Advertise on podcast: North Star with Ellin Bessner

Montreal artist Sheila Nemtin Levine didn’t plan to fulfill the final commandment of the Torah, which says that every Jew should write their own Old Testament. But that’s what ended up happening after she painted 54 vibrant, mixed-media canvases—one for each parashah in the Torah—and imbued each with a modern take on the ancient Biblical verses. Her exhibit, Tablet Tableaux, has just opened for a three-month tour of prominent Toronto synagogues. It begins at Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda this week, then heads to Holy Blossom Temple until the end of December, and finally moves to Darchei Noam for all of January 2027. Nemtin Levine calls the panels a journey of exploration. Audience members are encouraged to physically engage with the works by touching the grains of sand, family photos and architectural blueprints for the Israelites’ portable desert tabernacle. Her works have been displayed at several synagogues across Montreal and, last month, at Ottawa's JCC. Jewish high schools have used them for special b’nei mitzvah study modules. The project has also spawned a coffee table book, a free audio guide, and a forthcoming documentary video series. On today’s episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, we bring you Nemtin Levine's interview with host Ellin Bessner, who visited the artist's studio in Montreal in July 2025. Related link Learn more about Tablet Tableaux at the artist's website. See the original story on The CJN.ca from 2025 Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to North Star.https://thecjn.ca/newsletters/ Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

Ellin is off today, so we're bringing you the latest episode of Menschwarmers, The CJN's Jewish sports podcast. Hear more at thecjn.ca/menschwarmers Jewish hockey is having a moment. Players like Adam Fox, the Hughes brothers, Zeev Buium, Zach Hyman, Jake Walman and Devon Levi are having a major impact on the ice—and with more Jewish players joining the NHL each year, fans are holding them up as role models for the community’s youth. Jonny Lazarus has lived through both sides of that story. The Long Island native played Division I hockey at UMass Amherst and Mercyhurst and represented the United States at the 2017 Maccabiah Games. But during the COVID shutdown, realizing he wasn’t going to make it pro, he pivoted to making hockey content. These days, he co-hosts Morning Cuppa Hockey and is working on a new interview series with Bleacher Report. Lazarus joins Menschwarmers to give a wide-ranging preview of the 2026-27 NHL season. They chat about major Jewish players to watch—including Lazarus’s childhood friend and former campmate, Adam Fox—and Lazarus shares his own journey of breaking into the hockey-talk industry. Plus: the Jewish MLB postseason comes to an end, the PWHL approaches its new season, NBA hopefuls Noam Yaacov and Lajae Jones fight for roster spots, and the boys preview the incoming crop of International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame inductees. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to North Star.https://thecjn.ca/newsletters/ Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

Note: This episode contains explicit and offensive language. When the Canadian Armed Forces issued an official apology in October 2025 for decades of racial discrimination and harassment experienced by its members, Toronto-based Capt. Rabbi Jonathan Jaffit, a Jewish officer, was one of many who subsequently applied to a Federal Court–approved claims process to receive financial compensation and restorative justice. The landmark $150-million class action lawsuit at the source of the compensation package was filed in 2016 by three military veterans who were released from their service early after years of bullying and harassment because they were Black or Indigenous. The military settled without accepting liability. Deloitte was mandated to process the claims. The claims portal closed Thursday, Oct. 15— and, as The CJN reported in our full-length investigative story, nearly 30 Jewish claimants have had their applications rejected. Like Jaffit, they received the same form letter from Deloitte saying their racial identity made them ineligible. The court-approved Final Settlement Agreement uses a broad scope to define racial discrimination, including race, ethnicity, colour and/or Indigeneity. So why has Deloitte told the Jewish claimants it is applying only the narrower Employment Equity Act requirements, and adhering to the categories of “visible minorities” as per the national census? Capt. Jaffit has now taken legal action on behalf of the Jewish members. His lawyer applied Thursday, Oct. 15, to the Federal Court to become an intervener in this class action case. He joins a second application, by a non-Jewish French Canadian officer whose claim was also rejected, which was filed earlier this fall. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner brings you the latest developments and an interview not with Jaffit—who is not allowed to speak to the media—but with a second Jewish member whose claim was rejected. We have disguised their identity to protect their career. Related links Read our full length investigation in print on The CJN's website. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to North Star.https://thecjn.ca/newsletters/ Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

