure.math.ubc.ca Watch "A Decision of One Saves Thousands: The Courage of Chiune Sugihara" by the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies on YouTube 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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

For 25 years, Nicholas D. Lowry has been one of the experts on the PBS program Antiques Roadshow, where everyday folks bring old furniture, trinkets or artifacts to see if they're worth anything. Lowry is the one with the curly mustache and plaid suits. You wouldn't think he has a connection to the Canadian Jewish community. But this week, Lowry's family business, Swann Auction Galleries in New York City, is auctioning off a rare piece of Canadian Jewish history that he expects to sell for a record price: a poster that was used to encourage men to sign up for the only exclusively Jewish military unit in Canadian history, the Jewish Reinforcement Draft Company. Lowry, who is also Jewish, joins today to explain why the poster is so rare, what the story behind it is and who might end up the lucky bidder of the night. What we talked about: See the poster on Swann's website, catalogue.swanngalleries.com Look at a group portrait of the Jewish Reinforcement Draft Company in 1917 cjhn.ca Read "Beloved Yiddish actor Pinchas Blitt is toasted on his 90th birthday (and memoir launch)" at thecjn.ca 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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

Last year, the Edmonton Heritage Festival, one of the city's biggest celebrations, was cancelled due to the pandemic. This year, organizers decided to go ahead—though at half capacity—and invited the Jewish Federation of Edmonton to join with their annual pavilion for Israel. The pavilion could mark the only Israel-themed public gathering in Canada this summer, as many other large-scale events remained on hiatus or have gone virtual. The Edmonton pavilion featured Israeli folk dancers, selfie photo ops against a backdrop of the Dead Sea, a display wedding and, of course, Israeli food, from falafel to frozen mint lemonade. Beyond the pavilion borders, however, Edmonton's police their tent was not far away. Indeed, the event's organizers worried about taking part in the festival this year—not just because of COVID, but also the summer of spiking antisemitic attacks that have surged across Canada since the violence between Gaza and Israel flared up in May. Stacey Leavitt-Wright, the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Edmonton, joins the show to discuss her organization's thought process and offer an audio tour of what they put together. What we talked about: Learn more about the Edmonton Heritage Festival at heritagefest.ca Learn more about the Jewish Federation of Edmonton at jewishedmonton.org 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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.