The CJN Podcasts

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Channel • 9 Shows

Society & Culture

Society & Culture

Updated weekly
Science Fiction

Science Fiction

Complete series
Judaism

Judaism

Updated weekly
Spirituality

Spirituality

Complete
Daily News

Daily News

Updated daily
Judaism

Judaism

Complete
Judaism

Judaism

Complete

09/04/2023

DJ Elmaghribi

As has become a tradition here at Bonjour Chai, we're going to turn to the Sephardic side of Passover celebrations with a deep dive into Mimouna and its surrounding culture. Joining us for this wide-ranging conversation is Christopher Silver, a professor of Jewish Studies at McGill University and the author of Recording History: Jews, Muslims, and Music across Twentieth-Century North Africa, which came out June 2022. We'll discuss his book, hear some excellent African Jewish music, chat about food and maybe, along the way, discover the true meaning of Mimouna. Credits Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy. Zachary Kauffman is the producer and editor. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a co-production from The Jewish Learning Lab and The CJN, and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast or donating to The CJN.

09/04/2023

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54 min
02/01/2024

This 96-year-old Canadian is moving to Israel in the middle of the war, as have hundreds of Jews

Israel’s government says 45,000 new immigrants came to live in the Holy Land in 2023, including over 720 alone who landed since Oct. 7–when Hamas terrorists attacked and slaughtered 1,200 Israeli residents and took 240 others hostage. Among the newcomers is Irving Matlow, 96, a well-known member of Toronto’s Jewish community, who may be among the oldest people ever to make Aliyah. Matlow has been deeply attached to the State of Israel since he grew up in a Zionist home in Toronto, the son of Jewish immigrants from Belarus. In 1948, while studying for his business degree at the University of Toronto, he left Canada and snuck into Israel to fight for a year in the Israel War of Independence. Now, 75 years later, the widower's personal gesture of support for the country he helped found comes as Israel is engaged in a similar existential war of survival, although Matlow is long past the days of putting on a uniform. On today’s episode, we’ll speak to Matlow just before his plane lands in Tel Aviv, plus you’ll meet other Canadians who’ve permanently moved to Israel in recent weeks–despite the war, or maybe, even partly because of it: Montreal schoolteacher Laurence Ittah, and Victoria B.C. bakers Moshe and Leah Appel and their children. What we talked about Learn more about Irving Matlow’s service in the Israel War of Independence in 1948, in The CJN. Moshe and Leah Appel ran the only kosher bakery on Vancouver Island until a few months ago, in The CJN. How the Canadian parents of Israeli lone soldiers are surviving the war 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. 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.

02/01/2024

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33 min
20/10/2023

The Misconceptia Edition

After two weeks of war between Israel and Hamas with no resolution in sight, many Jews have experienced a similar phenomenon: non-Jewish friends asking how they're doing. And while the answers will of course vary, even among the more ambivalent crowd, it's causing self-reflection about not just how we as individuals are doing, but how we as a global community are reacting. For Phoebe Maltz Bovy and Bonjour Chai producer Zac Kauffman, the war has sparked fundamental questions about what it means to be Jewish in the 21st century. How settler identity is warped into European identity—and neither one fits Jews very well. And how Israel's conceptia, its illusion that it has this infallible army and an Iron Dome to keep it safe, has been totally shattered. And how Israel may not, in fact, be the one safe haven for Jews in the world, as it was originally conceived; it may in fact be one of the most dangerous. A lot of preconceived notions are being broken right now—and we're here to unpack what that means. Credits Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy. Zachary Kauffman is the producer and editor. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a co-production from The Jewish Learning Lab and The CJN, and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast, donating to The CJN and subscribing to the podcast's Substack.

20/10/2023

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37 min
27/10/2023

This Land is My Land

Join Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy for a special live taping of Bonjour Chai, as we kick off Holocaust Education Week in partnership with the Toronto Holocaust Museum and the Prosserman JCC. The hosts will be sitting down with author Michael Frank to discuss his book, One Hundred Saturdays. Get your tickets here. When reports came out of Gaza last week that the al-Ahli Arab Hospital was bombed, killing hundreds and wounding hundreds more, both sides immediately pointed fingers at their enemy. For days, whether it was an Israeli airstrike or a faulty rocket launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad somehow boiled down to a simple matter of opinion. In the days that followed, even as reporting surfaced and international governments (including Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom) independently determined Israel was not at fault, for millions of onlookers, the die had been cast. Whatever you thought in the first 24 hours has probably remained your belief, facts be damned. This has been the story of the war. Both sides are literally consuming different media reports, living in different bubbles, believing different facts. Beliefs have informed realities. This segregation has led to rampant dehumanization, antisemitism being conflated with anti-Zionism and harassment of Jews around the world simply for being in Jewish spaces. To dissect the role the media plays in all this, and how narratives are shaped and cemented, Avi and Phoebe are joined by Jesse Brown, founder of the Canadaland podcast network, which takes a critical lens to conventional Canadian media narratives. Credits Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy. Zachary Kauffman is the producer and editor. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a co-production from The Jewish Learning Lab and The CJN, and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast, donating to The CJN and subscribing to the podcast's Substack.

