Not in Heaven https://thecjn.ca/not-in-heaven/ Pinecast (https://pinecast.com) en-CAThe CJN Podcasts The CJN Podcasts mfraiman@thecjn.ca no Not in Heaven https://thecjn.ca/not-in-heaven/ https://storage.pinecast.net/podcasts/covers/00cb175f-bb47-4f87-8189-6a283168aca7/NotInHeaven_Final_A-01_3000X3000.png episodic Copyright 2026 The future of communal Judaism. https://pinecast.com/feed/not-in-heaven The fifth annual Great Canadian Seder https://pinecast.com/guid/19763b00-a9e4-472f-b856-cd251a645d74 Tue, 31 Mar 2026 04:00:00 -0000 01:19:04 For some reason, the number "five" feels particularly weighty—and so it's with great pride that we bring you the fifth annual Great Canadian Seder. For those new to this tradition, every Passover, the team at The CJN collects stories, memories, musings, songs and reflections about the holiday from notable, fascinating and well-known Canadians. This year, you'll hear from:

  • Jordi Mand, writer for theatre, TV and film
  • Jared Lindzon, CJN podcaster and author of Do More in Four: Why It's Time for a Shorter Workweek
  • Alicia Richler, editorial director, The CJN
  • Ayelet Tsabari, award-winning author
  • Rabbi Carnie Rose, senior rabbi of Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Winnipeg
  • Martin Rutte, international speaker and consultant
  • Rabbi Laura Duhan-Kaplan, dean of ALEPH Ordination Program
  • Ben Carr, Member of Parliament, Winnipeg South Centre
  • Jess Grossman, founder of Uncover Ostomy
  • Yafa Sakkejha, CJN podcaster and leader of Canadian Friends of Standing Together
  • Niki Landau, conflict management specialist
  • Miriam Borden, scholar and researcher of Yiddish Studies
  • Lorie Wolf, musician and band leader, Queen Kong

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Boys, men, and Kiddush clubs: The state of Jewish masculinity https://pinecast.com/guid/079283e3-0615-4866-856d-4edf40c70007 Thu, 19 Mar 2026 22:00:00 -0000 00:54:34 Does the retreat of boys and men from Jewish communal life mirror a broader societal pattern of male disengagement from civic and religious institutions? Outside of orthodox communities, there’s a trend of boys and men increasingly disengaging from Jewish institutional life. A new article in the winter 2026 Sapir Journal called “Boyz II Mensches” by Adam Teitelbaum sparks the question: does the retreat of boys and men from Jewish communal life mirror a broader societal pattern of male disengagement from civic and religious institutions?

On today’s episode of Not in Heaven, our rabbi podcasters debate Teitelbaum’s proposal to reimagine the bar mitzvah as a multi-year process of growth through age 18 as one of the ways to reclaim meaningful male identity within Jewish life.

Then, the rabbis turn to one of synagogue life’s most beloved and controversial institutions: the Kiddush club. Is it a harmless break and opportunity for male bonding and community-building — or a boozy affront to the sanctity of prayer?

Related stories:

redits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Synagogues under fire: What solutions can actually keep the Jewish community safe? https://pinecast.com/guid/598c03d6-875f-48b1-80e6-66f346bebfb9 Thu, 12 Mar 2026 04:00:00 -0000 00:47:50 Our rabbi podcasters separate real security solutions from false idols Last week, three Toronto synagogues were hit with gunfire in overnight shootings. Shocked and exasperated, the city’s Jewish community demanded that action must be taken to keep them safe. They’re angry at public officials for not offering sufficient protection, and many have voiced their frustration with community institutions for what they perceive as an ineffective use of community security funds.

But, after all the sound and fury, what practical solutions are available to Canadian Jewish communities? What type of security spending could actually reduce the likelihood of these events, and when is it just throwing good money after bad? Are efforts for more security the most effective way to address these incidents, or would other interventions — like pushing for more municipal street lighting or for stricter gun control laws — be the thing that actually makes a difference?

Comments by influencers like Tucker Carlson saying that Chabad is directing the Iran War may only serve to fuel further attacks. Anyone can have their own TV show and broadcast to million of followers from their phon — does that mean that we need to take the microphone away? 

As the Jewish community’s calls for action came to a crescendo last weekend, they coincided with the reading of parshat “Ki Tisa,” which tells the story of the Israelites being gripped by fear, dismay, and abandonment after Moses fails to return after weeks on Mount Sinai. The people come to Aaron and demand that he take action, do something, to save them.

On this week’s episode of Not in Heaven, our rabbinic podcasters ask: when community leaders are faced with demands for action, how should they respond? Which solutions are real, and which are, as it were, simply a false idol? And quite apart from solutions, how can we respond and comfort very real fear within a community?

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 The power and perils of blurring an ancient and modern day Purim https://pinecast.com/guid/657f09f1-d3a2-4c38-b41f-217990eac63a Thu, 05 Mar 2026 05:00:00 -0000 00:43:10 What do we risk when we draw these connections too tightly? The story of Purim is well known: in ancient Persia, a wicked royal vizier plots to wipe out the Jewish people — but he didn't count on Queen Esther, a courageous Jewish woman who revealed the plot to the king. The tables were turned for the Jews as the powerful are victimized by their intended victims; those who were once low are brought high, those who were once high are brought low.

When Israel and the U.S. launched a joint military campaign on Iran on Shabbat Zachor, just days before the festival of Purim, it was almost inevitable that politicians, rabbis, and Jews around the world would see themselves in the Book of Esther.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the connection explicit in his first statement announcing the strikes: “Twenty-five hundred years ago, in ancient Persia, a tyrant rose against us with the very same goal, to utterly destroy our people,” Netanyahu said. “Today as well, on Purim, the lot has fallen, and in the end this evil regime will fall too.”

Each week, rabbis stand before their congregations and find connections and explanations about how the Torah portion speaks to their modern lives. They try to give structure and meaning to a world that often feels chaotic.

On this week’s episode of Not in Heaven, our rabbi podcasters ask: what do we risk when we draw these connections too tightly?

Avi Finegold and Matthew Leibl discuss what may be lost in understanding the modern day when we look through the lens of Purim and what is lost in understanding Purim when we look through the lens of the modern day.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Sold to the highest bidder: whose manuscript is it anyway? https://pinecast.com/guid/6b57e240-3bad-458a-b523-f6fd1890e3bc Sun, 01 Mar 2026 05:00:00 -0000 00:42:57 Facing financial strain, should Jewish institutions sell off valuable collections? A handwritten letter by a Jewish luminary of the 18th century, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, also known as the Ramchal, hit the auction block earlier this year. The event grabbed headlines both because of the nearly $400,000 US sale price, but also because, until recently, many believed that the letter was safely among the hundreds of other handwritten pages that make up the Ramchal collection at The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS).

JTS had quietly sold off a number of valuable books and manuscripts from their collection in private sales a decade ago. Over the years, scholars have decried the transfer of these texts to private collections, as they see treasures of the Jewish past finding their way under the auctioneer's gavel.

On today’s episode of Not in Heaven, Rabba Dr. Yedida Eisenstat helps make sense of the recent sales, and ther co-Rabbi podcasters discuss how libraries balance evolving financial constraints with being guardians of a common heritage.

Then, with the holiday of Purim on the horizon, the rabbis look at Jewish material culture: the newest Rabbi runway, the hottest lookbook of Kosher couture, the Instagram account known as @rabbinicfitcheck. How do you dress for a bris, funeral, and a wedding all in one day? Rabbis from around the world are posting their outfits. We discuss.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 What's the next big idea? Birthright's co-founder wants to know https://pinecast.com/guid/491b8585-58c3-4e86-9c9a-ac87e6bc88e9 Thu, 19 Feb 2026 05:00:00 -0000 00:37:46 In this post-Oct. 7 world, what's the prescription for a Jewish future? Taglit-Birthright Israel was founded just over 25 years ago, with the aim of strengthening Jewish identity among young adults through a 10-day, free of charge trip to Israel. The program has brought over 900,000 young adults from 70 countries to Israel.

The ambitious program began as a grand solution to solve a crisis of Jewish continuity and unity as the world entered the new millennium, spearheaded by Canadian Jewish philanthropist Charles Bronfman and American Michael Steinhardt, but required the mustering of global Jewish communal resources.

Last week, Bronfman, along with Jeffrey R. Solomon, the past CEO of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, wrote an op-ed for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, titled "We backed Birthright. Now it’s time for more big ideas for a post-Oct. 7 world” where they called for the next big idea to address the next big Jewish challenges.

On today’s episode of Not in Heaven, our rabbi podcasters, offer their perspectives of the Birthright Israel program and suggest what should come next.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Jewish parents want their kids to play sports—just not professionally https://pinecast.com/guid/540d03c5-620b-4af5-ab61-ca51f593922f Thu, 12 Feb 2026 03:51:59 -0000 00:54:19 This cold week in February has been dominated by two major sporting events: the 2026 Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl. Jews played roles in both; the Olympics regularly see a handful of Jewish athletes competing on the world stage, including nine Israeli delegates and a smattering of Americans in mainstream sports like curling and hockey. While no Jewish football players played in the Super Bowl, Robert Kraft's anti-antisemitism organization did run a pricey anti-hate commercial.

With sports on the brain, our three rabbi podcasters wanted to look at their own community values. There's no doubt that Jews can excel in sports—so why isn't it more common? Jewish parents often put their kids in active extracurriculars—but when it comes to post-secondary education, academics trump athletics. Case in point: note how many pro sports teams are owned by Jews, versus how many have Jewish players on their rosters.

Rabbis Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat and Matthew Leibl dig into all this and more on this week's episode of Not in Heaven.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 End of a Grieving Era https://pinecast.com/guid/bc4d9bc6-2dd0-483f-b38a-5ee008585547 Thu, 05 Feb 2026 01:38:59 -0000 00:36:34 With the return of Ran Gvili’s body, many Jewish leaders are publicly inviting community members to stand up from their proverbial shivas and re-engage with normal life. Federations across North America are welcoming—even memorializing—the return of ceremonial dog tags and yellow pins. But it's been two and a half years of incorporating these thoughts into Jewish ritual life, adding prayers for the hostages at High Holidays and the Shabbat table. What happens now? Can we ever truly go "back to normal"? Our three rabbinic podcasters discuss on this week's episode of Not in Heaven.

Later in the episode, they look at the Jewish response to the ICE raids in the United States. Some Jews are offering to hide their Haitian caregivers as President Donald Trump's administration cracks down on deportations; some rabbis are mobilizing in Minnesota after immigration officers murdered a number of civilian protesters. Where is the Jewish community standing during this fraught time in American political life?

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 A non-profit pays young people to host Shabbat dinners. It wound up firing 25% of its staff https://pinecast.com/guid/974edbc1-4434-4c0a-9384-0aef0b7a2f37 Thu, 29 Jan 2026 01:44:52 -0000 00:37:44 OneTable is a non-profit organization with two goals: make Shabbat a regular part of young people's Jewish lives, and combat the epidemic of loneliness among that same demographic. Hosts can receive a small stipend for every guest who attends their Friday night dinner, and the broader Jewish community benefits from higher levels of Shabbat engagement. But despite hundreds of thousands of young Jews being interested, OneTable laid off a quarter of its staff in December 2025, struggling to find financial support while realizing their repeat users were often accepting money for hosting dinners with friends that they would have hosted regardless. And on an even deeper level: is there even a viable business model for a one-note non-profit like this? Our rabbinic podcasters discuss.

After that, they look at how the Art Gallery of Ontario came under fire when they decided not to acquire work by acclaimed photographer Nan Goldin because of alleged antisemitic comments, and finish off with some Textual Healing.

Credits

  • Hosts:

Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl

  • Production team:

Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)

  • Music:

Socalled

Support The CJN

(+ get a charitable tax receipt)

(Not sure how?

Click here

)

]]> no 1 Why do Jews keep comparing themselves to movie goblins? https://pinecast.com/guid/dfa63b54-a99f-4930-8381-5b3f9c1f175c Thu, 22 Jan 2026 03:46:56 -0000 00:37:05 With the release of Wicked: For Good, Jewish audiences have been asking online: Are the munchkins supposed to be Jews? What about Elphaba—the vilified, bookish, green-skinned witch? Is she Jewish-coded?

It's a question asked by some Jewish culture critics seemingly every time a movie with goblins, elves or hook-nosed monsters comes out. Are J.R.R. Tolkien's dwarves Jewish? Is Nosferatu Jewish? Are Star Trek's Ferengi species Jewish? And then, if the answer strikes you in the affirmative, the logical follow-up is: "Is this vaguely antisemitic?"

But as our three rabbinic podcasters discuss on this week's episode of Not in Heaven, the question may reveal more about the person asking it than the onscreen goblins themselves. The real question may not be, "What were the filmmakers' intentions when creating these characters," and instead, "What does this negative interpretation say about us as a community?"

But before that, Yedida takes a detour down a different cinematic road: a Jewish analysis of the heavily Christian animated film David, which is something of an origin story of the biblical king.

Credits

  • Hosts:

Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl

  • Production team:

Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)

  • Music:

Socalled

Support The CJN

(+ get a charitable tax receipt)

(Not sure how?

Click here

)

]]> no 1 Reflecting on the community response to the Winnipeg graffiti spree https://pinecast.com/guid/5019c4ba-e6d4-4718-89d2-fd03ec0d1ff9 Thu, 15 Jan 2026 03:53:45 -0000 00:47:52 Antisemitic acts don’t all mean the same thing, even if they provoke the same fear. A swastika sprayed on a synagogue door in Winnipeg is not the same as a fire set at a synagogue in Mississippi. And while community members understand this, when violence and intimidation come to their own neighbourhood, it's easy to fall into a maximalist trap that treats all threats as equal.

On this week's episode of Not in Heaven, our rabbinic hosts hone in on Rabbi Matthew Leibl's hometown of Winnipeg, where local police swiftly tracked down the vandal who went on a hateful graffiti spree, laying down charges of mischief and breaking and entering. They dig into the communal response and ask if anything needed to be handled differently. And before that, the hosts look at a new initiative that aims to repurpose religious real estate to help combat homelessness.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl

  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)

  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 'Long Story Short' and the evolution of Jewish TV https://pinecast.com/guid/fb19baf7-0f1a-400a-a8f4-8062b2f58ebf Thu, 04 Dec 2025 05:00:00 -0000 00:42:21 The winter holiday season is upon us, which means binging TV shows and comfort movies is one of the only ways to pass the time while temperatures plummet outside. With this annual tradition, in the Jewish media world, come annual think pieces about Jewish onscreen representation. And while our rabbinic podcasters have delved into this subject already with the ever-popular sitcom Nobody Wants This, there is a better—and much more deeply Jewish—TV show available to stream on Netflix: Long Story Short.

The time-travelling show depicts a single family over multiple generations, bouncing between the 1950s and 2020s, showing how generational trauma manifests in parenting styles, psychological effects, and emotional manipulation—all with a uniquely Jewish flair.

On today's episode, with Matthew Leibl away, The CJN's director of podcasts, Michael Fraiman, sits in to discuss the show's impact and themes, and where it fits into the long cannon of hyper-Jewish television that sprang up in the 2010s.

Before that, Avi Finegold and Yedida Eisenstat dissect the latest controversy swirling up around misinterpreted comments by Sara Hurwitz, and the gang recaps their American Thanksgivings through a Canadian lens.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl

  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)

  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Plumbing the Rabbinic Pipeline: What New Data Says About The Future of Jewish Leadership https://pinecast.com/guid/159aa1d3-2380-4b53-9c22-cc0b5c440ec3 Fri, 28 Nov 2025 09:00:00 -0000 00:48:37 A recent, landmark study of current and future rabbis was met simultaneously with celebration, skepticism, and concern by groups across the Jewish community.

The survey by Atra – Center for Rabbinic Innovation, indicated significant upward trends in rabbis choosing community positions rather than leading congregations from the pulpit, rabbinical students who identify as LGBTQ+ (51 percent), and the number of students receiving rabbinic ordination from  nondenominational schools.

The statistics have garnered their share of skepticism and criticism, namely that they under represent Modern Orthodox rabbinical students and that they do not include traditional Orthodox and Haredi populations. But even with those caveats, some community leaders worry that these trends indicate a non-Orthodox rabbinate whose demographics are significantly different than the lay populations they hope to serve, and who may have more difficulty than their predecessors in building relationships with mainstream Jewish community organizations.

Our hosts - 3 rabbis and not a pulpit between them - discuss how the study matches up with their own observations and what it means for the future of the Jewish community.

They also chat about the recent brouhaha within the Jewish community about an upcoming exhibit at Winnipeg’s Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and a spate of Jewish Canadian organisations recently losing their charitable status. And of course, some Textual Healing to ease our listeners into Shabbat Parshat Vayetzei.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl

  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)

  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 [In Good Faith] How a Palestinian and a Jewish Canadian are trying to depolarize the country https://pinecast.com/guid/85394d74-72d6-4b84-82d4-fded13dda4de Fri, 21 Nov 2025 11:00:00 -0000 00:35:39 This episode originally aired on The CJN's peace-building podcast, In Good Faith. To subscribe and hear more, visit thecjn.ca/faith.

Mainstream Jews, who support Israel and consider themselves Zionists, feel like they are under attack. When they see people wearing keffiyehs and storefronts stamped with Palestinian flags, they hear an implicit attack: "You are not welcome here."

But for Palestinians, watermelons and keffiyehs aren't anti-Jewish icons at all: they're symbols of national pride. 

How can everyday Canadian Jews and Muslims even start a conversation when words and symbols have such different meanings to different people? Telling people they're overreacting isn't an effective tool, nor is public shame, arguing over historical facts or posting online memes.

What might work: navigating difficult conversations. On today's episode of In Good Faith, The CJN's interfaith podcast miniseries, we speak with two people who are working toward exactly that.

Niki Landau and Bashar Alshawwa both came to conflict resolution through trauma. Landau lost a close friend, Marnie Kimmelman, to a terrorist pipe bomb on a Tel Aviv beach at age 17; Alshawwa was shot by an Israeli army sniper during a protest in 2014. Now they're touring Canada, bringing Jews and Muslims together for lengthy closed-door dialogue sessions, with a singular goal: create a toolkit to guide Canadians through conversations they desperately don't want to have.

Credits

  • Hosts:  Yafa Sakkejha and Avi Finegold

  • Producers:  Michael Fraiman and Zachary Judah Kauffman

  • Editor:  Zachary Judah Kauffman

This podcast is sponsored by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, with support from the Ronald S. Roadburg Foundation.

]]> no bonus Escape from New York? https://pinecast.com/guid/5a6cfa30-5432-47dc-9703-00e7435a7a3c Fri, 14 Nov 2025 01:50:05 -0000 00:33:46 In the lead-up to New York's mayoral election, many prominent Jewish New Yorkers came out against the eventual winner, Zohran Mamdani. Now that Mamdani has won, what do they do? How do they reconcile that a third of the city's Jews voted for someone who has spoken out against Israel? And how can they preach about unity when they already made clear they were taking sides?

This is the topic of today's episode of Not in Heaven, inspired by a recent column in the Forward, titled, "I spoke out against Mamdani. Then he won. Here’s how we walk forward together," by Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove. In it, the rabbi writes how found it "totally bewildering" that a third of Jewish voters voted for Mamdani. Our rabbinic podcasters dig into what that says about the shifting politics of North American Jews and how, if at all, our communities can stand together and be united.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl

  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)

  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Nobody wants this (but everyone wants to talk about it) https://pinecast.com/guid/421f4f03-eac0-4b54-a090-434e6aee1924 Thu, 06 Nov 2025 03:56:13 -0000 00:38:36 The hit Netflix rom-com Nobody Wants This is back, and with it are Jewish debates about intermarriage and onscreen representation in mainstream media.

The show's first season tells the story of heartthrob Rabbi Noah (Adam Brody) and non-Jewish podcaster Joanne (Kirsten Bell) falling in love. It was an unexpected hit for Netflix last fall, topping its most-watched list for weeks. Some Jewish viewers rejoiced at a popular portrayal of a common reality: families blended with non-Jews, not terribly religiously observant, yet still connected to their Jewish identity.

Others bristled at a show that celebrates a Jewish religious leader breaking a deeply held community taboo, and criticized it for it representation of Jewish practice.

Regardless of which viewpoint you took, the show was a nearly unavoidable topic at Jewish dinner tables when it first launched—and season two appears to be trending in the same direction. Our three rabbinic podcasters discuss the show, its merits and its pitfalls, including how is ostensibly frames Judaism as an obstacle to be overcome on the road to happily ever after.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no Challahween? How Jewish families navigate Halloween https://pinecast.com/guid/67d4bc54-2d4a-408f-97d4-e20068d27092 Thu, 30 Oct 2025 08:00:00 -0000 00:38:28 This week, many Jewish schools will be participating in a hallowed end of October tradition: sending out letters discouraging families from celebrating Halloween.

The prominence of Halloween in public has ballooned in recent decades, evolving into a full-blown seasonal phenomenon. But despite the celebratory spiders and inflatable pumpkins, Jews tend to have a mixed relationship to the festival. Many see it as a bit of harmless, secular fun—a time for neighbours of all faiths to welcome and be welcomed into each other’s homes, share sweets, and indulge in playful kitsch, costumes and parties.

Others see it as a festival born of paganism and idolatry, later mired in antisemitic violence before ultimately becoming a modern-day sexualized glorification of the macabre. Regardless of where they fall on this spectrum, our rabbinic podcast hosts have a whole set of important questions for Halloween: Can a cultural phenomenon shed its religious origins and become fully secular? How much should Jews try to join their neighbours in shared cultural space? And how much should they cultivate their own individuality?

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Who’s afraid of Zohran Mamdani? https://pinecast.com/guid/6490f2c9-e2e5-4a3c-8166-6e10d3f7ce93 Fri, 24 Oct 2025 03:56:21 -0000 00:40:45 For months, Zohran Mamdani has held a double digit lead in the New York City mayoral race. The 34-year-old media-savvy firebrand burst onto the scene with a suite of fresh, progressive ideas—but his candidacy has forced a reckoning among the city’s significant Jewish community.

Mamdani says he doesn’t use the slogan “Globalize the intifada” himself, but he does not condemn those who do. He’s said that if he becomes mayor, Benjamin Netanyahu would face arrest if he stepped foot in the city. And, while he believes Israel has a right to exist, he’s not comfortable supporting a state that has a hierarchy of citizenship based on religion.

Many Jews are shocked and scared by the prospect of a Mamdani victory. They see his criticism of Israel as a thin veil for antisemitism, and worry his election would create a permission structure for more aggressive hostility towards Israel and its supporters. On October 23, more than 850 U.S. rabbis penned a letter opposing Mamdani and the "political normalization" of anti-Zionism; a sharp departure from a broad rabbinic norm to keep explicit politics, especially candidate endorsements, out of the synagogue.

But according to a recent Fox News poll, 38 percent of the city’s Jews still plan on voting for Mamdani. Some don’t think the mayor of New York has much influence over Middle Eastern geopolitics; others fear a future where Israel becomes a worn-torn, global pariah ruling over the rubble of Gaza and the West Bank—which would, they believe, only further endanger the lives of Jews in Israel and in the Diaspora.

Our three rabbinic podcasters return from their High Holiday vacations for this week's episode of Not in Heaven, in which they ruminate on the rifts that have opened up within New York—and which could spread further outward.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Rosh Hashanah Roundup https://pinecast.com/guid/1c5bb4cc-f3e7-4951-83ac-975fec5e4367 Thu, 18 Sep 2025 16:52:00 -0000 00:39:31 Even for the least religiously involved Jews, the High Holidays are a high point—and sometimes the only point—of organized Jewish engagement.

For many families, it may be the only time in a year they step inside a synagogue or participate in a prayer service. A time for re-upping their membership in the Jewish collective, returning to the same well of tradition: the same tunes, buildings and prayer books that they remember from sitting with their parents and their parents’ parents.

But, ironically, for the people most passionate about Jewish spiritual life—those who have devoted their careers to it—Rosh Hashanah can look very different. Two of our hosts’ spirtual needs are bringing them to prayer services apart from their partners. Another fears they’ve been seeing Rosh Hashanah as a job for so long, they're not sure if they’ve ever had, or could have, an "authentic" Rosh Hashanah experience.

Plus, rabbis Avi, Matthew and Yedida discuss their advice for boredom in shul services, asking for forgiveness, and what to do with a yearning for someone to ask forgiveness from you, and using the High Holidays as a time not only to think about what you’ve done to other, but to let go of the slights others have done to you.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Binge eating through the High Holidays https://pinecast.com/guid/ebf044f5-ff8f-421e-ace6-dc6dc27e2cae Thu, 11 Sep 2025 02:19:54 -0000 00:37:23 Jews may joke about the High Holidays being a time for binge eating—overflowing tables of multiple meats, several courses, soups, sides and desserts—but for anyone suffering from an eating disorder, it's a dangerous time of year. That's how Ilana Zackon, a performer and writer, remembers coming home for the holidays in her early 20s. Privately, she had a binge-eating disorder; when faced with mountains of brisket, chicken, potatoes and pies, nobody thought twice about her eating for two straight hours.

Zackon wound up recovering from her disorder. And now, more than a decade later, she's reimagined that experience into a short film, Grain, that recently won an award for best 2D short film at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal. In the movie, the main character binges to the point of transforming into a horrific creature that rampages through her city.

Ahead of the High Holidays, Zackon joins the rabbi podcasters of Not in Heaven to analyze the role of food in Jewish culture—and how we approach eating, cooking and encouraging others to dig in.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 The state of Jewish education https://pinecast.com/guid/5ac07b64-839b-475c-a073-d39e9abc6c55 Thu, 04 Sep 2025 02:02:24 -0000 00:37:19 School has returned—and with it, the annual anxiety of Jewish parents fretting over the cost, and results, of Jewish day school. What good is Hebrew knowledge if most Israelis speak English? What are the benchmarks for a successful Jewish education? Is it just about surrounding our kids with other Jewish kids, or is there something deeper in the biblical knowledge?

Different parents will give different answers. For their part, our rabbi podcast panel of Not in Heaven, back from a quasi-summer break, have children of all ages with varying degrees of formal Jewish education. In this back-to-school special, the hosts debates the merits and strategies of Jewish schooling, including why sending your kids to a modern Orthodox school, even if you're more liberal in your home, might be the right choice.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Elul: High Holiday Foreplay https://pinecast.com/guid/a174e1cd-b619-4ac9-ba39-6e5d00d08f27 Wed, 27 Aug 2025 19:52:26 -0000 00:38:22 Buckle up, sports fans, it’s synagogue pre-season—a.k.a. Elul, the Hebrew month of spiritual preparation directly before the High Holidays. It's somehow both a marathon and a sprint for observant Jews and their leaders: synagogue staff, rabbis and cantors prepare to go into overdrive writing sermons, leading prayers, facilitating spiritual experiences, and essentially running the year's most important programming back-to-back-to-back for a month.

How can you community members support their leaders, prevent burnout and help empower rabbis to take on the enormous tasks ahead? Avi and Matthew share their thoughts, while also sharing their own routines—what they do logistically and spiritually to prepare for a time when they won’t have bandwith for self-reflection.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 How can anyone be certain of anything happening in Israel? https://pinecast.com/guid/cbe854dd-44bb-4219-bd21-a576b64a1d4f Thu, 14 Aug 2025 14:56:50 -0000 00:28:00 Depending on which side of the political spectrum you're on, and which media outlets you trust, you perspective of what's happening in Israel and Gaza will be extremely different. And chances are, regardless of which stance you take, you're missing critical pieces of information.

For our rabbi podcasters, who have dedicated their lives to knowledge-gathering and understanding different perspectives, that's a problem. They ask: how can anyone be certain of anything right now? How can anyone have a well-informed opinion when media outlets are fallible, propaganda is insidious and facts are obscured? It reminds one host of Donald Rumsfeld's famous line about "unknown unknowns"—we don't know what we don't know.

Reconvening after a brief summer break, our rabbi podcasters are back to discuss these issues and dive into this week's parsha from Devarim.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no The Jewish Angle: Is it ‘lashon hara’ to make fun of the Coldplay Jumbotron couple? https://pinecast.com/guid/01a1066d-5540-4ad6-a49b-c5536ab25cb4 Fri, 01 Aug 2025 01:37:33 -0000 00:35:09 We're taking some time off to recharge this summer and prepare for new projects at The CJN. Instead of a new episode, we're bringing you another podcast from The CJN: The Jewish Angle, hosted by former Bonjour Chai host and current opinion editor at The CJN, Phoebe Maltz-Bovy. Avi Finegold is her guest. Not in Heaven will be back soon—stay tuned.

To our knowledge, neither the now-former CEO of tech company Astronomer, nor the company’s now-former head of HR, are Jewish. The secretive couple—who were having an affair that was famously caught by a videographer behind the Jumbotron of a Coldplay concert—instantly became a viral sensation, sparking waves of ridicule and resulting in their departure from the company.

But The Jewish Angle podcast host Phoebe Maltz Bovy had to ask: is it lashon hara to speak of these people behind their backs? So she asked The CJN’s resident rabbi, Avi Finegold, to shed light on the situation. It’s not quite lashon hara if the secret has been put out in the open by a Jumbotron, but that doesn’t quash the ick factor from giddily discussing people’s personal lives on social media.

Plus: why wasn’t this seen as a #MeToo echo, given the power imbalance between the CEO and lower-level female employee? Listen to The Jewish Angle to find out.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no bonus Brave Jew World: The future of Judaism and AI, feat. David Zvi Kalman https://pinecast.com/guid/cfa738aa-fdde-4ec6-adaf-96ce5f614033 Thu, 24 Jul 2025 15:08:07 -0000 00:53:15 David Zvi Kalman, a research fellow at the Hartman Institute and Sinai and Synapses, is one of the foremost thinkers looking at the intersection of artificial intelligence and Jewish life. While many in the Jewish community worry about destruction of past traditions, Kalman looks to the future. He looks at what could be the next big transformation in Jewish thought—on the margins today, mainsteam tomorrow.