After six terms and 22 years of public service, Shelley Laskin is stepping away from the Toronto District School Board. The board's longest-serving active trustee has decided not to run again on Oct. 26, when Ontario voters head to the polls and choose their next local leaders. In doing so, one of Toronto's most prominent Jewish advocates at the school board level leaves during a sensitive time. The TDSB has been mired in issues surrounding antisemitism and anti-Zionism ever since Oct. 7, 2023. Last year, the board was commandeered by the provincial government, which, Laskin says, left trustees without resources and parents without elected representatives who can properly act on their concerns. But Laskin can point to significant accomplishments, too. She's proud to have helped usher in citywide Holocaust education and her work with the TDSB's Jewish Heritage Committee, which built resources and partnered with other heritage groups on cross-cultural programming. On today's episode of North Star, The CJN's education reporter Zenith Wolfe speaks with Laskin about public education, Jewish inclusion, local democracy and what she wants the next generation of trustees to understand. Zachary Kauffman sits in for Ellin Bessner. Correction: We said Laskin's first term was 2014. Indeed, she has served since 2010. The CJN regrets the error. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to North Starhttps://thecjn.ca/newsletters/ Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

When Rachel Carmela’s mother died just before the COVID pandemic, her family was able to sit shiva. But the sudden lockdown in March 2020 curtailed communal gatherings where she could say Kaddish for the rest of her year of mourning. At the time, Carmela was working as a music and mindfulness teacher. She began writing songs to help cope with her grief and immersed herself in books and courses on the subject. When pandemic restrictions ended, Carmela found there were few spaces where young adults like her could publicly express grief through song and poetry after the initial loss. So she created one. She calls it Grieving Out Loud, a series of pay-what-you-can gatherings in Toronto that launched in late August. The second session, on Oct. 1, sold out, with about 75 people registered, although only a few performed at the microphone. Carmela is now trained in expressive arts therapy. Over two hours, with yoga mats and tea available, she helps people living with grief find community without requiring them to talk about a specific loss, whether a person, pet or life circumstance. While most participants have not been Jewish, Carmela plans to expand the open-mic gatherings to include events specifically for Jewish audiences, including opportunities to process collective grief over Oct. 7. She joins host Ellin Bessner on today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast to discuss the open mics where grief takes the stage. Related links Learn more about Creative Grieving, and follow founder Rachel Carmela, the therapist, through her Instagram. Read a new op-ed by Ezra Shanken about Canadian Jews being denied even their own Oct. 7 grief in The CJN. A new book by a Canadian Rabbi Avraham Plotkin, who is also a bereaved father, on how to cope with the death of a difficult parent, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor),l Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to North Star Get our free newsletter Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

When Calgary’s new sculpture, Shattered Into Light, was transported from the artist’s California studio in a wooden crate, Calgary Jewish cemetery operators thought it looked like an artifact from the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. The sculpture and an adjacent plaque were installed in a renovated community space inside Calgary’s historic Erlton cemetery, now called the Garden of Remembrance. Dedicated during a community ceremony in late August, the metal artwork stands 1.86 metres tall, or just over six feet—about the height of a full-size refrigerator. Other Canadian Oct. 7 memorial projects have been created in recent years—locations include a garden at a Vancouver synagogue, two Jewish community centres in Toronto, and outside the Ottawa JCC. But the Calgary monument is believed to be the first permanent Oct. 7 memorial inside a Canadian Jewish cemetery—and possibly among the first of its kind in North America. Organizers felt they needed to provide a peaceful place where people could honour those lost on Oct. 7 and in the ensuing conflict. Calgary is home to the brother of murdered Canadian peace activist Vivian Silver, as well as Israelis impacted by the 2023 terrorist attack. The sculpture has already attracted visitors, including non-Jews. While the local Chevra Kadisha isn’t actively soliciting funds for the project, which was covered by local sponsors, financial contributions to its upkeep are welcome. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, artist Charles Sherman joins host Ellin Bessner, along with Harold Lipton and Susan Dvorkin of the Calgary Chevra Kadisha, to discuss the new garden, the Oct. 7 sculpture and why the community wanted this memorial now. Related links How Toronto’s hostage dog tags and yellow pins worn for 843 days turned into an eternal sculpture and also a second piece of art connecting Canada and Israel, in The CJN. Learn more about a Vancouver Oct. 7 memorial garden erected inside the Temple Sholom synagogue, in The CJN. See the Calgary Garden of Remembrance and watch the full interview on The CJN’s YouTube Channel. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Subscribe to The CJN's North Star podcast Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

