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06/16/2025

For the last three nights in a row, ever since Israel’s military and the Mossad began the ongoing strikes on Iran’s nuclear program, Ottawa’s Maddy Eisenberg and Dave Heilbron—a Canadian living in Amsterdam—have been spending hours sheltering in a safe zone beneath a beachfront hotel in Tel Aviv.
The two only met this week, while participating in a government-sponsored trip for Jewish LGBTQ leaders who were meant to attend Tel Aviv’s famous Pride parade. That was supposed to take place on Friday June 13—but the parade was hurriedly cancelled, and their itinerary curtailed, as news of the initial strikes broke. Since then, every time air raid sirens go off, or their phones alert them to incoming Iranian rockets and missiles, they rush down to the bomb shelter and ride out the anxious hours, together with other tourists and Israelis alike.
While the death toll of Israelis killed continues to climb, and rescuers care for the hundreds of wounded, the Pride delegates—who are required to stay within 100 metres of the hotel—are now also worrying about how they will get home, since all flights in and out of the country have been cancelled until further notice.
Maddy Eisenberg, a broadcaster and communications strategist, and Dave Heilbron, a human resources executive and Jewish leader, join host Ellin Bessner on the North Star podcast of The CJN, to describe what they’re seeing on the ground.
https://r.pebmac.ca/https://thecjn.ca/news/a-little-bit-dystopian-as-iran-attacks-2-canadians-describe-the-atmosphere-in-israeli-bomb-shelters/

01/14/2025

'Auschwitz: Not Long Ago. Not Far Away' opened Jan. 10 in Toronto at the Royal Ontario Museum, marking the only Canadian stop for the eight-year-old travelling show. The exhibit originally launched in Spain in 2017, and the Toronto version is a smaller edition due to space restrictions: showcasing some 500 artifacts and photos from the actual site of Auschwitz, the modern world’s most notorious genocide factory.
But while the Canadian debut may seem belated, the timing is perfect: it arrives just a couple of weeks ahead of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau on Jan. 27. It’s also a significant time for the Canadian Jewish community, which is facing an unprecedented spike in antisemitism, including Holocaust denial and distortion, wherein Israelis are being called modern N***s for their military response in Gaza after Oct. 7.
Were these issues on the minds of the curators? How has the exhibit adapted to update post-Oct. 7?
The CJN Daily‘s host, Ellin Bessner, went to see for herself. On a private media tour on the day before the exhibit opened to the public, Bessner walked through the museum wondering about the relevance of showcasing the eerie similarities between this past year and the months leading up to the Holocaust. As she discovered, the organizers aren't moralizing or preaching, but rather letting their rigorously researched historical evidence and facts speak for themselves.
On the episode, you'll hear from Toronto Holocaust historian professor Robert Jan van Pelt, whose mother survived Auschwitz; and from British curator Paul Salmons, plus Luis Ferreiro, director of the private Spanish company MUSEALIA, which owns the touring exhibit. Joshua Basseches, the CEO of the ROM, also joins.

https://pinecast.com/listen/8be7bd8d-6f25-49fd-a01f-13f91e06779b.mp3

10/28/2024

With the U.S. election just over a week away, Vice-President Kamala Harris is maintaining a narrow lead over former president Donald Trump—although the margin of error in the polls is so slim that the result remains essentially a toss-up.
That's the message from Mainstreet Research, a Canadian firm now in partnership with Florida Atlantic University to poll Americans directly and provide accurate data for their clients north of the border.
As it happens, American voters are concerned with many of the same issues as Canadians this election: affordability, housing, inflation and immigration. A former Liberal Party of Canada insider, Mainstreet's Steven Pinkus joins me to try to predict who will win, and whether Trump or Harris is better for Jews and Israel.
https://pinecast.com/listen/fce0c8a2-dafa-4349-93d1-25056ae849c0.mp3

10/23/2024

Days ahead of Yizkor being recited in synagogues across Canada, The CJN Daily wanted to take stock of some noteworthy Canadian Jews who’ve passed away in recent months. It’s the latest edition of a recurring series we like to call “Honourable Menschen”.

Today, I sit down with The CJN’s obituary writer, Heather Ringel, to chat about five noteworthy community members we’ve lost in 2024. They begin with Sheila Kussner, one of Canada’s most relentless cancer fundraisers, before moving onto Irving Liebgott, one of the longest-surviving members of The Tailor Project, which brought Jewish tailors and their families to Canada after the Holocaust. They also discuss Morley Rosenberg, who served as the mayor of Kitchener in the late 1970s and early ’80s; Faye “Tootsie” David, who owned an iconic Jewish deli on Cape Breton with her husband, Ike; and the trailblazing feminist academic Frieda Johles Forman.
https://pinecast.com/listen/909c231d-2f5d-4702-8a8a-17367d18b2d3.mp3

