North Star with Ellin Bessner

Last Monday, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board voted to determine if trustee Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth breached the board’s code of conduct by sending a series of arguably bullying text messages to another trustee in trying to garner allies as she attempted to reinstate a mask mandate in Ottawa schools. In her messages, Kaplan-Myrth wrote that trustees opposing her motion didn't care "if Black and Indigenous children get sick… If children in poverty get sick… If children with disabilities and immunocompromised family members can’t safely go to school." She later implored her colleague to not "vote with white supremacists." The chaotic special meeting devolved into a shouting match before the final tally, when the motion failed by a single vote. In response to the debacle, The CJN's political columnist Josh Leiblein wrote a piece criticizing Kaplan-Myrth—and she responded to our publication with a lengthy three-page rebuttal. We share a bit of her response in this re-airing of our conversation with Kaplan-Myrth from May 2021. With her name back in the news—and with COVID season starting up again—we wanted to revisit this interview, recorded during her rise to prominence as an outspoken proponent of masking, back when she was hosting large-scale vaccination events known as "jabapaloozas". 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 intern is Ashok Lamichhane, and 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.

Many Jews around the world will be reciting the Yizkor memorial prayer as Yom Kippur approaches this weekend. And while most synagogues maintain traditional memorial wall displays, with columns of bronze or brass yahrzeit plaques, a growing number of Jewish congregations in North America and even Europe are embracing new technology and replacing the hardware with interactive digital memorials. Not only can you put longer, fuller biographies and photos on the digital memorial, but they can be also be accessed from anywhere in the world, even on your phone. It’s a modern solution for synagogues that are merging, as well as for others that are running out of wall space. And, yes, you can set the memorial so it will not violate the ban on using technology during Shabbat and holy days. Beit Rayim Synagogue and School in Vaughan, Ont., is the latest shul in Canada to install a digital kiosk, although Ottawa's Kehillat Beth Israel has had a digital display for several years, as has Winnipeg's Shaarey Zedek. Now other congregations in Toronto and Montreal are considering the concept. Already some 65 congregations in the United States have installed them. On today’s The CJN Daily, Beit Rayim’s vice president, Lorraine Bloom, joins host Ellin Bessner, along with Heshy Spira, a partner with the W and E Baum company based in New Jersey, which makes the machines. What we talked about Learn more about the digital yahrzeit memorial kiosk at Beit Rayim Synagogue and School in Vaughan, Ont_._ See more styles of digital yahrzeit memorial boards installed in the United States at the W&EBaum company website and the Winnipeg-based company which also sells them, Plannedlegacy.com Hear about putting QR codes on gravestones, and other future technological trends in the funeral business, 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 intern is Ashok Lamichhane, and 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.

This weekend, Atlantic Canada is preparing to get slammed by Hurricane Lee, a Category 1 hurricane that could blast winds as strong as 110 km/h across parts of the country. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are on especially high alert in the storm's path, with residents preparing for worst-case scenarios: power outages, storm surges, flooding and property damage. This is the second year in a row that Maritime Jews are finding their new year celebrations threatened by a lethal storm. This same time last year, community members across Nova Scotia were all set for Rosh Hashanah when Hurricane Fiona smashed into the coast, blowing winds of up to 170 km/hr and dumping seven inches of rain across the region. The community was left without power, light, refrigeration or heat. In the aftermath of the natural disaster, The CJN Daily spoke with Shayna Strong, a Jewish community member in New Waterford, just northeast of Sydney, Nova Scotia. Strong explained how they managed to celebrate Rosh Hashanah despite the hardship. With a near-identical situation facing Atlantic Jews this weekend, we're re-airing our interview with Strong, which originally ran in September 2022. 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 intern is Ashok Lamichhane, and 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.

September 10 was a milestone day at the Donald Berman Jewish Eldercare Centre in Montreal: the staff threw the organization's annual group birthday party for a record number of residents over 100 years old. This year’s 22 “super seniors” include a Second World War veteran, David Kucer, who worked forging metal miniature weapons as collectors items, and also Bella Bernstein, the oldest of the group. At 104, she is a renowned former soprano who performed opera and Jewish music across the community. But it wasn't all smiles and birthday cake. Originally, there were supposed to be 23 seniors to celebrate—until, sadly, one passed away just a few days earlier. To learn the secret of living a long life, we turned to the experts. On The CJN Daily, the 104-year-old Bernstein joins host Ellin Bessner, along with Bernstein's daughter Harriet Segal and the home's recreation coordinator, Josie di Benedetto. What we talked about Read how COVID-19 decimated the Jewish long-term care homes in Montreal in The CJN Read about Cecile Klein, z”l, who was Canada’s oldest person at 114, until her death, in The CJN Learn about Rabbi Erwin Schild, who marked his 103rd birthday recently in Toronto, 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.

This summer, Canadian housing minister Sean Fraser blamed Canada's housing crisis, in part, on post-secondary institutions bringing in unregulated and record-high numbers of international students. This could cause the rental market to skyrocket in urban areas; on the flip side, the number of newcomer students has also created a swell of illegal rooming houses, even fostering homelessness among international students, who lack credit checks and Canadian references to find housing in the first place. Fraser is not alone in pinpointing non-Canadians in this debate. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has repeatedly called out the rising number of newcomers for his province’s housing crisis, using it as justification for his (now scandal-ridden) Greenbelt land swap plan, whose entire purpose was to help build 500,000 new homes by 2025. And in the broader public eye, Nanos conducted a recent poll for CTV News on the subject, finding that roughly three in five Canadians support decreasing the number of immigrants coming into the country until housing becomes more affordable. A rising fears of immigrants, rootless cosmopolitans and foreign influences undermining Canadian livelihoods have not historically been good for the Jews. But there could be some Jewish players who help solve the puzzle. Today on The CJN Daily, producer Zac Kauffman speaks with Noam Dolgin, who co-founded CoHo BC, which "hacks" the housing market by matchmaking strangers to pool their money to buy a home. He explains how this kind of unorthodox thinking could be one key piece in solving the country's housing crisis. 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 intern is Ashok Lamichhane, and 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.