Case in point: artificial intelligence. Kalman posits that AI, unlike previous technological advancements, has the unique ability to mimic human behaviour—a characteristic that could fundamentally alter our relationship with work, productivity and even religious practice. How are rabbis using AI today? Could the machines one day issue halachic rulings? Will it transform the role of rabbis?

Kalman joins as guest host of Not in Heaven, The CJN's podcast about the future of Jewish communal life and spiritual practice.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 The great Cholent debate + Grok's wild antisemitism https://pinecast.com/guid/077b709e-c68b-42ef-9dc4-0446486b50dd Thu, 17 Jul 2025 14:25:50 -0000 00:49:13 It’s a brave new world out there for the Jews. Over the past two weeks, we've seen a series of stories published showing the ways new technologies are affecting Jewish life, from bot armies to A.I.-generated memes to racist Elmo to chatbots who think their surname is Hitler. But are any of these technologies creating new avenues for Jewish living (or Jew hatred)—or are they merely reflecting a culture that already existed? A.I. could represent our generation's moral panic, as the printing press, television and comic books did before... or it could be something genuinely new and different.

And before that, our rabbi hosts tackle the great cholent debate: can you eat the customarily Shabbat food on a Thursday? In honour of the summer food edition of Scribe Quarterly, The CJN's free print magazine, Avi, Yedida and Matthew talk about the glow-up of Ashkenazi cooking within the foodie world and its move from borscht belt to bougie.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Small-tent Judaism: The way of the future? https://pinecast.com/guid/4252a23a-390c-4f46-a26f-c4bdcd0ecae6 Thu, 10 Jul 2025 01:01:32 -0000 00:37:54 Jewish congregations and institutions—particularly non-Orthodox ones—often focus on how they can be more appealing and accessible to the growing number of Jews who feel like religion isn't for them. This has resulted in "big tent Judaism", which may have swung the door open for the masses—but has it also diluted Jewish spaces and expertise?

Recently, Rabbi Ari Witkin, ordained in the Reconstructionist movement, wrote an article that cautions against over-universalizing Jewish life and messaging. "We’ve become more inclusive, more welcoming, more responsive to the diversity within our communities. It’s allowed countless people who once felt pushed out of Jewish life to find a place and build authentic relationships with our practice and tradition. But somewhere along the way, 'meeting people where they are' became the goal instead of the starting point.... And so I think we have to ask: Are we actually helping people grow? Or are we just trying not to lose them?"

And so, on this week's episode of Not in Heaven, our rabbi panel digs into whether the future of Judaism lies in smaller tents, rather than bigger ones—digging into niches, embracing stricter communal authority, and not trying to water-down the public sphere.

After that, the gang discusses Avi Finegold's latest article in the recently released summer edition of Scribe Quarterly. Are horoscopes kosher? While the popularity of star signs and astrology—among Jews and non-Jews alike—may seem distinctly "new age", Avi offers a variety a sources that show they are anything but.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no UJA, JNF, ADL, CIJA... TTYL? https://pinecast.com/guid/7b1a5237-0036-4108-b150-43a56f2ed319 Thu, 03 Jul 2025 01:00:19 -0000 00:41:58 Over the last century, North American Jews have poured untold millions of dollars into an alphabet soup of legacy institutions: UJA, CIJA, ADL, JNF, et al. And yet, after 19 months of rising antisemitism—while Canadian and American Jewish communities feel like they're free-falling through a crisis—many have been asking, "What have we been giving all this money for? Where are the results?"

To wit, two recent pieces published in the New York Post ask these exact questions. Rachel Sapoznik, an entrepreneur, wrote an opinion piece headlined "Why I’m ending my donations to US Jewish groups and seeking new leadership to protect US Jews," in which she calls for American Jews to support (mostly Republican) pro-Israel politicians instead of the Anti-Defamation League. Kathryn Wolf, a journalist, wrote a similar piece in the same publication that justaposes major organizations' glitzy galas and celebrity endorsements against a growing wave of grassroots Jewish activism.

In Canada, against the backdrop of louder upstart Jewish advocacy groups, the Centre for Israel Jewish Affairs parted ways with former CEO Shimon Koffler Fogel, a diplomatic leader who held the post for nearly 40 years, and replaced him with Noah Shack, who accepted the permanent position on June 27. "We have to be nimble,” Shack told The CJN. “We have to try new things and do whatever we can to win."

But to what extent should the Jewish community pivot away from these legacy organizations, who've spent years building goodwill with all levels of government and non-Jewish organizations? Is any support the Jewish community now finds not due to years of quiet, behind-the-scenes bridge-building?

Not in Heaven host Avi Finegold has long been critical of Jewish communal organizations—though he might also find himself disagreeing with the most vocal activists vying to replace them. In this week's episode, we unpack the pros and cons of how far these institutions have taken us, and what comes next.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no Rabba Yedida and the taxonomy of orthodoxy https://pinecast.com/guid/3746c27b-b108-47e7-961e-f60b25ce8d9f Thu, 26 Jun 2025 01:21:44 -0000 00:46:13 In 2013, Rabba Rachel Kohl Finegold, one of the first graduates of Yeshivat Maharat—a trailblazing institution in the Orthodox world that ordains women clergy leaders—became the first Maharat hired as clergy at an Orthodox synagogue, Montreal’s 175-year-old Congregation Shaar Hashomayim. Fast forward more than a decade to June 2025, and Yedida Eisenstat carries on that mantle as a member of the class that brings the total number of Yeshivat Maharat graduates to 100.

What connects them? Eisenstat is one of the co-hosts of The CJN's podcast Not in Heaven, along with Rabbi Avi Finegold—Rabba Kohl Finegold's husband.

To celebrate newly minted Rabba Eisenstat's position, we discuss why she opted for the title of "rabba" in the first place—as opposed to rabbi, maharat or rabbanit—and the divisive history of women’s participation, learning and leadership in modern Orthodox Judaism. Each host also reflects on their own out-of-the box journeys to rabbinic ordination, whether their education focused on theory and halacha, or the nuts and bolts of rabbinic life.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Shabbat-observant Jews: Keep your phone on for war updates, or stay religiously offline? https://pinecast.com/guid/c5d05216-c31d-4f6e-b553-04cce1c18e07 Wed, 18 Jun 2025 19:14:02 -0000 00:45:20 Observing Shabbat is one of the most important markers of religious Jewish identity and defining rhythms for religious communal Jewish life. It’s one of the 10 commandments, alongside not murdering people. When the Talmud gives an example of the ultimate religious transgression, it doesn't say eating a BLT—the example is public desecration of the sabbath.

So last Friday, when the Israeli Rabbinate announced that synagogues would be closed for Shabbat, and that Jews shouldn't gather in prayer and community to honour the day, it was a big deal. They also reiterated a set of instructions that would typically be completely anathema to religious communities outside of wartime: leave radios and phones on silent, so you can hear sirens outside; and keep your phone on, in case ill or elderly relatives have an emergency.

Since October 7, when Hamas terrorists attacked on Simchat Torah, observant Jews have begun striking a new balance between their religious commitments and the exigencies of the moment. On one hand, religious law seems too narrow and constricting for modernity—a survey held last year by the Jerusalem Post found a significant increase among Orthodox Jews using their cellphones on Shabbat, which is a trend growing among the Diaspora, too—but on the other hand, religious law can also show surprising flexibility and adaptability, even softening rules about public transit and airline travel on Shabbat.

On this week's episode of Not in Heaven, rabbis Avi Finegold and Matthew Leibl describe how they've viewed this progression over the last two years, and what it means for the future of Jewish observance.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Debating the World Zionist Congress: Should Diaspora Jews get a say in Israeli affairs? https://pinecast.com/guid/f60e48b4-fe6d-476c-9c5b-a314b2be2326 Thu, 12 Jun 2025 01:18:37 -0000 00:39:14 Have you heard of the World Zionist Congress before? Until relatively recently, a lot of people hadn't—including two hosts of The CJN's Not in Heaven podcast.

Yet, perhaps owing to the impact of Oct. 7 and the wide-reaching effects of the Israeli government's actions on the Jewish Diaspora, Jews around the world have found themselves not only suddenly attentive to the existence of the World Zionist Congress, but actively vying for a voice at the table. (For more on what's at stake, listen to a recent episode of our sister podcast, North Star.)

And so get-out-the-vote campaigns are in full swing for Zionists to fight over who gets to control a billion-dollar fund. In the U.S., WZC elections set a new turnout record, nearly doubling participation since the last election in 2020. Meanwhile, Canada is holding its first election for the WZC in decades.

This week on Not in Heaven, our rabbinic hosts cast a skeptical eye towards the whole enterprise—while one reveals they are actually a delegate on one of the electoral slates, and explains what that entails.

Elsewhere in this episode, co-host Matthew Leibl reports from his home province of Manitoba, where wildfires coninue to ravage the province, and we discuss Swedish activist Greta Thunberg's flotilla stunt, as she was swiftly deported after trying to float into Gaza to deliver aid.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no How to speak to your kids about the Washington murders https://pinecast.com/guid/0d2eab89-fe47-42a0-adba-78914ea604fa Wed, 28 May 2025 19:13:28 -0000 00:37:16 The world feels increasingly unsafe for Jews. Digital spaces are riddled with antisemitic rhetoric. Israel recently issued a travel warning for Jews visiting Canada. And, last week, threats turned real when Elias Rodriguez allegedly shot and killed two Israeli embassy staffers outside the Jewish museum in Washington, D.C., shouting about a free Palestine during his arrest.

One of the hosts of our Not in Heaven podcast, Yedida Eisenstat, lives in the U.S. capital with her family. Another host, Avi Finegold, lives in Chicago—where the suspected killer lived. When danger lurks so close, it becomes an unavoidable topic of conversation across generations.

All three hosts of this show have multiple children, ranging in age from four to 19. In this episode, each shares how they approached the topic with their family: how to speak frankly about world politics to teenagers, how to explainer to grade-schoolers about security guards with bulletproof vests, how to explain your presence at a rally for the hostages when your kids can't grasp what Hamas even is.

They also discuss reactions to the murders, both their own and those who believe the murders were "100 percent justified", and Israel's travel advisory for Canada. Do the words of warning feel justified for Jews actually living here, or is the Jewish State just playing politics?

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Are denominations still relevant? https://pinecast.com/guid/661f6e74-3d88-4061-b1d6-a4d9a4731196 Wed, 21 May 2025 17:33:38 -0000 00:43:50 Recently, Congregation Dorshei Emet—the only Reconstructionist synagogue in Quebec, and the oldest in Canada—took a major vote on whether to secede from the official Reconstructing Judaism movement. A microcosm of the province in which it resides, the "remain" faction won. But the results could not mask the increasing schism, which, in turn, has revealed yet another crack in the foundational organizing structure of Jewish life in North America—denominations, otherwise known as movements.

Synagogues vote to change or abandon denominations all the time, and many rabbis—including all three hosts of Not in Heaven—have received, or are receiving, ordination from outside the three main pillars of Reform, Conservative and Orthodox. Chabad, the most popular rising religious establishment in Judaism, is clearly part of the Haredi community, but proudly does outreach to Jews outside the Orthodox world.

And yet, while the old-school labels may fall away, Jews will always want to know what kind of service they're walking into. Is seating mixed? Will Shabbat services include musical instruments? New labels may well rise to replace the old ones.

Hear the full discussion on this week's episode of Not in Heaven.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 1 in 3 Canadian Jews have a non-Jewish spouse. What does that mean for the country's Jewish future? https://pinecast.com/guid/5b35f6d3-653c-4c19-85f9-bb457f725552 Thu, 15 May 2025 01:14:13 -0000 00:37:56 A new study on Canadian Jewry was recently published by Robert Brym and Rhonda Lenton in Canadian Jewish Studies, an academic journal out of York University. The numbers show that intermarriage is no longer as rare as it used to be in Canada, with 30 percent of Canadian Jews marrying outside their faith.

Some key takeaways: younger Jews are more likely to intermarry than older ones, and men are more likely to do so than women. There is a strong inverse correlation between Jewish community size and intermarriage rates, too: intermarriage rates are lower in large Jewish communities than they are in smaller ones. Globally, Canada's rate is in line with fellow commonwealth countries the United Kingdom and Australia, but roughly half the rate of the United States.

So what do we make of this? Doomsayers have called intermarriage a "second Holocaust", but the unavoidable reality of young people moving away from religion can't be fought. Should Jewish institutions and community leaders expand their outreach, or do they tighten their grip on what it means to be a Jew? Special guest host Phoebe Maltz Bovy, host of The Jewish Angle, joins to discuss.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no Burlesque Shabbat and kosher omakase: Is this really the future of Judaism? https://pinecast.com/guid/501fb54b-0331-4dea-bccc-b107e2e6c71e Thu, 08 May 2025 00:41:30 -0000 00:40:07 Mainstream Jewish communal leaders have, for ages, been talking about "skewing younger" with programming. But none of them would dare come near Sinners' Shabbat, a sexy, raunchy burlesque show, ripe with bondage ropes, leather skirts, cleavage and kippot and queer couples. Helmed by Tova Sterling, a chef and influencer in New York City, the events were born out of her feeling not at home in conventional Jewish spaces—and finding a community on the fringes.

Meanwhile, not far away, in Manhattan, Chabad debuted Fins and Scales, a pay-what-you-can kosher omakase dining experience at a Chabad house in Greenwich Village. Diners enjoyed lightly charred madai, sea bream and fresh sashimi, happy to take part in a luxurious fine-dining experience if all it cost was a donation and signing up to Chabad's mailing list.

So what's going on here? Are these sorts of ultra-modern shticks the future of Judaism, or just passing gimmicks? And are they even "Jewish" events if they're totally divorced from religion and tradition? The hosts of Not in Heaven share their thoughts and disagreements.

Plus, the hosts recap the tumultuous trauma felt by hundreds of Canadian teenagers on a recent March of the Living trip: they silently recreated the death march from Aushewitz to Birkenau in a walk led by former hostages and survivors of Oct. 7; they felt the heat from forest fires that decimated swaths of the hills surrounding Jerusalem; and on their way out, in Ben Gurion airport, they witnessed a Houthi missile explode on a runway right outside the building. Have the emotional intensity of these trips gone too far? Are we traumatizing future generations in the hopes of having an impact? Our rabbinic hosts weigh in.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no How do we memorialize events when we're still living through them? https://pinecast.com/guid/cd08c067-ea49-46e3-b528-058dfaf40a71 Thu, 01 May 2025 01:17:04 -0000 00:48:10 Most Jewish holidays date back thousands of years. We commemorate the time when an ancient Persian with a triangle hat tried to kill the Jews, when the Maccabees rededicated the temple in Jerusalem, when we escaped slavery in Egypt and the seas parted ways. But in the past century, Jews have added three new holidays, all of which fall in the span of a week.

We're now at the tail end of the trilogy of "memory days": Yom HaShoah, Yom ha-Zikaron and Yom ha-Atzmaut. And, perhaps because they're recent additions, the way in which we mark them is susceptible to shifting, particularly after Oct. 7. Just this week, former hostages and survivors of Oct. 7 marched in the March of the Living in Poland. The USC Shoah Foundation is expanding its mission beyond the Shoah, collecting testimonies of antisemitism in the modern world.

It begs the question: How do you memorialize events when you're still living through them?

That's the topic for this week's episode of Not in Heaven, a podcast about the future of communal Judaism. Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat and Matthew Leibl join to discuss these traditions, memory engineering, and how the stories we tell about the past shape our present—and our future.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Marc Weisblott (editorial director), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Should rabbis politicize the pulpit? https://pinecast.com/guid/907d23b2-1d28-41cb-b962-c46c999b97de Fri, 25 Apr 2025 12:00:00 -0000 00:35:16 It's election season in Canada, with a record-breaking 7.3 million voters having already cast their ballots ahead of April 28. And between Passover seders and weekly Shabbat sermons, there's been no shortage of opportunities for Jewish communal leaders to weigh in on federal affairs during this high-stakes election cycle.

But should they?

An Israeli think tank recently used AI to analyze 4,400 sermons from 2021 to 2024. Across denominations, about half of all sermons focused on politics—with a clear jump to roughly two-thirds post-Oct. 7, including 80 percent of modern Orthodox sermons.

Rabbis are divided. Some see it as their duty to guide their community and stand up for values they believe to be in the best interest of the Jewish people; others prefer to keep divisive topics out of synagogues, focusing instead on what binds us together.

It's a ripe topic for our first-ever episode of Not in Heaven, The CJN's new podcast about the future of communal Judaism, taking over our previous weekly debate program, Bonjour Chai. Avi Finegold returns with a new panel of rabbinic voices: Yedida Eisenstat is a scholar, writer and associate editor at the Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization in Washington, D.C.; and Matthew Leibl is a freelance rabbi in Winnipeg with a background in sports radio.

"How should your Jewish values affect your vote?": Read the new On One Foot column by Avi Finegold in the Spring 2025 premiere issue of Scribe Quarterly

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Marc Weisblott (editorial director), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 The Fourth Annual Great Canadian Seder https://pinecast.com/guid/30f80810-7c18-4bf3-8529-6fe185632238 Fri, 11 Apr 2025 13:33:51 -0000 00:59:40 It's that time of year again, when all of us at Bonjour Chai reach out to noteworthy, interesting, prominent Canadian Jews to share their thoughts, stories and memories of Passover. This is the fourth annual Great Canadian Seder, featuring political musings on national borders, Donald Trump and Israeli hostages; nostalgia for a bygone Canada; and one very unique love letter to Moses.

Plus, to kick things off, we're sitting down with the new hosts of this soon-to-be-rebranded podcast, Rabbi Matthew Leibl and Yedida Eisenstat,. Stay tuned later this month for the launch of Not in Heaven, a podcast discussing the future of Jewish communal life, right in this same podcast feed.

In this year's seder, you'll hear from:

  • Jonathan Rothman, staff reporter at The CJN
  • Jacob Samuel, comedian
  • Diane Flacks, actor and writer
  • Mike Wilner, sports columnist and broadcaster
  • Maya Ben David, performance artist
  • Rabbi Susan Tendler, Beth Tikvah Congregation
  • Talia Schlanger, singer and radio host
  • Rabbi Sean Gorman, executive director of Mercaz
  • Gary Topp, countercultural promoter
  • Bryan Borzykowski, chair of The CJN board

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Conscious Uncoupling https://pinecast.com/guid/5c1c9bdc-fb44-47d6-a13e-06a4b1789a2f Fri, 04 Apr 2025 00:53:13 -0000 00:28:24 Quick editorial announcement: after four years of weekly shows this will be the final regular episode of Bonjour Chai. After Passover, this podcast feed will be relaunching as Not in Heaven, a series focusing on the future of Jewish communal life in Canada and beyond. Avi Finegold will remain as host, and he'll be joined by a panel of bright, funny, critical Jewish minds. Phoebe Maltz Bovy is excited to launch a new series with The CJN: The Jewish Angle. Hear the trailer and subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Over the past month, two works of documentary activism have been put into duelling positions in the box office. No Other Land, which documents the destruction of a Palestinian village in the West Bank, and which won the Oscar for best documentary, has been getting North American cinema owners in hot water: the mayor of Miami threatened to evict a theatre that screened it, while Jewish communities across Canada and the U.S. have held protests with similar outrage. The industry counterargument is Oct. 8, which details the emergence of campus antisemitism after the Hamas terror attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, and features interviews with Bari Weiss, Michael Rapaport, and Sheryl Sandberg, among other pro-Israel voices.

Paying to see either film—or supporting one while calling to ban the other—has made movie theatres the latest venue in the broader divide between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian communities. Avi Finegold saw No Other Land in theatres, and came away with many thoughts.

After that, Phoebe Maltz Bovy dives into the Jewish Yale professors ostensibly "fleeing" the U.S. for Canada in the wake of Trump's election... even though the reality may not be as drastic as it seems.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Hasid or Hipster? https://pinecast.com/guid/ce9e300c-4b31-41ef-8245-3387f5b54fc6 Thu, 20 Mar 2025 21:49:02 -0000 00:36:02 For years, Heeb was the Jewish hipster's answer to _Vice—_an early 2000s-era counter-cultural protest in print form, dripping with satirical comedy and anti-establishment sentiment. Sometimes, the editorial team would push the envelop too far—the magazine was famously criticized for publishing photos of Roseanne Barr dressed as Adolf Hitler, holding a tray of burnt cookies—but it encompassed a cultural moment for North American Jews that now feels somehow nostalgic. The last print edition came out in 2010, and the website has been dormant for years.

Until now. Mik Moore, a creative director and digital media campaign strategist who often works with the Democratic Party, has decided to pick up where Heeb left off and revitalize the brand for a new generation. And as a collector of nearly every edition ever printed, Bonjour Chai host Avi Finegold couldn't be more excited. Moore joins the podcast to explain why he's bringing it back and address what's changed since those erstwhile days of two decades ago.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Is Trump the New Achashverosh? https://pinecast.com/guid/038418da-6f74-449e-ab72-e91612307d7b Fri, 14 Mar 2025 00:38:45 -0000 00:40:29 On March 13, nearly 100 protesters were arrested for storming Trump Tower in New York City. Their cause? Not government cuts, Medicaid, migrant rights or the cost of living. They were protesting in the name of Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old pro-Palestinian student who became a lead organizer of the campus protests at Columbia University last spring. Even though Khalil is a legal permanent resident who holds a green card and is married to an American citizen, he was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement last weekend, and is currently under threat of being deported for being a threat to U.S. foreign policy.

The move has sparked outrage, with many people on both sides of the Israel-Palestine debate arguing that it's a blatant attempt to silence dissenting voices, undermine free speech and threaten legal immigration routes. On today's episode of Bonjour Chai, the hosts look at the unfolding case and how best to protect the right to protest in both the U.S. and Canada.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Michae Fraiman (producer), Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Twin Peaks https://pinecast.com/guid/a7f2954d-51f8-449a-ae63-fd6570230fd9 Fri, 07 Mar 2025 03:34:49 -0000 00:39:51 Two antisemitism summits occurred this week: one hosted by the Anti-Defamation League in the United States, and the other by the federal government in Ottawa. And while, in both countries, there is an understanding that these sorts of summits and conferences rarely lead to change—is the alternative any better? As the world backslides into populist-style illiberalism, can we safely assume that "antisemitism is bad" is a shared belief?

To discuss these trends, and how to achieve real results, The CJN's podcast producer Zachary Judah Kauffman joins co-hosts Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy. They begin with one of the most eye-popping pieces of digital content to come out of the ADL's conference: self-described "Jewish women with big racks" out to combat antisemitism online.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Two Rights Make a Wrong https://pinecast.com/guid/7bdd1a84-2b16-481c-8927-7286d6ba392b Fri, 28 Feb 2025 01:29:09 -0000 00:39:56 For decades, it has been broadly accepted in the Jewish community that Meir Kahane—founder of the Jewish Defense League, accused terrorist in Israel and the United States, ultra-nationalist character—is an extremist outlier whose ideas are decidedly not mainstream. And yet, because ultra-nationalism is in vogue again, perhaps it was only a matter of time until Kahanism picked up steam on social media.

In this week's episode of Bonjour Chai, hosts Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy focus on influencer Lizzy Savetsky's controversial post in support of Meir Kahane—and how the lifestyle content creator, like others in her field, have pivoted towards hardline pro-Israel advocacy post-Oct. 7. How seriously should we take their endorsements? Or should we be more worried about the mainstreaming of fringe ideas?

Turning abroad, the hosts then speak with Till van Rahden, a professor of German and European studies at the Université de Montréal and the author of Jews and other Germans: Civil Society, Religious Diversity and Urban Politics in Breslau, 1860 to 1925, about similar pro-nationalist trends in Germany. He sheds light on the recent German elections and the rise of the Alternative for Deutschland party, including its evolution from a conservative group to a radical right-wing entity, raising concerns of neo-Nazi affiliations.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 You Can't Spell TDSB Without BDS https://pinecast.com/guid/bed861f1-5bf1-4189-ba43-0a7ff3646b2f Thu, 20 Feb 2025 21:17:20 -0000 00:45:36 Last week, the Toronto District School Board held two virtual meetings that lasted seven hours each. In those 14 hours, trustees were set to vote on whether to receive a report on antisemitism in the county's biggest public school system—a report that offered 32 recommendations for confronting and mitigating antisemitism in public schools.

Once again, this was to vote on whether to receive the report. Not to enact all 32 recommendations, but simply to accept that it was done.

Why did it take 14 hours to discuss?

The meetings—which The CJN's education reporter, Mitchell Consky, attended—were bombarded by mostly anti-Zionist delegates who argued that the report should not consider anti-Zionism as a contemporary form of antisemitism. On the other hand, the community saw pro-Zionist activists slam the report for trying to shoehorn antisemitism into a "diversity, equity and inclusion" framework that create a hierarchy of victimhood. Consky joins Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy on Bonjour Chai to explain what went on in those titanic meetings and the shifting politics at play.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Joe Fish (producer & editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Serenity Now https://pinecast.com/guid/b6404803-38f8-436e-9420-0914a6f875a8 Thu, 13 Feb 2025 22:41:26 -0000 00:43:51 Serenity Now Valentine's Day, for most people, is a day to celebrate love. For the more neurotic among us, we might be inclined to spend the day analytically dissecting our romantic lives and partnerships. There are conflicting truths about modern relationships: we have to accept that our partners are special, sacred and worth fighting for; and, at the same time, that modern marriage was never meant to be like this. Throughout history, our co-parents, best friends, cooks, nannies and confidants were different people; today, we expect everything from our partner.

It's no surprise that couples therapy has risen dramatically, and that the shifting role of men in society—more depressed, anxious and lonely—has played a role in this.

Daniel Oppenheimer knows this well. The writer and podcaster recently published a lengthy personal feature in the New York Times Magazine, "How I Learned That the Problem in My Marriage Was Me", in which he details undergoing couples therapy quasi-publicly with the acclaimed therapist Terry Real. He joins Bonjour Chai, our weekly current affairs show, to discuss the importance of taking responsibility for one's actions and the complexities of modern masculinity—especially through the lens of Jewish identity.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Joe Fish (producer & editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Gaza is the 52nd State https://pinecast.com/guid/f6ea3bd3-c0a5-4c12-8f39-04a13fb05168 Fri, 07 Feb 2025 04:05:27 -0000 00:36:26 U.S. President Trump's threats of tariffs and making Canada a 51st state has sparked a resurgent nationalism across Canada. In progressive neighbourhoods, Canadian flags have replaced Palestinian ones; in Conservative messaging, federal leader Pierre Poilievre has stopped claiming Canada is "broken" and started defending it from our southern neighbours.

One tangible fallout from the schism—and eventual trade war, should it actually happen—will be an even higher cost of living than what Canadian have grown accustomed to. This is specifically true of kosher food products, many of which are imported from the United States. With this backdrop, a growing number of Canadians who once admired Trump—including Canadian Jews, but also Ontario Premier Doug Ford—are now realizing their mistake.

On this week's episode of Bonjour Chai, Avi and Phoebe break down the ways in which Donald Trump is reshaping Canadian politics, from a Jewish perspective and beyond.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no Why Did the Nazi Cross the Road? https://pinecast.com/guid/6d41f024-7824-4b89-88b1-85c6209f8340 Fri, 31 Jan 2025 01:35:44 -0000 00:46:26 Last week, billionaire internet troll Elon Musk made headlines (including several at this publication) for making what appeared to be a Nazi salute at the inauguration of Donald Trump. When, in the following days, he was accused of being a Nazi by many people and organizations, he responded with a series of Nazi puns in a tweet, a la, "Some people will Goebbels anything down!"

The post was noteworthy because it was unclear where Musk stood on the topic of Nazism, surprising as that is to say. Once, in the not-so-distant past, people could reasonably assume that anyone making jokes about Nazis were making fun of Nazis—not Nazis themselves. But with the rise of online troll culture and a widespread disregard for historic events-turned-memes, it's no longer obvious that the person making the Nazi salute is anti-Nazi.

On this week's Bonjour Chai, hosts Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy are joined by The CJN's director of podcasts, Michael Fraiman, who once wrote a column on Jewish comedy for The CJN, and has many thoughts about the evolution of online, right-wing, male-dominated troll humour.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Raise Your Hand if You Like Trump https://pinecast.com/guid/e417751f-21fd-4a04-a743-f60c476784da Fri, 24 Jan 2025 14:36:08 -0000 00:50:49 Donald Trump has wasted no time in his first days as president of the United States in signing executive orders to enforce mass deportations, gender laws and American expansionism. And within this new Republican omnicause, support for Israel has become a mainstay.

In the inauguration, Rabbi Ari Berman delivered a presidential blessing that took a swipe at college campuses and advocated for releasing the remaining Israeli hostages. In Trump's first week, he reversed sanctions on Israeli settlers in the West Bank and is getting credit for the ceasefire deal that was struck before he took office.

But then he also pardoned the Jan. 6 rioters—including blatant antisemites—and there's the whole Elon Musk maybe-Nazi-salute thing. To break down the first week of Trump's second presidency, we're joined by Gil Troy, an American presidential historian, former CJN columnist and author of the new book, To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream. After Trump talk, they turn to the future of political movements in Israel and the shifting identity of the left in a post-ceasefire world.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Deal or No Deal https://pinecast.com/guid/623ee520-aa00-4374-a2e4-4e1fbb70194d Thu, 16 Jan 2025 20:30:38 -0000 00:25:19 The world is sitting in suspense in anticipation of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, which would end the 15-month war that has devastated Gaza and caused mass protests worldwide. Will it happen Sunday, as planned? Will it be delayed until Monday? Will the whole thing fall through? What are the ramifications for the key political leaders involved: Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump, Joe Biden...?