10/21/2024

It will be a real test of free speech today on the campus of the U of T as local anti-Israel groups vow to disrupt an appearance by Shai Davidai, the pro-Israel, Columbia University professor who calls out antisemitism on elite American college campuses. Davidai is set to bring his message in support of Jewish civil rights to the main grassy area at King's College Circle, where Occupy U of T set up a two-month long encampment earlier this spring, before it was ordered dismantled by an Ontario court.
Davidai is on a three-day tour of Toronto and Winnipeg arranged by Tafsik, a new pro-Israel organization.
I had the chance to sit down with Davidai to hear what his year has been like since he gained international attention for warning Jewish parents their kids would not be safe attending expensive schools including his own Columbia, plus Harvard, Stanford and others due to the administration's refusal to ban pro-terrorist campus groups.
https://pinecast.com/listen/9d547fb3-24b6-4741-821f-77ba99be2ba8.mp3

10/16/2024

Struggling to afford your first home? Canadian housing organizations are stepping in to find creative solutions, including Ourboro, with deep Jewish roots. They essentially buy a stake in your house by lending you up to $250,000 for your down payment. It's fractional equity ownership, and you’ll have to pay them back once you sell. But the financial start-up idea has caught on, with Toronto developer Miles Nadal having joined Ourboro as a key investor. The COO, Eyal Rosenblum, is the son of Israeli immigrants. He joins The CJN Daily to explain how this concept can help some Canadians afford homes sooner, and why his Jewish values align with the idea.

https://pinecast.com/listen/9d675539-db4f-4562-92cf-30b460850ebe.mp3

10/10/2024

Canada "is considering all options" whether to declare Samidoun (Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network) an official terrorist group. This week Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the federal Conservatives, demanded Ottawa act, citing evidence Samidoun’s Vancouver-based leaders are members of a militant anarchist terrorist group known as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)–outlawed in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Israel etc. for carrying out dozens of su***de bombings, assassinations and airplane hijackings, and Oct. 7's massacre of Israelis. On The Canadian Jewish News (The CJN)
Daily, I speak with professor Gerald Steinberg, founder of the pro-Israel research institute NGO Monitor, who explains more about Samidoun’s terrorist ties including how the extremist, anti-Israel, non-profit organization is behind pro-Hamas rallies and protests on Canadian university campuses.
https://pinecast.com/listen/dc029263-f64e-4a1a-9513-ba1d2777c798.mp3

10/09/2024

In Toronto, 20,000 people recited the Kaddish prayer. In Montreal, 8,000 people watched wreaths laid on the stage. An interfaith choir sung in Ottawa. All across Canada, tens of thousands of Canadians gathered to observe the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel and remember the Jewish victims who had Canadian ties.

The Oct. 7 anniversary also sparked political controversy in the House of Commons, when Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre condemned the Liberal government’s stance on Israel’s right to defend itself, and for not doing more to curb the explosion of antisemitism we’ve seen in Canada after Oct. 7. While the prime minister was absent from Question Period—he spoke to Ottawa’s Jewish community in person later that evening—all lawmakers in the House of Commons agreed to observe a moment of silence for the 1,200 Israeli victims of that dark day.

On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, you’ll hear the politicians trade accusations across the floor of Parliament, and also hear some of what Jewish Canada sounded like from coast to coast, as Jews and non-Jewish allies marked the solemn anniversary of Oct. 7.

https://pinecast.com/listen/a4ff3b86-917a-4645-bd78-e0f9fda57c01.mp3

10/07/2024

Thomas Hand, who survived the Kibbutz Be’eri massacre on Oct. 7, spent nearly a month last year believing his youngest daughter, Emily, then eight years old, had been killed by Hamas terrorists who stormed their Israeli farming community and slaughtered more than 100 residents. Hand would later learn that Emily had actually been one of the 30 residents of Kibbutz Be’eri who were kidnapped into Gaza that day. The girl was held for 50 days—not in a tunnel, it turned out, but in private apartments alongside five others including Noa Argamani—until a ceasefire and prisoner exchange happened in November 2023, and Emily was released.

Hand, 64, and his daughter are now trying to rebuild their lives.

Ahead of the one-year anniversary of Oct. 7, Hand and his daughter flew to Vancouver to share their story—and also some memories of Canadian victim Vivian Silver, a neighbour on the kibbutz. On this episode of The CJN Daily, Hand joined me with some tough words for the Canadian government, which he accused of “giving Hamas a reward for the violence caused to Israeli citizens.”

https://pinecast.com/listen/1dfae4cb-dcb0-4d7d-959d-101d67f6de51.mp3

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The CJN: from yesterday to today

The Canadian Jewish News (The CJN) is a non-profit, national, English-language newspaper serving Canada's Jewish community. Founded by M. J. Nurenberger in 1960 and first published every Friday in Ontario, today, The CJN continues to publish 50 editions a year of its national edition as well as its Montreal edition in English with some French.