North Star with Ellin Bessner

France's administrative court has thrown out a lawsuit launched by Montreal's Lawee family, who allege the French embassy in Baghdad has been occupying their family's ancestral home, rent-free, for more than fifty years. The Paris-based body ruled against the Jewish family on Feb. 2. in a printed decision, after an in-person hearing last month, The court said it's denying the Canadian family's case because France has immunity for acts done on foreign soil–and because the old lease was signed in the 1960s in the city of Baghdad, so local Iraqi laws apply. The case has garnered international headlines because it involves a much wider story: the historic injustice done to nearly a million Jews from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) who were forced to flee their regimes' growing anti-Israel sentiment after 1948. They were stripped of their citizenship and their assets were seized. The CJN's flagship podcast "North Star" has been following the story since last year, and on today's episode, host Ellin Bessner sits down with Philip Khazzam, the Montreal businessman on a mission to seek justice for what happened to his grandfather's beloved mansion. Related stories Read the French administrative court’s Feb. 2 decision in The CJN. Learn why Philip Khazzam launched his $30 million legal challenge against France for unpaid rent and damages last year, in The CJN . Hear the survival stories of Canadians of Iraqi descent who survived the “Fraud” pogrom against Baghdad Jews in 1941, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here ) Watch our podcasts on YouTube.

The first Jewish aid mission from Canada since 2019 arrived in Havana, Cuba on Feb. 3, loaded with seven extra suitcases full of batteries, pills, and hundreds of pieces of donated baseball equipment. The delegation from Toronto’s Beth Sholom synagogue spent the past week delivering pharmacy supplies and other necessities–which they donated to Jewish seniors, Cuban synagogues, and even to a pharmacy housed inside the Jewish community centre in Havana, which supplies Jewish Cubans and also nearby hospitals. Local Jewish leaders say this group is the first Canadian Jewish mission to come to Cuba in nearly seven years, since before the pandemic in 2019. And officials worry there might be fewer going forward. The Canadian government raised its travel warnings for Cuba on Feb. 4, citing widespread economic problems impacting tourists, including more frequent power outages, lack of food and fresh water, and fuel shortages. The island, a popular destination for Canadians, was hit in October 2025 by a damaging monster hurricane. But the country’s difficulties worsened noticeably in the last month, after the U.S. president ordered all shipments of Venezuelan oil to Cuba be halted, as part of the capture of Venezuela’s former dictator Nicolas Maduro on Jan. 3. On today’s episode of The CJN’s flagship podcast “North Star”, host Ellin Bessner speaks with Beth Sholom’s Cantor Eric Moses, who organized the trip, and with William Miller, a Jewish community leader in Havana; plus we hear from Benji Tock of Toronto. The teenager didn’t make the trip, but his bar mitzvah project–collecting eight duffle bags full of donated baseball bats, cleats, gloves and other gear–arrived safely in Cuba, too, destined for local Jewish players bound for this coming summer’s Maccabiah Games in Israel. Related stories To donate to the Cuban Jewish community, contact Toronto-based Cantor Eric Moses cantor@bethsholom.net Donate to the Global Seder initiative of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. https://www.jewishtoronto.com/donate Learn more about Canadian efforts over the decades to help the small Jewish community of Cuba with kosher food and basic daily supplies, in The CJN archives. In 2014, four Toronto bar mitzvah boys raised thousands to help Cuba’s Jewish community purchase medical supplies, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here ) Watch our podcasts on YouTube.

One day before Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government announced it will scrap the role of the Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, a group of senior Canadian bureaucrats and policing experts attended a roundtable in Ottawa where they heard advice from some of the world’s top antisemitism experts. The guest list of the four-hour meeting included government advisors and scholars on antisemitism and the Holocaust from France, Germany, the U.K. and Israel. The closed-door discussions strove to understand what tactics to tackle anti-Jewish hatred are working worldwide, which Canada might try; Norway, for example, has found success bringing young Jewish “pathfinders” into schools to meet their peers. The international experts also told the government what Canada doesn’t need: more laws. On today’s episode of The CJN’s flagship North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner sits down with two of those experts. Sally Sealey runs the U.K. envoy’s office for post-Holocaust issues and chairs the Holocaust memorial foundation, which is building the country’s new education centre in London; Carl Yonker, meanwhile, is the senior researcher at the Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University, which also publishes an annual global antisemitism monitoring report. Related stories: Read Irwin Cotler’s column about Canada scrapping its special envoy office, a role which he first held from 2020-2023, in The CJN . Reaction was swift to Canada’s surprise announcement Wednesday that the government is ending its Special Envoy position for Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, (and the other one for Islamophobia) in favour of a single advisory council on rights, equity, inclusion, in The CJN. Read the latest global antisemitism report from Tel Aviv University published in April 2025 , and the Israeli Diaspora ministry’s newest interim report on international antisemitism, from January 2026. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) info@thecjn.ca Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here) Watch our interviews on our YouTube Channel

Ian Darragh, journalist and author who launched a petition for apology and commemoration. Paula Draper, historian who researched the WWII internees and worked with Parks Canada. Andrew Cassel, descendant of an internee who recounts his father's deportation. They discuss the 2,300 Jewish refugees deported to Canada, camp conditions and anti-Semitic treatment, efforts to commemorate and secure official recognition.

As Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations for the last five years, Bob Rae helped shaped how the international community has responded to the most pressing global human rights issues of our time: the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Iran’s nuclear threats, the collapse of Haiti, genocides against the Rohingyas and the Uyghurs, the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, and more. But no issue has been as polarizing as the Israel-Palestine crisis, especially after Oct. 7, 2023—which also marked when Canada’s long-standing support for Israeli government policies began to change. Canada abstained or voted yes to motions and resolutions that were critical of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and military campaign against Hamas. Canada called for a ceasefire and condemned, with other nations, Israel’s settlement-building in the occupied West Bank and the Golan. (Canada also did try, early on, to get the U.N. to censure Hamas for its massacre of Israelis, but the motion failed.) Last fall, at the 80th U.N. General Assembly, Canada unilaterally recognized the State of Palestine—which Rae says he fully supports. He also supports funding UNRWA, the U.N. aid agency for Palestinians, where some employees were fired for being linked to the violence of Oct. 7. But while Israel and many Canadian Jews feel the U.N. and its leadership are obsessed with demonizing Israel, the outgoing ambassador disagrees. Rae’s term as Canada’s envoy to the U.N. started during the height of the pandemic in 2020 and ended in November 2025. Since then, he’s joined two universities and a think tank, and has been a regular commentator in the Canadian media. Rae joins The CJN’s flagship North Star podcast host Ellin Bessner to unpack what’s behind his support for Canada’s tougher stance on Israel—and what that’s cost him. Related stories Hear former Ambassador Bob Rae discuss the whether the Russian invasion of Ukraine unleashed genocide, in a 2022 interview on  The CJN’s Bonjour Chai podcast. Rae spoke to broadcaster Ralph Benmergui last year about how his spiritual side mixes with his political career, on The CJN’s “ Not That Kind of Rabbi” show.  When Bob Rae was a Liberal MP from Toronto, in 2010, he told a Haifa University fundraising event in his honour that co-existence between Israelis and Palestinian is the only way forward, in  The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner) info@thecjn.ca Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins (https://www.brethiggins.com/) Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here) Watch our podcasts on YouTube.

The Jewish festival of Tu b'Shevat begins this Sunday. The new year for trees. Some people feel it's the Jewish version of Earth Day: a day to care for the environment. While much of Canada is still in the deep freeze of winter, the people who run Vancouver’s Jewish Community Garden are itching to get their rubber boots on soon, and go up to the rooftop of the two-storey parking structure located between Congregation Beth Israel synagogue and the VTT, The Vancouver Talmud Torah, where the garden is located.. This spring, the garden will begin its third season of growing food and flowers for programs at the shul, and school, as well as for clients of Vancouver's Jewish Family Services, and hosting dozens of volunteers–all the while teaching environmentalism and food security through a Jewish lens. When the garden was officially opened in the spring of 2023, we interviewed the team behind the idea, likely the highest Jewish community garden in Canada. The episode originally aired May 31, 2023. The Vancouver Jewish Community Garden had its official ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 28, 2023, a fitting debut for the $200,000 initiative. On North Star (formerly The CJN Daily), we’re joined by the organizers: Congregation Beth Israel’s Rabbi Jonathan Infeld; Emily Greenberg, head of school at VTT; and Tanja Demajo, executive director of Jewish Family Services in Vancouver. Related links Watch a video of the construction of the Vancouver Jewish Community Garden  on You Tube https://youtu.be/oUQJ9yKCd_o In Toronto, the Shoresh farming agency ran a community garden in peoples’ backyards, in  The CJN Read more about environmental programming gaining popularity in B.C. in  The CJN Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner info@thecjn.ca Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Subscribe to North Star https://thecjn.ca/arts/podcast-how-to/ Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN + get a charitable receipt

Ezra Soiferman, Montreal filmmaker and photographer known for films about city life and food culture, celebrates the city’s snowy season. He talks about filming snow-clearing ops, iconic winter landmarks like bagel shops and the Orange Julep, and why Montrealers cherish winters instead of fleeing south. Short, affectionate stories of potholes, sledding and giant snow piles.

