North Star with Ellin Bessner

The CJN Podcasts
The CJN Podcasts
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Newsmaker conversations from The Canadian Jewish News, hosted by Ellin Bessner, a veteran broadcaster, writer and journalist.

  1. 55 mins ago

    Meet the man who has been chasing the world's best gelato since 2011

    One of Peter Cohen’s favourite gelato shops in the world is San Crispino, in Rome, Italy. It’s among the nearly 2,000 pins on the Montrealer’s personal online World Gelato Map, which he’s been curating as part of his passion—some may call it an obsession—with the frozen treat. For the last 15 years, Cohen has been travelling the world, visiting hundreds of shops, tasting and looking for the best Italian artisanal ice cream. His gelato hobby began in 2011 on a family trip to Italy. Since then, he’s been developing a growing gelato-ratings system that covers shops beyond just Italy: Turkey, Cambodia and many more countries, including about two dozen gelato shops here in Canada. His children think he should monetize his map—but Cohen says he does all this out of a sense of community, and to explore unknown neighbourhoods and meet the gelato-making artisans behind the counters. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner travels to Montreal to sit down with Peter Cohen over some award-winning gelato at Fiore, one of his current favourite shops. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editing), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

  2. 2d ago

    B.C. wildfires: Jews open their homes, kitchens and rally to help evacuees

    On Aug. 7, Todd Shapiro was just finishing dinner in Summerland, B.C., when a wildfire outside the town “exploded” and prompted an immediate provincial emergency evacuation order. The former Montrealer, who had just moved to the Okanagan area last summer, grabbed his passport, a jar of peanut butter and some toilet paper, rounded up his teenage son and family dog, and fled the region. Shapiro is one of 20,000 residents of Summerland ordered to leave their homes as the fire, the size of the city of Burlington, Ont., is still out of control more than a week later. After an anxious journey, he shared, “I was kind of freaking out”, facing closed highways and uncertain of where to go. Shapiro and his family made it to Kelowna, where they were invited to sleep at the home of Jewish community leader Abbey Westbury. She runs a winery, but also is a Jewish Federation of B.C. “community connector”, who also has close ties to the local synagogue and the Okanagan Jewish Community Centre. Westbury has been making food for evacuees and the first responders fighting the wildfire. The smoke and ash from Summerland has been blanketing Kelowna, too, and made it difficult to just be outside. Despite suffering an asthma attack this week, local Chabad Rabbi Shmuly Hecht, with his wife, Fraidy, turned their Chabad of Okanagan centre in Kelowna into a supplies depot for evacuees and hosts. They’ve kept their summer camp running but switched to indoor activities. In Penticton, just up the road from Summerland, local Jewish resident Tami Bray, who works for an environmental organization, has been running a city-wide relief centre, but feeling frustrated that politicians aren’t using the words “climate change” to describe what has caused this summer’s devastation. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner hears from these four Jewish residents on the front lines of the out-of-control Bald Range fire. Related links: Learn more about how to donate to the Jewish Federation of B.C.’s Wildfires relief fund and to the Chabad of Okanagan’s Fire relief efforts fund. Watch Rabbi Shmuly Hecht’s supplies depot video Read about the August wildfire in 2023 that came within metres of Kelowna’s Okanagan Jewish Community Centre, in The CJN . Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izizie Helenchilde (produder and video editing), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

  3. 5d ago

    Jewish students speak out after landmark campus antisemitism study

    On Aug. 5, a new national study of antisemitism on Canadian university campuses revealed a startling reality: 95.7 per cent of Jewish students surveyed said they had experienced or witnessed antisemitism in the past year. The report received wide coverage, including in The CJN, but there’s more to this story than that disturbing number. The 1,200 anecdotes submitted by students paint a vivid picture of being targeted by peers and professors for their faith and identities. The research was originally commissioned by the office of Canada’s Special Envoy on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism, Deborah Lyons, before Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government scrapped both her office and the Islamophobia czar’s in February 2026. When Carney announced the makeup of a new federal Advisory Council on Rights, Equality and Inclusion in June, he told the members to tackle antisemitism first, especially on campus. That’s when the study’s authors reminded the government it already had the research sitting there, which it had paid for. But what else does this report tell us? What do Jewish university, college and CEGEP students actually say happened to them? And now that we have the research, what happens next? On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast with Ellin Bessner, you’ll hear several of the students who spoke out, along with Cary Kogan, a University of Ottawa professor who was an advisor on the report and helped make it public last week, who spoke with The CJN’s Zenith Wolfe. Related links A new report finds nearly 95%, nearly all Jewish students surveyed, personally experienced or witnessed campus antisemitism last year, in The CJN Read the report on the Government of Canada’s website , and please specially read the Jewish students’ personal comments . Read about the class action lawsuit against McGill University, and other legal actions underway against three other campuses including TMU, Western, and Windsor, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer/video editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

