North Star with Ellin Bessner

This past weekend, Canadian physicist Aharon Brodutch enjoyed an emotional reunion in an Israeli hospital with his kidnapped sister-in-law, Hagar, and her three children, all of whom were taken by Hamas on Oct. 7. The Israelis from Kibbutz Aza were set free on Sunday, Nov. 26 as part of the ongoing hostage deal reached between Israel and Hamas. They'd been held for more than seven weeks since the attack that killed 1,200 Israelis and saw 240 people taken hostage. Brodutch said the four freed hostages have lost a lot of weight and were not ready to leave the hospital yet. His brother, Avichai—Hagar's husband—managed to survive the attack that day, but was wounded in the fighting trying to defend his community. Aharon Brodutch spoke to The CJN Daily host Ellin Bessner just before boarding a return flight to Toronto. He recounted the tense moments leading up to his family's release and explained why his 10-year-old niece, Ofri Brodutch, who attended a Jewish summer camp this year in Ontario, wants to come back to Canada. What we talked about Learn more about Aharon Brodutch’s campaign to convince Canada to do more to free the hostages, on The CJN Daily and in The CJN Read how Shira Brodutch assembled a stroller protest in Toronto to draw attention to Hamas’s kidnapping of 33 Israeli babies, in The CJN Support The CJN by donating to the future of what Jewish Canada sounds like 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.

Nearly 500 episodes. Nearly 10,000 hours of programming. It's "what Jewish Canada sounds like." For more than two and a half years, Ellin Bessner and The CJN Daily podcast have been bringing the voices and sounds of Canadian Jewish newsmakers to listeners from coast to coast—and around the world. And since Oct. 7, it's never been more important to provide you with authoritative, trustworthy, accurate and balanced reporting on the Israel-Hamas conflict, including updates on the hostage situation, the massacre of 1,200 Israeli residents and a new wave of antisemitism within Canada and beyond. It's coverage you won't find anywhere else. That's why, on #GivingTuesday, Ellin wants to get personal. In this episode, you'll hear why she and the rest of The CJN team need your financial support to keep producing award-winning journalism that's unique in Canada. What we talked about Support The CJN by donating to the future of what Jewish Canada sounds like Where we’ve been and where we’re going, with CEO Yoni Goldstein on The CJN Daily How niche publications like ours are being hurt by Canada’s fight with Meta and Google—and what you can do—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. 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.

As Shye Klein Weinstein was fleeing from Hamas terrorists who attacked the Supernova music festival in Israel on the weekend of Oct. 7, his camera was clicking constantly, capturing photos and videos of their escape. Except, he says, he doesn’t remember photographing anything. The Canadian photographer—who had just immigrated to Israel in the spring—bought last-minute tickets to the festival, only because a girl he liked was going. The pair travelled with friends and relatives from Tel Aviv to experience the overnight outdoor dance rave, held near Kibbutz Be’eri. The photographer brought two cameras with him and at first, spent hours wandering around and snapping portraits of people enjoying themselves at the festival: young partygoers, DJs, jewelry makers, and body paint artists. Little did he know that, at dawn, Hamas terrorists would descend on the 4,000 revellers and slaughter roughly 350 of them, with 40 more taken hostage. Deeply traumatized by the event, the young photographer is now touring North America, speaking to Jewish students at university campuses and showing them the stark photographic evidence he took of this massacre. As he tells The CJN Daily host Ellin Bessner, he hopes that by repeating his story to anyone who will listen, it can allow others to understand what really happened—and help him personally process the life-changing events of that fateful day. What we talked about See Shye Klein Weinstein’s photos on his Instagram page Learn more about the group that sponsored Shye Klein Weinstein’s trip, Faces of Oct. 7 , which was set up to fight denial and misinformation on college campuses in North America Donate to Faces of Oct. 7 on their Instagram account _ _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.

In the last few weeks in Montreal, anonymous gunmen have targeted Jewish schools; vandals threw molotov cocktails at Jewish buildings; and pro-Palestinian supporters are boycotting Jewish businesses. With this intense backdrop, it's not surprising that Montreal's Jewish community is afraid. Ever since Hamas's attack on Israel on Oct. 7, leaders in Canada's second-largest Jewish city have been dealing with an eruption of antisemitism, including at least 100 hate crimes and similar incidents already reported to police. Jewish parents are scared to send their children to school; rabbis and other leaders are demanding the Quebec government permit armed, off-duty police officers to come guard Jewish buildings; and Jewish students at McGill and Concordia are facing sometimes violent anti-Israel protesters. Law enforcement officials say they have everything under control, but to date, only one person has been charged with anything in relation to the incidents described above—compared with nearly 20 charges laid by police in other parts of Canada. The CJN Daily host Ellin Bessner travelled to her hometown this week to see for herself why antisemitism seems so much worse in Montreal than elsewhere in Canada. On today's episode, she speaks to Yair Szlak, CEO of Federation CJA; Rabbi Saul Emanuel of the Jewish Community Council; Jamie Ross, a financial advisor and insurance broker; Olivia Weizman, an architect helming a petition for more security; and Esther Klein, the owner of Kosher Quality Bakery. What we talked about Learn more about Olivia Weizman's petition Montreal’s Jewish Community Council wants more funding for better security during tense time, in The CJN Read how Jewish students at Concordia and McGill are feeling threatened, and what they are doing to fight back against antisemitism, 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.