When Belleville resident Debbie Hoskin’s husband discovered an antisemitic black and white, two-sided flyer on their front lawn on Oct. 1, she knew right away it was Jew hatred, as she calls it: the text blames Jews for everything from profiting off COVID-19 to being the promoters of abortion. Although Hoskin is of Jewish heritage, her home wasn’t the only one on her street to wake up to these posters on their lawns. Other homes had them, too. This street is just a few blocks from the Sons of Jacob synagogue, which two weeks ago was the target of a horrific shooting by a now-dead antisemitic gunman. The synagogue president also found four of these posters on the building. Hoskin called Belleville police, who are now investigating and looking for security camera video in the area to check for a suspect or suspects. Hoskin is upset, but not surprised at the latest manifestation of antisemitism in the Canadian city. She believes there is uncensored Jew-hatred being given free reign on some social media accounts, although she doesn’t know whether the Goyim Defense League-linked flyer she got was sourced in Belleville. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with eyewitness Debbie Hoskin and with Prof. Karen Blair, an expert in Holocaust studies and the psychology of the Holocaust, at Trent University in Peterborough, who warns that hate begets hate. Blair cautions anyone who encounters this specific kind of right-wing hate propaganda not to click on it. She had eerily similar flyers placed on her house in 2023, for which police in Peterborough eventually arrested a man and charged him with a hate crime. Related links Read more about Belleville police’s investigation into the new antisemitic flyers found on the synagogue and in the neighbourhood, in The CJN. Graffiti linked to the same neo-Nazi hate group was found in four Toronto schools in 2022, in The CJN. Watch the full interview about the new flyers, with Belleville resident Deborah Hoskin, and also with Prof. Karen Blair, a Holocaust studies expert from Trent University, on The CJN’s YouTube channel. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

Television producer Perry Rosemond, who died Sept. 11 in Las Vegas, helped create some of the most iconic Canadian television of his generation, especially The King of Kensington, but also brought Mr. Dressup and Hockey Night in Canada to the small screen. The kid from Winnipeg’s North End went on to make it big in Toronto and Hollywood over a 50-year career, helping launch the careers of Martin Short, Howie Mandel and other Canadian comedians. Rosemond is one of five notable Jewish Canadians who recently died and whose lives we profile in the High Holidays Yizkor episode of Honourable Menschen, a recurring series on The CJN’s North Star podcast. We also pay tribute to another Winnipegger, philanthropist Tova Vickar, the daughter of Holocaust survivors who left her beloved adopted country of Israel for what she thought would be a short adventure in Manitoba. Her devotion to helping others—including Winnipeg’s Filipino community—was matched by her love of Elvis Presley’s music. Canadian Holocaust historian and author Franklin Bialystok received a new liver, that extended his life by nearly 30 years. During that time, he became an expert on the experiences of Holocaust survivors after they arrived in Canada. We also remember two Montreal rabbis. Rabbi Leigh Lerner, a social justice pioneer, served at Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom for nearly a quarter-century, fighting human trafficking and advocating for the inclusion of LGBTQ+ Jews and interfaith couples in the Reform congregation. About five kilometres away, Conservative Rabbi Ronnie Cahana led Congregation Beth-El until a devastating stroke left him quadriplegic. He continued teaching and creating from his bed in long-term care for another 15 years. On today’s episode, The CJN’s obituary columnist, Heather Ringel, joins host Ellin Bessner with audio and anecdotes about these five memorable Canadians. Related links Read more about this episode’s Honourable Menschen and woman in The CJN : the late Rabbi Ronnie Cahana ; Frank Bialystok ,; Tova Vickar ; Rabbi Leigh Lerner; and Perry Rosemond. Kitra Cahana made an award-winning documentary about her disabled father during COVID, in The CJN from 2022. Read about Rabbi Lerner's novel, The Mossad Messiah , in The CJN from 2018. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor),l Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