27/10/2023

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52 min
05/10/2023

Some of My Best Friends are Jewish

It's Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, which means Jewish Canadians will most likely... be doing nothing special. Because a lot of Canadian Jews, it turns out, don't really celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving. In fact, Thanksgiving feels like a particularly white Christian festivity, connected to early pioneers—or, as society calls them these days, settlers. Which brings us to today's main topic: Are Jews settlers? The term "settler" has become a catch-all for all non-Indigenous Canadians, used regardless if you are a newly arrived immigrant, refugee or privileged white person. Even though the term "settler" can have non-offensive connotions of simply settling into a new country, that's rarely how it's heard in public discourse, when it conjures images of early settlers taking land from the tribes who lived here before. To figure out how Jews fit into the picture, we bring on guest host David Weinfeld, a writer, professor, former CJN columnist and the author of An American Friendship, a 2022 book that analyzes how "cultural pluralism" was a precursor to modern multiculturalism. He discusses the distinctions between those two concepts, and how Jewish identity (and the Jewish relationship to African Americans) played a major in the evolution of identity politics. Credits Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy. Zachary Kauffman is the producer and editor. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a co-production from The Jewish Learning Lab and The CJN, and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast, donating to The CJN and subscribing to the podcast's Substack.

05/10/2023

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58 min
12 Jan

Venezuelan Jews in Canada feeling joy, uncertainty after Maduro capture

It’s been just over a week since U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the military capture and trial of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife. The stunning late-night operation on Jan. 3 was welcome news to millions of Venezuelans who have fled their home country over the last two decades, leaving it to descend into corruption and impoverishment, despite controlling the biggest oil reserves on the planet. Among the estimated eight million Venezeulans who left, tens of thousands are Jewish. They faced additional pressure to escape: the regime was strongly anti-Israel, supporting Iran and Hezbollah, which led to the harassment of the local Jewish community. It’s a stance first adopted by Maduro’s predecessor, the late former president Hugo Chavez, in 2006. While Maduro now faces drug and racketeering charges in New York City, the uncertainty about what happens next has kept Venezuelans confined to their homes, with schools temporarily closed and paramilitary forces patrolling the streets. Some political prisoners are being released, in a gesture of goodwill by Maduro’s replacement, while President Trump is vowing to bring billions in investment to revamp Venezuela’s oil production. While some Venezuelans say they have great hope now that Maduro is gone, others think restoring democracy is still a long way off. On today’s episode of The CJN’s flagship _North Sta_r podcast, we hear reaction and analysis from three Venezuelan Jews who have made their homes in Canada. Jonathan Rosemberg Kort and Rebecca Sarfatti join from Toronto, while Daniel Topel joins from Ladner, B.C., south of Vancouver. Related links Read what Irwin Cotler and two other experts concluded in 2018 that Venezuela was committing crimes against humanity, in The CJN archives . Why Maduro’s predecessor, president Hugo Chavez, embraced Jew-hatred and hatred for Israel, in The CJN archives . Montreal Rabbi Adam Scheier feared for the safety of Caracas’ Jews after a visit to the country in 2009, in The CJN . Learn more about Jonathan Rosenberg Kort’s new book on corporate change, published in Nov. 2025. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner info@thecjn.ca Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/newsletters/ https://thecjn.ca/donate/ Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here ) Watch our podcasts on YouTube