With all these questions swirling around, we turned to an expert on the ground. Lahav Harkov is an American-born Israeli journalist, currently writing as the senior political correspondent for Jewish Insider. She speaks with Phoebe Maltz Bovy from the midst of one of the most chaotic weeks in recent memory in this special edition of Bonjour Chai.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 You Had Me at Goodbye https://pinecast.com/guid/0d7cf8c4-798e-4aa8-b85a-2e4c8287164a Fri, 10 Jan 2025 03:49:55 -0000 00:56:25 With Justin Trudeau's announced resignation as prime minister and Liberal leader this week, media pundits wasted no time in penning their reflections, looking back at nine years of how Trudeau changed the Canadian political landscape. One such pundit is Jonathan Kay, an editor at the online magazine Quillette, whose article, "Shame on Us for Ever Believing Him", describes the evolution of Trudeau's brand from optimistic patriot to "Canada’s Chief DEI Officer," embracing American-style culture wars and identity politics.

And he'd know: Kay openly ghostwrote part of Trudeau's memoir Common Ground, spending ample time with the future prime minister in the run-up to the 2015 election. Kay now returns to Bonjour Chai to describe the Trudeau he knew and how the political landscape has shifted among the left in recent years—especially among Canadian Jewish voters.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Freeland of Expression https://pinecast.com/guid/36b246b7-4543-4036-b129-de1e78148f02 Fri, 20 Dec 2024 04:17:29 -0000 00:43:04 This week's abrupt resignation of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland from cabinet has rocked the federal government. It happened the same day Sean Fraser, the minister of housing, infrastructure and communities, stepped down; both he and Freeland join a long and growing list of cabinet members and Liberal backbenchers either resigning their cabinet positions, deciding not to run again in the next election, or outright calling for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to step down.

They're not alone: all signs point to the federal Conservatives crushing the Liberals in next year's election. Multiple recent byelections, including the heavily Jewish Toronto-St. Paul's in midtown Toronto, have swung from red to blue in recent years. And it's against that backdrop that Hal Niedzviecki, the author and founder of the recently-in-the-news, now-defunct Broken Pencil magazine, posted on social media, "For the first time in my life I'll be voting Conservative."

One week after discussing the Israel-induced implosion at Broken Pencil on this very podcast, we invite Niedzviecki to discuss the changing political climate, how the progressive left is losing support, and his side of what happened at the indie publication he founded in 1995.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 The Z Word https://pinecast.com/guid/21b96db3-f63a-4fb5-b338-51a223985410 Fri, 13 Dec 2024 01:29:26 -0000 01:03:05 This week, the New Israel Fund of Canada, JSpace Canada and Canadian Friends of Peace Now released a survey of 588 Jewish Canadians that aimed to figure out the community's relationship to Israel. In short: it's complicated.

The survey, managed by Leger, found that 94 percent of respondents agreed Israel "has the right to exist as a Jewish state"—yet only 51 percent self-identified as "Zionist". This startling contradiction could reveal how tarnished the brand of Zionism has become, regardless of Jewish Canadians' opinions on Israel itself, and dispels the myth of the Jewish community being monolithic about its opinions towards the Holy Land, its voting patterns and its values. Can Zionism be saved? Or should we all just ditch labels and talk about the issues?

To learn more about the key takeaways, we invited Ben Murane and Maytal Kowalski, the executive directors of the New Israel Fund of Canada and JSpace Canada, respectively, to come on Bonjour Chai and explain their motivations for commissioning the survey and how we can digest the data. Listen to that interview above.

After that, Avi and Phoebe dig into the anthology book On Being Jewish Now, which Phoebe had previously not read—then was called out for—and has since read every page of. Avi read it, too, and they dig into the politics of not paying Jewish writers for their work while purporting to support Jewish artists.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Pushy Pencils https://pinecast.com/guid/3d542122-0fd9-43ad-b0a2-60e703c11b76 Thu, 05 Dec 2024 23:49:09 -0000 00:28:59 The war between Israel and Hamas has claimed yet another casualty in the Canadian arts world: Broken Pencil, an independent magazine that has covered zine culture since 1995, has been shut down. Founder and publisher Hal Niedzviecki wrote on their website that "the values of the zine and small press community have shifted," adding that "the relentless pursuit of ideological purity and identity politics has overshadowed the core mission of Broken Pencil." He cited calls for his resignation, a petition for the publication to join the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, and pushes to cover what's happening in Gaza as reasons for his eventual decision.

This leads to a few obvious questions. Does a Canadian publication that covers the zine world have a responsibility to focus on Gaza? Can people not hold complex views on creators and the things they create—or must everything we enjoy be ideologically syncronized?

Avi and Phoebe discuss on the latest episode of Bonjour Chai. And before that, they dig into the role of activism in literature, pressures faced by Jewish fiction writers and the efficacy of antisemitism summits. Do they do anything—and do we really need another one?

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no Stuffed to the Gillers https://pinecast.com/guid/e2d6e4d4-7228-411c-b665-12ec4d8bcfb5 Fri, 29 Nov 2024 10:00:00 -0000 00:30:58 Shortly after Anne Michaels won the Giller Prize, Canada's foremost literary fiction award, on Nov. 18, she posted a lengthy letter on social media. "I write in solidarity with the moral purpose of every writer bearing witness," she wrote. "I write because the dead can read. Every reader throughout the decades who has written and spoken to me, whose gaze has met mine on the page, has given me courage. And with every word I've spoken tonight, I want to give that same courage."

To which one peorson on Twitter replied: "My gawd, that's a pretentious way of saying nothing."

The implicit accusation is that Anne Michaels should have boycotted the Gillers, which awarded her a $100,000 prize, courtesy of the gala's main sponsor, Scotiabank. Scotiabank has come under heavy fire by the pro-Palestinian movement for its investments in Israel—as have the Gillers, by association—and now, too, has Anne Michaels.

After recently discussing the messy politics of the Giller controversy, we wanted to zoom out and take a broader look at the politicization of the Canadian arts landscape. How did our art and artistic institutions become so deeply political? When did we start demanding artists weigh in on geopolitics? And why don't we have more right-wing art to balance this out? Culture critic Lydia Perović, who writes the newsletter Long Play, joins Bonjour Chai to discuss.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Challah Back https://pinecast.com/guid/8eb7afc6-e4c9-41ed-8ad9-898916b3ce20 Fri, 22 Nov 2024 14:35:42 -0000 00:41:59 Recently, a Canadian women's magazine, Chatelaine, removed an article from the digital version of its website for including a photo of the author sporting a red triangle—which is only a subtle gesture if you didn't know that the red triangle is a symbol of Hamas. The author, a pro-Palestinian chef and activist in Nova Scotia, describes baking challah to connect with her Jewish heritage. But the ensuing political fallout across social media (and some traditional media, including this one) caused more headaches than the editorial staff at Chatelaine were likely anticipating.

The debacle exemplifies an ongoing shift in the culture-wars landscape: women shifting to progressive spaces, men shifting to conservative ones. (See: the re-election of Donald Trump.) But the cost of this broadstrokes realignment has ramifications on how political cultural spaces become, ranging from women's magazines to television, film and cuisine.

Here to discuss these issues is Shayna Weiss, associate director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University. She joins Phoebe Maltz Bovy and Avi Finegold to discuss representation of women in Israeli culture and society, the evolution of cuisine as a cultural signifier, and the role of media in shaping perceptions of identity.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Don't Heart Huckabees https://pinecast.com/guid/b6713273-0161-4f9e-96b4-9722c02cb9ce Fri, 15 Nov 2024 03:14:39 -0000 00:24:29 This week, president-elect Donald Trump has confirmed several planned appointments for next year. Aside from numerous cabinet members was the incoming ambassador to Israel: Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister and former governor of Arkansas. While there's no rule that American ambassadors have to be Jewish, it's unusual for a president to nominate one so evangelical in their Christian beliefs. Trump has promised Huckabee will bring "peace to the Middle East."

But if you ask the hosts of Bonjour Chai, they're skeptical. Huckabee exemplifies the Christian Zionist viewpoint of being intensely pro-Israel—not for the sake of Jews, but for the sake of bringing about the return of Jesus and, in turn, the death of Jews and Muslims alike while believers in Jesus ascend to heaven. With that in mind, should Jews be celebrating or worrying about Huckabee's appointment?

And before that, Avi and Phoebe break down the recent violence in Amsterdam that erupted in the wake of a soccer match between visiting Maccabi Tel Aviv and AFC Ajax.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no Roncesvalles Minyan https://pinecast.com/guid/f6a1c6e6-9144-496e-8649-fe32e462052b Thu, 07 Nov 2024 20:16:21 -0000 00:42:13 In the aftermath of Oct. 7, Canada's broadly left-wing literary community took aim at the Giller Prize, Canada's foremost award for fiction, for its title sponsorship coming from Scotiabank. The financial institution, they have argued, has millions of dollars invested in an Israeli arms dealer—leading to backlash from pro-Palestinian writers who began boycotting the Giller for taking $100,000 as prize money, withdrawing as entrants and judges.

The controversy has taken a lengthy, convoluted road since then, involving past winners speaking out critically of the Giller Prize; Elana Rabinovitch—the executive director of the prize and daughter of its founder—taking to traditional and social media to defend her organization's actions; and various half-measures by Scotiabank and Giller that have decreased (but not eliminated) their association with the Middle East conflict. Meanwhile, the competition is still going on, with a winner set to be announced on Nov. 18.

With Avi Finegold in Canada this week, he joins his Bonjour Chai co-host, Phoebe Maltz Bovy, in her living room to unpack this mess and discuss whether the criticism is legitimate or yet another example of antisemitism, framing big-money Jews as string-pulling villains.

They're joined by Michael Inzlicht, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto and writer of the newsletter Speak Now Regret Later, who also happens to live in Phoebe's neighbourhood of Roncesvalles. Their community has seen a surge of pro-Palestinian signs in storefront windows over the past year, prompting the question: What do you do when controversial geopolitics come to your local coffee shop?

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Election-Swinging Jews https://pinecast.com/guid/8fdc3584-fec0-4bdd-a945-e6af952817ba Fri, 01 Nov 2024 02:44:56 -0000 00:43:11 With the U.S. election less than a week away, the hosts of Bonjour Chai are turning their attention south with a comprehensive pre-election primer. Pollsters tend to lump Jewish voters together in a bloc, but there are different priorities for Jewish communities across the United States—and Jewish residents of certain swing states, namely Pennsylvania, are seeing the brightest spotlight this year.

Besides, there are issues on the ballot beyond antisemitism and relations with Israel. Affordability, the economy and religious issues such as abortion rights all figure into Jewish voting patterns. Does Vice-President Kamala Harris's Jewish husband tip the scales? Do former president Donald Trump's Jewish daughter and son-in-law? How did Oct. 7 change things? Or does none of that matter in a presidential election that could be won more on vibes than facts?

To answer some of these questions, we're joined by William D. Adler, an associate professor at Northeastern Illinois University who specializes in American political development and the presidency.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 What Do We Mean by Zion? https://pinecast.com/guid/a6dfe06f-cc0a-4da6-821a-a10ade322819 Tue, 22 Oct 2024 18:16:08 -0000 00:34:52 During our extended break for the High Holidays, we're bringing Bonjour Chai subscribers something different.

Sukkot is described as the holiday of joy—a time when the Israelites would gather together as one people in the temple to worship and to rejoice. The easy thing this year would be to say that we hope that we will be able to rejoice with everyone in sukkot, including all the returned hostages and all the soldiers home from the front. The truth is obviously more complicated, and one of things Avi keeps returning to is the complicated composition of world Jewry today.

That complicated relationship was what prompted him to write an extended piece in The CJN Magazine about the nature of Zionism and Jews' relationship to Israel and Zionism today, entitled, "What Do We Mean by Zion?" Today's podcast is an audio version of that article. Hopefully the joy this Sukkot is one of unity among Jews who once saw themselves far apart from those who they disagree with.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no bonus Dishy Vicar https://pinecast.com/guid/77526540-7a80-449b-8ff7-017520588c53 Fri, 11 Oct 2024 01:21:27 -0000 00:46:11 Whenever there's a new mainstream TV show with a Jewish bent, Jewish audiences share a familiar reaction: excitement over representation, followed by dread over how bad that representation will be. The latest example is Nobody Wants This, the new Netflix rom-com series about a sex-advice podcast host (Kristen Bell) who, despite not being Jewish, falls for a hot young rabbi (Adam Brody). Gasp!

One key theme in the show is the nuance and viability of interfaith relationships, which, for Bonjour Chai co-host Phoebe Maltz Bovy, brought to mind the writer Meghan Daum. A prolific writer, Daum once penned a 1996 GQ piece called "American Shiksa", which appears in her 2001 collection of essays, My Misspent Youth, and which describes the common Jewish-guy-meets-non-Jewish-girl love story from the female perspective. On this week's episode, Daum joins to recall the origins of that article and helps dissects Netflix's new take on the age-old trope.

And after that, the hosts turn south to examine how Donald Trump spent the one-year Oct. 7 anniversary... by visiting the grave of Lubavitcher Rebbe and allegedly offering to sign siddurs.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Watermelon Shtreimel https://pinecast.com/guid/007a6abe-0dcf-42d8-a955-a3d2b9c0aa9a Wed, 02 Oct 2024 09:00:00 -0000 00:49:27 The cover illustration of the fall issue of The Canadian Jewish News Magazine drew hundreds of responses from readers across the country.

The image depicted a fictional family gathered for Rosh Hashanah. This family included a matronly woman in an apron wearing a yellow ribbon in support of bringing the hostages home; a young girl with a dog tag necklace in support of the Israel Defense Forces; two bearded men in a heated discussion; someone looking at footage of an explosion posted to Instagram on their smartphone; one woman clutching her forehead in apparent disappointment or frustration; and, most controversially, a young woman sporting a keffiyeh and watermelon earrings—a symbol of Palestinian solidarity.

The magazine’s editor-in-chief, Hamutal Dotan, joined Rabbi Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy for a robust discussion of the logic behind the drawing. After that, they discuss Phoebe's and Avi's articles inside: one on what Judaism has to say about Zion as a historic homeland for Jewish people, and one on the new philosemitism that's arisen since Oct. 7.

Read a condensed transcript of this conversation here.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Live, Laugh, Liberate https://pinecast.com/guid/d2b3373d-a45c-4cfa-b27c-0f629ba93b9e Fri, 27 Sep 2024 15:21:09 -0000 00:53:59 Last week, Toronto's public school board came under fire after footage emerged on social media showing students partaking in a public protest for Indigenous water rights... that also happened to feature pro-Palestinian chants and signs. A provincial investigation ensued to learn how it happened and why teachers allegedly encouraged students to get involved in the demonstrations, but while those slow bureaucratic gears turn, parents—especially Jewish ones—are unhappy. Bonjour Chai hosts Avi and Phoebe ask: should students ever be taken to a public protest as part of a school curriculum, even if parents agree with the cause?

After that, they dig into the Indigo boycott/buycott fiasco, sparked after Indigo mounted a legal challenge against a grassroots movement claiming they kill kids. The movement began because Indigo CEO Heather Reisman operates a separate charity that supports Israelis without families (who are in all likelihood lone soldiers), but has spiralled into Jews and allies proudly supporting Canada's singular monolithic bookstore entity as a badge of honour. Remember when people used to proudly support their local indie bookstore?

Finally, Ta Nehisi Coates has re-entered the public discourse, years after breaking ground with his argument for reparations for Black Americans. His topic this time? Israel-Palestine, something that's being marketed as a "taboo" subject for discussion by a public intellectual. Except... it really isn't. Everyone's talking about it. So what's going on?

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Lucky Jews https://pinecast.com/guid/c2ca5f02-f1ae-43ce-9a7c-2368863cf3a6 Thu, 19 Sep 2024 17:50:15 -0000 00:52:11 On a recent trip to Poland, the writer Tanya Gold visited the Auschwitz concentration camp memorial site. In her lengthy travel essay on the visit, "My Auschwitz Vacation", published in the September 2024 edition of Harper's Magazine, she details the numerous absurdities of the Disneyfied extermination camp, from its notable lack of Jews to the oft-overlooked nearby castle, waterfall and theme park.

On today's episode of Bonjour Chai, Tanya Gold joins to discuss her deeply personal journey, intermingled with the shifting lens of Holocaust memory in Poland, rising antisemitism in Europe, and the trap of focusing Holocaust education on death instead of life.

After that, hosts Avi and Phoebe discuss exploding Hezbollah pagers (are the jokes and memes hypocritical?) and the swift implosion of the storied British publication, the Jewish Chronicle.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 The Bari Files https://pinecast.com/guid/4984f55b-3ee9-48d8-9527-c373f8e6254e Thu, 12 Sep 2024 18:01:15 -0000 00:46:41 The Toronto International Film Festival is going on, and while it only has a handful of Jewish-themed or Israeli-produced films, those films have drawn some of the biggest spotlights. Chiefly among them has been The Bibi Files, a new work-in-progress documentary that received its world debut this week, and which shows never-before-seen leaked footage of people admitting to bribing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The prime minister himself amplified the film's popularity even more when he tried to block the Toronto screening in Israeli courts mere days before the event itself. (It remains unclear how, even if the Israeli court agreed with Netanyahu, they would have prevented an American film by an Australian director from screening in a Canadian festival.)

Yet while The Bibi Files got the most press attention, it didn't face the largest crowd of protests—that honour may go to Bliss, an actual Israeli film that is apolitical in nature, which debuted on the night of Sept. 11. That happened to be the same night Bari Weiss delivered a keynote address at the campaign launch of the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto—an event which also received an ample crowd of angry protesters.

Podcast producer Michael Fraiman joins Avi and Phoebe on Bonjour Chai to talk about these issues and more, including the minor political controversy that erupted when an NDP candidate in Montreal distributed leaflets depicting his smiling face before a Palestinian flag.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Brooklyn Book Banning https://pinecast.com/guid/66fd697e-86b8-4bef-a066-e749cfb9210e Thu, 05 Sep 2024 18:57:41 -0000 00:41:15 Joshua Leifer made headline last month when he was slated to do a public talk at a Brooklyn bookstore about his debut book, Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life, and discovered, an hour before the event was scheduled to start, that the event had been unilaterally cancelled by an employee who didn't want to host a Zionist onstage. (The Zionist in question wasn't even Leifer—it was the Reform rabbi who would be interviewing Leifer, who, like Leifer, is quite progressive.) Leifer swiftly took to social media, and the story caught fire as the latest example of "cancel culture" silencing Jews in the real world.

To explain the real story of what happened and the fallout he's faced, Leifer joins Bonjour Chai to discuss the messy middle he's found himself in—how, despite writing a book that is critical of Israel, he's suddenly found himself supported by pro-Israel organizations and the Jewish community writ large.

And after that, he sticks around to help explain the recent wave of mass protests in Israel that erupted after six hostages were found murdered in Hamas tunnels. While North American spectators on both pro- and anti-Israel sides would like to map their viewpoints onto Middle Eastern politics, the realities are quite different—and more nuanced.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 Classically Avi https://pinecast.com/guid/effc84cb-a747-4563-89c1-8dc1816e9262 Fri, 30 Aug 2024 00:42:51 -0000 00:48:57 It's time to head back to school—but this year, for some Jewish students in North America, school is going to look a little different. Some will be receiving what's known as a "classical" education: a curriculum based on a return to fundamentals, a focus on time-tested great books and a rejection of mandates that emphasize diversity and inclusion.

There are plenty of classical schools popping up, including Jewish ones. The Emet Classical Academy in Manhattan is welcoming its first-ever cohort of students this fall, with its founders kickstarting their work earlier than expected due to parents and students feeling unsafe in the public system. Rabbi Mark Gottlieb, the chief education officer of the Tikvah Fund, which operates the school, joins to explain why his team felt compelled to create a new space for Jewish students of all backgrounds.

And before that, Rabbi Eric Grossman, head of school at the Akiva School in Montreal, sits down with Avi and Phoebe to talk more broadly about this trend toward classical education in Jewish circles and beyond. To wit: if most of Jewish education is based on the Torah and Mishnah, how much more classical can you get?

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 The Wild, The Innocent and the Poilievre Shuffle https://pinecast.com/guid/caa43138-715c-4d4d-af5a-520012deec57 Fri, 23 Aug 2024 11:00:00 -0000 00:47:28 Canadian Jews may have noticed a trend in their communities this summer: Conservative politicians making the rounds. Leader Pierre Poilievre, Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman and even former prime minister Stephen Harper have all made numerous appearances at synagogues, pro-Israel rallies and fundraising galas. It's nothing new to see the country's political right wing court Jewish voters—such a swing was cemented under Harper's government—but it feels especially pronounced this summer, coming up on the one-year anniversary of Oct. 7 and an approaching election.

But Jewish institutions have historically been apolitical, and the broad rightward shift almost certainly makes members of the community feel excluded. What are the ramifications of this tight-knit union? Here to dissect the issue is The CJN's political columnist Josh Lieblein. He joins Bonjour Chai co-hosts Avi and Phoebe, who return from their summer vacations—Phoebe's having been blissfully apolitical in Europe, while Avi's culminated in a drive back to Chicago during the Democratic National Convention.

And after that, Phoebe explains the bigger picture behind the abrupt cancellation of a book event in Brooklyn—not even because the author was Zionist, but because the interviewer was.

Credits

  • Hosts: Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy (@BovyMaltz)
  • Production team: Michael Fraiman (producer), Zachary Kauffman (editor)
  • Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

]]> no 1 The CJN Daily: Canada’s kosher meat packers won in federal court. How will this affect the Jewish community? https://pinecast.com/guid/95a130fa-c48a-4549-a053-96b3a9876b75 Thu, 08 Aug 2024 01:15:02 -0000 00:25:40 Avi and Phoebe are taking a little summer vacation and will return soon. In the meantime, we're presenting an episode of The CJN Daily that Avi was on earlier this summer about kosher slaughter in Canada.

Last week, the Federal Court of Canada sided with Jewish communities in Montreal and Toronto in their dispute with the federal government over new biological guidelines covering how cows are slaughtered. On July 24, the judge granted kosher meat producers a temporary injunction, effectively pausing the enforcement of new guidelines that are aimed at ensuring animals don’t feel undue pain when they’re killed.

Jewish groups such as Montreal Kosher and the Kashruth Council of Canada argued in court that the guidelines not only were bad science, but were not in keeping with ritual practice, and were too costly. Which is why the judge felt he needed to act quickly so as to preserve the religious freedoms enjoyed by Canadian Jews who’ve been legally permitted to use handheld ritual slaughter methods for generations. The judge’s ruling took religion and culture into consideration, including how trained shochetim carry out a vital religious service for the Canadian Jewish community, and also the importance of eating meat on Jewish holidays.

But do Jews really need to eat meat? How many shochet jobs are actually at direct risk? And, perhaps most important to the majority of kosher-keeping Canadians, will the price for kosher meat go down? Rabbi Avi Finegold, host of The CJN’s weekly current affairs podcast Bonjour Chai, joins The CJN Daily to share his insight, and we’ll also hear from Shimon Koffler Fogel, the CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, who were directly involved in the case.

What we talked about

  • Why the Federal Court granted a temporary injunction July 24 allowing _shechita _to resume without subsequent bolt-stunning, in The CJN
  • Hear why MK Kosher and COR went to Federal Court over the CFIA’s new shechita _guidelines, on The CJN Daily_
  • Read more about the science behind kosher animal slaughter and Canada’s new slaughtering guidelines for cattle, 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 theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. 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.

]]> no bonus Chickens for KFC https://pinecast.com/guid/1ad97a6b-e4d5-46f6-aae6-4700f622df6a Fri, 26 Jul 2024 00:35:58 -0000 00:47:28 This week, the hosts of Bonjour Chai are digging into the explosive world of U.S. politics. It began with President Joe Biden announcing on July 21 that he would, after significant pressure and plummeting poll numbers, drop his bid for re-election as the Democratic nominee for president. The next day, Vice-President Kamala Harris all but secured her spot as his replacement, raising historic amounts of money for her campaign within 24 hours. Immediately, questions were raised about her stance on Israel and Palestine, as well as her possible VP pick, Josh Shapiro.

Then, on July 24, Israel's leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, happened to be in Washington, D.C., for a visit. He met with Biden for 90 minutes and Harris for 40, all while angry crowds protested outside, raising effigies and Israeli flags slathered in painted blood. Netanyahu himself gave a mostly predictable speech to Congress, ensuring politicians how closely aligned Israeli and American interests are.

To help dissect the chaos, including ramifications for both American and Canadian Jews, Avi and Phoebe are joined for a second time by Gabby Deutch, senior national correspondent at Jewish Insider. Read her coverage here and follow her on Twitter.

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.

]]> no 1 Other Positions Are Possible https://pinecast.com/guid/a33cd090-41e2-439b-b2ae-209d85819dd6 Fri, 19 Jul 2024 01:30:40 -0000 00:47:03 Last week, two very different sex-related 1980s icons passed away: Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the 4'7" German-born Holocaust survivor, who was 96; and Richard Simmons, whose mother was Jewish, and who rose to fame as a sweat-focused TV fitness guru whose personal sexuality was famously ambiguous .

So, clearly, the hosts of Bonjour Chai had sex on the brain. What sexual-education lessons remain for Jews in different religious communities? What are the stigmas and secrets still hindering progress? What legacy does Dr. Ruth leave the world? To discuss these these themes and more, we're joined by Dr. Laurie Betito, a Montreal-based clinical psychologist with a specialty in sex therapy, who has also spent decades broadcasting on the radio and currently hosts the podcast Passion with Dr. Laurie Betito.

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.

]]> no Vive l'Omnicause https://pinecast.com/guid/9ce97b71-372d-49f3-ad58-d6b47f593949 Fri, 12 Jul 2024 01:09:18 -0000 00:32:48 This month, two major elections have changed the European political landscape. In both France and the United Kingdom, progressive parties have overcome significant right-wing counterparts, overthrowing 14 years of British Conservative power and staving off Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party in a surprising result. Jews, as they often are, find themselves caught in the middle. Should they be celebrating the victory of left-wing parties more likely to harbour anti-Israel members, or would a more pro-Israel right-wing result have been better—despite, in France's case, the National Rally having roots in Holocaust denial and hate speech?

Some have argued that Jews should simply pack up and move to Israel. (Canadian-born Israeli politician Sharren Haskel made this exact point on The CJN Daily earlier this week.) But Avi and Phoebe disagree: people can, and should, live wherever they like, and Israel is not exactly safer. The hosts of Bonjour Chai break down the Canadian takeaways and Jewish lessons from a tumultuous week in overseas elections.

Then, they take a lashon hara lens to the shocking revelations about the late Alice Munro's neutral stance toward her husband's abuse of her own daughter, and cap things off with a breakdown of all the hate mail that Phoebe "Matzo Ball" Maltz Bovy got for writing a column in the Globe and Mail questioning the statistics of modern-day bisexuals.

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.

]]> no Settling for Biden https://pinecast.com/guid/0e4236b7-0a62-48d9-b4ef-749877b516e3 Fri, 05 Jul 2024 01:26:49 -0000 00:56:25 It was true before Oct. 7, but especially afterwards: an increasing number of progressive-minded people are viewing Jews as settlers in Israel. "Go back to Europe," some especially antisemitic ones chant at rallies. But it begs the question: if Jews are settlers in Israel, where aren't we settlers?

Ben Wexler, a writer and academic who recently graduated from McGill University, has been thinking about this question a lot. He recently published an essay in the French Jewish magazine K. Les Juifs, l'Europe, le XXIe siècle, titled "The Eternal Settler". In it, Wexler discusses the troubling rise in antisemitic violence, often carried out under the guise of decolonization and conflated with criticism of the Israeli government.

To explore the topic more, Wexler joins to discuss colonization, settler identity and the perception of Jews as settlers. And after that, he joins hosts Avi and Phoebe in talking global political trends: the rightward shift of France, the United States and Canada may be good for Israel... but is it good for the Jews?

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.

]]> no 1 Jews Against the Omnicause https://pinecast.com/guid/be837937-d250-4294-b2fa-9ccc794ce02e Fri, 28 Jun 2024 00:58:02 -0000 00:53:13 What does Palestine have in common with climate change, gender equality and indigenous rights? The Omnicause, that's what. In the modern era of left-wing protests, these issues become conflated—think queer Palestinians, viewed as indigenous to their homeland, fighting climate change with organic farming practices. Or something.

Perhaps something not so cartoonish: indeed, there are clear links between, say, First Nations rights here in Canada and the fight for climate justice, given the First Nations' connection to the land and how their reserves are often disproportionately affected by climate change. Racial justice and police reform go hand-in-hand. But the ties that bind such progressive causes start to weaken when you add Middle Eastern politics to the mix. Would any member of "Queers Against Apartheid" actually visit Gaza after coming out? Is Hamas interested in climate justice?

It's a conflation that struck writer Hadley Freeman, who returns to Bonjour Chai to chat about all things Omnicause and the eternal plight of progressive Jews. Read her piece, "Welcome to The Omnicause, the fatberg of activism", in the Jewish Chronicle.

And after that, Avi and Phoebe discuss Israel's new court ruling insisting Haredi men serve in the army, and the centre-right shift in North American politics following electoral upsets in Toronto and New York.

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.

]]> no 1 Kiss and Tell https://pinecast.com/guid/5f79841f-997f-4d01-bde5-5434deb26140 Fri, 21 Jun 2024 00:42:17 -0000 00:50:55 The trope of Hasidic women leaving their communities—particularly during a journey of queer self-discovery—is not exactly unique. And yet, memoirs and documentaries continue to come out, the latest being Kissing Girls on Shabbat by Sara Glass, who is now a therapist. After Phoebe Maltz Bovy reviewed the book for The CJN, she had more questions—so we invited Glass on to ask them directly. The three discuss the nature of choice in a world dictated by authority figures, queer spaces in Judaism and how the community can change in the future.

After that, Phoebe and Avi discuss whether the trend of attractive "rat-like" men is antisemitic, as well as a problematic essay about motherhood recently published in Tablet, "How Babies Are Made".

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.