  4. Aug 12

    Finding their people: How B.C.’s small Jewish communities are growing

    In May, Jewish residents in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island were invited to celebrate the festival of Lag BaOmer around a bonfire. On Aug. 6, a kayak paddling excursion on Burnaby’s Deer Lake attracted 30 members of that city’s Jewish community. Coming up on Aug. 23, Jewish residents of Squamish and Whistler are planning a boat cruise to spot wildlife, followed by a brunch. These different events around British Columbia have something in common: they’re part of a new project underway in the province in response to the measurable shift of Jewish people moving away from Vancouver’s traditional Jewish corridor. Whether for affordability reasons or lifestyle choices, the populatin of Jews living outside Vancouver grew by 60 per cent, according to official figures. Jewish communities like Victoria are seeing tremendous population growth, while the Okanagan region is growing, too. That is why Vancouver’s Jewish Federation officially changed its name this summer to the Jewish Federation of B.C., to better reflect the territory they intend to represent. As part of an annual budget of $1.2 million, they have hired nearly a dozen local Jewish leaders whose job it is to help boost Jewish life in places without easy access to a synagogue, kosher food and the like. Funding is also available for events and outreach, and plans are underway to hire another “community connector” for Prince George. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner checks in with two curent community connectors: Jessica Benoualid, a former Montrealer stationed in the Comox Valley, and Jenny Reznik, serving in Burnaby/New Westminster, who’s fighting political battles at City Hall; and we speak with Mijal Ben-Dori, who oversees the entire outreach program and says other Jewish federations in Canada are taking notes. Related links Read more about the June 26 gathering in Whistler of B.C.’s small Jewish communities who are participating in the Jewish Federation of B.C.’s new connector program, in The CJN . Hear the Jewish Federation of B.C.’s Okanagan community connector Abbey Westbury, interviewed about Jewish life in Kelowna several years ago, on The CJN’s “Yechupetzville” podcast. Learn how to contact Jewish Community Connectors in your part of British Columbia. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

  5. Aug 10

    This Canadian soldier waited 109 years for his funeral Kaddish

    When Canadian First World War soldier Pvt. Albert Detmold was killed by German shelling on Aug. 15, 1917, while digging communication trenches on the front lines in northern France, he could never have imagined that more than a century later, both a Chabad rabbi from Toronto and a Ukrainian Catholic priest from Saskatoon would preside over his formal military burial. Detmold’s remains were discovered by construction workers in a field near the French city of Lens in the summer of 2020. They’d lain there for over 100 years, sharing the fate of many hundreds of his comrades who lost their lives in the Battle for Hill 70, after Vimy Ridge. While Detmold’s name was later engraved on the Vimy Ridge Memorial as missing with no known grave, in late 2025, DNA testing and historical sleuthing allowed Canada’s Department of National Defence to make a positive ID. Arrangements were soon put in place to mount a formal reburial ceremony on July 9, in France, Detmold’s actual birth date. He was born into a prominent European Jewish family before coming to Canada, so inquiries were made about the possibility of having a Star of David engraved on Detmold’s gravestone. But officials ultimately decided to bury him under a cross, as the soldier had enlisted as a Presbyterian. Detmold’s great-niece, Liana Walters, of Tees, Alta., traveled to France to represent the family at the service, and told The CJN she “would have liked to have seen the Star of David on the tombstone as well.” On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with chaplain Maj. (Rabbi) Arnold Noteh Glogauer, of Thornhill, Ont., who recently returned from officiating at the burial, and with Walters, the great-niece, about their surprisingly emotional farewell for the long-lost soldier. Related stories Read how Canada’s Department of National Defence Casualty Identification Program spent five years doing DNA testing and tracing Pvt. Detmold’s relatives, in The CJN. Watch our interview with the three Canadian experts who made the positive identification, on The CJN’s North Star podcast, on YouTube from April 2026. See the Canadian Armed Forces’ brief video of Detmold’s burial service. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( info@thecjn.ca) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

  6. Aug 7

    ‘In my baseball team, I’m the only Jewish kid’: What the JCC Maccabi Games mean to its athletes

