North Star with Ellin Bessner

Alexandria Fanjoy Silver enjoys being a proud and loud advocate for Toronto's Jewish community, even though she only became an "official" Jew in 2009. Her parents brought her up as a member of the Anglican Church; yet, while growing up, she always felt an "obsession" and a pull towards Judaism. And so, as a university student in 2007, after visiting to the Nazi death camps in Poland, she decided to go through the conversion process. (There wouldn't be a Jewish man in her personal life until several years later.) Tonight, as Jews around the world mark the annual harvest festival of Shavuot, the theme of conversion is part of synagogue observances: the Book of Ruth is read, which tells the Bible story of a non-Jewish widow who chose to remain part her late husband's Jewish family, and is widely considered the religion's first recorded "convert". While it is usually not considered good manners to ask a convert why they converted, Alexandria Fanjoy Silver agreed to join The CJN Daily to share her journey and explain what it's been like to live as a Jew—especially now, after Oct. 7, when her choice directly impacts her non-Jewish family members. What we talked about: Read Alexandria Fanjoy Silver’s PhD thesis on whether the March of the Living is good or bad for participants Follow Alexandria Fanjoy Silver’s regular columns in the Times of Israel Make her Seven Heaven’s challah for Shavuot and learn about the traditional Sephardic recipe Credits: The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.

Ellin Bessner, host of The CJN Daily _podcast, was admittedly nervous ahead of Sunday’s 55th annual Walk with Israel, held by UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. For weeks, pro-Palestinian protest groups in the city had been threatening to disrupt the important Jewish solidarity march—the first one since the deadly Hamas attack on Oct. 7. It was stunning watching the record turnout of an estimated 50,000 people—and also seeing the massive police presence that kept a lid on trouble. But by the time Bessner and her family completed the nearly five-kilometre walk on June 9, her anxiety over the Middle Eastern war and rampant domestic antisemitism fell to the wayside and joy took over, even if only for a short time. On today’s special feature episode of _The CJN Daily, Ellin invites listeners to join her on the walk and meet some of the people she met along the way: Israeli visitors Rami and Vered Gold, who survived the Hamas massacre at Kibbutz Be’eri; Michael Gilmore of Kehillat Shaarei Torah, the Toronto synagogue targeted by two recent hate crime attacks; Dave Fingrut, a public school teacher in Millbrook, Ontario; Noah Shack, UJA’s head of combating antisemitism, and others. Plus, you’ll hear directly from some of the pro-Palestinian protestors when Ellin asks them why they came. What we talked about: Learn more about Kibbutz Be’eri survivors Rami and Vered Gold, who are touring Canada to raise awareness and funds to rebuild their community Read news editor Lila Sark’s account of the Walk for Israel in The CJN Learn more about the Brodutch family who attended the walk: four were held hostage in Gaza for 51 days, on The CJN Daily Credits: The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine.  We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.

Montreal professor Joseph Schwarcz doesn’t actually have a medical degree, but that hasn’t stopped him from becoming a popular public figure in the Canadian media landscape as a reliable face of science. Schwarcz, 76, actually has a doctorate in chemistry from McGill University, where he has been based for more than four decades. In that time, he’s hosted a long-running weekly science radio show, penned a newspaper column for the Montreal Gazette, starred in YouTube videos and written over a dozen books on making science accessible to mainstream readers. Recently, McGill held an anniversary celebration to mark Schwarcz’s 25 years as director of the university’s Office for Science and Society. To help ring in the anniversary, Dr. Joe joins _The CJN Daily _ to explain why he can’t retire while witnessing a flood of unscientific wellness advice, from celery juice to anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists. What we talked about: Learn more about Joe Schwarcz and sign up for his weekly newsletter Buy his new book, Superfoods, Silkworms and Spandex: Science and Pseudoscience in Everyday Life, from ECW Press Watch his 25th anniversary lecture at McGill, hosted by journalist Josh Freed Read our coverage of Dr. Joe in The CJN archives from 2014. Credits: The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine.  We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.