]]> no 1 Bonus: "Labour of Love", from recollections with the Jewish Public Library https://pinecast.com/guid/141637d2-517e-47cc-b3c0-93fb3f389a22 Fri, 14 Jun 2024 15:34:50 -0000 00:56:51 We're taking the week off for Shavuot. Instead, we're airing a new episode of a podcast miniseries from our friends at the Jewish Public Library, called recollections. Avi and Phoebe will be back next week.

May 2024 marks the 110th anniversary of the Jewish Public Library. Our opening season is a celebration of our Jewish Leftist roots in Montreal. In this podcast, we weave together interviews with scholars, activists, teachers, and fellow archivists that discuss topics such as Jewish immigration to Canada, Jewish languages and culture, labour and feminist movements in the 20th century, and the diversity of political ideologies that existed within the 'left'.

Labour organizing, unions, and activism: Episode 3, "Labour of Love", highlights the impact language, culture, and Jewish identity had on Montreal's progressive labour history with a special focus on famed organizer Lea Roback.

Thank you to our featured guests, in order of appearance:  Pierre Anctil, Ester Reiter, Sam Bick, Moishe Dolman,  Aaron Krishtalka, Melanie Leavitt, Eiran Harris, Lea Roback, Eddie Paul, and Shannon Hodge.

recollections with the JPL is a production of the Jewish Public Library Archives and Special Collections. Visit JPL Curates to see licensing info, guest bios, related materials from the JPL Archives and Special Collections, and our further reading guide featuring works from JPL's catalogue.

Production and editing by Ezell Carter and Ellen Belshaw Research support by Leah Graham, Sam Pappas, Maya Pasternak, and Eddie Paul Mastering by Josh Boguski Theme song and music by Danijel Zambo Sound effects provided by Pixabay and the JPL Archives Thank you to our sponsors, the Azrieli Foundation and Federation CJA

]]> no bonus Bot Rabbis for Jesus https://pinecast.com/guid/564f9822-7846-4a1a-a0a5-c0a84140aba5 Fri, 07 Jun 2024 02:50:59 -0000 00:46:25 Israel had some strange bedfellows in the news this week. The New York Times unveiled that country's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs created social media bots that posted AI-generated comments to influence American lawmakers and the general public; meanwhile, a rally against antisemitism in Manhattan drew headlines when it was revealed that the organization behind the rally was a Messianic Jewish group that aims to convert Jews to believe in Jesus.

While the stories are different, the underlying theme is the same: Israel is increasingly isolated around the world, with ever-sinking public opinion and international allies growing distant. When good PR is hard to come by, you end up with AI-created bots and Jews for Jesus as suddenly noteworthy friends.

Avi and Phoebe discuss these topics on this week's episode of Bonjour Chai, with special guest Rabbi Michael Skobac of Jews for Judaism, an organization created in direct response to Jews for Jesus.

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.

]]> no 1 Hipster Tznius https://pinecast.com/guid/ebad1cbf-ed00-426f-b0cb-b66f019e9927 Fri, 31 May 2024 01:21:39 -0000 00:54:01 When Israel's Judaica store, a prominent retailer in the Toronto area, announced it was closing after 40 years, it felt like another moment in an unfortunately increasing trend: the decline of Jewish "third spaces", places beyond the home and office where Jews feel comfortable and welcome. Synagogues are closing and merging; community centres are broadening to welcome non-Jewish community members; now retailers are feeling pressure from Amazon and Etsy luring away their customers. Meanwhile, the type of engaged Jew who might visit these third spaces is on the decline, while younger generations are ever-more socially isolated, spending more time online.

What are we losing when these spaces disappear? And what will take their place? To navigate the topic, we invited on Elise Kayfetz, the founder of Vintage Schmatta, a pop-up vintage fashion store in Toronto's Kensington Market, which taps into her Jewish heritage—and transformed her living room into an unexpected Jewish third space in the city.

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.

]]> no I've Got Schisms https://pinecast.com/guid/aa10f64c-4f4a-4d52-b9bf-d7d782d560d9 Fri, 24 May 2024 01:12:44 -0000 00:41:55 Last September, Eitan Hersh, a political science professor at Tufts University in Boston, tried something that hasn't been done before: he created a class teaching conservative ideas to students of his private liberal college. He felt there was a gap in the school's poli-sci curriculum, sensing that graduates were leaving without understanding the central ideas of the political right. He included articles from the National Review, videos of Tucker Carlson and essays by conservative Black intellectuals such as Glenn Loury and Thomas Sowell.

The results, summarized in a recent longform feature in Boston Magazine, hint at the effectiveness of teaching politically diverse opinions on campus: most students (of this admittedly self-selecting group who are even willing to engage with the curriculum in the first place) did seem to positively grapple with the ideas, understand them better and have reasonable debates in an open academic forum.

As pro-Palestinian tent protests continue dividing post-secondary institutions across North America, and political polarization feels more prevalent than ever before, we're joined by Hersh on Bonjour Chai to discuss what he learned by running this "conservative thought experiment" over an entire semester.

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.

]]> no 1 Gatekeepers of Heaven https://pinecast.com/guid/6600956f-33fa-4ac4-9c1a-da3d6c3bcdb1 Fri, 17 May 2024 00:59:12 -0000 00:44:49 You may not know who Joe Roberts is. But some people online, who may or may not have ever met the man face-to-face, claim to know him extremely well—to the point that they are posting photos of his grandmothers' graves, scouring the web for his tweets and published articles, and making bold statements about whether he's really who he says he is. Whether, for example, he's even Jewish.

The former the chair of the JSpace Canada board, Roberts has found himself at the centre of this Extremely Online controversy largely because he (a self-described political left-winger) began more vocally supporting Israel post-Oct. 7, sparking many left-leaning Twitter users to turn on him.

Rather than dive into the veracity of Joe Roberts's Judaism, on today's episode of Bonjour Chai, we're looking at the gatekeepers themselves: who feels they have the right to determine someone else's Jewish identity and why. Plus, Phoebe discusses a new viral Zionist blacklist spreadsheet, and Avi struggles to figure out whether tacky Jewish graphic tees are worthy of a nachas or broigus.

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.

]]> no The Tedious B https://pinecast.com/guid/b55a6a50-3585-4bee-b9b9-5dfa30ff4631 Fri, 10 May 2024 14:43:59 -0000 00:55:15 College campuses have been heated spaces for Jewish students for a long time. The rapid spread of tent-in protests that began at Columbia University last month has only exacerbated the issue, giving an international platform to pro-Palestinian (and anti-Zionist) students and faculty members grounded in our post-secondary institutions.

Jewish and non-Jewish protesters, both faculty and students, have been outspoken on these campus quads. But one cohort has been relatively silent: professors of Jewish studies. While Zionism is not inherent to Judaism, most Jews do support Israel, and rather than advocating for Jews on campus, these professors—who are generally more left-leaning—are often either siding with the pro-Palestinian protesters or simply keeping quiet.

This is the thesis that sparked an in-depth piece published this week in Mosaic, a journal of Jewish ideas, called "Jewish Studies against the Jews". The author, Andrew Koss, joins Avi and Phoebe to explain his research and turn a critical lens on the state of Jewish academia in the United States, Canada and beyond.

And before that, the hosts have a few questions about Jewish Heritage Month. Why does it exist? Does it actually do anything? And how does teaching kids the hora celebrate "diversity and equity", as our public school boards suggest?

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.

]]> no 1 Notes on Encampment https://pinecast.com/guid/fc819202-03cd-4fe6-b789-04e8ed268aa6 Thu, 02 May 2024 20:51:38 -0000 00:56:53 As pro-Palestinian encampments pop up across Canadian campuses this week, protesting against university ties to Israel and threatening to keep their tents pitched until the war in Gaza ends, it helps to understand the broader context of how this all began. And if you ask the Columbia University students at ground zero of this movement how they feel about the media circus they've created, they'll tell you frankly: they didn't ask for it.

That's what many of them told Justin Ling, a Montreal-based freelance reporter who visited the New York university to see the original tent city firsthand. But that deflection belies an inescapable paradox. Maybe they didn't want all this media attention, but they've made themselves the main characters of this story, shifting the focus from a faraway foreign war to North America's culture wars. Now the movement has snowballed into something far greater.

Ling joins Bonjour Chai to explain what he saw, share his takeaways and debate with the hosts about the merits of student activism—and whether it should be allowed at all.

What we talked about

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.

]]> no The Third Annual Great Canadian Seder https://pinecast.com/guid/a20b43ee-0d94-4181-af65-d6a7176c9e0a Fri, 19 Apr 2024 15:43:49 -0000 01:02:54 For the third year in a row, Bonjour Chai is proud to present the Great Canadian Seder, a coming-together of notable and insightful Canadian Jews from across different demographics and denominations.

Why is this year different from all other years? Because seders across Canada will likely be marred, like any good family gathering, by some kind of political argument over Israel. How should you navigate these murky waters and keep the peace while leaning back in your chair over a few cups of wine? And as haggadah-writers co-opt the Passover story for myriad unrequested adaptations, does this change whether the stories we tell should be universalized for broader audiences?

To hear answers, stories, musings, anecdotes and teachings, we're joined by prominent seder guests from around the country:

  • Emil Sher, author and playwright
  • Dahlia Kurtz, radio host
  • Zachary Paikin, foreign policy researcher
  • Gila Munster, drag performer
  • Marsha Lederman, author and Globe and Mail columnist
  • Michael Weisdorf, CEO, The CJN
  • Jonathan L. Milevsky, author and educator; and Raphi Zaionz, founder of mygoals Inc.
  • Naomi Harris, photographer
  • Lissa Skitolsky, editor-in-chief, Cannabis Jew Magazine
  • Jamie Golombek, tax expert
  • The children and teachers at Gray Academy of Jewish Education

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy. The show is produced by Michael Fraiman and edited by Zachary Kauffman. 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.

]]> no 1 No Fans, Only Poems https://pinecast.com/guid/cbd39a7e-75db-4575-a65d-00f4d96b85ea Fri, 12 Apr 2024 00:32:35 -0000 This week, the editor of Guernica resigned in protest of her own staff and publisher. The respected literary journal had recently published of an essay by an Israeli writer and translator, Joanna Chen, called "From the Edges of a Broken World". In the piece, Chen conveys Israelis, like their Palestinian neighbours, as human and worthy of compassion. The resulting backlash from left-leaning writers was swift, and Guernica ended up retracting the piece and apologizing for running it, after more than a dozen volunteer staff members quit in protest.

Except Jina Moore, the editor-in-chief, did not want to apologize. She stood by the piece. So she stepped down, and it sparked deeper conversations about safe spaces for Jewish authors and artists—such as the one on this week's episode of Bonjour Chai.

Writer Erika Dreifus joins to discuss her own work in searching out publications still friendly to Jewish and Israeli Jewish writers and the broader ramifications of an ever-more-restrictive literary environment.

What we talked about

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.

]]> no 1 The Medium is Messy https://pinecast.com/guid/9a3f43f7-8a73-4935-b26c-c3ed010ea78f Thu, 04 Apr 2024 23:10:43 -0000 00:59:42 Do your young kids have a smartphone? Most do. And parents have been witnessing the repercussions firsthand for years. This week, the subject came to the forefront when Jonathan Haidt, a Jewish writer, penned a piece in The Atlantic warning of the "terrible costs" of raising children with phones. A new mental health crisis, higher suicide rates, ever-more screen time: much of the ailments of modern youth can be attributed to smartphone use. Jewish kids are no exception, as this week's guest, Rabbi Eric Grossman, knows well; he is the head of the Akiva School in Montreal and agrees with much of Haidt's thesis.

Before that, we're joined by Ronit Novak, art director for The CJN, to discuss the ethics of a gruesome photograph of the corpse of Shani Louk, who was murdered on Oct. 7, winning a prestigious photography award. As you'll hear, even Shani's family and friends are split on whether the now-infamous image is a good thing or not.

What we talked about

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.

]]> no 1 Culturally Antisemitic https://pinecast.com/guid/717c2b14-1242-4f1e-b9e2-25cd17227890 Fri, 29 Mar 2024 20:02:29 -0000 00:43:40 A slew of headlines came out this week, within Canada and beyond, warning of a rising tide of antisemitism within Canada. It's not just Fox News and the National Post—_when the Times of Israel is reporting on Canadian Jews worrying their "golden age" is over, and the _Globe and Mail warns of a "dangerous slide into antisemitism", you know things have gotten bad.

Nobody knows this better than Ellin Bessner, host of The CJN Daily, who has been reporting on day-to-day antisemitic acts, political shifts and everything else in the Jewish community since she started her breaking-news podcast in May 2021. To help understand the cultural shift, as well as Canadian government's recent actions and internal divisions vis-a-vis Israel, she joins for a macro view of everything that's happened in the last month (and longer).

What we talked about

  • Subscribe to The CJN Daily at thecjn.ca
  • Hear Ya'ara Saks explain her now-infamous photo with Mahmoud Abbas on The CJN Daily
  • Hear Anthony Housefather waver on whether he'll stay in the Liberal Party, on The CJN Daily

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.

]]> no 1 The Royal Steaks https://pinecast.com/guid/20a62819-b4e8-4a0c-aaff-bcc1b27a2513 Thu, 21 Mar 2024 20:02:17 -0000 01:01:41 Editor's Note: This episode was recorded one day before Kate Middleton revealed she had been diagnosed with cancer, and thus the episode makes no reference to her health issues. We wish her a speedy recovery.

Kate Middleton, an English princess, made international headlines this past week for allegedly disappearing for a few weeks from the outside world. In an apparent effort to assuage public concerns, the British Royal family released a photo of her and her children—but the photo was visibly edited in numerous places. The Royal public relations department admitted to this, leading to further conspiracy theories about where the princess really is.

None of this is particularly Jewish. But it did raise some interesting parallels with the story of a popular Jewish royal, Queen Esther, central to the story of Purim, who had to hide her Judaism. It also made Bonjour Chai co-host Avi Finegold flick on his rabbi brain to think about how sacred Jewish texts and theology convey truth and transparency: how there is a clear, organized order in talmudic conversations and debates, a provenance that is missing as computer-altered images and artificial intelligence become mainstream.

For a special Purim edition of Bonjour Chai, Avi and Phoebe Maltz Bovy find the Jewish angles to the story of the maybe-missing princess, and then discuss Canada's ongoing legal changes that threaten to profoundly affect kosher slaughter and supply in this country.

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.

]]> no 1 Can't Get No Satisfaction https://pinecast.com/guid/553169af-547f-436a-acf8-926d1ab095ba Fri, 15 Mar 2024 01:28:09 -0000 00:50:36 Malky Berkowitz wants a divorce. But the 29-year-old Orthodox woman, who lives in Kiryas Joel, north of New York City, can't get a _get—_a Jewish Orthodox divorce—because her husband won't allow it, even after four years of Berkowitz fighting for one.

Her case is just one of many taken up by Adina Sash, a feminist Orthodox activist in Brooklyn who posts online as @FlatbushGirl. But as Sash kept posting about Berkowitz, she found Berkowitz's story resonated more strongly with her audience than others. As time passed, and Berkowitz remained an agunah—_a "chained woman" whose husband denies her a _get—community support snowballed. "Free Malky" caught on: Sash organized rallies, commissioned an an airplane to fly a banner over New York and, most recently, organized a "sex strike", where women in support of the cause stopped going to the mikvah. (After menstruating, married Orthodox women must visit a mikvah to cleanse themselves before they can have sex with their husbands—so no bath means no sex.)

The story has garnered international headlines, drawing comparisons to the ancient Greek play Lysistrata and casting a spotlight on Sash, both positive and (when Orthodox men hear about it) extremely negative. Bonjour Chai's own Phoebe Maltz Bovy had many questions from a secular feminist perspective, so we invited Sash to join the show to explain the societal problems, Orthodox women's perceived agency and what life is like inside these insular communities.

What we talked about

  • Follow @FlatbushGirl on Instagram
  • How the Fast of Esther became linked to International Agunah Day, from The CJN archives
  • Read Phoebe's piece on the Guernica debacle in The CJN

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.

]]> no 1 The Students Doth Protest Too Much https://pinecast.com/guid/2f5a8c6d-bb5e-4e11-82dd-6a7a7fd36dbd Thu, 07 Mar 2024 21:56:52 -0000 00:51:12 In the last month, several high-profile features have come out, in publications such as Time and The Atlantic, giving mainstream, non-Jewish audiences a glimpse into what life has been like for North American Jews since Oct. 7. One major point of coverage: pro-Palestinian (or anti-Israel) protests.

The pictured painted by these articles and others, including here at The CJN, is one of constant fear, heightened tensions and feelings of isolation. Antisemitism is indeed on the rise, no question. But is daily life as bad for Jews as these articles make it seem? Or are social media doom-scrolling and binge-reading articles about antisemitism only exacerbating these feelings of dread?

Our guest host this week is Gabby Deutch, a senior national correspondent at Jewish Insider.

What we talked about

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.

]]> no Jacob & Rachel & Leah & Bilhah & Zilpah https://pinecast.com/guid/e25492a4-70a4-4479-a0d2-7260dc04870c Fri, 01 Mar 2024 02:50:54 -0000 00:40:29 What is polyamory? It's the modern, glamorous, feminist version of non-monogamy that's branded as distinct from the old, patriarchal polygamy—often a man having multiple wives. Polyamory essentially refers to open relationships, in which couples are free to have sex with anyone they like, but remain fundamentally committed to each other.

Co-host Phoebe Maltz Bovy recently read and reviewed a new memoir by Jewish author Molly Roden Winter, More: A Memoir of Open Marriage. And it got her thinking. What does Judaism say about all this? What does the Talmud say about threesomes? She quizzes resident rabbi Avi Finegold about what Jewish law says about marriage, commitment and the essence of love.

And before that, Avi debriefs Phoebe on his visit to the Illinois Holocaust Museum for their annual gala dinner, where he got to meet Debra Messing, Hillary Clinton and many others.

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.

]]> no 1 Potato Latke on a Bike https://pinecast.com/guid/c05dda24-a9c4-4dae-b21a-ff0a6f20cca9 Fri, 23 Feb 2024 03:18:10 -0000 00:46:07 The Jewish Public Library in Montreal came under fire last week when it pulled the books of Élise Gravel from its shelves, following a series of social media posts that the Montreal-born author and pro-Palestinian activist made that were critical of the Israeli government. The initial decision came after backlash from Jewish organizations—but, as has become de rigeur, the decision caused an even greater backlash in response to the initial backlash, resulting in the Jewish Public Library rescinding their ban.

The co-hosts of Bonjour Chai were especially keen to discuss this subject. Phoebe Maltz Bovy has written extensively on cancel culture and literature, while Avi Finegold sat on the board of the Jewish Public Library for many years. To dissect the politics and undercurrents of this debacle, they're joined by Emil Sher, an author of children's and young adult books, screenplays and stage plays, who is also currently the writer in residence at the Jewish Public Library in Montreal.

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.

]]> no 1 Rabbinical School Dropouts https://pinecast.com/guid/da30972c-78a0-464b-857d-deb2adb0cd11 Fri, 16 Feb 2024 00:13:00 -0000 00:35:30 In recent years, Jewish seminaries and synagogues have faced a problem: there aren't enough young people looking to become rabbis. This shortage has resulted in institutions becoming more lax about who they accept—bending, for example, denominational lines for a young rabbi who at least actually wants to be there.

But then the question of Israel comes up. And in a post-Oct. 7 world, with more young rabbis identifying as non-Zionist or even anti-Zionist—young Jews who have no ties to the Holy Land in the way previous generations did—shul search committees have to ask themselves how flexible they're willing to be. As Tevye once said, "If I bend that far, I'll break."

Hosts Avi and Phoebe are joined by Bonjour Chai producer Zac Kauffman to discuss the implications of this generational shift, which was recently covered in a feature story on Jewish Insider.

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.

]]> no 1 Jew Don't Belong https://pinecast.com/guid/b7c1714f-6478-4b04-ad1d-d4973e723ba2 Fri, 09 Feb 2024 01:49:20 -0000 01:05:46 Does Judaism need a rebrand? In the wake of Oct. 7—against a backdrop of rising Jew hatred, rampant anti-Zionism and more antisemitic conspiracy theories than ever before—some would argue we do.

It's through that lens that Avi and Phoebe have noticed a number of organizations shift their marketing strategies. Speaking to the broader public, we've seen JewBelong, once a quirky series of hot-pink billboards spouting pithy lines about Jewish inclusion, suddenly start shouting increasingly aggressive slogans about gas chambers and Hamas. Meanwhile, the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, founded by billionaire Robert Kraft, is airing a multimillion-dollar anti-antisemitism commercial during the Super Bowl.

Even within our own communities, dozens of organizations—most recently the Union for Reform Judaism—have undergone rebrands, changing logos and colour schemes away from blue, white and black.

But who are these marketing efforts geared towards? What are they trying to say? And are they actually going to change anything?

Arno Rosenfeld, the Forward's enterprise reporter, and Lex Rofeberg, the co-host of the podcast Judaism Unbound, join for a lengthy discussion about the relevance and impact of Jewish marketing.

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.

]]> no 1 It's Not Easy Being Art Green https://pinecast.com/guid/a1df88b2-697a-42e7-a1fd-b567025f12ab Fri, 02 Feb 2024 02:12:40 -0000 00:52:13 Since Oct. 7, Jewish media outlets have skyrocketed in popularity. Comparing website traffic in November 2023 against November 2022, we here at The Canadian Jewish News saw visitors nearly double. What's more—those new heights have held strong ever since.

It's a bittersweet byproduct of Israel's war with Hamas, and the subsequent spikes in antisemitism worldwide, which has captivated and unified Jewish communities around the globe in solidarity with the Jewish State. But the flip side to this heightened engagement—and more emotionally intense reporting—has been taxing for journalists. And while web traffic is nice, it doesn't solve the fundamental financial problems inherent to the media industry writ large.

Earlier this week, Laura E. Adkins, the opinion editor of the Forward, resigned her position to join Jewish Women International, in part moved by the impacts of Oct. 7 on Jewish women and girls and the denials of Israeli women being sexually assaulted. She joins to discuss the future of Jewish media as she sees it—and also chat about one of her most recent articles, covering the sexual assault scandal surrounding prominent Jewish leader Rabbi Art Green.

What we talked about

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.

]]> no Normie Jewisons https://pinecast.com/guid/ec3f72ef-8987-4f1f-8c21-65bb114f576d Fri, 26 Jan 2024 04:40:00 -0000 00:54:19 For much of the last century, Judaism became intertwined with Zionism—the belief that Israel is our homeland and being a good Jew requires support for, if not a migration to, the nascent State of Israel. But in the aftermath of Oct. 7, a sharp uptick of North American Jews have also begun speaking out more clearly against Israel—not just its government's actions, but against the concept of Zionism. The movement, dubbed "diasporism," embraces the idea of exile as either a secular, socialist philosophy, or perhaps an inspiration for greater emphasis on personal religious beliefs—depending on who you're talking to.

The concept got a splashy treatment in a New York Times feature earlier this month, as Marc Tracy, a Times reporter covering arts and culture, published a piece called "Is Israel Part of What It Means to Be Jewish?", which digs into the phenomenon. He joins Bonjour Chai to explain what diasporism means and why it's in the spotlight after Hamas's murder of 1,200 people and the resulting war in Gaza.

Plus, Avi and Phoebe chat about the passing of Norman Jewison (yes, Canadian; no, not Jewish), and how it's brought one of his most famous films, Fiddler on the Roof, back into global debate... with a Palestinian twist.

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.

]]> no 1 No Nazis at Zabars https://pinecast.com/guid/8f56b76a-0542-4cd2-b80c-f6c41afd7267 Fri, 19 Jan 2024 03:30:07 -0000 00:53:53 Late last year, the newsletter startup Substack came under fire when an article in The Atlantic boldly proclaimed the tech company "has a Nazi problem". Nazis, it was reported, were starting newsletters on Substack and spreading their hateful propaganda. While the existence and quantity of said Nazis remained the core issue, writer Shalom Auslander was struck by something else: were these people actually Nazis?

Auslander wrote a piece for Tablet, published this week, in which he argues the word "Nazi" has all but lost its meaning, having been watered down to refer to most people with nationalist, xenophobic, extreme right-wing beliefs. He joins the show to lay out his argument for being more careful with words—especially for the People of the Book—and the danger in making the word "Nazi" synonymous with "racist asshole".

And before that, Phoebe laments the lack of Jews in Only Murderers in the Building, the popular show on Disney+, which specifically takes place in one of the most Jewish parts of the United States.

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.

]]> no 1 The Entire World is a Very Narrow Tunnel https://pinecast.com/guid/b8888fdb-05fd-4761-b5db-0236b077a2c4 Fri, 12 Jan 2024 04:30:50 -0000 00:53:29 In case you've been living underground the past week, a major story broke about police being called to break up a fight happening around a secret tunnel that was dug beneath the Chabad world headquarters in New York City. Justifiably, plenty of questions were raised: who made this tunnel? Why? How long ago? Why were police called? Is any of this going to fan the burning flames of antisemitism and anti-Zionism? Bonjour Chai host Avi Finegold made some calls and read through the media coverage to unearth the truth.

Before then, he and co-host Phoebe Maltz Bovy discuss the national headlines made by a public spat in Windsor, Ont., and how the bizarre culmination of the Ivy League Congress hearings about antisemitism have devolved into internal right-wing fights that have much less to do with Jews than you'd think.

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.

]]> no 1 What's the deal with Zionism? https://pinecast.com/guid/5bbba684-c25c-4363-9a91-b914b9018d3f Thu, 21 Dec 2023 22:40:00 -0000 00:52:31 Last week, a video from the Toronto Eaton Centre depicted a heated exchange between an individual and one of about 150 pro-Palestinian protesters chanting slogans in front of the Zara clothing store. The clip shows police keeping apart the protestors and the person filming; trying to keep the situation calm in the midst of the bustling shopping season around them.

Meanwhile in Israel, the IDF announced the mistaken killing of three hostages who managed to escape captivity. The next night, families of hostages still held by Hamas and supporters rallied in Tel Aviv chanting the slogan ‘Now’. They meant that now is the moment to re-evaluate, to pause the violence and prioritize negotiations.

In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack, many Jews and other Israel sympathizers felt the need to put aside political differences and unite behind the Israeli government. Two-and-a-half-months later, is that still the case? As pro-ceasefire protests step farther into public space at busy malls abroad, and Israelis call for a new approach to the war at home, do Canadian Jews feel permission to break ranks with the Israeli government? Bonjour Chai hosts Avi and Phoebe wrap up 2023 breaking down everything you have to know about the current moment.

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.

]]> no 1 From the St. Lawrence River to the Beaufort Sea https://pinecast.com/guid/6ea481c3-c213-4482-a197-8260ff0caabf Fri, 15 Dec 2023 01:55:00 -0000 00:40:33 Last week, the U.S. Congress grilled several top university professors about antisemitism on their campuses—and the scrutiny on these institutions has never been more intense. The hearings were, in some ways, the culmination of years of backlash against so-called "elitist" institutions, attacks and assumptions by right-wing critics who have long complained that universities coddle their student bodies, over-emphasize safe spaces and no longer teach young people to think critically—let alone welcome dissenting opinions.

These subjects are familiar territory to Jeffrey Sachs, who teaches about politics, authoritarianism and the Middle East at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Sachs has analyzed the data on campus free speech and written extensively about how there is not, in fact, a "free speech crisis" in universities. He gives us insight into that world, recaps the high-profile Congress hearings and discusses the role of religion in places of worship.

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.

]]> no 1 Believe Jewish Women https://pinecast.com/guid/effcb3be-47c8-4370-b223-be2ccf5f8785 Fri, 08 Dec 2023 01:24:39 -0000 00:46:23 This past week, a Jewish feminist movement has gained serious momentum across the world.
Under the hashtag #MeTooUnlessUrAJew, critics have been calling out the hypocrisy of democratic institutions and progressive activists, who were almost certainly extremely vocal during the #MeToo movement, downplaying or denying the rape of Israeli women and sexual violence by Hamas terrorists that occurred on Oct. 7.

The conversation is global. Former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg made a presentation to the United Nations, in which she criticized the organization for its silence; six high-ranking feminist writers and attorneys penned a piece in Slate describing the sexual assaults and insisting "the victims of the Oct. 7 attack stand excluded from the world’s sisterhood;" and in Canada, Beth Tzedec's Rabbi Robyn Fryer Bodzin wrote an op-ed for the National Post demanding Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly "must end" her silence on the issue by condemning it publicly.

From London, U.K., journalist Nicole Lampert has covered this as well, writing a piece in UnHerd on why people are refusing to believe what really happened. She joins Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy to break down why it's been such an uphill battle to get feminists to believe Israeli women and to understand the distinctions between realities in Canada, Britain and the United States.

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.

]]> no 1 Give Peace a Chance https://pinecast.com/guid/491ede63-4b16-4def-8a74-9ee02622166e Fri, 01 Dec 2023 18:40:03 -0000 00:28:36 Earlier this month, tens of thousands of people from across the continent congregated in Washington, D.C., for a massive rally in support of Israel during their ongoing war against Hamas. Those who attended the event said it was the first time they could relax and exhale after weeks of feeling isolated and defensive.

Perhaps inspired by this American moment of solidarity, Canadian Jewish organizations began planning a similar rally on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Dec. 4. And while it will likely have a similar effect—uniting Canadian Jews and allies of Israel during a moment of crisis—its focus is deliberately one-sided. The question remains: Can this kind of massive movement extend beyond communities, uniting Jews and Muslims, anyone who believes in both Israel's and Palestine's right to exist, at one time?

On Nov. 27, Taylor C. Noakes, a Montreal-based journalist, published an open letter to Mayor Valérie Plante on the website Cult MTL, imploring her to organize a peace rally in a city marred by molotov cocktails and gunshots recently fired at Jewish institutions. Noakes joins Avi Finegold on this week's Bonjour Chai to discuss why he feels Montreal, home John Lennon's famous "bed-in for peace", would be perfect for a rally to cool temperatures on both sides.