On Oct. 16, 2023, Deborah Lyons was officially named Canada’s new special envoy on Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism. She takes over from the inaugural envoy, Irwin Cotler, at a time when Jews in Canada are facing frightening waves of antisemitism on the streets of this country, stemming from Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and the subsequent war. Lyons, 73, is not Jewish herself but has deep ties to Israel, and to the Canadian Jewish community, having served as Canada’s ambassador to Israel from 2016–2020. She calls what is happening in this country “a moment of crisis” that calls for numerous societal changes. And to oversee that, she needs more staff. Right now she has one senior civil servant to help her. Marking one month on the job, Lyons joins_ The CJN Daily_ host Ellin Bessner to explain what she is doing on the ground to help make Canada’s Jewish community feel safer. What we talked about Learn more about Lyons’s recent appointment as Canada’s special Envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism, in The CJN Read about Deborah Lyons’s appointment as Canada’s ambassador to Israel in The CJN, from 2016 Hear Lyons’s tribute to the slain Canadian-Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver 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. 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.

There has been an outpouring of love and support from around the world for the late Vivian Silver, the Canadian-born peace activist whose remains were identified last week, five weeks after she was murdered by Hamas terrorists in the safe room of her home in Kibbutz Be'eri on Oct. 7, 2023. Silver was buried in a private ceremony on Nov. 17 at her kibbutz, with just her two sons and her siblings and a few soldiers as witnesses. The zone is still considered the front lines of Israel's war with Hamas, making access severely restricted. But the day earlier, hundreds gathered for a public memorial service on the lawn of a kibbutz she founded, Kibbutz Gezer, located between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. They paid tribute to the woman who made it her life's work to build bridges with Palestinians, founding charities and social justice organizations dedicated to solving the Israeli-Palestinian crisis—without violence. While the Jewish community of Winnipeg plans to hold its own memorial in the coming weeks, on today's episode of The CJN Daily, you'll hear sections from her memorial service and tributes from those she was close to: her brother Neil Silver; a childhood friend from Winnipeg, Lynne Mitchell; and Deborah Lyons, Canada's new special envoy for combatting antisemitism. What we talked about Read how Silver’s family learned her remains had been identified, in The CJN Watch the full memorial service for Silver from Kibbutz Gezer, on Facebook How Vivian Silver worked for peace and bridge building with Palestinians, 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. 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.

The historic March for Israel in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 14 is already being described as the largest public rally by Jewish people in American history, with an estimated crowd of 300,000 people gathering at the capital’s National Mall. Among them were at least 2,000 Canadians. Some were driven in on buses from Jewish high schools, such as Yeshivat Or Chaim and TanenbaumCHAT; some flew from Montreal aboard a plane chartered by Federation CJA; others simply drove themselves on their own dime. One thing unites them: they all wanted to be part of the effort to support Israel, campaigning to free the 240 hostages in Gaza and fighting back against widespread antisemitism in the wake of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack by Hamas. For nearly four hours, they heard speeches from top U.S. lawmakers, Israeli politician Natan Sharansky, families of Israeli hostages, actors such as Debra Messing, and live performances by Israeli pop stars Ishay Ribo and Omer Adam. On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, host Ellin Bessner speaks to several Canadians who made the long trip: Toronto’s Susan Osher and her niece Dani Schkolne, 23; Montrealers Rabbi Reuben Poupko and CIJA national chair Gail Adelson-Marcovitz; Toronto high school student Adin Bendat-Appell, 15, and his mother, Yael; and Jacob Rifkind and Akyva Spiegel, members of Shaarei Shomayim synagogue in Toronto. What we talked about Watch the March on Washington video on YouTube Read how Toronto’s Jewish, Iranian and Ukrainian communities rallied for Israel on Nov. 12 at Christie Pits park, in The CJN Why Canadian police aren’t doing more to stop antisemitic speech, 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 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.