Israel's election to form the country's next government is less than four weeks away, with voters in Israel going to the polls on Oct. 27. Long serving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is once again leading the right-wing Likud party's hopes to return to office ,which he has held on and off for nearly 19 of the last thirty years, since 1996. This election comes after Israel's longest war since Independence in 1948, with the Oct. 7 Hamas massacres and resulting wars in Gaza weighing heavily on the voters. Ongoing military campaigns on other fronts including Lebanon, Syria and with Iran are also shaping the campaign. And just this week, Netanyahu appeared at an IDF air force base, vowing to continue hunting down Oct. 7 perpetrators, while warning Israel's enemies not to think about launching an attack on the country to disrupt the elections. So who's likely to win this crucial ballot? Can the diverse left, centre and right opposition slates, with five rival leaders known as "the change bloc" – Gadi Eisenkot, Naftali Bennett, Yair Lapid, Avigdor Liberman and Yair Golan - who met this weekend to seal a joint statement of principals, win enough together to oust Netanyahu, as happened briefly in 2021. Or will the growing religious-Zionist and ultra-Orthodox smaller parties remain strong enough and agree to help send Bibi back to power?And what role will the Arab parties play, now that Israel's election authority just disqualified two of them from the election, for supporting Hamas. On today's episode of The CJN's North Star podcast, Prof. Nikolenyi breaks down the Israeli election for us, including the 38 different lists of candidates, the main leaders, their backroom deals, and why it might be closer to December before Israel actually has a sworn in government. Related links What these young pro-democracy Israelis want to see ahead of the Oct. 27 elections, taped in Dec. 2025 during a special live panel discussion by the Hartman Institute, in Toronto, on The CJN’s North Star podcast. Hear Sharren Haskel, Israel’s deputy foreign minister in the last government, warn Canada “there will be blood” spilled here, after spate of synagogue shootings in March, on The CJN’s North Star podcast. Read our interview with MK Dan Illouz from Feb. 2023 about why his former Likud party was trying to reform the Israeli justice system, on The CJN’s North Star .Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor),l Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

It’s been nearly four months since a massive rainstorm hit Winnipeg on June 9, causing a flood in the basement of the Asper Jewish Community Campus. That’s where half the archival collection of the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada was being stored: among the collection were some of the 70,000 photographs, old Jewish newspapers, Torah covers, and other cloth and textiles donated by generations of Jewish families from Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario. If it hadn’t been for the quick response by archivist Ava Garfinkel, and some volunteers, the collection could have suffered serious damage from mould, and been ruined within a day or two. They raced against time and worked all night to move the sodden boxes upstairs, then called in a restoration company in Ottawa that specializes in saving water-damaged collections and paper, through deep freezing. Garfinkel believes they managed to save everything, except for one photograph. But big challenges remain before the collection can be returned to Winnipeg: raising $100,000 – enough funds to build a safer, drier space in the same building to protect 130 years of Jewish history. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner takes the archivist Ava Garfinkel back to that frantic, stormy night to recount what happened, to update us on the current status of the frozen archives, and to outline what measures are needed to make sure this doesn’t happen again. Related links Read about some of the significant artifacts which The Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada holds, including a donated 235-year-old European Torah scroll once used by Montreal’s South Shore Jewish community and previously, in Melfort, Sask., in The CJN , from 2024. Charitable donations to restore and rebuild the archives can be made through the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada’s website. The JHCWC is holding a Trivia Night Oct. 22 with all proceeds to the emergency restoration fund for the archives. Learn more here. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor),l Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

Warning: This podcast contains a clip of hateful language. Both B’nai Brith Canada and Montreal’s Jewish federation, Federation CJA, have issued a call to change legislation in some provinces, including Quebec, that currently prevents private armed guards from working at Jewish institutions. B’nai Brith Canada also wants “a sufficient police presence at every Jewish institution in Canada.” CIJA, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, also called for more resources to keep Jewish communities safe. Police and provincial officials in Belleville told a media conference Sept. 24 that the synagogue shooter had the motivation, means and materials to carry out a mass-casualty attack aimed at the Jewish community that could have destroyed the Sons of Jacob synagogue on Yom Kippur evening. While the police force did not have prior intelligence warnings about the shooter, who died in hospital on Sept. 21, Chief Murray Rodd said the former army corporal carried out a deliberate attack, “a hate crime,” and that proactively stationing an on-duty police officer at the synagogue “was the right place at the right time.” His message to Canadian police forces: “It is clearly time that we all be proactive.” Canada’s ministers of justice and public safety have condemned the Belleville attack. In a document released the same day as the Belleville police chief’s media conference, Ottawa pledged to do more to stop antisemitism, which the government now describes as “a threat to national security.” The report also defines modern antisemitism as a phenomenon that can include anti-Zionism. On today’s episode of North Star, Yair Szlak, president and CEO of Federation CJA, speaks about security issues for Canada’s second-largest Jewish community and what they want to see happen. The interview was taped before the Belleville attack. Related stories Belleville police confirm the Yom Kippur shooter was planning a mass casualty attack and a hate crime directed solely at the Jewish community, in The CJN. Learn more about longstanding calls in Quebec to allow private armed guards or off-duty Montreal police to protect Jewish buildings, in The CJN from 2024. How a Queen’s University student trapped in the synagogue during the shooting thought “that was it” for him, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor),l Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