What we talked about

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.

]]> no 1 The Two-Naomis Solution https://pinecast.com/guid/3415fec4-11c6-4856-ad8e-098ef883ebc9 Thu, 23 Nov 2023 23:30:00 -0000 00:46:55 While playing ‘Jewish geography’ highlights the ways Canadian Jews are connected, thinking about the geography of Jews reveals some of the community’s most important divisions. In recent weeks, suburban Jews have trekked down to city centres for rallies and marches—not far from the working-class immigrant neighbourhoods where their forbears settled in Canada.

This week on Bonjour Chai, co-host Phoebe Maltz Bovy and CJN managing editor Marc Weisblott analyze how the urban-suburban divide continues to shape Jewish life in their respective native cities of New York and Toronto. After that, they discuss Canadian activist and writer Naomi Klein’s most recent book, Doppelganger, which examines the ways Klein’s life has become strangely intertwined with that of Naomi Wolf, whose politics could not be more different.

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.

]]> no 1 Mazel Tov Cocktail https://pinecast.com/guid/f9c22b5e-3ea0-442a-ba0e-59482611f368 Fri, 17 Nov 2023 01:24:21 -0000 00:58:02 Antisemitic crimes have been on the rise across the world in the past month, but Montreal in particular has been rocked by sudden violent acts: two bullets were, on separate occasions, shot at the Yeshiva Gedola elementary school, and molotov cocktails were thrown at a Federation building and synagogue. Subsequently, security has been top of mind for the local Jewish community, with people feeling too anxious to send their kids to school.

But context does matter. Is a gunshot still a gunshot if it's fired late at night, when a building is empty? Or is it, as host Avi Finegold argues, tantamount to graffiti: an act of vandalism, albeit with a potentially lethal tool? He and Phoebe Maltz Bovy debate whether the Jewish community's feeling of insecurity is overblown—and whether it's justified to be scared of someone walking down the street wearing a keffiyeh.

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.

]]> no 1 The Sermon on the Mount Herzl https://pinecast.com/guid/18074e32-2010-4724-b044-d69cd82d6874 Fri, 10 Nov 2023 02:22:00 -0000 00:58:37 If you'd asked Diaspora Jews earlier this year, in the wake of the mass protests against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's judicial reforms, how they felt about their relationship to the Jewish state, an unusually high number would have said something along the lines of "fraught". Indeed, the rift caused by Israel's latest right-wing governing coalition sparked fervent international debate—until the Hamas massacre on Oct. 7, 2023.

So now that Israel is settling into what could become a long-term engagement in Gaza, it's worth asking how that international relationship has changed. Jews around the world have largely set political differences aside and come out overwhelmingly in support of the Holy Land, but how long will that last? And how do Israelis on the ground feel about this? To find answers, Bonjour Chai co-host Phoebe Maltz Bovy sat down with Lahav Harkov, a senior political correspondent at Jewish Insider based in Israel._

After that, Avi Finegold introduces the long-awaited winner of this year's Great Canadian Sermon Slam, Rabbi Lisa Grushcow of Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom in Montreal. She joins for a deep discussion on her rabbinic duties this past month and what the Torah can teach us about handling trauma.

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.

]]> no 1 Live from Holocaust Education Week https://pinecast.com/guid/89714ca9-a0f5-4757-a9ae-8239e48f0574 Thu, 02 Nov 2023 20:49:00 -0000 00:47:43 As Stella Levi was growing up on the island of Rhodes, she lived a normal life. She played with her sisters, lounged on the beach and was excited to start high school—until the Second World War reached the shores of her Mediterranean home.

While many of her family members were killed by the Nazis, Levi survived. Today, she is 100 years old and living in Greenwich Village, New York City. Author Michael Frank got the privilege of spending six years hearing her life's story and turning their conversations into a new book, One Hundred Saturdays. It's not quite a biography, nor an "as-told-to", or even a memoir or straight non-fiction narrative; as Frank explains, the book is the description of an encounter he had with this remarkable survivor.

On the night of Nov. 1, Avi and Phoebe kicked off Neuberger Holocaust Education Week in Toronto with Michael Frank, live at this special podcast recording, in partnership with the Toronto Holocaust Museum and the Prosserman JCC. Hear Levi's story, how Frank approached writing the book and what themes resonate most in today's heated climate of rising antisemitism.

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.

]]> no 1 This Land is My Land https://pinecast.com/guid/af10910b-6cdd-4fe3-89b6-2f0709b1aa09 Fri, 27 Oct 2023 00:50:24 -0000 00:52:16 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.

]]> no 1 The Misconceptia Edition https://pinecast.com/guid/b7d178d1-3583-43c3-a791-3bc7d8623c84 Fri, 20 Oct 2023 00:46:44 -0000 00:36:54 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.

]]> no 1 Awoke O Zion https://pinecast.com/guid/470bfdf3-1962-435b-ad1d-219ee905a892 Thu, 12 Oct 2023 23:46:23 -0000 00:53:16 Nearly one full week after Hamas terrorists attacked Israel and sparked a new war, Canadian politicians and institutions have had plenty of time to react, respond with statements and join solidarity rallies. For the most part, support for Israel has been unilateral. But, as always, there are exceptions, mostly—in this case—from left-wing politicians and organizations who seem to be more focused on talking to each other on social media than to the Jewish community.

So with some hindsight into the immediate aftermath of the events, but while we're still thick in the war, Avi and Phoebe analyze the institutional reactions—and also the retractions. Joining us is Brenda Fine, a professor of mathematics and statistics who lives in Vancouver and tweets as @moebius_strip.

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.

]]> no Some of My Best Friends are Jewish https://pinecast.com/guid/ac5f289f-1233-4355-bee7-63a1dfbfe8ca Thu, 05 Oct 2023 23:53:26 -0000 00:57:46 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.

]]> no 1 Hunka Hunka Burning Parliament https://pinecast.com/guid/8e4b07e0-422c-4d69-80af-da3a0c590f6b Thu, 28 Sep 2023 19:59:37 -0000 00:50:30 Today: a post-Yom Kippur repentance fest. We discuss the teshuva of the recently resigned Speaker of House of Commons, Anthony Rota. Is it enough that Rota stepped down and apologized for unwittingly inviting a Nazi into Parliament for a standing ovation? Special guest David Frum joins to dissect what really matters here: Canadian carelessness.

But before that, Avi and Phoebe discuss the fights that broke out in Tel Aviv's Dizengoff Square around Yom Kippur, when attempts to make public services gender-segregated turned into a street brawl. The makeshift gender divider flew in the face of an Israeli Supreme Court ruling that explicitly forbade Orthodox Jews from doing exactly that. How can a country balance observant and secular lifestyles when the two sides can't even coexist peacefully on a day of communal repentance?

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.

]]> no 1 The Great Canadian Sermon Slam 2023 https://pinecast.com/guid/967f17a3-e9e9-436e-bc7b-73ae331cb9d0 Fri, 22 Sep 2023 02:15:20 -0000 00:56:51 With Rosh Hashanah in the near past and Yom Kippur on the horizon, it's time for Canadian Jewry's most important annual event: the Great Canadian Sermon Slam, hosted by Bonjour Chai.

Just like last year, we're bringing you sermons from rabbis across the country to face off with their best sermons, speeches and spiels while vying for the grand prize: the Kiddush Cup. This year, you'll hear from rabbis from across the country, including...

  • Rabbi Lisa Grushcow, Temple Emanu-El—Beth Sholom, Montreal
  • Rabbi Dan Moskovitz, Temple Sholom, Vancouver
  • Rabbi Jordan Shaner, Temple Sinai, Toronto
  • Rabbi Steve Wernick, Beth Tzedec, Toronto
  • Rabbi Baruch Frydman-Kohl, Kehillat Beth Israel, Ottawa
  • Rabbi Adam Cutler, Adath Israel, Toronto
  • Rabbi Ilana Krygier Lapides, Beth Tzedec, Calgary

But to kick things off, Avi Finegold talks to guest co-host Rabbi Dr. Rachael Turkienicz, the spiritual leader of Beit Rayim in York Region, and our inaugural Sermon Slam winner.

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.

]]> no 1 Shakshuka like a Polaroid Picture https://pinecast.com/guid/1670bc31-f77f-4ed5-b9ed-d1dfe20aa69e Thu, 14 Sep 2023 19:46:47 -0000 01:03:55 As Rosh Hashanah draws near, we wanted to take our annual look back at the biggest news stories of 5783. To get a sense of what topics dominated the Jewish news landscape, Avi and Phoebe invite Marc Weisblott, managing editor of The CJN, to dissect the media trends, from Israeli politics to the neverending mission of ending Jew hatred.

But before that, the panel tackles the biggest news story of the final week of 5783: shakshuka lady. Launching off Phoebe's column on the politically charged debate, they examine whether the 29-year-old TikTokker, who all but taunted parents by showing off how she learned to make shakshuka because she doesn't have kids, is emblematic of a wider discussion about public perceptions of singlehood—especially in the Jewish community.

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.

]]> no 1 X-Rated Antisemitism https://pinecast.com/guid/d3209589-66b7-455f-ba26-61ddf8935667 Thu, 07 Sep 2023 23:00:00 -0000 00:59:18 One of this week's biggest online fights was between the Anti-Defamation League and Twitter (is anyone calling it "X"?)—or, more specifically, Twitter's CEO, Elon Musk, the richest man in the world. If you believe the ADL, since Musk took over, antisemitism has skyrocketed on the platform, as banned accounts got reinstated and free speech rules became relaxed. If you believe Musk, Twitter ad revenue has dropped 60 percent because of the ADL lobbying companies to boycott the controversial platform. In a recent tweet, Musk threatened to sue the ADL for defamation. Whether he will, or even can, is totally unclear; what's more obvious is how Twitter has changed since Musk took over last fall.

To dissect the issue, Avi and Phoebe and joined by guest host Jon Kay, a writer, active tweeter and editor at Quillette.

Afterwards, Kay sticks around to discuss how Jews are treated in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Plus: Is the Blue Jays' rookie Spencer Horwitz hot? And you've still got time to submit to the Great Canadian Seder: email your entry to bonjour@thecjn.ca.

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.

]]> no 1 Value and Values of Jewish Day School https://pinecast.com/guid/c9b92dd6-6e8a-4c93-b059-1660f2666666 Fri, 01 Sep 2023 00:57:13 -0000 00:45:01 September is upon us: school supplies are being purchased, backpacks are being filled, books are being covered. In that same vein, it's time podcasts like ours take stock of Jewish day schools, which have historically been a pillar of Jewish communal life. We ought to regularly examine what's going right, what's going wrong and what trends have emerged in recent years.

To discuss the state of Jewish education heading into 5784, Avi sits down with Paul Bernstein, the founding CEO of Prizmah, a network for Jewish day schools across North America, based in New York City.

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.

]]> no 1 Everybody Nose https://pinecast.com/guid/82328c9d-0f21-497f-9502-7c7445be474c Fri, 25 Aug 2023 02:20:00 -0000 00:44:45 Last week, Phoebe Maltz Bovy—who, when she's not co-hosting Bonjour Chai, can be found writing for the opinion pages of the _Globe and Mail—_penned a column for the national newspaper about a sexist backlash ongoing in Israel. The nation's emboldened religious right wing is rising up in a sort of antifeminist movement that has struck at the heart of what many fear is happening to the Jewish homeland: that its liberal-democratic core is crumbling under the weight of a burgeoning theocracy. She and Avi debate this framing, and how Israel can navigate the tricky line between personal freedoms and a right to religiously comfortable spaces—including segregation.

After that, they tackle the question on everybody's nose: was it offensive for Bradley Cooper to wear an oversized prosthetic schnoz to play Leonard Bernstein in the upcoming film Maestro?

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.

]]> no 1 Zaftig Barbie https://pinecast.com/guid/043807c5-a272-4236-be0e-692b74db9ded Fri, 18 Aug 2023 01:04:02 -0000 01:03:02 In their long-awaited return to podcast form, Avi and Phoebe catch up on their summer break—including their thoughts on the blockbuster Barbie movie and its many Jewish links. After that, with so much mainstream discussion around feminism and body image dominating the media, they speak with Rabbi Minna Bromberg, the founder of Fat Torah, an organization that aims to end weight stigma in Jewish spaces and train Jewish leaders to confront fatphobia in their community.

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.

]]> no 1 Klaus Barbie https://pinecast.com/guid/2729c16c-c1f6-42b2-998c-d190d8cec5e7 Thu, 20 Jul 2023 19:47:22 -0000 By now, you've probably seen the takes: "Barbie is secretly Jewish," "Meet the Jewish woman who created Barbie," yadda yadda. Let's be honest: there's nothing especially Jewish about Barbie. It's a very gentile-looking doll that, despite her various impressive careers (astronaut, doctor, Olympic athlete), represents a physically impossible body type attached to a pleasingly vacant smile. But while Barbie's secret Jewish life may simply be a dream for Jewish doll lovers, the same could be said of any young person's favourite character, franchise or, even, as Avi and Phoebe discuss on today's episode of Bonjour Chai, the Torah itself: a canvas on which audiences will expand, build and tell their own stories.

After dissecting the real Jewish underpinnings of the new Barbie film, the hosts analyze the deeper meaning behind Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s latest antisemitic conspiracy theory and introduce a new way for you, dear listener, to get hot takes from the Bonjour Chai: our new Substack newsletter.

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.

]]> no 1 Over the Hill https://pinecast.com/guid/8efd8660-1f41-4986-bd49-74a6a5984447 Thu, 13 Jul 2023 17:37:43 -0000 00:57:30 Before advice columns were popular, the Forverts, originally a Yiddish newspaper in the early 20th century in New York, was running "A Bintel Brief", an advice column that encapsulated the immigrant Jewish experience and helped newcomers adjust to American life. Fast-forward more than 100 years, and the series has since spawned iterations on TV, radio, theatre and graphic novels, and has even become a podcast series published by the modern-day Forward.

Inspired by Jonah Hill's divisive mini-celeb scandal this week, in which the actor/director was outed as being a controlling jerk in publicly posted text messages (or, alternately, was the victim of an emotionally manipulative ex-girlfriend who revealed his insecurities for Instagram likes—take your pick), we wanted to analyze the ethics and inevitability of advice, gossip and public opinions. After dissecting the Jonah Hill issue, Avi and Phoebe sit down with Beth Harpaz, the current author of "A Bintel Brief", and Chana Pollack, the archivist at the Forward.

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.

]]> no 1 Notes on Camp https://pinecast.com/guid/7813f6e7-38ef-4a9f-af0c-687e192138c0 Thu, 06 Jul 2023 18:27:13 -0000 00:58:41 It's camp season, which means at least one thing: horny Jewish teenagers are probably hooking up right now, as you're reading this. Not only is this inevitable in the Jewish sleepaway camp world—it's implicitly encouraged. Jewish community leaders began promoting summer camp in the postwar era as a way of reaffirming Jewish identity, encouraging authentic Jewish culture and ensuring a Jewish future through budding romances. This is a very old phenomenon.

It's also one of the main takeaways from Sandra Fox's book, The Jews of Summer: Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America, released in February 2023. She explores how Jewish summer camp has evolved over the years, especially after the sexual revolution brought hookup culture to mainstream attention.

Plus, producer Zac Kauffman reports from Jerusalem, where he's studying at the Conservative Yeshiva—and getting caught in protests over Israel's recent operation in Jenin. And Phoebe discusses a Canadian Jewish professor who applied to a job posting at UCLA, and who was denied, because he spoke critically of "diversity statements" on a podcast in 2018.

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.

]]> no 1 Smoke and Mirrors https://pinecast.com/guid/5f31dc3f-0532-40cb-957f-d7fae5b50003 Thu, 29 Jun 2023 09:00:00 -0000 00:56:06 This week, millions of Central Canadians woke up once again to the distant smell of what seemed to be campfires. As was the case weeks ago, Canada's wildfires are raging beyond Alberta and British Columbia this year—they're keeping Ontarians and Quebeckers indoors, along with much of the population of New England, New York and beyond. Given that most Canadian Jews live in Ontario and Quebec, it feels right to revisit the role of Jewish activism in the fight against climate change, so we invited on Rabbi Yonatan Neril, founder of the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development in Jerusalem, and the co-author of the Eco Bible, an ecological commentary on the Torah.

Before that, Avi and Phoebe chat about the secret Canadian Jewish history of Babu Bhatt from Seinfeld; high-end gold-plated kosher dining; and whether the Segal Centre, a prominently Jewish arts hub in Montreal, should be putting on a production of The Nightmare Before Christmas.

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.

]]> no 1 Good Girls and Bad Gays https://pinecast.com/guid/ef89752e-d21f-4fe0-b903-3f145594b359 Fri, 23 Jun 2023 03:14:44 -0000 00:47:38 At 14, Hadley Freeman—now a prominent American-British journalist, then a teenager struggling with anorexia nervosa—moved into a psychiatric ward to treat her condition. She spent three years there, only to leave without truly recovering, instead spending more than a decade struggling with obsessive-compulsive disorder, substance abuse and ongoing anorexia that became a new normal for her.

This year, Freeman, now 45, turned her reporter lens against herself by publishing a memoir about that era, Good Girls: A Story and Study of Anorexia. The book is being heralded as incisive, self-deprecating and insightful; Phoebe sits down with Freeman for a deep dive into the memoir, her Jewish roots and how the modern medical community addresses mental health.

Plus, Avi and Phoebe discuss the bizarre social media story from this week about a Hasidic gay man who was outed as not actually being Hasidic, and also the future of Frasier, which is at least adjacently Jewish_._

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.

]]> no 1 Pride & Prejudice https://pinecast.com/guid/bce41af9-2306-469c-8f92-504d58268a21 Thu, 15 Jun 2023 19:39:08 -0000 00:40:09 In early May 2023, a number of parents whose children attend Bialik Hebrew Day School in Toronto wrote an open letter to the school claiming that the institution's "sweeping effort" to introduce gender-identity topics (swapping haggadah references of "sons" to "children", for example) is "unacceptable and cannot be tolerated." The letter-writer states that a significant number of parents are "opposed to the unilateral imposition of a gender identity curriculum."

The stage of this relatively polite battle of ideas is the most secular Jewish elementary school in Toronto, indicating that debates over LGBTQ and gender issues are increasingly creeping in mainstream society. In the midst of Pride Month, Avi and Phoebe dissect the issues at play here, including contrasts and similarities with similar issues unfolding in the public school system—and where we go from here.

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.

]]> no 1 Come For Your Girlfriend, Stay for the Podcast https://pinecast.com/guid/be2e7973-f54b-427d-ae56-6b11c0113840 Fri, 09 Jun 2023 00:27:04 -0000 00:45:11 In recent days, billboards have been popping up across New York City—and social media. Created by a company called JewBelong, the massive hot-pink ads display bold slogans in sans-serif font to raise awareness about Jewish issues. But what began as a cute (if cringey) taglines about Jewish acceptance have morphed into militant mottos demanding we #EndJewHate, citing gas chambers and making awkwardly defensive demands to the general public. Are they working? Probably not. But here we are, talking about them anyway. Avi and Phoebe break down the meaning behind the marketing.

Then, Phoebe talks about the new Picasso exhibit curated by comedian Hannah Gadsby, and the idea of separating problematic artists from their art.

What we talked about

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.

]]> no 1 Inherently Fertile https://pinecast.com/guid/9e5584cf-e150-4e58-a242-626337798813 Thu, 01 Jun 2023 19:55:30 -0000 00:46:42 On this week’s show, pop culture takes over. We’re talking about Taylor Swift’s probably-not-Nazi maybe-boyfriend, the biblical undertones behind the recently concluded hit TV show Succession (and the wave of Talmudic-style episode recaps) and give nachas to jazz musician Tevet Sela and the new HBO series Being Mary Tyler Moore. Then, to kick off Pride Month, we share some feedback from our recent episode on the suicide of Herschel Siegel, a gay Orthodox man who died in April 2023. From there, we dissect Barbara Kay's recent article on the same subject, which makes a natalist argument calling out "inherently infertile" gay Jewish couples.

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.

]]> no 1 A Good Rabbi is Hard to Find https://pinecast.com/guid/0a6146c6-29e7-4c44-8a0a-9bc593d42480 Thu, 25 May 2023 17:34:45 -0000 00:43:26 Back in March, Tablet published an article called “Wanted: More Rabbis", about how non-Orthodox seminaries are trying to adapt to changing communal needs and shrinking enrollment. It got us thinking: Does society really not have enough rabbis, or do we have too many? With synagogue attendance in decline, rabbis are different today than they were 50 years ago—different expectations, different roles, different needs. To discuss the changing face of the Canadian rabbinate, we're joined by Rabbi Robyn Fryer Bodzin, a rabbi at Beth Tzedec Congregation in Toronto.

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.

]]> no 1 Ham Sandwich Topped with Shrimp on Lard Bread https://pinecast.com/guid/8f007d10-1f3e-4e53-8be8-9d5179c7fcaa Thu, 18 May 2023 23:21:11 -0000 00:39:57 On today's show, we reflect on the tragic death of Herschel Siegel. Siegel, an accepted and embraced gay Orthodox Atlantan who attended Yeshiva University, died on April 28 by suicide at the age of 25. As became evident after his death, Siegel struggled with mental health issues, and he never felt comfortable with how the Orthodox Jewish community accepted gay members. It begs the question: How much responsibility do Orthodox community leaders and lay members have in creating a welcoming space for LGBTQ members? Producer Zac Kauffman guest hosts.

Plus, the group dissects the gatekeeping behind Ben Shapiro's attack on Bernie Sanders's Judaism, and we shout out the UJA Walk With Israel on May 22 in Toronto, where CJN staff (Phoebe Maltz Bovy among them) will be hanging around to chat about all things Jewish and podcasting.

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.

]]> no 1 Live from Shaar Hashomayim: What's the secret to Chabad's success? https://pinecast.com/guid/44d669ee-abfa-4603-b706-d9a6951bd519 Thu, 11 May 2023 21:03:04 -0000 00:55:33 Last Sunday, the Bonjour Chai team recorded a live podcast at Shaar Hashomayim in Montreal, as part of their day of learning about the future of Judaism. We invited Rabbi Shmuly Weiss, director of the Rohr Chabad house at McGill University, to guest host and give some insight into the inner workings of Chabad: how they're operating, what they've learned and what the implications are for Jews around the world.

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.

]]> no 1 Secular? I Hardly Even Know Her https://pinecast.com/guid/03d82ad9-6b49-43ae-95d0-46c4328b7f38 Thu, 04 May 2023 19:40:01 -0000 00:55:57 On April 19, Mark Oppenheimer—formerly a host of the popular Jewish podcast Unorthodox and an editor at Tablet—penned an open letter to Jessica Grose, a New York Times columnist who wrote a piece describing how she appreciates certain cultural-religious aspects of Judaism without accepting organized religion as a whole. Oppenheimer took issue with Grose's stance, ultimately suggesting she try going to synagogue, meeting with rabbis and embedding herself in the Jewish community for a little while to see how she likes it. In a rebuttal published by The CJN, our own Phoebe Maltz-Bovy took issue with what she saw as proselytizing.

Long story short, we decided to hash this whole thing out live on air. Oppenheimer joins Bonjour Chai as a guest host to verbally duke it out with Phoebe—and, while he's here, he'll discuss the relevance of Judy Blume, about whom he's writing a biography, and who's having a moment, between a new documentary and a film adaptation of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.

What we talked about

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.

]]> no 1 Defenders of the Faith https://pinecast.com/guid/167f40e4-02a3-4505-8075-78024a462aed Thu, 27 Apr 2023 23:22:44 -0000 00:41:15 Israel's 75th birthday has been a monumental one for a myriad reasons. A day that should have celebrated three-quarters of a century of having a Jewish homeland has instead been marred by arguably the deepest divisions the state has ever endured, nonstop political protests and controversial legislation looming on the horizon. On today's episode, we ponder the post-celebration future of Israel. What comes next? Plus, King Charles is having his coronation soon. How should Jewish Canadians feel about this, if they feel anything at all? Bonjour Chai producer Zac Kauffman guest hosts.

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.

]]> no 1 Zionist Occupation of the Dance Floor https://pinecast.com/guid/a301b20f-ac09-4701-95f9-7cb8fa13c445 Fri, 21 Apr 2023 02:50:32 -0000 00:46:01 On Easter Monday, Quebec Premier François Legault tweeted out a column praising the province’s Catholic heritage. While Quebecois history is indeed steeped in Catholicism, the message flew in the face of Legault’s aggressive push for secularism in the public sphere, best exemplified by the recent Bill 21, which banned civil servants from wearing religious symbols such as kippahs and headscarves. Avi lives in Montreal, and Phoebe is an expert in French Jewish history—and they have thoughts. Plus, with Yom ha-Atzmaut around the corner, the hosts bond over their love of Israeli music and share some of their favourite tunes.

What we talked about

  • Read “Three Talmud Courses on Beren Campus Canceled for Next Year” at The Commentator
  • Read “AI brings 2 distinctly Israeli voices to life for Israel’s 75th” at the Times of Israel

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.

]]> no 1 DJ Elmaghribi https://pinecast.com/guid/a8baa78f-e543-4c90-af11-9303f413fcbc Sun, 09 Apr 2023 19:33:32 -0000 00:54:24 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.

]]> no 1 The Second Annual Great Canadian Seder https://pinecast.com/guid/524f449d-642e-4d16-ae56-e160699465cf Sun, 02 Apr 2023 04:44:16 -0000 01:23:46 We’re proud to host our second annual Great Canadian Seder! Politicians and proletarians, cantors and comics, all coming together to share stories, songs, wisdom and musings from across the country.

This year, we're joined at our virtual seder table by:

  • Sami Elmagrehbi
  • Cantor Eric Moses
  • Ellin Bessner
  • Mindy Pollak
  • Ralph Benmergui
  • Rabbi Gila Caine
  • Ophira Eisenberg
  • David Birnbaum
  • Rabbi Adam Stein
  • David Bezmozgis
  • Barbara Kay
  • Jon Kay
  • Jess Salamon
  • Yael Halevi-Wise
  • David Sklar and Ilana Zackon
  • The Menschwarmers
  • Marc Gold
  • Rabbi Ilana Krygier Lapides
  • Oro Librowicz
  • David Abitbol

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.

]]> no 1 Morah-Core https://pinecast.com/guid/4c940568-a851-4529-90ec-84bdaf9a5887 Thu, 23 Mar 2023 17:57:25 -0000 00:43:12 The "tradwives" trend has taken off lately—a lifestyle fad wherein "traditional wives" espouse their happiness in cooking, cleaning, keeping working husbands happy, and raising children with a constant smile. And with Passover coming up, we wanted to dive deeper into the phenomenon, and how it intersects with a new fashion fad Vogue dubbed "Torah-teacher aesthetic": what should we make of the intersection between genuinely Orthodox women who identify as "traditional" and tradition being touted as a modern style?

To dissect the issues, Avi and Phoebe are joined by writer Jesse Martin-Miller for a deep dive into these trends and why people are talking about it.

What we talked about

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.

]]> no 1 Home Base https://pinecast.com/guid/5730064b-dd79-4885-b4b0-44794bb25c49 Thu, 16 Mar 2023 22:57:50 -0000 00:44:53 The new urban, decentralized, personal style of Judaism is perhaps best exemplified by Base, an organization that first sprung up in 2015 out of New York. Rabbinic couples open up their homes for High Holidays, Shabbat meals and discussion groups, inviting mostly young adults to attend and find a physical place to connect with their Judaism.

It's of a piece with the broader rising impulse of revitalizing urban spaces and creating more "15-minute cities"—cities where everything you need, from groceries to banking, is a 15-minute walk away. To learn more about the Jewish angles of the trend, Avi sat down with Rabbi Jesse Paikin, a Toronto native who loved Base enough to move to Washington, D.C., to become the group's executive director.

Plus, we discuss Phoebe's musing COVID-19 turning three, the losing weekends for Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans shut out at the Oscars) and Team Israel (definitively destroyed at the World Baseball Classic), and Avi's whirlwind trip to New Jersey.

What we talked about

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.

]]> no 1 Do we still need to celebrate Jewish excellence? https://pinecast.com/guid/5d528836-5b35-4cd6-958d-3c80518ed5f5 Thu, 09 Mar 2023 20:32:19 -0000 00:52:31 For decades, young Jewish kids would often get books with titles like Great Jews in Sports or Great Jews in Entertainment as bar and bat mitzvah gifts. But this concept of cultural celebration seems to have quieted down a lot, given how Jews have assimilated into broader society and to point out Jewish involvement can more easily come off as gauche.

This is the takeaway by Rabbi Chaim Strauchler, who recently penned an article on the subject in the Jewish journal Tradition. The hosts dig into the subject, asking if this conversation is the right one—or if we're even using the right metrics to gauge Jewish involvement in greater society. Rabbi Strauchler joins the show to talk about how this role has changed over time.

Plus, Avi and Phoebe catch up on their Purim parties and Phoebe's latest article on the "tradwives" social media trend.

What we talked about

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.

]]> no 1 Isabel and Nicki and Albert Hoffman https://pinecast.com/guid/efa9fd7a-3fd7-42ce-9d7d-82cddde52782 Fri, 03 Mar 2023 03:16:37 -0000 01:03:17 We are eagerly anticipating Purim—and the only way we thought of topping last year's weedstravaganza was to get even higher. This week, we're going psychadelic. With an increasing number of studies testing how they can help people with PTSD or other psychological distress, the stigma around them is slowly shifting. Zac Kamenetz is a rabbi based in California who heads up an institute seeking to integrate psychadelics into Jewish life.

Plus, Phoebe unpacks the Jewish and interfaith angles to the new wave of American Girl dolls, which hail from the historical era of 1999, and Avi calls out advocacy organizations such as the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs for what he sees as a hypocritical stance toward the Holy Land.