Show notes Police in Montreal are redeploying their squad cars in different locations this week in an effort to better protect the city’s Jewish community. The move comes a week after bullets were fired through the doors of two Jewish schools; Molotov cocktails were thrown at a synagogue and a Jewish office; and three people were injured in a fracas over the Israel-Hamas war at Concordia University. Despite all this, however, there have been no reports of anyone being charged in Montreal over antisemitism. Local Jewish community leaders point to the incitement actually starting on Oct. 28, after a high-profile Muslim clergyman exhorted a large crowd of pro-Palestinian protestors to “exterminate Zionist aggressors”. Canada, of course, does have hate speech laws under the Criminal Code—but, historically, it’s been difficult to convict people with these provisions. And even when that does happen, the accused often appeal their sentences for years through the legal system. So how should Canadian police and provincial Crown prosecutors get control of people now targeting Canada’s Jewish community? Legal expert Mark Freiman thinks police could be doing a lot more, but hopes what the Calgary police department has done—charging someone for simply “disturbing the peace”—might just work for other law enforcement units across Canada. Freiman joins The CJN Daily‘s host Ellin Bessner to discuss whether Canadian police could do more to act upon this recent wave of hate-filled acts. What we talked about How Calgary police charged two men with crimes related to hatred against Jews in connection with the Israel-Hamas conflict, in The CJN Why Toronto’s police have quadrupled the size of their hate-crimes squad, in The CJN A security expert opines on Canadian Jews’ safety 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. 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.

In the summer of 2022, coin expert Brian Iseman stumbled on a trove of long-forgotten personal military possessions belonging to the family of Lt. Myer Tutzer Cohen. Cohen, from Toronto, was the first Canadian Jewish soldier to win the Military Cross for bravery in the Great War—and possibly the first in Canadian history to do so. Iseman quickly realized he needed to buy the collection to save it from being sold off, even though at the time, he didn’t know who Cohen was, nor was he aware of the young soldier’s remarkable achievements fighting against the Germans on the western front during the First World War. Cohen was the son of one of the founders of Toronto’s Holy Blossom Temple, and attended Harbord Collegiate high school. He was killed holding the line and badly outnumbered on the rain-soaked, muddy battlefields at Passchendaele on Nov. 3, 1917. His death came just a few weeks after he had been awarded the British Commonwealth’s second-highest military medal, the Military Cross, for taking out two German patrols in no man’s land in France, then capturing the rest as prisoners. Iseman has rescued an important piece of Canadian history, and connected with Cohen’s surviving family in Israel while documenting the young officer’s life. Now, he is looking for suggestions on where he can best share Cohen’s colourful story with the world. As we approach Remembrance Day this Saturday Nov. 11, The CJN Daily host Ellin Bessner visited Iseman at his Richmond Hill office to see the lost Lt. Myer Tutzer Cohen collection. What we talked about Learn more about Lt. Myer Tutzer Cohen in The CJN archives. See a display about Lt. Myer Tutzer Cohen in the lobby of Beth Tzedec synagogue in Toronto until the end of this week. How Canadian Jews contributed to the country’s military history, in The CJN’s “Northern Lights” book. 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.

Being a Jewish post-secondary student on Canadian campuses this semester has become an uncomfortable experience in the past month. Students have received death threats; mezuzot have been ripped down; professors have injected anti-Israel rhetoric into their lectures; and student councils—even entire departments—have issued declarations condemning Israel. All this while Jewish students, wanting to support Israel, are suffering from the same mental health crisis that’s gripped the broader Jewish Diaspora community. The world of academia has been fertile ground for anti-Zionism, where Israel is widely considered an oppressive colonial state within anti-racism frameworks. But in the past month, college campuses have become flashpoints, pitting Canadian Jewish students against vocal antisemitism from so-called progressive teachers and classmates. This has culminated in a series of lawsuits launched by Jewish students on Nov. 2, 2023, against some of Canada’s most high-profile institutions—Toronto Metropolitan University, Queen’s, UBC and York—accusing them of negligence in failing to address antisemitism for decades. The CJN Daily‘s producer, Zachary Kauffman, spoke with four Canadian students to find out what they’re encountering on campus. He’s joined by Hannah Alper, who attends Western University in London; Ido Ziv-li, from the University of Toronto’s Mississauga campus; Morgan Rosenberg, from McMaster in Hamilton; and Emily Broitman, at Queen’s in Kingston. What we talked about Learn more about antisemitism on Canadian university campuses this month in The CJN Hear why Canadian police have charged nine people so far with hate-related crimes related to the Hamas-Israel protests, on The CJN Daily York University is ordering its student union to retract solidarity statement with Palestine, in The CJ 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 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.