Hagar Brodutch, her husband Avichai and their three children are settling into their temporary home in Toronto for an extended vacation after a horrific ordeal. Hagar and the kids were among the most high-profile hostages kidnapped on Oct. 7 by Hamas and released after 51 days, during a ceasefire deal in November 2023. Many Canadians followed the Brodutch case closely because they have family living in Toronto who advocated tirelessly on their behalf with Canadian and Israeli authorities. The Brodutches lived in Kfar Aza until their kibbutz near the Gaza border was attacked by Hamas terrorists who broke into the family’s safe room. The terrorists also grabbed a three-year-old child from next door, Abigail Edan, the daughter of an American-Israeli couple who were murdered right in front of their daughter’s eyes. Avichai Brodutch was not kidnapped. He was badly wounded in a firefight and was left behind, with injuries from a rocket-propelled grenade. When he woke up in an Israeli hospital, he discovered his kibbutz had been destroyed and his family was missing. While in Canada, the family is planning to sightsee and continue its journey of healing. They’re also sharing their story with the Jewish community to thank them for their support. But they're also calling for the war to be over—now that Israel confirmed that only 80 hostages of the remaining 124 may still be alive. On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, Hagar Brodutch sits down with host Ellin Bessner and Lila Sarick, The CJN’s news editor, for a frank conversation about what her life has been like since that fateful day. What we talked about: Learn more about the efforts to help release the Brodutch family, in The CJN and on The CJN Daily Why so many Canadians wrote letters to the hostages even though the Red Cross didn’t deliver them for months, on The CJN Daily Meet Avichai Brodutch at the Walk for Israel on Sunday, June 9 Credits: The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine.  We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.

Just hours before Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 the Israeli film star Swell Ariel Or was in Canada as the guest of honour at an Israel Bonds fundraiser. The twenty-something actor was fresh off her breakout role in the Israeli historical family saga “The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem” which aired on Netflix in 2022. She portrayed Luna Ermoza, the fashion-designer daughter of a Sephardic Jewish family living in pre-1948 Jerusalem. The actor did a sit down interview with The CJN Daily while she was in Toronto, although neither she or we could have predicted that the world would change just hours after her Canadian appearance. Post Oct. 7., Or immediately threw herself into volunteering to help Israeli soldiers. However, recently she’s been back on set again with one of the producers of “Beauty Queen”, but it’s not Season 3. This new series will be called “Handles”–about survivors of Oct. 7. With tonight being the eve of Jerusalem Day, or Yom Yerushalayim—a national holiday in Israel celebrating the country’s recapturing of the Old City of Jerusalem during the Six-Day War in 1967—we’re now bringing you this interview with Or, in which she discusses what it was like filming Beauty Queen and why she moved to Hollywood, as well as a follow-up interview conducted after the life-changing events of Oct. 7. What we talked about: Follow Swell Ariel Or’s personal Instagram account. Learn more about the actor’s Israel Reservist Fund to reimburse Israelis who flew home to fight after Oct. 7. It is no longer accepting donations. Read why Ellin’s interview with Swell Ariel Or marked a turning point in her life, in The CJN. Watch “The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem” on Netflix. Credits: The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.

We're taking a day off at The CJN Daily, so please enjoy this podcast from our friends at Montreal's Federation CJA, which aired last month. To subscribe to their feed, click here. In this episode of the Federation CJA 360 Podcast, host Glenn Nashen talks about using the law and the courts to fight back. Meet lawyer Neil Oberman, who is standing up for the Montreal Jewish community and helping fight against the scourge of antisemitism and Jew hatred through the courts. We’ll also hear a behind-the-scenes interview from the film One Life with director James Hawes. And we’re happy to welcome our newest reporter, Dan Laxer, to the podcast. Dan is a freelance content provider whom Montrealers know from his years at CJAD Radio, and his contributions to The Suburban and CTV. Dan will bring us a report on a heartwarming Passover seder organized by Federation CJA volunteers for the JEM workshop employees. Credits The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Oour theme music by Dov Beck-Levine. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here.

Yafa Sakkejha was named after the city of Jaffa, where, until 1948, her Palestinian grandparents lived and owned property and managed orange groves. Sakkejha’s mother grew up in East Jerusalem, but left the country during the First Intifada in the late 1980s. Sakkejha, who was born and raised in Toronto, feels deep pain over the devastation that has resulted from Oct. 7—not just for the Palestinian people and her own relatives still living in the war zone, but also for the Israeli victims, hostages and Canadian Jews facing antisemitism. Which is why Sakkejha is now taking an active role in an Israeli peace-building initiative called Friends of Standing Together. It’s a branch of the original organization founded in 2015 by Israelis–both Jews and Palestinians living in Israel–to work for peace, civil and human rights, and security for both sides. Since the war began, Standing Together has focused on calls to end the fighting. Yafa Sakkejha joins The CJN Daily to speak about her personal experiences since Oct. 7, and what she wants her Jewish neighbours to understand. What we talked about: Read more about Standing Together and why it is gaining popularity in Canada, in The CJN Learn more about Yafa Sakkejha on Instagram, and listen to her podcast on Spotify Credits: The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine.  We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.