What we talked about

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. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

]]> no 1 [Title Redacted by Sensitivity Reader] https://pinecast.com/guid/f36439f1-55d0-4877-b27e-a53784f957a8 Thu, 23 Feb 2023 19:08:49 -0000 00:49:12 Over the past week, news broke that the novels of Roald Dahl were being rewritten to match modern sensibilities and remove language that some people have deemed offensive. These changes—which came at the behest of the Roald Dahl Story Company and Puffin, the books' publishing house—were ostensibly made to make the books better representative of, and more approachable for, diverse audiences.

While the publishers can rewrite the book, however, they can't rewrite history: namely, that Dahl himself was a self-proclaimed antisemite. Is changing a few words an effective cover-up for the author's more problematic ideals? To get to the core of the issue, we're joined by YA author Joanne Levy. Dedicated Bonjour Chai listeners may recall Levy from her participation in our book club in November 2021.

Plus, Avi and Phoebe chat about Michael Steinhardt's tarnished legacy and Phoebe's latest article on the intersection between feminism and aging.

What we talked about

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. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

]]> no 1 Just Be a Mensch https://pinecast.com/guid/6c2655c1-d41c-4d69-9498-1506dc5d6187 Fri, 17 Feb 2023 16:22:29 -0000 00:48:18 Today we're asking an existential question: How can you be a good person? New York Magazine recently published an editorial package on how to behave, declaring 194 rules on how to "tip, text, ghost, host and politely deal with strangers." Social anxieties—and figuring out how to fit in and act right—are nothing new for Jews. So Avi and Phoebe, recording in-person at the Drake Hotel, dive in and discuss why rules matter, Hey Alma’s own list of Jewish rules for living today, how this all relates to Jewish law and why this topic is having a moment. 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. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

]]> no 1 Sitdown special: Mark (Moishe) Bane https://pinecast.com/guid/3a3e4d67-84a8-4419-bae7-3663c59f25d9 Mon, 13 Feb 2023 20:54:21 -0000 01:02:47 We're starting a new occasional series with Bonjour Chai: extended interviews that dive deep into a person or idea that matters to the Jewish community. In this debut episode, Avi sits down with Mark (Moishe) Bane, who was—when they spoke late last year—the president of the Orthodox Union, the largest umbrella organization of Orthodox congregations in North America, perhaps best recognized as the ones behind the "OU" kosher symbol. The native Montrealer, who stepped down in January after six years at the helm, opens up about the role of synagogue in adult life, the political leanings of the OU and what makes his home city's Jewish identity unique.

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. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

]]> no 1 Hot and Chanshi https://pinecast.com/guid/eeb77764-378c-45cd-b1be-b874deca9647 Fri, 10 Feb 2023 04:01:41 -0000 00:43:31 One of the hottest new Israeli shows is Chanshi, about a young Orthodox woman who travels solo to Israel, ditching her fiancé, with the sole mission of having sex with as many IDF soldiers as she can. The provocative story of self-discovery and sexual awakening screened at Sundance in January 2023 to rave reviews, and the woman who created it—the writer and star, Aleeza Chanowitz—joins the show to talk about the origins of the program and how Orthodox Jews in Israel are reacting.

Plus, Phoebe dishes on Leonardo DiCaprio's new teenage maybe-girlfriend—who happens to be Israeli—and Avi pays tribute to Chava Rosenfarb, who would have turned 100 this week.

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. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

]]> no 1 You can’t spell "messianism" without "mess" https://pinecast.com/guid/3eafa6c5-9ab4-49c3-bba8-dfa8bb63344b Fri, 03 Feb 2023 03:00:15 -0000 00:45:40 If you've ever wondered why it seems like there are more Chabad houses than Starbucks in Canadian cities, there's a reason: With their enormous menorahs and frequent sidewalk stalls, the Chabad movement easily represents the most prominent Jews in the public square. On campus, on the street, in smaller communities and online, their ubiquity is undeniable.

How did they get there? Why is this small Hasidic sect succeeding while other denominations are losing ground—especially when so many Jews who take part aren't even Orthodox?

We talk to sociologist Samuel Heilman about the roots of this phenomenon and what it means for the future of Canadian Jewry. Plus, Phoebe and Avi discuss tidiness, piles of books and the Jewish angles of Marie Kondo's recent confession.

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. 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. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

]]> no 1 Israel Is So Basic https://pinecast.com/guid/d4018e91-30de-4d6c-af7e-33dacd7e1ca2 Thu, 26 Jan 2023 20:00:00 -0000 00:51:20 Over 110,000 protestors packed Tel Aviv’s city centre, in one of the country’s largest anti-government protests in the past decade. They were rallying against the newly elected, right-wing government’s proposals to overhaul the Israeli judicial system. The reforms, introduced by Justice Minister Yariv Levin, could shift a significant amount of power from the courts to the legislature and preclude any law passed by the Knesset from being challenged in Israel’s High Court. These changes are designed, according to Levin, to rein in an activist court that for too long has subverted the democratic will of the Israeli electorate.

Some say shifting more power to elected representatives clearly enhances Israel’s democratic character. Others argue that these changes would spell the end of the inalienable rights underpinning Zionism and the idea of Israel as a modern, liberal democracy.

Our guest today sees several parallels to our own constitutional process and has written about proposed solutions. Bryan Schwartz is a lawyer and law professor at the University of Manitoba Law School. He has argued cases before the Supreme Court of Canada and has taught Canadian and Israeli law to students at the Hebrew University in Israel.

Later in the show, Avi and Phoebe discuss an interview with Taffy Brodesser-Akner, the creator of the 2022 hit TV show Fleischman Is in Trouble, and based on her 2019 novel of the same name. To the surprise of some readers, Brodesser-Akner said that she doesn’t actually see the work as particularly Jewish, despite the clear Jewishness of the setting and main characters. This leads our hosts to dig into what makes a TV show Jewish at all? Is any show with Jewish characters a Jewish show—or is there more to it?

What we talked about

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. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

]]> no 1 Bargain Basement Antisemitism https://pinecast.com/guid/c313d5c5-7b7c-4f1c-94cb-eec20e850801 Thu, 19 Jan 2023 23:11:30 -0000 00:57:21 It seems like discussions of antisemitism have devoured a larger share of the Jewish community’s mental bandwidth in recent years. It dominates the headlines in every Jewish publication, and the social media from Jewish organizations. It’s what we talk about at the dinner table, in synagogues, on the internet, when we lie down and when we rise up. On this episode of The CJN’s weekly current affairs podcast Bonjour Chai, we’re asking: Why has it become such a major preoccupation of our communal conversation? And which conversations about Jewish life are being crowded out? In their search for answers, Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy do a deep dive into the archives of The Canadian Jewish News. They also discuss thrifting while Jewish: how to juggle the joys of bargain hunting for vintage clothes—while avoiding a Jewish stereotype.

What we talked about:

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. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

]]> no 1 J’Accuse…! https://pinecast.com/guid/2289a137-dbbf-4beb-a211-0a3dedc46f7d Thu, 12 Jan 2023 23:03:23 -0000 00:56:49 In the final days of 2022, Michael Marrus, an author, historian, and foremost scholar of Holocaust studies in Canada, died at age 81. He authored eight books on Jewish history, edited a set of 15 volumes entitled Historic Articles on the Destruction of European Jews, and was a member of the Order of Canada. But the final years of his career were coloured by a comment he made to a Junior Fellow at Massey College within the University of Toronto. The remark was quickly decried as racist—and the ensuing outrage and fallout pushed Marrus to resign from the college six days later. On the first 2023 episode of Bonjour Chai, the weekly current affairs podcast from The CJN, we officially welcome Phoebe Maltz Bovy to the co-host chair. She and Avi Finegold dive into the topic of how best to think about figures with complex and sometimes chequered legacies. They also discuss Phoebe’s recent piece on the late Irving Layton, a giant of 20th century Canadian poetry, and the allegations of bad behaviour towards the women in his life.

What we talked about:

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. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

]]> no 1 Hanukkah, Chrismukkah, Swastika https://pinecast.com/guid/a66e8e2f-6011-4233-8ada-c100984066dd Thu, 08 Dec 2022 22:07:19 -0000 00:40:25 Once upon a time, the swastika had no correlation to hate. It is, in fact, a millennia-old symbol of well-being and hope. It has been used—and continues to be used—by Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and many other Eastern religions as a sacred symbol in homes and temples. After its image to Western eyes became tarnished in the 20th century, its origins have fallen wayside—but a recent push to keep its original meaning intact aims to change that. To discuss the shift, Rev. Dr. T. Kenjitsu Nakagaki, a Buddhist priest and the author of The Buddhist Swastika and Hitler’s Cross: Rescuing a Symbol of Peace from the Forces of Hate, joins Bonjour Chai to discuss the critical differences between the original swastika and what's been dubbed "Hitler's cross".

And on the topic of symbolism, we look at Hanukkah merch: mugs with phrases like "Joy Vey", greeting cards joking "Fa La La La Latke", dreidel-shaped waffle irons and more. Where did this stuff come from? Who buys it? Rabbi Yael Buechler and writer David Zvi Kalman join to dissect whether the trend is a symptom of late-stage capitalism or a stab at religious equity.

Plus, we give a nachas shout-out to graffiti artist @aperism and bid farewell—and good luck—to longtime hosts David and Ilana, who are embarking on a new podcast adventure in the new year.

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. 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. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

]]> no 1 The Ballroom in the Kiddush Room https://pinecast.com/guid/84ea0cb2-35b3-402b-a8ac-c2211e686980 Fri, 02 Dec 2022 00:44:56 -0000 00:40:30 The idea of inhabiting and playing with an identity you usually don't exhibit isn't new to Judaism, with many aspects of Jewish identity being more fluid than labels can contain. Jews can easily put on masks to pass in mainstream society, becoming less Jewish if we choose. But there are always spaces to maintain our identity, from synagogues to schools—places where we allow all aspects of our identity breathe.

It's not that different from how a queer person code-switches from the wider world to a drag brunch or gay bar—all of which are worlds very familiar to Sam Brown, a non-binary drag queen and performer, who's also a member of the queer and Jewish communities in Calgary. As details of the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs continue to emerge, in which an attacker killed five people at a popular LGBT bar, we're airing an interview David Sklar conducted with Brown during Pride Week in the summer.

After that, David and Ilana break down the biggest news stories that have been on their minds, including how misinformation spreads on social media, the role of Birthright trips and the future of Jewish philanthropy.

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. 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. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

]]> no 1 The Two Solitudes https://pinecast.com/guid/9ef313fc-9fd8-4f6e-9669-48cab7cff768 Fri, 25 Nov 2022 02:43:53 -0000 01:03:21 Last month, a report from the pro-Palestinian group Independent Jewish Voices came out, titled "Unveiling the Chilly Climate – The Suppression of Speech on Palestine in Canada." Those cited in the report claim that the institutional adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, otherwise known as the IHRA definition, has had a chilling effect on any open discussion of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

At the same time, there is a mirrored feeling among some Jewish students that if they talk about ties to Israel, or refuse to condemn—let alone support—Israel’s actions, they’ll be labelled racist and colonialist.

On today's episode of Bonjour Chai, The CJN's weekly current affairs podcast, we’re asking: How can these two dynamics exist at once? What evidence or data do we have that might shed light on how well founded both those fears are? And does evidence really matter to the emotional reality of the students involved?

To help us unpack all this is Kenneth S. Stern, a lawyer, writer and current director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate—who was also the lead drafter of the IHRA definition. After that, David and Ilana talk to Michele Freed of Resetting the Table about how to have less toxic conversations about Israel.

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. 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. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

]]> no 1 Family Feud https://pinecast.com/guid/bb5ba183-fc96-4dc2-82d5-5375fe8c338c Fri, 18 Nov 2022 00:40:38 -0000 00:50:23 In the aftermath of Israel's elections, the return of Benjamin Netanyahu means a far-right coalition likely placing controversial political figures Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir in positions of power. A surge of international Jewish organizations and leaders, including many in Canada, expressed grave concern with the results.

On the other side, many Israelis—and Diaspora Jews—see this outcry as mere pearl-clutching by Jews who don’t even live in Israel. But that argument undercuts the messaging drilled into us as Canadian Jews since the inception of modern Zionism—namely, that Israel is a home for all the world’s Jews, central to our past and future, in need of our full financial and political support. The idea was always that every Jew has a stake there.

To discuss these themes, and dissect the question of what the relationship between Israelis and Diaspora Jews ought to be, we're joined by Donniel Hartman, who lived in Montreal before moving to Israel and eventually becoming president of the Shalom Hartman Institute.

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. 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. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

]]> no 1 I'll Read What She's Reading https://pinecast.com/guid/1412f294-badd-4193-80e8-6f9c354a0870 Fri, 11 Nov 2022 01:08:42 -0000 With winter holidays approaching, there's only one thing everyone wants keeping them warm by candlelight on a dark winter's night: a Jewish romance novel. You may laugh, but the subgenre is huge, spanning from rabbis to regency. What's the deal? Are Jews reading this—or is it for curious gentiles? Tamar Fox, an author and editor, joins to explain the plots, the meaning and what the books actually do well.

After that, Instagram comedian and hazzan Orel Gozlan stops by to outline the impact of French Jewish comic Gad Elmaleh, who recently announced his conversion to Catholicism.

What we talked about

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. 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. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

]]> no 1 Noah to Shoah https://pinecast.com/guid/4b0dd020-f41f-4616-8659-c1610257edc1 Fri, 04 Nov 2022 00:57:00 -0000 00:49:02 In 2019, 70 Holocaust survivors joined the March of the Living trip to Poland. In 2022, that number plummeted to eight. Separately, but relevantly, Israel recently announced it would stop sending students on school trips to concentration camps in Poland, in the wake of Poland’s memory laws prohibiting educators from talking about Polish involvement in the Holocaust.

The conclusion is clear: we’re coming into an era where contact with the Shoah’s primary sources—the actual people and actual places—is quickly diminishing. What will that mean for the future of Shoah education, Jewish communal identity and Jewish collective memory? What challenges does it pose? What opportunities might it open up?

To ring in Holocaust Education Week and dissect these two topical issues, we're joined by two guests. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, the chief curator of the core exhibition at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw and a professor emerita at New York University, comes on the show to discuss the future of heritage tourism. After that, author Nathan Englander reads an excerpt from his short story, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank", and discuss its relevance today.

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. 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. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

]]> no 1 Vote Ye or Nay https://pinecast.com/guid/a59d0158-94d9-4151-b501-db42f6508d7f Thu, 27 Oct 2022 23:06:47 -0000 01:00:41 With major elections coming up in the United States and Israel, we faraway Canadian Jews—many of whom just voted in our own municipal elections across Ontario, British Columbia and Manitoba—wanted to better understand what's on the ballot in the two countries with the highest Jewish populations on the planet.

As Israel approaches its fifth election in three years, how has the landscape changed (or not) with Benjamin Netanyahu out of office?

Looking stateside, how has the influence of Christian nationalism affected the Repulican party and the American political landscape?

Gil Troy, a professor of American history and scholar of Zionism, who also used to write a political column for The CJN, joins to explain how each election feels like elections past—and how they're also hugely different.

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. 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. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

]]> no 1 All the Genders of Genesis https://pinecast.com/guid/bda2b4e8-e42a-4815-8771-636386bc6122 Thu, 20 Oct 2022 20:58:15 -0000 00:48:03 The Stanley Cup may have already been awarded this year, but an even greater cup has yet to be bestowed to a true national champion: the winner of the Great Canadian Sermon Slam. After receiving many entries and spending hours deliberating, we've selected our winner: Rabbanit Rachael Turkienicz.

Rabbanit Turkienicz joins us today to discuss some of the foremost issues on her mind and on the minds of many Jewish Canadians, including the state of Jewish education and how women have had to fight for their place in religious scholarship. After that, she engages in a new learning session for this week's Torah portion, Bereshit, and sticks around for our weekly nachas.

What we talked about

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. 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. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

]]> no 1 Tabarnak! Kanye Better Not Come to My Sukkah https://pinecast.com/guid/9ed14fc8-9d48-466e-8daa-631e6c73ea72 Thu, 13 Oct 2022 23:06:05 -0000 As the hosts of Bonjour Chai sat in their temporary dwellings to celebrate Sukkot, they got to thinking about housing—specifically, affordable housing in the Jewish community, where just paying rent can be a challenge.

Across Canada, as of September 2022, the average cost of rent shot up 15.4 per cent from the previous year, averaging $2,043 per month. The most expensive areas, of course, are in and around Vancouver and Toronto, which happen to be home to a majority of Canada's Jews.

How should the Jewish community address this issue? What are our responsibilities? How can we help when many who are experiencing a housing crisis are often invisible? We discuss these issues with Mara Shnay, a founding member of the Jewish Family Services' Client Advisory Committee.

What we talked about

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. 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. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

]]> no 1 MK Pop https://pinecast.com/guid/4673696a-ba03-4e30-80e5-fe73d286c6ba Fri, 07 Oct 2022 02:51:24 -0000 01:25:59 In the last couple months, the Miami Boys Choir—a pop group comprising Orthodox Jewish kids that's been around since the 1970s—began inexplicably trending on TikTok. Since mid-August, every video uploaded has been heard more than 100,000 times; often that number is over a million, or close to it. But the reasoning behind the sudden fame is harder to discern. Are teenagers actually getting into Orthodox pop? Or is this just an ironic fad destined to fade by Hanukkah?

The hosts at Bonjour Chai wanted to dig deeper. They learned the choir actually has roots in Canada, when director Yerachmiel Begun was studying in a yeshiva in Toronto and produced three albums with what was then called the Toronto Boys Choir. He subsequently moved to Miami, formed a choir there and began releasing albums under that title—even after eventually settling in New York. The group has since become a powerhouse in Jewish music, releasing a string of hits over the years and launching the careers of many Jewish singers.

The hosts dissect the trend among themselves, then invite on Mordechai Levovitz, a singer in the choir who wound up on Broadway and is now the clinical director for JQY, an organization that supports and empowers Jewish queer youth.

After that, by popular demand, you'll hear more contributions to our Sermon Slam, this time from Rabbi Elyse Goldstein, Rabbi Josh Schwartz, Rabbi Dan Moskovitz, Rabbi Ilana Krygier Lapides and Rabbi Shalom Schachter.

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. 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. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

]]> no 1 Return to Teshuvahland https://pinecast.com/guid/2f7aef77-a5e4-4539-a0f2-cf2b1e7ee585 Thu, 29 Sep 2022 19:24:38 -0000 01:11:40 We are smack in the middle of teshuvah season, when Jews usually focus on repentance in the lead-up to Yom Kippur. But the Hebrew root of the word comes from the idea of returning—implying that teshuvah, in fact, happens after you realize you've strayed from the path you should be on and return to where you were, or where you always wanted to go.

In this way, teshuvah can be a lifelong journey. We wanted to speak with a few Canadian Jews who are embarking on those journeys personally to learn how they're handling it and what the process looks like. We're joined by speaker and author Melanie Notkin; Ruth Chitiz, assistant director of Hillel at York University; and Casriel Silver, who works in real estate.

After that, we're continuing our Sermon Slam with speeches from Rabbi Steven Wernick, Rabbi Stephen Wise, Rabba Rachel Kohl Finegold and Rabbi Philip Scheim.

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. 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. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

]]> no 1 If the Teshuvah Fits https://pinecast.com/guid/81e7967a-1afb-4818-92de-7a70d4f29183 Thu, 22 Sep 2022 23:51:14 -0000 01:09:15 As we stand on the cusp of the year 5783, we're getting ready to reflect on our own lives and actions—and the hosts of our weekly current affairs podcast Bonjour Chai thought, hey, why not do the same thing on air? Were our topics just and proper? Did our opinions prove themselves right? Will Bonjour Chai be inscribed in the Book of Life?

From Indigenous issues to post-pandemic synagogue numbers, the Ukrainians the world couldn't stop talking about to the Uyghurs the world forgot about, on this self-reflective episode we recap the best and worst of Canadian Jewry in the year 5782, as heard through the ears of Bonjour Chai listeners.

Plus, we're kicking off our first annual Sermon Slam. Listeners have been nominating their rabbis, who've been sending us their best sermons of the past year; you'll hear them all, and the winner will be decided between the hosts and audience votes—so email bonjour@thecjn.ca to cast yours.

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. 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. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

]]> no 1 Yoh Malkeh https://pinecast.com/guid/dcc69f5e-3c91-465e-94bd-244179541e4e Thu, 15 Sep 2022 21:54:16 -0000 New York's Jews weren't surprised when The New York Times published an exposé on significant issues plaguing Hasidic schools in the state. The local Jewish community had been reporting this story for over a year, even circulating summaries to some of the schools in question, hoping for comment once they knew the mainstream story was imminent. Even outside media circles, any current or ex-Hasid knows these issues, and will usually be eagerly to discuss their school system, either out of pride or frustration.

Canadian Jews also know about these issues, because for eight years, reporters have been covering a case wherein the Quebec government was being sued for providing inadequate secular studies in Hasidic schools, despite funding and oversight by the education ministry. To discuss these realities in the Canadian context, we're joined by Shane Dussault Ovadia, a teacher and principal’s assistant at Yeshiva Toras Moshe de Montréal, and Shifra and Yohanen Lowen, the plaintiffs in the case against the Quebec government.

Plus, cookbook author Jake Cohen joins to discuss High Holiday eating, and we give a special nachas to Marvel's first Israeli superhero.

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. 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. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

]]> no 1 No Campaign, No Gain https://pinecast.com/guid/3cb005de-cc5d-4130-aef9-cfb34831be0a Thu, 08 Sep 2022 23:19:38 -0000 00:51:00 It's campaign fundraising season across the country, as Jewish organizations hold banner events with big-name speakers to bring in machers and dollars for major projects. Toronto's Federation is hosting Stephen Harper and George Bush, while Vancouverites are joined by Mayim Bialik and Fran Drescher—the latter focusing on Vancouver's forthcoming JWest, a new community centre and residential complex in Vancouver that will be one of the most expensive Jewish building projects Canada has ever seen.

But with so many in-person events postponed during the pandemic, we wanted to ask whether the enormous price tag for putting on these extravagant galas is truly worth it. To break down why these events matter and scrutinize their value, we're joined by two guests: Ezra Shanken, the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, and Elizabeth Gomery, a founding partner at Philanthropica, a consulting agency.

Plus, Avi will recap his weekend at The CJN's booth at the Ashkenaz Festival, and David recaps a treasure trove of Jewish board games found at a Goodwill in Calgary.

What we talked about

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. 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. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

]]> no 1 Shul is Such a Drag https://pinecast.com/guid/053588d5-6fd8-47e4-90a6-429739e633ae Thu, 01 Sep 2022 23:27:03 -0000 Last week, we convened a panel to discuss the role and effectiveness of day schools in 2022. The response to that episode was huge and mostly positive—so we wanted to do a follow-up. Avi sits down with Yehuda Kurtzer, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, to discuss what qualifies as success and how much social differentiation we really want.

Plus, David reports on Pride Shabbat in B'nai Tikvah in Calgary, including a drag performance and the intersection between drag and Judaism.

Also: we're kicking off our first-ever Canada-wide Sermon Slam! We want to feature rabbis doing what they do best—the High Holiday sermon. Over the next several episodes, we'll be devoting space to rabbis their best four-minute excerpt of a past sermon, culminating in a final round in October. Email us at bonjour@thecjn.ca if you are a rabbi who wants to participate, or you want to nominate your rabbi.

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. 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. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

]]> no 1 The People of the Pocketbook https://pinecast.com/guid/64275712-42b4-449a-be40-723133c52d51 Thu, 25 Aug 2022 23:49:02 -0000 01:02:59 The first day of school is coming up, and when the topic came up in a recent CJN editorial meeting, we realized many CJN staffers had strong opinions about the state of Jewish education. Did the kids enjoy it? Did they get a better education than they would have in public school? Was it worth the money? And if you attended day school yourself: did you regret it?

Fundamentally, we're asking what defines success in Jewish education, and whether Canadian Jews should be satisfied with the state of things. To dissect the matter, we're joined by Yoni Goldstein, The CJN's editor-in-chief; Lila Sarick, news editor; and Michael Fraiman, executive producer of podcasts.

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.

]]> no 1 Hole-y Sheet https://pinecast.com/guid/54e4b2a5-28dd-492c-b93a-f348a27eb10a Fri, 19 Aug 2022 14:09:36 -0000 Until 2017, if you were queer and Jewish and looking for someone the same, you had to settle for one of the few Jewish dating apps—or a queer one—and hoped to match with someone that was both. Joanna Halpern Zisman wanted to change that. So the Toronto-based software engineer created Yente over the Rainbow, the world's first dating site for LGBTQAI+ Jews.

To celebrate the love still lingering in the air after Tu B'Av, Halpern Zisman and her partner, Laine, join to discuss their site, its goals and how it blends modern algorithms with traditional matchmaking.

After that, we'll hear from Frieda Vizel, a tour guide in New York who, earlier this year, translated and transcribed a recording of a sex talk given to a Hasidic groom just before his wedding. The transcription sheds a fascinating light on a subculture whose notions of sex and relationships differ greatly from mainstream Judaism.

What we talked about

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. Zachary Kauffman is the producer. 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. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.

]]> no 1 Shvitzing in August https://pinecast.com/guid/7c980a2f-89ae-4009-a056-af3056c964fc Thu, 11 Aug 2022 23:11:29 -0000 00:35:17 With David on honeymoon and Ilana off camping, we're taking a break from our usual programming. Instead, with ever-more natural disasters and heat waves striking across the world this summer, we wanted to re-air an interview we did last year with acclaimed climate activist Tzeporah Berman about the intersection of Judaism and climate activism. Also, you'll hear Ilana's extended interview with the boys from Yidlife Crisis, who she wrote about in her column earlier this month.

What we talked about

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.

]]> no 1 Shattering Glass and Breaking Stereotypes https://pinecast.com/guid/ea4cb842-3196-4373-a474-b2a71b06a312 Fri, 05 Aug 2022 01:09:58 -0000 Mazel tov to David Sklar, co-host of our weekly current affairs podcast, Bonjour Chai. David just got married this week—to a non-Jewish man.

To celebrate their love, the Bonjour Chai team is dedicating this entire episode to the topic of interfaith marriage. We dive into both sides of the issue: those who support the expansion of Jewish life, and those who prefer to keep the boundaries of Judaism more strict.

To dive deep into the debate, we're joined by two Reform rabbis whose personal beliefs fall on opposite sides of the issue: Rabbi Lily Kowalski of Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom in Montreal, and Rabbi Philip Bregman, rabbi emeritus at Temple Sholom in Vancouver. They tackle the big questions, including whether an interfaith wedding can be truly Jewish, how parents in interfaith relationships can instill Judaism in their children's lives, and whether interfaith marriages might well spell the end of Judaism—or actually save us.

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.

]]> no 1 Definitely Not the Mafia https://pinecast.com/guid/75d9bfc1-fd3b-4bd4-9a35-71461844ec43 Thu, 28 Jul 2022 23:42:45 -0000 00:53:46 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.

]]> no 1 The Hillels are Alive with the Sound of Wedding Music https://pinecast.com/guid/467917b4-9148-43d4-b907-46628a80fc6c Thu, 21 Jul 2022 19:07:13 -0000 01:02:47 In 2016, Hillel Montreal was absorbed into Federation CJA as part of their GenMTL program. Then things went a little sideways. Hillel went from having a non-stop campus presence to seeing students quit committees in frustration. Staff members showed up less, and eventually there were fewer staff members, period. Numerous students complained that the organization became overly focused on pro-Israel activism, and if they didn't buy in, they felt there wasn't a place for them at Hillel.

Now, after two years of a state of COVID-related flux, Hillel is making a big push to return to campus visibility. On July 6, they made a post on their Instagram page proclaiming, "We're back!" To understand what they're back from, and how recent changes indicate a shift in campus life for Jewish students across Canada, Avi sat down with three students to understand what's been happening and what they hope the future of Jewish campus life looks like.

What we talked about

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.

]]> no 1 Putting the 'Oy' in Cowboy https://pinecast.com/guid/68fbc223-869e-464a-a854-fa0087c66430 Thu, 14 Jul 2022 17:24:45 -0000 The Calgary Stampede, winding down this week, is about more than Stetson hats and corn dogs. The annual festival creates an opportunity for Albertans of all backgrounds to come together over bull-riding rodeos, country music shows and pancake breakfasts. And this is certainly true for Jewish Albertans, whose community can trace it roots deep into the origins of the Wild Rose Country.

On this week's episode of Bonjour Chai, David Sklar takes a deep dive into his adopted home's Jewish universe. He's assembled an expert panel on the past, present and future of Southern Albertan Judaism, featuring Judy Shapiro, a retired journalist and Jewish community professional; Harry Sanders, a director at the Jewish Historical Society of Southern Alberta; and Danielle Braitman, director of engagement programming at the Calgary Jewish Federation.

Then, David visits Irena Karshenbaum of the "Little Synagogue on the Prairie", a 100-year-old shul recently relocated to Calgary's Heritage Park, and we'll hear clips from a Sunday morning kosher Stampede pancake breakfast, held by the Calgary JCC and House of Jacob Mikveh Israel.

What we talked about

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.

]]> no 1 None is Not Enough https://pinecast.com/guid/a6641966-4af8-48a2-8c52-c5790b22dad1 Thu, 07 Jul 2022 20:29:16 -0000 00:57:20 It's a trend extending beyond Jewry, beyond Canada, but persists in our nation nonetheless: younger people are donating less than their parents' generation, and when they do get involved in philanthropy, they're doing it differently. Several Jewish organizations have taken up the mantle to try and engage younger donors, and this week, an episode of The CJN Daily spotlit the recent Canadian expansion of the Jewish Future Pledge, which aims to get Jews to promise a certain percentage of charitable donations in their wills to Jewish causes.

To better understand the realities of giving Jewishly, we're joined by two organizers in the space: Mark Silberman is the chair of the Jewish Future Pledge in Atlanta, and Danielle Segal is the program director for Honeycomb, a resource for Jewish youth philanthropy.