As Gary Kapelus grew up in Canada, his father, Jerry Kapelus, never talked about what it had been like to be forcibly tattooed by Nazis in Auschwitz in 1944. But Kapelus noticed that his dad never tried to hide or remove the tattoo, either; indeed, he often displayed it as he spoke to thousands of school children over the years about his experiences. After Jerry died in 2021, Kapelus took up the mantle as a Holocaust educator, sharing his father’s story. Recently, at the age of 70, Kapelus decided to take one extra step: he got that same number, B-7619, tattooed on his own left arm. The act is a growing trend among descendants of Holocaust survivors, known as “re-marking”, taking ownership of something that was done against the will of the Nazi’s victims. The tattoos are done for many different reasons: some do it in defiance of their grandparents’ persecution, while others see it as a way to honour the six million killed. Kapelus’s motivation was to spark conversations. On today’s episode of The CJN’s flagship North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with Gary Kapelus ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27. Related links Read more  about Gary Kapelus’s father, Jerry. Why descendants of Auschwitz survivors are tattooing their own arms, in  The CJN  archives (from 2021). Learn more about the  (Re)marked project Stories from the Skin  at the University of Waterloo. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner info@thecjn.ca Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Subscribe to North Star Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN + get a charitable receipt

This episode originally aired on The CJN's peace-building podcast, In Good Faith. To subscribe and hear more, visit thecjn.ca/faith. There’s a teaching that appears almost word-for-word in both Jewish and Islamic scriptures: whoever kills a soul, it's as if he killed the entire world; anyone who saves one soul, it is as if he had saved mankind entirely. Judaism and Islam diverge on many points—but on this one, they’re in unanimous agreement. Yet over the last two years, both Jews and Muslims in Canada and around the world have felt like they’re in a constant state of mourning over the violence and death in Israel and Gaza. And it’s not just the weight of the loss itself—there is also rage when it feels like someone else’s grief is being prioritized above your own, or when the reality of your grief is questioned. At the same time, grieving is fundamentally not about death. Grief can heal us and bring communities together—as it has for both guests on today’s episode of In Good Faith. First, you’ll hear from Layla Alsheikh, a Palestinian mother whose six-month-old son died after inhaling tear gas that Israeli soldiers shot into her West Bank village in 2002. After her story, Yonatan Zeigen discusses life after the murder of his mother, the Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver, at the hands of Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7. What connects these two bereaved voices? After suffering a brutal loss, both wound up turning toward peace-building as a way to honour the legacy of their late family members. Credits Hosts:  Yafa Sakkejha and Avi Finegold Producers:  Michael Fraiman and Zachary Judah Kauffman Editor:  Zachary Judah Kauffman This podcast is sponsored by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, with support from the Ronald S. Roadburg Foundation.

Just after New Year’s Day, an NDP member of Parliament, Heather McPherson, adopted a private citizen’s petition calling on the government to scrutinize Canadian citizens and residents who have served in the Israel Defense Forces. The petition is the latest in a series of requests from lawmakers targeting IDF veterans for allegedly violating Canadian war-crime laws and international rules on genocide. This parliamentary effort comes after a Liberal MP from the Montreal area, Sameer Zuberi, asked officials with the Canada Border Services Agency to screen for non-Canadian citizens entering Canada who served in the IDF and may have participated in breaches of international law. Simultaneous to all this, families of Canadian IDF soldiers are still reeling after a Canadian media outlet created a public database of hundreds of former or current soldiers, effectively doxxing private citizens. One young man on that list is Eitan Ellis, 29, the son of Israel Ellis, an author and podcaster who is campaigning to get the website shut down. For reaction to this societal pivot against the IDF Canadians have witnessed over the last several months, Israel Ellis joins today’s episode of The CJN’s flagship podcast, North Star, along with David Kalman, an entrepreneur in Toronto who served his compulsory military service over thirty years ago. He calls the targeting of people in his situation a “witch hunt”. Lastly, at the end of this episode, hear a clip of host Ellin Bessner’s exclusive interview with Israeli comedian Guy Hochman, who was held for nearly six hours by Canadian border agents before a scheduled performance at the Prosserman JCC in Toronto—and found himself greeted with anti-Israel protesters once he arrived at the venue. Related links Read more about the RCMP’s structural investigation into possible war crimes by IDF veterans in The CJN from June 2025 , and in Jan. 2026 . Learn more about Israel Ellis’ new book “10.7 The Wake Up Call” and his “The Unfiltered View” podcasts via his website . Follow Israeli comedian Guy Hochman . Learn more about David Kalman’s pest control business Good Riddance Critters . Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner info@thecjn.ca Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Subscribe to North Star Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN + get a charitable receipt