As rescue efforts continue in Morocco to find survivors of Friday’s powerful earthquake, the disaster is also affecting Canada’s significant community of Moroccan Jews—especially those based in Montreal. As of Sunday night, more than 2,100 people were killed in the 6.8-magnitude quake, while at least 2,400 have been seriously injured. The quake hit hardest in the remote villages of the Atlas Mountains, southeast of Marrakesh, although it was also felt as far as Casablanca to the north. Before Canadian Jewish relief efforts kick into high gear Monday, _The CJN Daily _caught up with a young engineer from Toronto who was staying in Marrakesh when the quake hit. Seth Davis, 25, and his girlfriend, count themselves lucky to be unscathed. They were set to make their way home to Canada on Monday. Davis joins host Ellin Bessner on _The CJN Daily _to describe what he saw. After that, you’ll hear from Montrealers Avraham Elarar, president of the Canadian Sephardi Federation, and Yair Szlak, CEO of Montreal’s Federation CJA, for local reactions. What we talked about To donate funds and help the Moroccan earthquake victims through Federation CJA, click here Learn more about the history of the Jews of Morocco in a piece Elarar wrote in The CJN in 2019 Read more about the Canadian Sephardi Federation from their website 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 intern is Ashok Lamichhane, and 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.

Next week, on Sept. 12, Israel’s High Court is set to hear appeals of a key plank in the judicial reform plan of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government. The core issue is a law, passed by the Knesset in July, that curbs the court’s use of what's called the “reasonableness” doctrine—a doctrine that allows judges to review controversial government decisions and political appointments. The opposition says that new law gives politicians too much power, while supporters say the unelected judges use the reasonableness doctrine too often to defy the will of elected officials. The Knesset took a break for the summer, and won’t reconvene until after the High Holidays, on Oct. 15. But that doesn’t mean the protests and political turmoil have gone away. And while the chaos unfolds in the Holy Land, Canadian Jewish leaders are figuring out how to navigate the crisis domestically and abroad. On today’s The CJN Daily, host Ellin Bessner returns to bring you her conversations with CIJA’s Shimon Koffler Fogel; Miriam Pearlman, the past president of the Canadian Reform movement’s ARZA organization; and Michael Kerzner, Ontario’s Solicitor General, who is urging Jewish schools and synagogues to apply for security funding before Sept. 12. What we talked about Nine months ago, in December 2022, The CJN Daily spoke to Canadian Jewish leaders about Netanyahu’s re-election. Listen to that episode here. Hear what Jewish Canadian rabbis and progressive Jewish groups predict will happen in Israel this fall, from The CJN Daily on Aug. 29, 2023. Apply here for funding from the Ontario government’s anti-hate security and prevention grant by Sept. 12 at 11:59 p.m. E.D.T. 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 Tuesday, the criminal trial began for two key leaders of the trucker convoy protest, Tamara Lich and Chris Barber. The case touches on some of the deepest political divides in Canada today—and was, back in 2022, an equally hot topic for Canadian Jews. While many in the community turned against the convoy after antisemitic images emerged of protesters waving Nazi flags, some Jewish Canadians felt comfortable brushing aside the antics of the movement's fringe members in support of the broader anti-government message. To bring that discussion back into context, we're re-airing an interview from February 2022, when the action was happening. Ellin Bessner spoke with two Jewish Canadians who supported the controversial convoy to figure out how they viewed the Nazi symbolism and how the pandemic’s economic fallout permanently impacted their careers.  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 intern is Ashok Lamichhane, and 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.

On September 3, Ukraine's defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, who has stood at the helm of the country's protracted war with Russia since Day 1, announced his resignation. If you missed the news, you wouldn't be alone; with the war heading into its third year in a few months, global attention has drifted away. Clear media narratives and easily digestible stories have fallen wayside since the conflict began in February 2022. A new book aims to recall some of the humanity that's been lost in this inhumane struggle. Ukrainian Portraits, by Canadian writer, journalist and professor Marina Sonkina, focuses on human-scale stories she gathered at a refugee centre on the Polish border, which was set up by the Joint Distribution Committee, one of the world's largest and oldest Jewish humanitarian organizations. Sonkina joins The CJN Daily to relay these stories that so easily get lost in the fog of war. 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.

This year has been the worst wildfire season in recorded Canadian history, with the millions of Canadians waking up for the first time to the smell of smoke and hazy skies. In the last week, blazes have continued raging in Canada’s coldest, northernmost regions, with all 20,000 residents of Yellowknife, the capital of Northwest Territories, being ordered to evacuate the city. Thousands more across the territories and northern British Columbia have followed suit. What can Canadians expect moving forward? And how much progress have we really made in the last few years? To get a sense of the urgency and what's at stake, we're re-airing an interview The CJN Daily ran with Seth Klein in November 2021. Klein is the head of the climate emergency unit of the David Suzuki Institute. Like his sister, Naomi Klein, he’s also a published author, with his book, A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency, published Sept. 2020. 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 intern is Ashok Lamichhane, and 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.