Plus, recurring guest David Koffman speaks about the life and impact of the late Irving Abella, who passed away this week, and our weekly nachas segment gives a shout-out the Jewish connections to the new Minions movie.

What we talked about

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.

]]> no 1 As Canadian as Possible, Under the Circumstances https://pinecast.com/guid/deabd581-6ab1-419e-8625-2b206f1a9bda Thu, 30 Jun 2022 23:43:18 -0000 00:36:44 To celebrate Canada Day, we have a special audio feast of Canadiana lined up.

First up, we chat with a recent immigrant from Israel to Montreal, Shauli, who moved here with his partner and their toddler in November to find work and a better life as a gay couple; then we're joined by Yoni Goldstein, editor and publisher of The CJN, to discuss the state of Canadian Jewry and how one of the biggest Canadian Jewish stories—the death of Julia Koschitzky—reveals a lot about who we are as a community.

Lastly, we've got a jumbo-sized nachas segment of our favourite books, songs and movies from the last few years in Canadian Jewish life. Happy Canada Day!

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.

]]> no 1 The Kosher Empire Strikes Back https://pinecast.com/guid/a00b7cbc-345e-4db8-9711-eaba427900a3 Fri, 24 Jun 2022 00:29:18 -0000 00:55:02 Last week's episode about the state and ethics of kosher food drummed up a lot of responses from our listeners—so many, in fact, we decided to run a spiritual sequel of sorts this week.

Montreal's Vaad Ha'ir, the organization responsible for MK kosher supervision, launched a new initiative justifying the high cost of kosher meat in the city. But Avi wasn't impressed by what he saw as propaganda, as he noticed inconsistencies and assumptions in their argument's details. To better understand the whole story, he decided to bring in Steven Lapidus, a professor at Concordia University and expert in Montreal's kosher scene.

Plus, in response to a reader's question about Jewish hot spots to visit in Montreal, we're launching a summer travel series. This week, all three hosts share their insider tips as to the best places to eat and explore in the city.

What we talked about

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.

]]> no 1 You Are What You Eat https://pinecast.com/guid/6f95e512-7bf8-4752-b541-fa51f1cf0d2e Thu, 16 Jun 2022 21:15:49 -0000 01:02:01 Kosher has been in the news a lot lately. A restaurant in Hamilton came under strutiny because the rabbi that certified its kosher status wasn't Orthodox; in Toronto, the popular Slice N Bites restaurant was asked to stop seating customers on Saturday nights because too many teens were using it as a hangout spot; and in the U.S., a restaurant had its certification pulled after its owner, Shalom Yehudiel, was charged with sexually abusing a minor.

With these stories fresh in our minds, we're dedicating the whole episode to kosher conundrums: the politics, ethics and decision-making that goes into keeping, certifying and even justifying the current state of kosher. Our three hosts come from very different stances on these issues, and invite Richard Rabkin, the managing director of the Kashruth Council of Canada (COR), to help navigate the waters.

Plus, chef and entrepreneur Zane Caplansky pops in to explain his own frustrating kosher odyssey, while our weekly Word of Wisdom comes from Rabbah Aliza Libman Baronofsky and Rabbah Amy Newman, who both graduated from Yeshivat Maharat this week.

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.

]]> no 1 Born This Way https://pinecast.com/guid/5d83c31e-071c-42a0-a71a-f91171acfc7f Thu, 09 Jun 2022 23:09:27 -0000 00:59:52 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

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.

]]> no 1 Sally Priesand's Semicentennial https://pinecast.com/guid/83c1a299-c5a8-4f41-b51d-dd4c53ce517b Thu, 02 Jun 2022 18:35:26 -0000 00:53:49 It was almost 50 years ago today, on June 3, 1972, that Sally Priesand broke ground as the first-ever female rabbi ordained in North America. But still, even half a century later, rabbis who happen to be women face different expectations, treatment and discrimination than their male counterparts.

To talk about what's changed, what hasn't and what life is like as a female rabbi, we've assembled a panel for a special hour-long discussion the subject. What's changed in the last 50 years? What hasn't? How do congregations of different denominations react? What work still needs to be done?

To examine these issues, we have three experts from across the country: Rabbi Elyse Goldstein, Canada's first and longest-serving female Rabbi in Canada, who was ordained in 1983; Rabba Rachel Kohl Finegold, the first Orthodox Jewish woman to serve as synagogue clergy in Canada; and Rabbi Ilana Krygier Lapides, an independent, non-denominational rabbi in Calgary.

What we talked about

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.

]]> no 1 Chai Means Live https://pinecast.com/guid/7b657868-49c2-4c53-9144-164fb2d1a385 Thu, 26 May 2022 23:35:32 -0000 01:16:05 It's a little-known fact that the first Jews in Canada were actually Sephardim, founders of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in Montreal in 1768. Over subsequent years, Ashkenazi Jews would follow from Europe, becoming the dominant Jewish culture; it wasn't until the mid-20th century that Middle Eastern Jews arrived to add their own contributions to the Canadian Jewish mosaic.

The often quiet history of Sephardic contributions to Jewish culture—not just in Canada, but in Israel, the United States and elsewhere as well—is the focus of a new book and digital-preservation project called Sephardi Voices, spearheaded by Henry Green, a professor of Judaic and religious studies at the University of Miami and the founding director of the Jewish Museum of Florida. In partnership with the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, we invited Green to share stories and insight into the Sephardi world in Canada and beyond for the first-ever live virtual taping of Bonjour Chai.

Plus, we get to know Mohammed Hashim, the executive director of the CRRF, who outlines his organization's work, paths toward a more comfortable dialogue between pro-Israel and pro-Palestine Canadians, and what his favourite kosher restaurant is. Later, David and Ilana actor-splain why Jewish representation matters in film and television, and what it was like working on Jewish theatre shows this year.

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.

]]> no 1 The Kulturkampf Edition https://pinecast.com/guid/8bfb91c1-0e5e-49d4-b9f7-0071af49df9f Thu, 19 May 2022 23:01:05 -0000 Festival season is upon us, which means Canadian Jews are marking their calendars with the myriad dates slotted for cultural celebrations across the country. But who are these events made for, and who actually shows up? Are Jewish festivals designed only for those with the means to buy tickets, or is there a greater mandate to foster community through innovation and outreach to younger audiences?

We pitch the question to Helen Zukerman, artistic director of the Toronto Jewsh Film Festival, which Avi believes is too narrow in its scope (though Ilana and David disagree); after that, the heads of KlezKanada and Ashkenaz Festival, Sebastian Schulman and Eric Stein, join to discuss their efforts in crafting Jewish festivals that are fundamentally diverse, unique and engaging.

Plus, we'll hear from Shlomo Steinmetz on the yahrzeit of his son Dovi, who died at the Mount Meron tragedy in Israel last year.

What we talked about

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.

]]> no 1 Plan B from Olam ha-Ba https://pinecast.com/guid/b6682545-5df9-4f2f-b890-8e9d724a0fe1 Thu, 12 May 2022 19:11:38 -0000 00:57:13 With the United States embroiled in the fight over abortion rights, many Canadians have turned to reflect on our own nation's history with the once-controversial practice. A key figure in Canada's pro-choice movement was Henry Morgentaler, a Holocaust survivor and doctor who offered safe abortions for women who didn't qualify for one within Canada's once-restrictive system. Morgentaler endured jail time and blatant antisemitism for his convictions, but won out in the end, as abortions became effectively decriminalized following a landmark 1988 Supreme Court decision.

Today, advocates in Montreal are pushing to name a park after the late doctor, who has no monument commemorating his contribution to Canada. To discuss his legacy, and how antisemitism seeped into the debate, his daughter, Goldie Morgentaler, joins to share stories of her father's fight for reproductive freedom.

And zooming out for a religious look at the issue, Avi sits down with Rabbi Daniel Korobkin from the Beth Avraham Yosef of Toronto Congregation to discuss how abortion is handled in halakhah.

What we talked about

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.

]]> no 1 Ilana is Significantly Younger than Israel https://pinecast.com/guid/d7eb13b3-498b-44ab-a062-6d7376488b2c Thu, 05 May 2022 23:08:14 -0000 00:52:05 York University has been in the Jewish news a fair bit recently, after their student union bungled an educational session on antisemitism and the school's name was labelled one of the least safe campuses for Jews in Canada. But there is always another side to these stories—one which often involves students protesting for Palestinians' rights.

University administrators are often caught between these two camps, trying to mediate the on-campus iteration of a centuries-old geopolitical struggle. It's a line often walked by Rhonda Lenton, the president of York University. On today's episode, she joins for a lengthy and wide-ranging discussion on how her administration strikes that balance, what she's gleaned from her own studies into Canadian Jewry as a sociologist, and how York's Jewish identity has changed over the decades.

Plus, Avi and Ilana debate how Mother's Day seeped into the Jewish holiday calendar, and we wish Ilana and the State of Israel a very happy birthday. One is 74; the other, 29—guess which is which?

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.

]]> no 1 Six Million are Still With Us https://pinecast.com/guid/9378bd20-3ba8-4762-8398-b3ab393bb6b6 Thu, 28 Apr 2022 23:06:14 -0000 00:43:50 Jews are no strangers to the apocalypse. Having survived centuries of persecution and the biggest genocide in human history, generational trauma and fears of fatality come pretty naturally to us.

Jay Baruchel is no exception. He's transformed those anxieties into a brand-new TV show, debuting Apr. 30 on Crave, called We're All Gonna Die (Even Jay Baruchel), in which he explores the myriad ways in which humanity can end, from nuclear disasters to alien invasions. For Yom ha-Shoah, Baruchel joins the program to chat about how his Jewish heritage helped inspire the show and take a stab at the ultimate post-apocalyptic question: what happens to us after we die?

Plus, David lays out the latest development in the truly never-ending Israeli/Palestinian wine saga, Avi plays highlights from the JNF's recent Tech Shuk in Montreal, and Rabbi Joshua Corber discusses modern takeaways from Yom ha-Shoah.

What we talked about

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.

]]> no 1 Mayim and Yayin https://pinecast.com/guid/8bbc7460-e423-4da0-b133-59ccfd7b0410 Thu, 21 Apr 2022 18:27:28 -0000 After Mayim Bialik lost her father, she began a year of mourning, culminating in thoughts and feelings that she'd end up culminating into her first screenplay. The actress, best known for the The Big Bang Theory and now hosting Jeopardy!, is now making her debut as a writer and director with As They Made Us, a drama about a dying father, played by Dustin Hoffman. Ilana sat down with Bialik to talk about her real-life inspiration, transitioning from performer to director, and how she incorporated subtly accurate pieces of Jewish representation that didn't feel blunt or crass.

Plus, we're re-running an interview from last Passover with Orel Gozlan, the hazzan at Congregation Or Shalom in Montreal and an Instagram comic, about the Sephardic celebration Mimouna.

What we talked about

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.

]]> no 1 The First Annual Great Canadian Seder https://pinecast.com/guid/1ef42f35-6fba-4eaa-8593-d4ce946e3c78 Thu, 14 Apr 2022 20:33:26 -0000 01:24:21 It's the first annual Bonjour Chai Passover extravaganza! In this super-special edition, we bring you stories from 20 prominent Canadians about what Passover means to them.

Pull up a chair, break off some matzah and join us at the virtual seder table alongside Evan Solomon, Zach Hyman, Bob Rae, Ya'ara Saks, Melissa Lantsman, Nathan Englander, Lisa Rubin and a whole slew of rabbis, CJN podcasters and community leaders, swapping stories and reflecting on the meaning of freedom in these unique times.

Our guest list, in order of appearance:

  • Ben Langer, family doctor, Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority
  • Melissa Lantsman, Member of Parliament
  • Anthony Housefather, Member of Parliament
  • Ya'ara Saks, Member of Parliament
  • Bob Rae, Canadian ambassador to the United Nations
  • Irwin Cotler, Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism
  • Rabbi Robyn Fryer-Bodzin, rabbi at Beth Tzedec Congregation
  • Ralph Benmergui, host of Yehupetzville
  • Rivka Campbell, host of Rivkush
  • Ellin Bessner, host of The CJN Daily
  • Gabe Pulver and James Hirsh, hosts of Menschwarmers
  • Nathan Englander, author and storyteller
  • Lisa Rubin, artistic and executive director of the Segal Centre for Performing Arts
  • Zach Hyman, left wing for the Edmonton Oilers
  • Ezra Shanken, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver
  • Evan Solomon, host of CTV's Power Play and Question Period
  • Rabbi Baruch Frydman-Kohl, rabbi emeritus at Beth Tzedec Congregation
  • Rabbi Bluth, chief creative officer of Living Jewishly
  • David Koffman, J. Richard Shiff Chair for the Study of Canadian Jewry at York University
  • Selina Robinson, Minister of Finance of British Columbia

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.

]]> no 1 There's Nothing Funny About War Crimes https://pinecast.com/guid/e72fc2e9-6ba4-438b-ae0f-87c7dae0f70e Thu, 07 Apr 2022 23:22:45 -0000 01:17:42 Shocking images from Ukraine emerged this week, depicting war crimes and massacres happening in Bucha, a town outside Kyiv. Suddenly, onlookers are using the word "genocide" to describe what has, until recently, most often called a war.

But is it a genocide? Do these crimes against humanity qualify, or do we risk watering down the term if we apply it too quickly or too often? Jews, in particular, have a stake in any global conversation on the subject, as comparisons to the Holocaust will inevitably come up.

To unpack these complex issues, we're joined by two guests: Bob Rae, Canada's ambassador to the United Nations, and Frank Chalk, the director of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies at Concordia University.

What we talked about

  • Get tickets to Mazel Tov here and use the promo code CHAIPROMO to get a $10 discount
  • Read "Ancient Hebrew curse tablet found by Katy archaeologist could be proof of older Bible timeline" at the Houston Chronicle

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.

]]> no 1 The Boy Who Cried Wolf https://pinecast.com/guid/aac1bc37-3ca8-4493-b930-0925c14790d1 Thu, 31 Mar 2022 20:18:44 -0000 01:20:16 For over a decade, Jews have been the number-one most-targeted religious group in federal and municipal hate crime reports. Just a few weeks ago, StatsCan released the latest edition of its annual paper, proving the trend correct yet again.

But headlines don't tell the whole story. Is Jewish prominence on these lists the result of zealous Jewish communities over-reporting minor incidents? Or is it more indicative of other groups' hesitance to even bother calling the police in the first place? To navigate these waters, we're joined by Mark Mendelson, a former homicide detective with the Toronto police, current private investigator and crime expert for Bell Media.

Plus, David catches up with actor Jake Epstein about his latest theatre show, Boy Falls From the Sky, as well as a career that's taken him from Degrassi to Broadway to Jewish Hallmark hero.

What we talked about

  • Read about the latest StatsCan report on thecjn.ca
  • Find tickets for Boy Falls From the Sky at mirvish.com

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.

]]> no 1 Blankets and Bedding https://pinecast.com/guid/195caa7b-e144-4da4-abeb-d5d6b29c335a Thu, 24 Mar 2022 20:02:38 -0000 00:50:51 It's been a month since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, forcing 10 million Ukrainians to leave their homes, including nearly four million refugees. Many have fled to neighbouring Poland, which is where a number of Canadian Jewish community and non-profit leaders have flown to personally engage with and witness the tragedy unfold. Back on Canadian soil, numerous charities and NGOs, including Jewish ones such as B'nai Brith, continue to hold donation drives where they accept old clothing, blankets, shampoo, personal hygiene products, flashlights and more.

These are understandable reactions to a global crisis. But they may not be helping as much as people think.

It's become evident that refugees in Poland have ready access to many items being donated, and flying boxes of old clothing from Canada to Europe may not be the best use of anyone's time, money or resources. Goods can be purchased in Europe and transported much more efficiently, affordably and with less of a carbon footprint. Meanwhile, the abundance of rabbis and community leaders travelling to the border has been criticized as mere "disaster tourism."

To dig into these issues, we're joined by Kate Bahen, the managing director of Charity intelligence Canada, a watchdog organization that provides transparency and resources for Canadians looking for the smartest ways to donate their dollars.

Plus, our resident rabbi explains to David what it means that he's a kohen in the modern world, we catch up on updates from past episodes, and the hosts discuss an age-old question: is daylight saving time good for the Jews?

What we talked about

  • Listen to Linda Frum and Adam Minsky discuss flying to the Ukrainian border on The CJN Daily
  • Read an essay by three Canadian rabbis who travelled to the border at The CJN
  • Read "Jewish leaders are flocking to Ukraine’s border. Some question the trips" at The Forward
  • Listen to the All Things Considered episode about clothing donations at NPR
  • View the Kickstarter for I Can't Believe It's Not Chametz!

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.

]]> no 1 Modern-Day Haman https://pinecast.com/guid/ff564c38-00f1-4209-b0f9-a2e53b761a7b Thu, 17 Mar 2022 21:16:46 -0000 00:57:48 It's not making headlines nationally, but Quebec is ushering in Bill 96, legislation that will further cement French as the province's dominant language. While Canadians may be familiar with various provincial government attempts to ensure French remains the primary language, Bill 96 goes a step further: it will require all new immigrants to send their children to French-language schools after a three-year, non-renewable grace period.

Why does this matter for Jews? Because Canada has a rabbi shortage. There is no Canadian rabbinical school outside the ultra-Orthodox movement, which means many shuls end up hiring Americans who move here with their families. While some American rabbis may be excited to force their children to become fully bilingual French, it's a big ask—and a significant hurdle for the two synagogues in Montreal currently looking for new rabbis. Our own resident rabbi in Montreal breaks down what this all means, and chats with a representative of one rabbinical search committee about the ramifications.

Plus, Ilana chats with her long-time friend, who is one biological daughter of the infamous Norman Barwin, a disgraced doctor who illicitly used his own sperm to inseminate more than a hundred of his fertility patients.

And also: Happy Purim!

What we talked about

  • Read about Bill 96 at assnat.qc.ca
  • Read about the $13-million settlement against Norman Barwin on CBC News

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.

]]> no 1 Bonjour High https://pinecast.com/guid/f977e0d7-520e-4adf-bd6f-90e070fc901d Thu, 10 Mar 2022 23:41:37 -0000 01:06:51 In the days ahead of Purim, we wanted to take a step back from all the serious news and focus on some lighter fare. To honour King Achashverosh, who ruled from Hodu to Kush, we convene a roundtable of expert Canadian Jews in the cannabis industry to dive into the weeds of what marijuana usage looks like in the Jewish community. Cannapreneur Abi Roach and the men behind the startup Oy Vapes join.

Plus, we're bringing you laughs from some of Canada's funniest young Jewish comics. Comedian Laura Leibow is here to announce her new jewish comedy podcast on The CJN Podcast Network, Shticks and Giggles, and you'll hear bits from her fellow downtown-Toronto funnymen Nick Nemeroff and Dan Rosen.

What we talked about

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.

]]> no 1 One Down, 119 to Go https://pinecast.com/guid/bbb93b51-c3b1-4220-b723-e476fca29edd Thu, 03 Mar 2022 23:33:49 -0000 01:08:37 It's the one-year anniversary of Bonjour Chai, and to celebrate, we're taking a look ahead at what the future of Judaism looks like. As more Jews engage with their culture outside of Federations and traditional synagogues, what are the "new establishments" coming up? How do they take shape? Who's behind them, and are they indeed the future of Jewish life?

We think of Bonjour Chai as one of those new establishments, but there are more popping up across Canada. To analyze the issue, we're joined by Rabbi Yossi Sapirman, who left his bricks-and-mortar pulpit to start Living Jewishly, an organization that aims to connect with Jews of all ages through experience-based, rule-breaking routes; and Orly Zebak, a designer and artist who co-founded Niv Magazine, an independent Jewish online arts zine, at the outset of the pandemic.

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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 Ukraine is Not Weak https://pinecast.com/guid/87b72094-6e4f-4247-9691-dda9d6a21023 Thu, 24 Feb 2022 20:45:24 -0000 00:48:34 Ukraine has one of the largest Jewish populations in the world. But as Russia invades the Eastern European nation this week, the country's Jews—as they so often find themselves—are getting caught in the middle.

Within 24 hours of the invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared his intention to "de-Nazify" Ukraine, despite Ukraine having a Jewish president and being a generally safe country for Jews. Meanwhile, Jews in Ukrainian cities like Uman worry the war may exacerbate pre-existing tensions between the local Hasidic community and their non-Jewish neighbours. Yet in the broader scheme of things, any aftershocks for Jews—and even Ukraine itself—may simply be incidental to Putin's long-term plan, which is to recapture the glory, and territory, of the former Soviet Union.

To help understand the Jewish component to the ongoing conflict, as well as how Israel fits into all this, we're joined by two guests of Jewish Russian descent: Semyon Dovzhik (@semyondovzhik), a freelance journalist in Toronto, and Ruty Korotaev (@rutykorotaev), a graduate student at the Centre for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, who specializes in Russian media and disinformation.

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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 Parliamentary Cop https://pinecast.com/guid/7f63dc8a-0a98-40da-9d2e-289e223dbad3 Thu, 17 Feb 2022 19:24:47 -0000 00:43:12 Last weekend, acclaimed Canadian director Ivan Reitman passed away at 75. The director of such 1980s classic comedies as Ghostbusters, Meatballs and Stripes was not only one of the most prominent and influential Jewish Canadians in Hollywood, but an integral part of the Canadian film industry, whose name and impact has become synonymous with the Toronto International Film Festival.

Len Blum, Reitman's longtime friend and screenwriting collaborator, joins to discuss the late filmmaker's work, his deep Jewish heritage and how his family's background as Holocaust survivors led him to the career that would make him famous.

Plus, the hosts discuss how former Bonjour Chai host Melissa Lantsman is making international headlines for clashing with Justin Trudeau in the House of Commons.

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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 Hate is Just a Four-Letter Word https://pinecast.com/guid/058b8675-42b6-4d7c-8197-b4c329d06fc9 Thu, 10 Feb 2022 21:49:20 -0000 This week, Conservative MP Kevin Waugh introduced a private member's bill to amend the criminal code by prohibiting Holocaust denial. It came the same week NDP MP Peter Julian introduced a similar amendment that would ban hate symbols like swastikas and Confederate flags. That both sprung up shortly after the trucker convoy arrived in Ottawa—in which swastika-bearers and Holocaust deniers mixed with activists protesting vaccine mandates—is no coincidence.

But would any of this legislation actually work? Does it violiate freedom of expression? Would it actually lead to a reduction in hate crimes? Waugh joins from his office in Ottawa to explain his bill. Then the hosts speak with Julius Grey, a prominent Jewish human-rights lawyer in Quebec, about the legal implications.

Plus, for Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance and Inclusion Month, Ilana chats with Maayan Ziv, a photographer with muscular dystrophy who is a prominent activist for inclusivity in the arts, technology and infrastructure.

What we talked about

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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 Wait, Whoopi Goldberg Isn't Jewish? https://pinecast.com/guid/07bfc31d-3114-4149-aec7-3ef751b29618 Fri, 04 Feb 2022 01:52:44 -0000 00:58:44 The Olympics kick off this weekend, but sports are far from the biggest story. Instead, international media attention has turned to the persecution of China's Uyghur population, a Muslim minority of about 12 million suffering genocide at the hands of the Chinese government.

For many, this is not just a humanitarian crisis, but a deeply Jewish issue: a million Uyghurs are being held in concentration camps, organized by a government trying to erase their cultural identity. Rabbi Anthony Knopf joins from England to explain why Jews need to pay attention—and what they can do to help.

Plus, the hosts discuss the Whoopi Goldberg controversy and the rise of Jewish Orthodox libertarianism that's coalesced with the trucker convoy in Ottawa.

What we talked about

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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 Nobody Knows the Troubles I've Seen https://pinecast.com/guid/c58581dc-e57d-4b1c-b5d5-e87156d8ab60 Thu, 27 Jan 2022 22:37:17 -0000 Just in time for International Holocaust Remembrance Day this year, a new study by Liberation75, a Canadian organization focused on Holocaust awareness and education, announced that only two-thirds of Canadian students confidently believe the Holocaust happened. The organization's solution, based on this troubling fact, is that Holocaust education must become mandatory in school curriculums.

Not all our hosts agree. If schools add mandatory Holocaust education, what other important histories and facts will be left out? And if we do teach kids about the Holocaust, what shape will it take? Are museum field trips and documentaries really the most effective tools in the era of social media?

The hosts debate these questions, and later speak with Holocaust survivor, educator and author Max Eisen, who recently was appointed to the Order of Canada.

What we talked about

  • Listen to The CJN Daily episode, "One-third of Canadian kids don’t understand or question the Holocaust, new survey shows", at thecjn.ca.
  • Watch Miriam Anzovin's "Daf Reactions" on YouTube

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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 Rabbis Throwing Chairs https://pinecast.com/guid/f5664fde-474a-4773-838d-fae86d54bfbf Thu, 20 Jan 2022 19:54:44 -0000 00:51:59 This week, JSpaceCanada's president, Karen Mock, who is in her 70s, is stepping down to let a new, younger voice steer Canada's largest organization that promotes both progressive and Zionist stances. Whoever takes over will face a difficult challenge: in a political climate marked by extreme polarization in favour of both Israel and Palestine, how do progressive Zionists make their pitch?

To discuss, we assembled an expert panel to dissect the issue. Avi and Ilana are joined by Sharon Koifman, founder of the organization "Progressive Zionists"; Jeremy Appel, a progressive journalist in Calgary and frequent contributor to The CJN; and Michael Morgenthau, a member of JSpaceCanada.

Plus, the hosts express their feelings about the recent hostage situation at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas.

What we talked about

  • Visit Koifman's "Progressive Zionists" group on Facebook
  • Learn about JSpaceCanada at JSpaceCanada.ca
  • Listen to The CJN Daily episode, "An exit interview with Karen Mock of JSpaceCanada", at thecjn.ca

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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 Ob-La-Di, Omicron, Life Goes On https://pinecast.com/guid/62792e49-4332-413b-a2e5-2a208f7773d4 Thu, 13 Jan 2022 21:49:06 -0000 01:04:10 Nostalgia is in vogue these days—in politics, pop culture and food trends—and Judaism is no different. As North American Jewry evolves, nostalgia for our mid-20th century cultural traditions, from deli sandwiches to the Yiddish language and Holocaust remembrance, has taken hold as perhaps the dominant definition of Western Jewish identity.

Rachel B. Gross has studied these trends for her book, Beyond the Synagogue: Jewish Nostalgia as Religious Practice. She argues that, in an era of conventional religious decline, this focus on nostalgia should be considered the new North American Jewish religious practice—which would itself counter the very idea that religion is even in decline. In fact, what religion looks like may simply be changing.

Plus, Avi speaks with Lieby Lewin, the Chassidic man in Montreal who confronted two members of the media in a video that quickly went viral.

What we talked about

  • Find her book, Beyond the Synagogue: Jewish Nostalgia as Religious Practice, at nyupress.org (and if you want to buy it, use the promo code GROSS30-FM to get 30 per cent off).
  • Watch Lieby Lewin's video on his Twitter page, twitter.com/LewinLieby

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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 The Only Thing Orderly in Canada Right Now is the Order of Canada https://pinecast.com/guid/f771a67a-f47d-42f4-930b-a8b9777731fe Thu, 06 Jan 2022 20:58:53 -0000 01:11:46 Of the 135 recent appointees to the Order of Canada, at least 19 are Jewish. The recipients come from diverse fields of medicine, the arts, community activism and religion. For this week's episode of Bonjour Chai, The CJN's weekly current affairs podcast, we've invited four on for one-on-one interviews to discuss their lives and careers: Rabbi Baruch Frydman-Kohl, Cara Tannenbaum, Jane Heyman and Olga Korper.

Plus, Avi sits down with Rabbi Daniel Korobkin to discuss his latest editorial in The CJN about the Chaim Walder controversy, and the hosts catch up after the winter vacation.

What we talked about:

  • Read about the full list of Jewish Order of Canada recipients at thecjn.ca
  • Read Rabbi Korobkin's editorial at thecjn.ca

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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 It's the End of the Year as We Know it, and I Feel Fine https://pinecast.com/guid/d631f282-1f33-4a96-9818-7b48c91203a2 Wed, 29 Dec 2021 20:24:47 -0000 01:20:23 What were the biggest Canadian Jewish stories of 2021? What did readers of The Canadian Jewish News care about? What stories transcended the community? In a special end-of-year one-on-one, Avi sits down with Yoni Goldstein, editor and CEO of The Canadian Jewish News, to discuss the year's most popular stories and recurring themes.

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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 Bon Jew, Bad Jew https://pinecast.com/guid/120f3806-e61e-4bf4-825d-610d41a0f3dd Thu, 16 Dec 2021 20:38:54 -0000 00:59:18 In late November, Michael Toledano, a Jewish documentary filmmaker, was arrested while recording from behind the blockades of Wet'suwet'en activists in British Columbia. His arrest made headlines across the country, prompting many Jewish Canadians to ask: What has the relationship between these two communities looked like throughout history? From bigotry to ghettoization, genocide and colonialism, there are many parallels—and also many distinctions. David Koffman, assistant professor of history at York University and an expert in Canadian Jewish history, joins to discuss.

Plus: The hosts wrap up 2021 in Jewish culture and debate the right way to respond to Christmas greetings.

What we talked about

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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 Moderate Mrs. Maisel https://pinecast.com/guid/0c3570cd-4575-425c-9375-4a4b58fe7a35 Thu, 09 Dec 2021 23:34:51 -0000 00:55:20 A new trailer for the very Jewish, very popular TV show The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel recently dropped, announcing its next season for February. Notably, the lead actor, Rachel Brosnahan, is not Jewish. Is that okay? Should non-Jews play Jewish characters on film and TV? Two Jewish actors approach the issue from opposite sides and duke it out.