Since Oct. 7, at least five mezuzahs have been torn off the doors of Jewish students living in residence at Queen’s University. At the University of Windsor, a law professor urged a Jewish student not to attend their class because “Zionists aren’t welcome”. And in just the last few weeks, some protesters who set up pro-Palestinian tent encampments on Canadian university campuses have celebrated Hamas’ slaughter of 1,200 people in Israeli last fall—while urging Jews to “go back to Europe”. Against this backdrop, hundreds of Jewish post-secondary students have teamed up to form a brand-new national organization, the Canadian Union of Jewish Students (CUJS). They’re raising their voices against campus hate and gathering evidence to lobby governments to do better. They’re not trying to replace Hillel or other Jewish campus clubs—but in light of the situation facing Jews at Canadian universities, they believe they can complement them by focusing solely on political action. On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, we hear from CUJS founder Nati Pressmann, a Toronto native who is currently studying at Queen’s University, and from several CUJS organizers: Lindsay Cogan of Winnipeg, Jacqueline Snidman-Stren and Hayley Kupinsky of Toronto, and Miranda Collard of Vancouver. What we talked about: Learn more about the Canadian Union of Jewish Students on their Instagram page Watch members of the CUJS and others testify on Parliament Hill on May 9, 2024, about antisemitism on campus, or read the transcript Why Jewish students at Canadian universities say they are hiding their identities on campus after Oct. 7, in The CJN Credits: The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine.  We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.

One day after the weekend targeting of Bais Chaya Mushka, a Jewish girl’s school in Toronto, by suspects who sprayed the front of building with bullets, the school’s students and their families have gone from initial shock and fear, to the determination not to be intimidated. They turned out in large numbers at a popular park to join the city’s Chabad Jewish community for a fun-filled day of balloons, clowns, archery and a parade marking the religious festival of Lag b’Omer. News of the pre-dawn shooting targeting the private Jewish school rocked the community when they learned about it after Shabbat ended late Saturday. It is the first time that Canada’s largest city has experienced a similar attack to what several Jewish schools in Montreal went through, shortly after Oct. 7. Some leaders are calling this incident a “heinous act of hate” and a “brazen and deliberate attempt to intimidate” the Jewish community. But as The CJN Daily’s Ellin Bessner found out when she attended the celebrations on Sunday, the school is finding a lot of support from the wider Jewish world, who will be present on Monday morning as the school reopens its doors. On today’s episode, you’ll hear from parent Mirel Freund daughter of Rabbi Mendel and Toby Bernstein who founded the all-girl’s school, as well as from the school principal Rabbi Yaakov Vidal. What we talked about: Read why security equipment at Bais Chaya Mushka School helped deter the suspects from causing more damage on May 25, in The CJN. Join Mizrachi Canada and the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto in a rally of solidarity outside Bais Chaya Mushka School at 8:30 a.m. Monday May 27. Details here. Learn more about the Hebrew schools which Bais Chaya Mushka School founder Toby Bernstein now runs in Vaughan, Ont. in The CJN. Credits: The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.

Show notes Seniors are in the spotlight this week as Canada and other countries are meeting at the United Nations to discuss ways to help the world’s billion people over the age of 60. And Dan Levitt is in the thick of it—the longtime nursing home administrator from Vancouver, who started as British Columbia’s official seniors advocate in April, flew down to New York to advocate for a binding international convention for seniors’ rights. The urgency is real: he predicts a “silver tsunami” has already started and Canada will have a full quarter of the population over the age of 65 within the next 10 to 20 years. Levitt has been in a unique spot in his provincial government. Since last month, he’s been bringing the concerns of B.C.’s million seniors and their caregivers directly to the ears of provincial politicians. And those concerns have been expansive. Canadian seniors are worried about the cost of living, housing, transportation, employment and even something that’s become his pet peeve: how so many birthday cards aimed at the silver-haired crowd are actually ageist. On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, Levitt explains why he took the job and how it helps him fulfil the biblical commandments about honouring one’s parents. What we talked about: Read more about Dan Levitt, B.C.’s new seniors advocate How this 104-year-old Montreal super-senior stays engaged in life, on The CJN Daily Why Camp B’nai Brith in Montreal had trouble with a summer program for seniors, in 2020, in The CJN. Credits: The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman 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. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.