Israeli Rabbi Oded Peles was a few minutes late starting the Yom Kippur evening service in Belleville, Ont., on Sept. 20, because he paused to help two female congregants light extra candles outside the sanctuary. Seconds later, a hail of bullets tore into the stained-glass windows beside the pulpit at Sons of Jacob synagogue, where Rabbi Peles would have been standing to lead the congregation in prayer. Rabbi Peles was unharmed, and no one else in the building was injured. Outside, as we now know, a 29-year-old former Canadian soldier armed with a shotgun—who’d been released from the Forces several years ago for reasons the military is not disclosing—opened fire, critically wounding a Belleville policeman stationed on duty for the High Holiday event. The policeman remains in hospital in critical but stable condition. The shooter died in hospital on Sept. 21, police said. This was Rabbi Peles’s second year officiating at the small Canadian synagogue as a guest slot from his regular duties at a synagogue in Jerusalem. He praised the shaken community for continuing on with services as best as they could. He said he drew inspiration from the lessons of his father, who survived the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Now he believes the response must go beyond prayer. He’s vowed to help strengthen the small Belleville Jewish community and draw attention to antisemitism, starting by building bridges of peace today in Rome at some previously scheduled interfaith meetings at the Vatican. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, we hear Rabbi Peles’s firsthand account of the attack, his reflections on faith and survival, and his hopes for what comes next. We’ll also hear from synagogue member Douglas Lobel, who’s been watching antisemitism grow in Belleville since Oct. 7, 2023, and warned city officials something like this could happen. Toronto’s Derek Kreindler also joins to explain why he launched a grassroots fundraising campaign to help support the wounded Belleville police officer, Const. Jeff Smith. Related links: Read more about growing antisemitism in the Belleville area and why the city’s mayor and councillors were warned such an attack could happen, in The CJN. Learn more about donating to the Jewish community’s grass roots GoFundMe campaign to help wounded Belleville Const. Jeff Smith and his family. A separate fundraiser is also underway now by Canadian Women Against Antisemitism, CIJA, and the Jewish Federations of Canada who have jointly launched a campaign to help Belleville’s synagogue upgrade security, help other small Canadian congregations do the same, and to send thank you letters to the Belleville police. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor),l Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

Amb. Deborah Lyons has stayed out of the public eye for the past year, ever since she abruptly stepped down as Canada’s last special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism. Lyons resigned three months early from her high-profile role, in July 2025, at the time telling The CJN she felt “despondent and despairing” over how few Canadians stood up against anti-Jewish hatred since Oct. 7, 2023. In February 2026, the federal government scrapped her role, along with her entire office—and did the same with the special representative for Islamophobia. The work, Ottawa announced, was to be folded into a new advisory council reporting to the minister of Canadian identity and culture. In June, Prime Minister Mark Carney promised this council’s first job is to tackle antisemitism, even though critics noted the council included appointed members who held publicly anti-Israel positions. But Lyons came out of retirement on Sept. 15 to put the federal government, this new council and Prime Minister Carney on notice. During a talk at a high-profile conference in Toronto on antisemitism and democracy, Lyons revealed she disliked how the council was launched. She says she told the public servant in charge of the council that “they must deliver soon. We cannot get to Hanukkah without some real results and deliverables from the council, in my view, because a lot of work has already been done. They just need to pick it up.” On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, Lyons explains why she expects more from the Carney government than just money for security. We also hear from former U.S. Antisemitism Special Envoy Deborah Lipstadt, who joined Lyons in a panel discussion, and from Irwin Cotler, Canada’s first antisemitism czar. Related links Read why Deborah Lyons resigned early as Canada’s Special Envoy on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism, in July 2025, in her only public interview, in The CJN. Why the members appointed to the Advisory Committee on Rights, Equity and Inclusion were seen as problematic by Jewish leaders, in The CJN . Learn more about Ottawa scrapping the Special Envoy position on Antisemitism and also the Special Representative post on Islamophobia, in Feb. 2026, in The CJN. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor),l Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Some audio in this episode thanks to freelance journalist Dave Gordon/Toronto. Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Watch our podcasts on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@TheCJN Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