Plus, the hosts debate Canada’s diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Olympics, and the recent convoluted controversy around the Toronto District School Board attempting to censure a Jewish trustee for speaking out against antisemitic teaching materials.

What we talked about

  • Read Matti Friedman's "Eight Tips for Reading About Israel" at sapirjournal.org
  • Watch the trailer for the fourth season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on YouTube

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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming About BDS https://pinecast.com/guid/5c49277f-953a-4127-b84b-909358dc4bb8 Thu, 02 Dec 2021 23:45:00 -0000 00:54:15 The past two weeks have been a whirlwind for Jewish students at the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus. The campus student union passed a motion supporting the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel, which would curtail activities and services that "normalize Israeli apartheid." The main issue that sprung up: kosher food. Who's going to find a kosher caterer that supports BDS?

To understand the resolutions, as well as what daily life is like for Jewish students at U of T's Scarborough campus, we're joined by Tyler Samuels, a graduate from the campus who now works at Hasbara Fellowships Canada.

Plus: We discuss the CBC's recent list of 18 "words and phrases you may want to think twice about using" and how it affects Jews; our hosts debate latkes versus sufganiyot; we've got a whole slew of recommendations for Hanukkah music, movies and books; and Ilana recites a snippet from Lemony Snicket's modern classic, The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming.

What We Discussed

Our Hanukkah Recommendations

  • "A Week and a Day" by Boyz II Menorah (YouTube)
  • Hanukkah Gone Metal by Gods of Fire (godsoffire.bandcamp.com)
  • "Light One Candle" by Peter, Paul and Mary (YouTube)
  • "Miracle" by Matisyahu (YouTube)
  • "Candlelight" by The Maccabeats (YouTube)
  • The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming by Lemony Snicket (Amazon)

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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 Crass Commercial Hanukkah https://pinecast.com/guid/3831b750-9116-4eed-8757-85763c0cd2a0 Thu, 25 Nov 2021 21:18:06 -0000 00:50:22 In the last decade, executives at the Hallmark Channel and Lifetime have realized that Hanukkah exists. Now every year seems to bring a new heaping spoonful of shmaltz for Jewish audiences and anyone bored of watching the same Christmas stories told with new wide-eyed actors. Recent entries have been Mistletoe & Menorahs and Love, Lights, Hanukkah!, while this year's Eight Gifts of Hanukkah puts its own semitic spin on the format.

But how should we feel about these movies? Are they a sincere effort to educate Middle America about the Seleucid Greek takeover of a small province of Jews and their successful revolt and rededication of the temple? Or is it a shallow attempt at forcing onscreen diversity? We discuss.

Plus: Hear about the final book in our month-long book club, Leonard Cohen, Untold Stories: From This Broken Hill, Volume 2 by Michael Posner.

What we talked about

  • Email bonjour@thecjn.ca to get an exclusive invite to our new Slack channel
  • Hear Michael Posner interviewed on The CJN Daily at thecjn.ca
  • Read an excerpt from Posner's book at thecjn.ca

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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 Community Ensures Continuity https://pinecast.com/guid/1bc3c262-32c0-4ec2-819f-2fcfc2702898 Thu, 18 Nov 2021 17:06:58 -0000 01:03:34 Some news: we're launching a Slack channel. If you want to join our community in a tangible way—at least until we can start hosting live events—and chat with Avi, Ilana and David about Jewish topics (or anything at all), email bonjour@thecjn.ca to get the exclusive invite. You can also now follow and engage with us on Twitter @bonjourchai.

To navigate this world of online community-building, we invited Jesse Brown, host of the popular Canadaland podcast, to join the show. He shares his thoughts on how social media plays a role in building Jewish communities, the role of institutional gatekeeping online and how podcasting is in fact very much like Judaism.

Plus, we discuss the third book in our month-long book club, Gary Barwin's Nothing the Same, Everything Haunted: The Ballad of Motl the Cowboy.

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 Circumspect About Circumcision https://pinecast.com/guid/3c39dfb2-2303-4bb9-a650-5fd9382b8de7 Thu, 11 Nov 2021 22:02:56 -0000 00:56:16 Ritual circumcision for Jews came under heavy fire in October. First, an article came out in the New York Times in which writer Gary Shteyngart recalled his own botched circumcision and how it pains him to this day. That same week, by coincidence, an organization called Bruchim went live. Their mission: advocating on behalf of Jews who don't feel comfortable with circumcision.

It's a sensitive subject. But Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon, our guest this week and a founding member of the board of Bruchim and filmmaker who created a documentary about circumcision, doesn't shy away from these discussions.

Plus: We have a guest appearance by Margaret Atwood, who explains why she loves the Book of Job, and the hosts dig into the second book in our month-long book club: Gideon's Bible by Rick Salutin.

What we talked about

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 The Week Jews Buy Halloween Candy on Sale https://pinecast.com/guid/6f005f4a-6444-435f-86d0-8ba3ac694413 Thu, 04 Nov 2021 20:58:43 -0000 00:50:13 It's a question that grows more disturbing every time it pops up in the news: Should private sellers of antiques be allowed to sell Nazi memorabilia? Some will argue history cannot be rewritten and these antiques are simply testaments to a different era; others will decry any sale as profiting off genocide, and insist such items belong in a museum with proper context.

But how can you regulate the sale of private goods? Should we worry about the threat of white supremacists buying old Nazi goods to hang on their walls? Our hosts discuss.

Plus: We're kicking off the first-ever Bonjour Chai book club! Read along as Avi, Ilana and David discuss a different Jewish book each week, starting with Joanne Levy's Sorry For Your Loss. Levy joins to discuss her work and kick off our literary liaison.

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 G'Day, Jewish Mate https://pinecast.com/guid/74453faa-9dbc-4413-9414-cb7dafc4285c Thu, 28 Oct 2021 21:05:52 -0000 00:55:57 As a group, Jews have one of the lowest rates of organ donation in the world. And as a country, Canada also ranks at the bottom of opt-in organ donations, well below other developed nations. The pandemic has exacerbated the problem, putting thousands of people on lengthy waiting lists for life-saving procedures. But the scarcity has existed long before COVID—and will persist afterwards.

There are numerous misconceptions about organ donation in Judaism, including misinterpretation of halachic law and cultural taboos. But what are the facts? What are the statistics like in Israel? How should Canadian Jews move forward, as provinces debate shifting from an opt-in to an opt-out system?

To discuss these issues, we're joined by Robby Berman, the director and founder of the Halachic Organ Donor Society, and Elena Solomon, a Jewish woman in Toronto who's life depends on her finding a kidney donor soon.

What we talked about

  • Read Elena's story on her blog
  • Learn about the Halachic Organ Donor Society at hods.org
  • Read "Navigating organ donation in Judaism" at thecjn.ca

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 Welcome to the Prairies https://pinecast.com/guid/98f43f74-3224-4ed6-9bfa-3dcf682e1dc0 Thu, 21 Oct 2021 21:25:42 -0000 01:00:20 This coming week marks the third anniversary of the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue, where 11 people from Pittsburgh's Jewish community lost their lives. Mark Oppenheimer, host of the popular Jewish podcast Unorthodox, has written a book on the event, its precursors in the community and the aftermath of the tragedy. He joins today to discuss his book, Jewish podcasting and the difference between Canadian and American Jews.

Plus: The Bonjour Chai team welcomes our new third host. Hear David Sklar introduce himself to you, our loyal listeners.

What we talked about:

  • Read an excerpt from Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood at thecjn.ca
  • Read "I Grew Up in Toronto, but You Can’t Tell From My Accent" on tabletmag.com

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 Rabbis Love Cheshvan https://pinecast.com/guid/6b592254-cd68-4394-bd66-f81db43dfff0 Thu, 14 Oct 2021 22:24:14 -0000 00:45:00 The high-holiday season is always been a stressful time for rabbis. Week after week, throughout September and October, they are busier than perhaps at any other time of the year. Congregation attendance numbers are at their peak, and congregants are calling them day and night with personal questions. Plus, back-to-school season means heightened stress for anyone with young families—rabbis included.

Now add the pandemic on top of that.

COVID-19 introduced a whole new set of problems: How do you keep your family safe when congregants want to meet in person? How do you navigate virtual sermons if you're not tech-savvy? What can be done for rabbis' mental health during these stressful times?

We're joined by Esther Altmann, a Montrealer living in New York who works as the ‬director of pastoral education at Yeshiva Maharat‭, to discuss how rabbinic burnout has been exacerbated by the pandemic, and what congregants can do to help.

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Ilana Zackon. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 Mixed Use Does Not Equal Mixed Dancing https://pinecast.com/guid/388aedbf-5620-42cc-89fa-a3f1b9a571a9 Thu, 07 Oct 2021 14:52:38 -0000 00:49:05 Housing affordability is not a uniquely Jewish issue, but Jews face a unique challenge. Practising Jews, in particular, have certain geographic requirements—being close to synagogues, kosher markets and other community members—that make housing especially unaffordable. As home prices across Canada soar, ground zero remains its major urban centres—and therein, Jewish communities tend to be pricier than the city average.

What are the implications for young Jews priced out of the market? What changes need to happen to ensure Canadians can afford their homes in decades to come? What does a breaking point look like—or have we reached it already? To help answer these questions, , we're joined by Zev Mandelbaum, CEO of Altree Developments in Toronto.

Show Notes

  • Register for the fifth annual celebration of Leonard Cohen's songbook at Eventbrite

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Ilana Zackon. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 Truth Before Reconciliation https://pinecast.com/guid/815fb984-935e-412d-9862-f9c7d94c342c Thu, 30 Sep 2021 21:28:40 -0000 00:54:00 On the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Canadians have an opportunity to reflect on the brutal history and treatment of Indigenous people in the country. What can the Canadian Jewish community do to work toward reconciliation with Indigenous people? Do we have a unique obligation to advocate for the cause?

To answer these questions, we're joined by Deborah Corber, head of Corber Consulting, whose work has focused on government relations with the Indigenous community for more than 25 years.

Related Reading

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Ilana Zackon. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head https://pinecast.com/guid/551d0fed-4858-44de-85ab-689e2edc252e Thu, 23 Sep 2021 18:39:38 -0000 00:29:24 We're nearly at the end of a frantic late-summer blitz, combining a tight 36-day federal election campaign with Jewish high holidays, the beginning of the school year and Avi's daughter's bat mitzvah.

As fall rolls in, the hosts enjoy a leisurely chat with political correspondent Josh Lieblein, who breaks down the coming and goings of what was, as Seinfeld fans like to put it, "an election about nothing."

Dig a little deeper, however, and you'll find a lot of political shifts between Liberals and Conservatives that portend a more seismic election next time around.

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Ilana Zackon. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 Back to School, Back to Shul https://pinecast.com/guid/df4a62c8-ea3c-4f51-bb0d-212a9160cafc Fri, 17 Sep 2021 18:25:46 -0000 00:47:33 With most congregations returning to some semblance of normalcy, one of the biggest questions is how children—who cannot be vaccinated—can safely return after 18 months away. There's no consensus among congregations, resulting in a hodgepodge of ad hoc rules across the country.

How can Canada's religious leadership navigate this uncertain future? Is there a right decision? Joining the hosts to unpack some of these issues is Rabba Rachel Kohl Finegold, a member of the clergy team at Congregation Shaar Hashomayim and the president of the Montreal Board of Rabbis.

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Melissa Lantsman and Ilana Zackon. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 Consider us the Canadian Jewish 'As it Happens' https://pinecast.com/guid/35a7c064-6cef-42ee-b914-7178bcd4cc60 Fri, 10 Sep 2021 00:10:57 -0000 00:55:53 Years ago, Mishy Harman wondered about his fellow Israelis. There seemed to be so many differences within the country—political, ideological, sociological—and yet he didn't personally know anybody who wasn't like himself. He wanted to change that.

That desire to meet different people propelled him to create Israel Story, a long-form radio documentary show modelled after This American Life. Now heading into its sixth season, it tells nuanced, diverse Israeli stories that shed light on the country beyond the geopolitics.

Harman joins Avi and Ilana to discuss the show's origins and indulge in the world of Jewish podcasting.

Plus: With widespread vaccination bringing congregants back to shul, some are still wary of being indoors with a crowd. It begs the contrarian question: Will they ever feel safe enough to return to synagogue again?

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Ilana Zackon. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 Party like it's 5781 https://pinecast.com/guid/664bb3da-d604-4642-bea7-28f9a812b942 Thu, 02 Sep 2021 19:22:26 -0000 00:58:34 Kids are heading back to school in what may turn out to be another shaky semester, with the risk of virtual learning, school closures and mandatory vaccination policies for teachers hanging over students' heads.

But there's a positive side for Jewish parents and students: private Jewish education, which has generally been on a decline over the past two decades, saw an uptick during the pandemic, as more parents perhaps decided it was a safer, better organized route for kids studying from home.

Is this the beginning of a larger trend, or just a brief quirk in history? To help navigate the topic, we're joined by Randal Schnoor, a sociologist and professor of Jewish Studies at York University.

Also: we catch up with political pundit Josh Lieblein to compare the Liberal and Conservative platforms vis-a-vis Israel and antisemitism, and announce a political debate hosted by The CJN and CIJA. Listeners can submit question we'll ask the candidates at thecjn.ca/debate.

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Ilana Zackon. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 Election Preview: What are the Jewish issues to watch? https://pinecast.com/guid/e5b55bd1-7f1b-4288-a9b7-c0d5335a3d1f Fri, 27 Aug 2021 15:18:21 -0000 00:17:56 How much is antisemitism an election issue? Do Jews vote as a bloc? Who are the Jewish candidates to watch? With a federal election underway, Avi and Ilana invite The CJN's political pundit, Josh Lieblein, to break down the issues that matter most to Canadian Jews.

You can read Josh's series, "Doorstop Postings", at thecjn.ca.

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Ilana Zackon. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.

]]> no 1 So Long, Farewell, Au Revoir—to Melissa https://pinecast.com/guid/6abfb555-8997-4368-b57b-fc8e7da7f756 Thu, 05 Aug 2021 17:18:35 -0000 00:45:00 It's hard to say how Judaism fits into identity politics. As both an ethnicity and religion, comprising (in North America) mostly white-skinned people who may not look obviously Jewish, how can our community fairly compare antisemitism to racism of other kinds? Is such a comparison even needed? Do white-skinned Jews have white privilege? These are not comfortable questions, but longstanding Jewish involvement in social-justice causes makes them inevitable.

It's a topic David Bernstein, the founder of the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values, has thought a lot about. He has written about the relationship and intersection between Jews, progressive activists and social media for several years, most recently in Quillette, an online magazine.

David joins today to discuss his encounters with the far left, his take on critical social justice and what he feels is the right way to deal with dissenting opinions.

What we talked about:

  • Read David Bernstein's piece, "Standing up to the Social-Justice Mobs Within the Jewish Community", on quillette.com

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Melissa Lantsman and Ilana Zackon. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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.

]]> no 1 Jewish Geography Should be an Olympic Sport https://pinecast.com/guid/da2a53e0-9aa6-488f-8f21-c9c5089a4a7c Thu, 29 Jul 2021 15:35:35 -0000 00:41:50 For three years, Jamie Hirsh and Gabe Pulver have hosted Menschwarmers, the world's only podcast about Jews and sports, for The CJN Podcast Network. In the past month they've been busy covering the Olympics from a Jewish perspective, interviewing Jewish Olympians and experts in the field. Today, they share what they've learned with Avi and Ilana for a special sporting edition of Bonjour Chai.

Relevant links

  • Listen to Menschwarmers on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts
  • Read Jamie's article previewing notable Jewish athletes to watch in Tokyo 2020 at thecjn.ca
  • Sign up for the StandWithUs Canada event featuring Gabe and Jamie at thecjn.ca/tokyo2020

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Melissa Lantsman and Ilana Zackon. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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.

]]> no 1 Thank God Laura Secord Still Loves Israel https://pinecast.com/guid/7a99d04e-fa13-42ad-b74d-dfa54c26c231 Thu, 22 Jul 2021 22:21:15 -0000 00:53:09 A recent investigation into toxic hook-up culture among American Jewish teens, published in the digital magazine New Voices, shone a light on pervasive sexual harrassment within certain groups of Jewish organizations, such as BBYO, United Synagogue Youth and NFTY. To many people who have attended Jewish youth groups, this may sound like nothing new—but it does feel like a tipping point, as society at large grapples with systemic sexual harrassment in various industries and cultures.

What are the solutions? How can organizations and community members change change things? And why can this trend not simply be brushed aside as "teens having sex"?

To help answer these questions, we're joined by Rahel Bayar, a former sex-crimes and child-abuse prosecutor and the founder of the Bayar Group, a consultancy that works with camps, schools, corporations and faith-based organizations to help them identify and root out sexual misconduct, harassment and abuse.

Plus: the hosts debate the controversy surrounding the new Netflix reality show, My Unorthodox Life. Is it worth all the hubbub it's caused in Orthodox circles?

Relevant links:

  • Learn more about Rahel's work at thebayargroup.com
  • Read the New Voices piece, "How Jewish Youth Groups Are Breeding A Toxic Sexual Culture For Teens", at newvoices.org
  • Find My Unorthodox Life on Netflix

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Melissa Lantsman and Ilana Zackon. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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.

]]> no 1 The journey to becoming Rivkush https://pinecast.com/guid/89476a6f-eb08-4b18-aa5c-aaa6f6718318 Thu, 15 Jul 2021 22:46:34 -0000 00:30:05 Rivka "Rivkush" Campbell, a Jew of Jamaican descent, has been one of Canada's most vocal Jews of colour. As a co-founder of Jews of Colour Canada, as well as a new podcaster with The CJN Podcast Network (listen to the trailer here), Rivkush is focused on making the voices of JOCs heard in the mainstream Canadian Jewish community on subjects beyond race and identity politics.

But she wasn't always an activist, and her work has changed a lot in the past year. Rivkush joins Ilana for a special one-on-one conversation about why she decided to start her organization, the work she's doing on diversity in the Jewish community and why JOCs need to be included in broader dialogues.

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Melissa Lantsman and Ilana Zackon. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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.

]]> no 1 The Real Stanley Cup was the Friends We Made Along the Way https://pinecast.com/guid/f8eff015-f12c-40a9-b4d4-ec0896e141d8 Thu, 08 Jul 2021 22:27:09 -0000 00:44:21 With a hot wildfire season upon Western Canada and a record-shattering heat dome that just killed hundreds of people in B.C., it's imperative for Jewish Canadians to look at climate change as a real threat and ask what they can do to help. And yet, despite a clear intersection between environmental protection and Jewish values in the Torah and Mishnah, there has been very little collective Jewish action beyond a few groups and some prominent climate activists.

One of those prominent activists joins us today. Tzeporah Berman, a longtime Canadian activist whose resume includes years at Greenpeace and working with various arms of the B.C. government, and who is the co-founder of Stand.earth, joins to discuss the Jewish angle on environmentalism: what we can do to help, and why climate change is a Jewish cause.

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Melissa Lantsman and Ilana Zackon. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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.

]]> no 1 It's Jacques Cartier, Right this Way https://pinecast.com/guid/630c3a8a-04b4-48cf-8d9a-324b7a8f7c5f Thu, 01 Jul 2021 19:39:51 -0000 00:43:44 As the manager for The Pursuit of Happiness, The Watchmen, Adam Cohen and, of course, The Tragically Hip, Jake Gold has been an integral part of Canada's music scene since 1985. In a special Canada Day edition of Bonjour Chai, Jake joins Avi to chat about Canadian music, mensches and management.

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Melissa Lantsman and Ilana Zackon. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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.

]]> no 1 It's Not Easy Being Blue and White, Either https://pinecast.com/guid/0cc3fc49-5455-4f61-a949-f1ad8a6fd262 Thu, 24 Jun 2021 22:16:14 -0000 June 24 is the Fête nationale du Québec, also known as Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day. It's one of the province's biggest holidays, despite being largely unknown by non-Francophone Canadians. Nevertheless, it creates a perfect opportunity to discuss the role of Jews in Quebec: how they've integrated, what daily life is like and how Zionism has (or hasn't) resonated with Quebec nationalists. Pierre Anctil, a Canadian historian and professor at the University of Ottawa, joins to discuss.

Plus: the hosts discuss a provocative essay by Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy in Tablet called "The Un-Jews", and Rabbi Boris Dolan of Dorshei Emet talks about the perfect Shabbat song.

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Melissa Lantsman and Ilana Zackon. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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.

]]> no 1 It's Not Easy Being Green https://pinecast.com/guid/1ce14133-1365-4e21-a52f-ffd9aae3ae28 Fri, 18 Jun 2021 00:57:51 -0000 00:25:13 Ever since another round of conflict began in the Middle East in May 2021, the Green Party of Canada has been rocked by infighting and a leadership crisis. Jenica Atwin, an MP from New Brunswick and the Greens' latest addition to the House of Commons, who has described Israel as an "apartheid" strate, recently crossed the floor to join the Liberals, after clashing with a Zionist advisor to Leader Annamie Paul.

But what's really going on? Is the biggest fault line truly Canada's relationship to Israel? What are the ideological distinctions between the party's factions in the wake of Elizabeth May stepping down as leader?

To help understand what's going on, Avi is joined today by Jeremy Appel, an Alberta-based progressive journalist who's covered the Greens for years.

Related links:

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Melissa Lantsman and Ilana Zackon. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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.

]]> no 1 The Habs are the Only Good News in Canada https://pinecast.com/guid/21268e14-2932-485f-8cce-a4068ce2451a Thu, 10 Jun 2021 20:26:11 -0000 00:49:11 Few Canadians understand both the First Nations and Jewish communities as well as Nakuset. The prominent activist, at a young age, was taken from her home in the Sixties Scoop and adopted by a wealthy Jewish family in Montreal. Today, she joins the podcast to discuss Canada's reckoning with its recent history of brutality against First Nations people, especially in the light of the mass grave of children discovered at a Kamloops residential school.

Plus: We discuss the terrible hate crime that killed four Muslim people in London, Ont. In the first 24 hours, there was a flurry of fears among Canadian Jews that the alleged perpetrator—Nathaniel Veltman, at times erreously reported as Veldman or Feldman—could have been a member of the community. (It has been all but confirmed that he is not.) In the wake of the tragedy, our hosts ask: Does it even matter if he was Jewish? What impact did the Islamophobic attack have on the Jewish community? And what would it have meant if Veltman actually were Jewish?

Related links

  • Learn more about Nakuset's work at resiliencemontreal.com and nwsm.info
  • Read "London’s Jewish leaders to attend vigil for Muslim family killed in car attack" at thecjn.ca
  • Read "London imam’s ‘inflammatory’ remarks at vigil link Israel to local killings" at thecjn.ca

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Melissa Lantsman and Ilana Zackon. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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.

]]> no 1 Bite-Sized Bonjour: Love is Love https://pinecast.com/guid/ffd973c7-cd86-421b-9ad6-46e174884e77 Fri, 04 Jun 2021 02:30:00 -0000 Rabbi Steven Greenberg has been described as the first openly gay Orthodox rabbi. He is the founding director of Eshel, a non-profit organization that helps LGBTQ+ Jews in the Orthodox community. Eshel is sponsoring a panel at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival this year after a screening of the film Marry Me However, about the phenomenon of Orthodox Jews who marry spouses of the opposite gender, despite being gay or lesbian themselves.

What we talked about:

  1. Watch the trailer for Marry Me However at tjff.com
  2. Learn more about Eshel at eshelonline.org

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Melissa Lantsman and Ilana Zackon. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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.

]]> no 1 Blue Screen of Death https://pinecast.com/guid/6e05fc54-f6b9-46c4-bbf0-e9a79cc84d73 Thu, 27 May 2021 20:54:15 -0000 00:51:42 May has been an exhausting month for Canada's Jews—a steady stream of anti-Semitism conflating with anti-Zionism has flowed across social media and is affecting real-world businesses, institutions and communities. Meanwhile, Jewish voices from the left are rising louder than ever before, perhaps indicating that mainstream opinion on Israel-Palestine is shifting. On today's episode, Avi, Melissa and Ilana engage in an all-about debate about these issues and more.

Related Reading from thecjn.ca:

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Melissa Lantsman and Ilana Zackon. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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.

]]> no 1 Bite-Sized Bonjour: An Interview with Aviva Armour-Ostroff https://pinecast.com/guid/9dada608-e5a5-40dd-af1f-56ded1aa6ab9 Fri, 21 May 2021 00:07:45 -0000 00:17:29 Bonjour Chai is going weekly! Every other week, we'll be featuring shorter, more intimate episodes with fascinating Canadian Jews. Today, Ilana sits down with Aviva Armour-Ostroff, a director, actor and writer whose work has spanned decades in the Canadian theatre and film scene. Her latest movie, Lune, is receiving its Canadian premiere at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival, where it became the first Canadian film to win the festival's prestigious Micki Moore Award for best narrative feature by a female director. Watch the trailer or buy tickets at TJFF.com.

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Melissa Lantsman and Ilana Zackon. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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.

]]> no 1 Nobody Wins Unless Everybody Wins https://pinecast.com/guid/3da55060-250f-4dbf-a726-188c32759014 Thu, 13 May 2021 22:12:45 -0000 00:47:07 May 11 marked two big events for watchers of Jewish demographics in North America: in Canada it was Census Day, whereby Jews could identify themselves as Jewish in the long-form census; and in the United States, the Pew Research Center released a sprawling survey into American Jewry. What lessons can be gleaned from new demographic insights? What are the key takeaways from the Pew study? Why is Canada failing to perform similar behavioural studies here? To help analyze the data, we're joined by Robert Brym, a professor of sociology at the University of Toronto. Plus, we discuss Canada's role in the current conflict between Israel and Gaza.

Relevant links:

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Melissa Lantsman and Ilana Zackon. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew 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.

]]> no 1 Can't See the Forest for the Trees https://pinecast.com/guid/caed2453-46aa-4545-8e0c-0610f2ce9ca4 Thu, 29 Apr 2021 21:59:30 -0000 00:53:51 In 1975, Jason Sherman received a certificate for his bar mitzvah. Instead of a regular savings bond, the certificate explained that a tree had been planted in Israel, in his name, by the Jewish National Fund. Now a playwright and documentary filmmaker, Sherman wanted to find that tree in what is today known as Canada Park, a 700-hectare Israeli national park—but one with a controversial history of appropriated Palestinian land. Sherman joins to talk about his new film, My Tree, which debuts at the Hot Docs festival this week.

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Melissa Lantsman and Ilana Zackon. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew Goulet is the technical producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a production of The Jewish Learning Lab and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network.

]]> no 1 It's Hard to Say I'm Sorry https://pinecast.com/guid/65e4276a-bc87-4586-b052-2843d8db2b68 Thu, 15 Apr 2021 21:08:14 -0000 00:55:27 Concordia University's student union recently surprised the Canadian Jewish community by issuing an apology for indifference to anti-Semitism on campus. Nicole Nashen and Harrison Kirshner, the two Jewish students who pushed for that apology, join us to explain how they did it. Plus: Dr. Barry Pakes talks about COVID vaccination and viral outbreaks in the Jewish community, and how we can combat vaccine misinformation.

What We Talked About

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Melissa Lantsman and Ilana Zackon. Bubbe Golda is a creation of Adina Katz. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew Goulet is the technical producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a production of The Jewish Learning Lab and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network.

]]> no 1 The Vaccines Will Bring the Messiah https://pinecast.com/guid/1763a9bf-e3a6-4fe8-b59a-d75bbdcd4ad7 Thu, 01 Apr 2021 20:44:43 -0000 00:48:26 We're in the thick of Passover, which means Mimouna is right around the corner. What's Mimouna, you (likely Ashkenazim) might ask? It's the end-of-Passover celebration, celebrated by Sephardic Jews around the world. Avi, Ilana and Melissa chat with Instagram comedian Orel Gozlan to learn more about it. Find Orel on Instagram @orelgozlan.

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Melissa Lantsman and Ilana Zackon. "What Bubby Golda Says" is by Adina Katz. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew Goulet is the technical producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a production of The Jewish Learning Lab and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network.

]]> no Quaran-seder: Part Deux https://pinecast.com/guid/238d45df-1661-43d4-89ce-1ec2ebfdb670 Thu, 18 Mar 2021 22:03:33 -0000 00:45:16 Next week, Jews around the world will face their second year of Passover in self-isolation. Should the halachic rules change in the wake of these exceptional circumstances?

Relevant links:

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Melissa Lantsman and Ilana Zackon. "What Bubby Golda Says" is by Adina Katz. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew Goulet is the technical producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a production of The Jewish Learning Lab and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network.

]]> no 1 Same-Sex Marriage Revolution https://pinecast.com/guid/14f22286-a490-4f26-acc4-7a514f8983a1 Thu, 04 Mar 2021 20:55:48 -0000 00:48:47 Episode Notes

On the debut episode of Bonjour Chai, we bring on Rabbi Steven Wernick of Beth Tzedec to discuss his conservative temple's recent bombshell move: marrying same-sex couples. Plus, we discuss the controversy around a street in Ajax, Ontario, that is for some reason named after a Nazi.

This episode is sponsored by Atelier Lou (atelierlou.com) and Securassure (securassure.ca).

What We Talked About

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Melissa Lantsman and Ilana Zackon. Bubbe Golda is a creation of Adina Katz. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andrew Goulet is the technical producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a production of The Jewish Learning Lab and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network.

]]> no 1 Trailer: Bonjour Chai https://pinecast.com/guid/b6fd64f9-069e-441a-bbcb-4ecd17e96fb4 Fri, 26 Feb 2021 01:09:11 -0000 00:00:35 Episode Notes

Canadian Jews, listen up: this podcast's for you. Join hosts Avi Finegold, Melissa Lantsman and Ilana Zackon as they break down the goings-on across our community. Geographically and politically diverse, this show will dive into current affairs, spiritual advice, and the latest news with in-depth analysis and special guests. (Trailer music: Glass Eye/Snow Globe by Great Circles.)

]]> no trailer