Bonjour Chai: Recent Episodes
The Jewish Living Lab and The CJN Podcast Network
Canadian Jews, listen up: this podcast's for you. Join hosts Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar 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.
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.
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.
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.
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
- Subscribe to Justin Ling's Substack, Bug Eyed and Shameless
- Read his dispatch from Columbia at The Line
- Hear The CJN Daily report on the Canadian campus protests
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.
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.
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
- Browse Erika Dreifus's list of literary publications and organizations that made public statements about Gaza, "Writers, Beware"
- Read her blog post, "Where to Read (and Publish) Writing on Jewish Themes"
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.
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
- Read Jonathan Haidt's piece in The Atlantic, "End the Phone-Based Childhood Now"
- See the award-winning photos of the Israel-Hamas war, including one of Shani Louk
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
- Read "The Golden Age of Jews is Ending" in The Atlantic
- Read "The New Antisemitism" in Time
- Find Gabby Deutch's articles at 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
- Subscribe to Laura E. Adkins's Substack
- Read Laura's piece in the Forward, "A beloved rabbi committed sexual misconduct. Here’s why the reckoning needs to be public"
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
- Read Noakes's open letter, "Montreal needs a peace rally to unite Israeli and Palestinian communities — and all of us, really", on Cult MTL
- Hear "How Canadians felt marching for Israel at the historic Washington rally" on The CJN Daily
- Read about Montreal's month of molotov cocktails and gunshots targeting the Jewish community 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
- See the billboards at jewbelong.com
- "With Hannah Gadsby’s ‘It’s Pablo-matic,’ the Joke’s on the Brooklyn Museum" in the New York Times
- "Bad waitress" by Becca Schuh
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.
On today's show, pop culture takes over. We're talking about Taylor Swift's maybe-Nazi 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.
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.
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.
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.
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
- Read "Grose Agonistes" by Mark Oppenheimer and Phoebe's rebuttal
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.
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.
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.
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.
We're proud to host our second annual Great Canadian Seder! On today's show you'll hear 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.
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
- Subscribe to Jesse Martin-Miller's newsletter: bagel.substack.com
- Read "It’s Not Modest Dressing. It’s the Torah-Teacher Aesthetic" at Vogue
- Find Shmutz by Felicia Berliner
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.
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
- Learn more about Base at basemovement.org
- Read "COVID at 3: Phoebe Maltz Bovy on the banality of eterna-pandemic"
- Read David Sax's conversation with Canadaland podcaster Jesse Brown about reviving reality
- See Jessica Grose's Twitter thread on "the new middle age"
- Read "Reclaiming the Musical Past: Leon Modena and Salamone Rossi in Context" at Lehrhaus
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.
Read transcript
For decades, young Jewish kids would often get books with titles like Great Jews in Sports or Great Jews in the Arts 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
- Rabbi Strauchler's article "The 'Jews In' Genre" at Tradition
- "‘Tradition, tradition’: Phoebe Maltz Bovy, in search of a Jewish tradwife"
- "Drink Up at Purim" in the Jewish Journal
- "Agnes Callard’s Marriage of the Minds" at The New Yorker
- Buy a 1,000-piece matzah jigsaw puzzle
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.
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
- Learn about "Kapelya: Unveiling a Feminine Sound in Hasidic Song"
- Visit Shefa's website
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.
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
- Read Phoebe's article "Hag feminism is the future" at Unherd
- Read about Michael Steinhardt's exile from the antiquities world at New York Magazine
- Hear Joanne Levy discuss her book I'm Sorry For Your Loss on Bonjour Chai in Nov. 2021
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
- The Constitutional Crisis in Israel: A Middle Ground Proposal by Bryan Schwartz
- ‘Fleishman is in Trouble’ hits FX Thursday. Just don’t call it a Jewish series, says its creator.
- Homemade Bagels, à la Jo Goldenberg Recipe
- Chanshi’ plays with American-Israeli stereotypes - review
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.
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:
- Toronto store spotlight: Siberia Vintage
- The Canadian Jewish News archives
- Why Would Zelensky Not Mention Hanukkah in his Address to Congress?
