North Star with Ellin Bessner

Phyllis Taylor credits Oprah Winfrey with sending her to prison—in a manner of speaking. After 30 years working at a law firm in Toronto, Taylor, then in her early 60s, was let go. But she wasn't ready to retire. Her friends brought her to hear Oprah speak in Toronto in 2012; the show featured six female inmates. Taylor was inspired—and she hasn't looked back. Since then, she's taught life skills to hundreds of Canadian prisoners, including drug dealers, prostitutes, rapists and pedophiles. Despite the risks, Taylor discovered a way to make a difference, combining her training as a teacher and motivational speaker with her ability to shower students with kindness. Now she’s sharing her experiences in a new book called The Prison Lady, which recounts not just her years helping inmates, but also her life's journey: as a twice-divorced survivor of child abuse who grew up Jewish in postwar Toronto. Taylor gives a glimpse into her life and writing process on today's show. What we talked about: Learn more about The Prison Lady Read about the Sar-El case 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 learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

This past year was as politically divisive as any in recent memory, and the Jewish community—both in Canada and internationally—was not exempted from the strife. So to round up the biggest political stories of 2022 and to make their predictions for the coming year, The CJN Daily has assembled its first-ever political panel and quiz game—and you're invited to play along. Joining us are three guests representing all three major political parties, each of whom has been featured by The CJN before. David Birnbaum is a former Liberal Member of the National Assembly of Quebec; Emma Cunningham is a trustee with the Durham District School Board and a former Ontario NDP riding president; and Stephen Adler is a former Conservative strategist and currently is senior director of corporate and public affairs at National Public Relations. So settle in, think back to the biggest news stories of the year (Jewish and not) and get ready to buzz in your answers—and let's see if you know the news as well as the pros. What we talked about: Read about David Birnbaum's decision not to run for re-election in The CJN (Apr 2022) Listen to Emma Cunningham explain her confrontation with the Ontario NDP over antisemitism in The CJN Daily (Jan 2022) Hear Stephen Adler on The CJN Daily round up the stakes for Jewish Ontarians during ahead of this past fall's election 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 learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

It's the fifth edition of Honourable Menschen, The CJN Daily's recurring segment reflecting on some of the noteworthy Jewish Canadians who've passed away in recent months. As always, retired CJN reporter Ron Csillag joins the program to walk us through their accomplishments and legacies. Today, we're commemorating five remarkable lives: Cynthia Gasner, a community activist and longtime writer for The CJN; Mark Mendelson, one of Canada's most successful fundraisers for Israel-based institutions; John Daniels and Jack Diamond, a pair of architects who changed the landscape of Toronto; and Murray Waxman, an acclaimed basketball player who represented Canada on the global stage. What we talked about: Read the obituaries for John Daniels and Jack Diamond Read Cynthia Gasner's obituary Read Mark Mendelson's obituary Read Jim Carr's obituary 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 learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

"What Jews call antisemitism isn’t real." "Any Jew who calls them out [for antisemitism] is just racist and is lying in order to oppress Palestinians." "Anyone at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine who angers the Jews will have their career destroyed by the Jews.” These are just some examples from the litany of antisemitic comments and insults which Dr. Ayelet Kuper has encountered during her time as a professor at the University of Toronto's medical school. She has now documented and published these and more, as a paper in the Canadian Medical Education Journal. In it, she lays out how the school’s Jewish faculty and students are once again dealing with clear-cut antisemitism—the way their predecessors did during the decades of the Second World War and beyond—but now, they’re facing it particularly if they publicly support Israel. While she doesn’t name names, she writes that some of those behind it include Jewish faculty members themselves In September, the faculty of medicine held an event to apologize for years of discrimination against Jewish students dating back to the postwar era, where quotas existed limiting Jewish enrolment and advancement. Kuper isn't doing interviews right now, due to the volume of requests she's received since her paper came out last week. But, on today's The CJN Daily, we're joined by two of her colleagues with extensive knowledge of the situation, Dr. Philip Berger and Dr. Steve Samuel. Both are members of the group Doctors Against Racism and Antisemtism, a.k.a. DARA, and they issued a statement on Dec. 9 demanding UofT's medical school protect Jewish staff and students. What we talked about: Read Ayelet Kuper's paper Read "U of T professors unhappy with president’s response to anti-Semitism on campus" in The CJN archives (Feb 2020) Visit the DARA website at daradocs.org 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 learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

Irwin Cotler, the renowned human rights lawyer who is now Canada's special envoy on antisemitism, has appeared on The CJN Daily more than once. But this time, he's not commenting on the news—he is the news. A new documentary about his life and work, First to Stand: The Cases and Causes of Irwin Cotler, is making its world debut this weekend in Montreal. It's not a biography—the film instead traces his four-decade career representing with the likes of the late Nelson Mandela, Natan Sharansky and Raif Badawi, a Saudi blogger sentenced to a thousand lashes and 10 years in prison. Audiences will catch a glimpse of what it's like travelling the world to stand up to oppressive regimes as he collaborates with allies including the acclaimed human rights lawyer Amal Clooney in the United Kingdom. Ellin speaks with one of the filmmakers, Irene Angelico (who produced and directed along with partner Abbey Neidik) to discuss the four years they spent following Cotler around with their cameras—and then Cotler himself joins Ellin to describe what it was like being in a big-screen spotlight. What we talked about: Buy tickets to the world premiere in Montreal Learn more about the film 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 learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