    For the past week, Canada has played host to more than 2,000 Jewish teen athletes from around the world, who competed at the 2026 JCC Maccabi Games. Competitors and their families came from 75 communities across Canada, the U.S.A, Israel, Europe and South America. Due to tight security, Monday night’s opening ceremony—with 10,000 guests and Israeli entertainers Yuval Rafael and Nissim Black—was staged far outside the city. Even the locations of the main activity venues were being kept under wraps until after the final whistles on Aug. 6. The teenage athletes say they came first and foremost hoping to win medals in the myriad sports being played. But, as The CJN’s North Star host Ellin Bessner discovered after spending a day with some of them, the Games were also about meeting other Jewish teens who may be the only person of their faith on their school or city teams. On this episode you’ll hear from three Toronto baseball players chasing gold on home turf after missing this summer’s Maccabiah in Israel; an Edmonton goalkeeper playing on a composite team with athletes from small Jewish communities; an Israeli volunteer spending his gap year mentoring vulnerable youth; a pioneering JCC Access athlete from Miami; and former Survivor winner Ethan Zohn, who shared his message of resilience with a new generation of Jewish athletes. Related stories Why the 2026 Toronto JCC Maccabi games are a family affair for cancer survivor Darryl Silverstein, the coach of a Toronto boys baseball team competing this week, in The CJN. 300 Canadian athletes were not able to compete in the Maccabiah Games in Israel this July, when Maccabiah Canada pulled out due to Middle East hostilities with Iran, in The CJN . Hear The CJN’s Menchwarmers interview with two pro-basketball stars Tamir "Jewish Jordan" and NBA veteran Ricky "Buckets" Davis who gave clinics at this years JCC Maccabi Games. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editing), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Watch our podcasts on YouTube. Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) https://thecjn.ca/north

  7. Aug 5

    Moncton's Tiferes Israel Synagogue celebrates 100 years with reunion, plans for second century

    More than 135 descendants of Moncton, N.B.'s founding Jewish families returned over the August long weekend for a sold-out centennial reunion at Tiferes Israel Synagogue, sharing memories, meals and hopes for the future of one of Canada’s oldest Jewish communities. The reunion, dubbed “Kum A Heim“, filled the historic Orthodox synagogue on Steadman St., which served as a central hub for the events—including two plaque dedications, a tree planting, a walk through the community’s cemetery, Shabbat services, and greetings received from King Charles and other government officials. “We wanted everybody to feel like they were coming home,” organizer Sandra Rose told The CJN. “They’re really here in the synagogue and it is their home, whether they came from, you know, New York or whether they came from down the street.” The weekend also demonstrated a bittersweet reality: many younger attendees have long since moved away, the current synagogue congregation is aging, and the building itself needs crucial repairs. Yet the organizers say they are determined to keep going and begin a second century, albeit with a very different Jewish community than the one that built it back in the 1920s. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner hears from organizer Sandra Rose, who now lives in Fredericton; her cousin Anne Jochelman, who ran the shul’s kitchen for the entire weekend; and Audrey Lampert, who spoke about her city’s Jewish history during the Friday night welcome dinner in the shul banquet hall. Related links Learn more about the Moncton synagogue’s Kum A Heim Centennial weekend, see photos, on the event website. Read about when Moncton’s city council tried to ban the annual Hanukkah menorah-lighting ceremony in 2023, in The CJN. Listen to The CJN’s Y ehupetzville podcast from 2021 about what Jewish life was like in Moncton. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/donate/ https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube. Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) https://thecjn.ca/north

  8. Jul 31

    From Toronto to Texas: Why Shloime Zionce is driving his Cybertruck cross-continent on a mitzvah mission

    Last week, if you were in Toronto, you may have spotted a striking yellow-and-black Tesla Cybertruck cruising around the city. Behind the wheel was Shloime Zionce, the Toronto-raised White House correspondent for Ami Magazine and YouTube creator. He grew up in Toronto’s Orthodox Jewish community before moving to the U.S. to attend yeshiva. While visiting his parents and extended family in his native city, Zionce launched his cross-continent mitzvah mission at a July 21 event outside the Promenade Shopping Centre in Thornhill. He will take the self-driving Cybertruck on the road, on his two-year quest to drive through all 50 U.S. states. He’s encouraging Jewish pride and mitzvot in response to the surge of antisemitism since Oct. 7. Zionce is paying for the project himself to honour his late friend, Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan, who was kidnapped and murdered by Islamic terrorists in the United Arab Emirates in 2024. The eye-catching design is intentional. “Overall we need eyeballs on this thing because if you want to connect with Jews, the Jews have to notice you and see that you’re there. And this vehicle is pretty hard to to go unnoticed.” On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner gets a private tour including climbing aboard for a ride through Zionce’s grandmother’s Thornhill neighbourhood, as he explains the mission behind one of the most unusual Jewish outreach vehicles on the road. Related links: Read more about slain Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan from his friend Rabbi Yehuda Sarna, a Montrealer who is Chief Rabbi of the Jewish community in the UAE, in The CJN from 2024 . Learn more about Shloime Zionce's new Cybertruck mitzvah campaign to bring Jewish pride and yiddishkeit to all 50 states and Canada in honour of his slain friend, Rabbi Zvi Kogan, killed by terrorists in 2024 in the UAE, at Mitzvahtruck.com Watch Shloime Zionce's reporting from the White House and his travel stories, on YouTube Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Watch our podcasts on YouTube. Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) https://thecjn.ca/north

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Newsmaker conversations from The Canadian Jewish News, hosted by Ellin Bessner, a veteran broadcaster, writer and journalist.

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