Nadav Zysblat has just begun his posting as Israel’s new Consul General in Toronto and Western Canada at a particularly difficult moment in Canada-Israel relations. In the days surrounding his arrival, Canada announced it would bring forward measures to ban trade in goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, while a boycott campaign targeted pro-Israel singer Boy George’s Vancouver concert. Zysblat, a career Israeli diplomat, says his job is to strengthen—not retreat from—the relationship. Pushing back against calls for boycotts, he wants to expand trade and business ties at the provincial level, restore direct flights between Canada and Israel, and support local Holocaust education initiatives. Zysblat has served previously in Washington and Shanghai. Two days before the Carney government’s West Bank announcement, Zysblat sat down with The CJN’s North Star podcast host Ellin Bessner to record his first Canadian interview. He told Bessner he wants to find new areas of cooperation with Ontario, the Prairies and B.C., particularly in sectors including natural resources, health care, AI, quantum computing and secure technology. They talked about how boycotts are not helpful to building relationships, how they hurt Canada’s interests rather than solve the problem in the Middle East, and why he feels Israel could actually be “an answer” to Canada’s current push to diversify its economy, amidst the economic trade war with the U.S. Related links Learn more about Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent announcement on Sept 8 that Canada will cut off imports of products made in illegal West Bank settlements and also East Jerusalem, and go after companies and entities who finance the settlement movement, in The CJN, Discover the background to a protracted Canadian case brought by anti-Israel activists in 2017 over labelling of wines produced by Psagot and Shiloh wineries located in the West Bank, and the last development in 2022, in The CJN. Read the Israeli Embassy’s statement Sept. 8 condemning Canada pledging to join the U.K. and France in banning imports of products produced in West Bank settlements. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor),l Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)

Work crews affixed a row of black metal fence posts into cement around the front and along both sides of Beth Tzedec Congregation in midtown Toronto on Sept. 10, laying the foundation for a new permanent security fence at Canada’s largest synagogue. The unprecedented installation is happening just one day ahead of Rosh Hashanah and subsequent High Holidays, which begin on the evening of Sept. 11. Synagogue officials say the fence won’t be finished before the start of the holiday, but is being done to minimize the potential for a shooting from the street as large crowds gather over the next month. It’s also to prevent people gaining unauthorized access close to the building. The fence will cover the entire property, except for the rear of the building where fencing has long been in place around the parking lot and school playground. The installation comes two days after Toronto police and Mayor Olivia Chow held a media conference outlining stepped-up security plans for the Jewish community between the High Holidays and Oct. 7 commemorations. “Jews, Jewish institutions and even Jewish neighbourhoods are being targeted. It is despicable,” Chow told reporters on Sept. 8. At Beth Tzedec, the security budget has doubled since the spike in antisemitism following Oct. 7, 2023, and is now approaching $500,000 a year, according to Senior Rabbi Steven Wernick. He says the synagogue estimates it needs another $1.5-2 million to reach what he calls the “maximum reasonable safety” it can achieve. The growing security environment includes lockdown drills, bollards, reinforced doors and armed police. But Rabbi Wernick also laments the normalization of safety measures which Jewish people have come to expect, simply to enter a synagogue in Canada. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with Rabbi Wernick about the difference between being safe and feeling safe—and why the new fence will be a striking sight for congregants arriving for services. Related Links Read what the Toronto Police Service and Mayor Olivia Chow said they will do to protect “despicable” targeting of Toronto Jews, between the High Holidays and the Oct. 7 commemorations, in The CJN. Rabbi Steven Wernick of Beth Tzedec describes why his heart broke earlier this year while his congregation did a lockdown drill with Toronto police, in The CJN. Hear Rabbi Wernick’s reaction to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech on antisemitism omitting anti-Zionism as one of the causes, on The CJN’s North Star, in June 2026. Credits Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner ) Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer and video editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director) Music: Bret Higgins Support our show Subscribe to The CJN newsletter https://thecjn.ca/north Watch our podcasts on YouTube Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)