- Phoebe Maltz Bovy on the extremely online pastime of getting angry about phantom antisemitism
- What Bari Weiss misunderstands about America and the Jews
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.
In the final days of 2022, Michael Marrus, the author, historian, and foremost scholar of Holocaust studies in Canada, died in Toronto at the age of 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 labelled as racist and the ensuring outrage and fallout in the media pushed Prof. Marrus to resign from the college only six days later.
On today’s episode of Bonjour Chai, The CJN’s weekly current affairs podcast, we were very excited to officially welcome Phoebe Maltz Bovy to the co-host chair. She and Rabbi 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 numerous reports of his bad behaviour towards the women in his life.
What we talked about
- Obituary: Michael Marrus, 81, was a globally renowned scholar of the Holocaust—primarily based at the University of Toronto
- Time’s up for Irving Layton: A post-#MeToo assessment of a renegade—based on reading the tell-all books by his ex-lovers
- You Must Remember This A Novel By Kat Rosenfield
- Moneyball Judaism
- It’s No Ibiza
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.
We'll be back next week.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
- Books mentioned: Hot Rabbi by Aviva Blakeman; Promised Land by Rose Lerner; Band Sinister by K.J. Charles; The Rabbi Who Prayed with Fire by Rachel Sharona Lewis; The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan
- Listen to "Stages of Psychosexual Development" by Ryan Stotland
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.
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.
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.
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
- View the text Rabbanit Rachael Turkienicz discusses
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.
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
- Learn about JFS Vancouver's project, Hear Us, We Are Here
- Read about Vancouver's Tikva House project
- See what Ve'ahavta is doing to combat homelessness in Toronto
- Read about Kehilla Montreal's advocacy efforts for affordable housing
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
- Listen to The CJN Daily episode about Vancouver's JWest project
- Watch the music video for "Eshet Chayil of Hip Hop" by Lea Kalisch
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.
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.
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.
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
- Learn about Yente Over the Rainbow at yenteovertherainbow.com
- Read the transcript of a lecture received by a Hasidic groom before his wedding
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.
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
- Listen to the original episode with Tzeporah Berman
- Register for the Yidlife Crisis event "A Closer Luc", happening Aug. 17
- Read Ilana's column on Yidlife Crisis
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.
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.
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.
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
- Learn more about Hillel Montreal
- See the semi-controversial mural in Toronto's Tarragon Village
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.
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
- Learn more about the Little Synagogue on the Prairie
- Visit the Jewish Historical Society of Southern Alberta
- Find local events and programs hosted by the Calgary Jewish Federation
- Listen to the full song "Hello Calgary"
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.
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
- Listen to The CJN Daily episode about the Jewish Future Pledge's expansion in Canada
- Learn about Honeycomb at jfunders.org/honeycomb
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.
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.
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
- Read the Vaad Ha'ir's kosher explainer at priceofkoshermeatmtl.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.
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.
Over recent years, the Jewish community has grown from merely being aware of queer Jews to standing where we are today: leaders and activists in almost every denomination are working to actively include queer Jews in Jewish law and practice. Queer and nonbinary Jews no longer settle for pointing out their existence and right to be included; they're crafting narratives that explain how deeply and intricarely their queerness and Judaism are intertwined.
To dissect these issues and share their personal stories, we're joined by two inaugural members of the Queer Jewish Incubator, a new project run by the Miles Nadal JCC in downtown Toronto. Sadie Epstein-Fine is working on a play about one of Tevye's daughters being queer, and Toby King is gathering and archiving information about queer-Jewish wedding ceremonies to examine the various ways in which those couples celebrate their love.
After that, you'll hear an excerpt from The CJN's podcast Rivkush, in which host Rivka Campbell interviews Michael Twitty, the award-winning cookbook author, chef and voice for social justice, who describes life at the intersection of being Black, Jewish and gay.