12 Jan

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36 min
08/02/2024

Why UNWRA should be dismantled: Canadian UN watchdog Hillel Neuer weighs in

Two weeks ago, Canada joined the United States and other top Western donors in announcing they will suspend further funding to UNWRA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees. The move comes after intelligence from Israel and other sources proved the extent to which thousands of UNWRA employees and their family members have ties to Hamas—in some cases, even being full Hamas members and taking part directly in the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, kidnapping and hiding hostages. Canadian lawyer Hillel Neuer runs the Geneva-based UN Watch, which helped reveal some of that damning evidence. He brought to light a 3,000-member UNWRA teachers’ chat group on Telegram that vocally supported the attack on Israel. UN Watch also exposed the identities of UNWRA teachers who proudly trumpet anti-Israel hate on their social media accounts. UNWRA has now launched its own official investigation, due at the end of April. But already there are calls to allow the discredited agency to be allowed to weed out the few “bad apples”, and for full funding to be restored. due to the humanitarian emergency and displacement of the vast majority of Gaza’s 2 million residents during Israel’s war with Hamas, now entering its fifth month. Hillel Neuer joins Ellin Bessner on _The CJN Daily _to explain why he thinks UNWRA should be disbanded permanently—but probably won’t be. What we talked about: Learn more about Canada announcing it will pause funding for UNWRA, and what new agencies will get the money instead, in The CJN Watch Hillel Neuer’s testimony (eight minutes) before the U.S. Congress on Jan. 30, on YouTube Read when the UN launched investigation in 2014 after missiles were discovered in UNRWA buildings in Gaza during war with Israel, 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.

08/02/2024

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25 min
09/06/2022

Born This Way

Over recent years, the Jewish community has grown from merely being aware of queer Jews to standing where we are today: leaders and activists in almost every denomination are working to actively include queer Jews in Jewish law and practice. Queer and nonbinary Jews no longer settle for pointing out their existence and right to be included; they're crafting narratives that explain how deeply and intricarely their queerness and Judaism are intertwined. To dissect these issues and share their personal stories, we're joined by two inaugural members of the Queer Jewish Incubator, a new project run by the Miles Nadal JCC in downtown Toronto. Sadie Epstein-Fine is working on a play about one of Tevye's daughters being queer, and Toby King is gathering and archiving information about queer-Jewish wedding ceremonies to examine the various ways in which those couples celebrate their love. After that, you'll hear an excerpt from The CJN's podcast Rivkush, in which host Rivka Campbell interviews Michael Twitty, the award-winning cookbook author, chef and voice for social justice, who describes life at the intersection of being Black, Jewish and gay. What we talked about Learn about the Miles Nadal JCC's Queer Jewish Incubator Visit Sadie Epstein-Fine's website at sadieepsteinfine.com Contribute to Queering the Jewish Wedding Listen to the full interview with Michael Twitty on _Rivkush_ Credits Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andre Goulet is the technical producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a co-production from The Jewish Learning Lab and The CJN, and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

09/06/2022

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1 hr
28/07/2022

Definitely Not the Mafia

Earlier this summer, we produced an episode on the modern ethics of kosher food. It was so popular, the following week we recorded a spiritual sequel, tackling the high cost of kosher meat. The result: the executive director of the Jewish Community Council of Montreal, Rabbi Saul Emanuel, reached out wanting to share their side of the story. Rabbi Emanuel also heads up Montreal Kosher, better known as MK—sometimes jokingly referred to as "Mafia Kosher". This week, Avi had the chance to speak with Rabbi Emanuel and challenge him directly about some of his organizations' choices. Why can't halakhah evolve? Why insist on arcane rules when jobs and affordability are at stake? Why compare Montreal's meat prices to New York's, when the cost of living is so much cheaper in La Belle Province? His answers result in some heated debate with our own resident rabbi podcast host. After that, Gabe Pulver from Menschwarmers pops in to break down how Canada ranked at the Maccabiah Games, and Nathan Englander sat down with Ilana Zackon to describe the experience of adapting one of his books into a stage play for the first time. Credits Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andre Goulet is the technical producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a co-production from The Jewish Learning Lab and The CJN, and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

28/07/2022

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54 min
17 Jun

Turns out Jews also live outside major cities

Too often, when people talk about Jewish life in Canada, they are really talking about Jewish life in Toronto and Montreal. But the truth is more than a quarter of Jewish Canadians live outside those cities. Yes, many still live in large cities, but Jews live in mid-sized and smaller communities, from the coasts of Nanaimo, B.C., to Sydney, N.S. These communities have a different texture, richness, set of challenges, and needs than those in the largest Jewish population centres. Today on Not in Heaven, our resident rabbis talk about some of the work happening to support Jewish life and leadership in smaller communities. We'll discuss the Jewish Federation of British Columbia’s Community Connector program, which partners with local Jewish leaders across the province to facilitate whatever Jewish culture looks like in their grassroots community, and the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Courageous Leadership Canada Initiative, which brought together lay and professional leaders from small and mid-sized communities to study, collaborate, and reflect on common challenges. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Socalled Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Not in Heaven (Not sure how? Click here )

17 Jun

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45 min

News, views and perspectives on Jewish life through a Canadian lens.