After a two-week conflict between Israel and Palestine in the summer of 2021 led to an unprecedented spike in antisemitism, Rabbi Philip Bregman knew he had to act. He began reaching out to other racialized groups who know what it's like to feel discrimination. Eventually, he assembled a sort of Justice League of seven community leaders, including himself: Tariq Tyab of the Muslim community, Terry Yung of the Asian Buddhist community, Inderjeet Singh of the South Asian community, Jahmira Kedesha Lovemore of the Black community, retired United Church minister Gary Gaudin, and Jody Wilson-Raybould, the Indigenous leader who rose to fame as the Attorney General of Canada. The group, dubbed "The Other People", began offering their services to schools, so students could see how real people from different communities act and face challenges in person. They've visited about eight schools so far, speaking to more than 1,000 kids—mostly in Vancouver, but also as far as Salmon Arm, a five-hour drive northeast of the city. The reception hasn't always been smooth—Rabbi Bregman has faced Hitler salutes in this process—but, as he explains on today's show, it's all part of the mission of exposing biases and having open conversations. Rabbi Bregman is joined by Tayeb and his colleague Yusef Siraj, who does tech support for the group. What we talked about: Visit their website at theotherpeople.ca Hear their stories in person at Temple Sholom in Vancouver on Dec. 8 Learn more about the Muslim members' initiative, foundation4ward.org 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 learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

He scoured the St. Lawrence River to find clues to how Jews helped the British conquer New France. He battled a hurricane off the coast of France and scuba dived to find a shipwreck linked to the mysterious first Jewish woman to set foot in Canada 250 years ago. No, these aren't scenes from the newest Indiana Jones movie—they're moments from the life of Len Pearl, a documentary filmmaker from Toronto, who's currently putting the finishing touches on his new series about the history of Jews in Canada. Search Out the Land ditches the typical educational-video treatment, instead focusing on bringing to life the characters and achievements of the Jews who helped found Canada. Pearl shot 100 scenes with 200 actors in period costumes to capture the most fascinating stories available: there are fur traders, politicians and spies. The CJN Daily sat down with Pearl to discuss why Canada’s Jewish history is a bold, sweeping epic of adventure mixed with the struggle for inclusion and acceptance, and a story that could help combat the current worldwide spike in antisemitism. What we talked about: Read about Esther Brandeau, the first known Jew to set foot in New France, in The CJN archives (2013) 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 learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

Benjamin Dichter rose to fame as a spokesperson for the Freedom Convoy that swarmed Ottawa earlier this year. Since then, the Toronto resident and part-time trucker has become a known quantity in conservative and right-wing media circles, appearing on Tucker Carlson's Fox News program and Steven Crowder's YouTube show. He's even earned an endorsement from Jordan Peterson for his new self-published book, Honking for Freedom: The Trucker Convoy that Gave us Hope. In the book, Dichter calls the protest a success because most provinces—and eventually the federal government—did lift their COVID vaccine mandates, and Ottawa got rid of the controversial ArriveCan app, albeit many months after the trucks left the capital. But Dichter is still feeling the ramifications of his involvement with the convoy, including how the federal government unleashed the rarely used Emergencies Act to freeze his and other key protesters' bank accounts. Plus, there's a massive lawsuit launched against the convoy leaders by residents of downtown Ottawa. Underlying his story is the fact that Dichter wasn't just the convoy spokesperson—he's also their biggest Jewish representative. In this extensive interview with The CJN Daily, Dichter explains his decision to reveal his Jewish identity publicly and how the convoy organizers felt about Nazi imagery in their protests. What we talked about: Find Dichter's book Watch Dichter’s testimony before the Emergencies Act inquiry on Nov. 3, 2022 (starts at 2:32:05) Hear The CJN Daily's stories about the freedom convoy: Jews who supported the cause, locals who opposed it and the original outrage at the Nazi imagery within 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 learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

One thing that unites all Jewish Canadians—from Victoria to Winnipeg to Halifax, across politics and religious denominations—is that we all came from somewhere else. Before there was here, there was there. And whether it’s a part of your recent or more distant memory, all of our families were once strangers in a strange land.  The idea of an organization to help Jewish immigrants from Europe began after the First World War, with many small groups volunteering in cities across Canada. On a summer’s day in 1922, all these groups came together to create Jewish Immigrant Aid Services, better known as JIAS.  This year marks the organization's 100th anniversary. To celebrate the milestone, JIAS hosted two special exhibits: the first, called Love the Stranger, was created with the Ontario Jewish Archives. It uses original documents and photos and oral histories to tell the story of JIAS and how Canada’s Jewish population arrived at our shores. The second is called the Refuge Canada Tent. Its a travelling exhibit created by the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, and it introduces viewers to Canada’s place in the global refugee crisis. The CJN Daily producer Zac Kauffman visited both exhibits at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. What we talked about: Learn about the JIAS exhibits, running until Nov. 28. 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 learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

On Nov. 21, Rabbi Donniel Hartman spoke at Toronto’s Holy Blossom Temple in a frank conversation about the future of Israeli democracy with David Koffman, a professor of Jewish studies at York University. In an extensive interview, Hartman sat down with Avi Finegold, host of The CJN's weekly current affairs podcast, Bonjour Chai, to expand on his ideas about the state of Israel religious and political landscape in the wake of Benjamin Netanyahu's return to power and describe Diaspora relations with the Zionist state. With Ellin Bessner on vacation this week, we're bringing listeners of The CJN Daily an excerpt of that insightful conversation. What we talked about: Listen to Rabbi Hartman's full interview on Bonjour Chai Learn more about the Shalom Hartman Institute at hartman.org.il 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 learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.