What we talked about
- Learn about the Miles Nadal JCC's Queer Jewish Incubator
- Visit Sadie Epstein-Fine's website at sadieepsteinfine.com
- Contribute to Queering the Jewish Wedding
- Listen to the full interview with Michael Twitty on _Rivkush_
Credits
Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. Michael Fraiman is the producer. Andre Goulet is the technical producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a co-production from The Jewish Learning Lab and The CJN, and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.
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
- Rabbi Goldstein is the founding rabbi of City Shul in Toronto
- Rabba Kohl Finegold is a clergy member at Congregation Shaar Hashomayim in Montreal
- Learn about Rabbi Krygier Lapides's services at rockymountainrabbi.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.
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.
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
- Register for free for Bonjour Chai's virtual live taping on Wed. May 25
- Buy tickets for the TJFF at tjff.com/tjff2022
- Read The CJN's preview of this year's TJFF
- Learn about KlezKanada at klezkanada.org and Ashkenaz at ashkenaz.ca
- Learn about the Ani Maamin Initiative
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.
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
- Read about the proposed park in Montreal that could be renamed to honour Henry Morgentaler
- Hear Goldie Morgentaler on The CJN podcast Yehupetzville, discussing Jewish life in Lethbridge, Alta.
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.
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.
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
- Watch the trailer for _We're All Gonna Die_
- Get tickets to Mazel Tov here and use the promo code CHAIPROMO to get a $10 discount
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.
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
- Watch the trailer for As They Made Us
- Find Orel on Instagram @orelgozlan
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
- Learn about Avi's Passover bootcamp on Facebook
- Follow Laura Leibow on Instagram (@lauraleibow), Nick Nemeroff on Twitter (@nicknemeroff) and Dan Rosen on Instagram (@dantheguyrosen)
- Be the first to hear Shticks and Giggles by signing up to The CJN's newsletter at thecjn.ca/newsletters
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
- Read Kevin Waugh's proposal at parl.ca
- Visit Maayan's website at maayanziv.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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.
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
- Listen to Tent Talks at tent-talks.simplecast.com
- Read the Canadian government's report on the Uyghur situation at ourcommons.ca
- Watch "Articulation with Maxine Lee Ewaschuck and Rabbi Aaron Levy" on Facebook
- Learn more about the Amen Institute at theameninstitute.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. Find more great Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
- Find Koffman's book, The Jews' Indian, at rutgersuniversitypress.org; and find his other book, No Better Home?, at utorontopress.com
- Watch a mariachi band play "Feliz Navidad" to a group of Hasidic Jews on Twitter
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.
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.
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
- Read the CBC article, "Words and phrases you may want to think twice about using"
- Read the rebuttal in the National Post, "CBC's 18 words you can't say is the dumbest thing I've ever heard," by Jesse Kline
- Hear Tyler Samuels on The CJN's podcast about Jews of colour at thecjn.ca
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.
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.
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.
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
- Read Gary Shteyngart's article, "A Botched Circumcision and Its Aftermath", at newyorker.com
- Learn about Bruchim at bruchim.online
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
- Read Deborah's blog post, "Truth Before Reconciliation"
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
- Listen to the full leaked audio on Jeremy's Soundcloud
- Read: "Green Party Exodus: Israel and anti-Semitism played role in key departures" (thecjn.ca)
- Follow Jeremy on Twitter at @JeremyAppel1025
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.
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.
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:
- Watch the trailer for Marry Me However at tjff.com
- 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.
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:
- When a supportive Facebook group for moms turns toxic over Israel
- Shomrim launches civilian patrols to protect Jewish communities in Toronto, York Region
- Israel needs a social media Iron Dome to counter lies, consul general says
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.
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.
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:
- "Why Jewish groups want you to fill out the 2021 census" (listen at thecjn.ca)
- "Jewish Americans in 2020" (read the full report at pewforum.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.
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.
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
- "UJA Suspends Partnership With School Over COVID Breach; Rabbis Pen Letter on Adherence" at The CJN
- "Concordia Student Union Apologizes for ‘Indifference’ to Campus Anti-Semitism" at The CJN
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.
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.
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:
- Read "Judge Denies Hasidim’s Request for Curfew Exemption" at The CJN
- Check out the Yiddish language course on Duolingo
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.
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
- Read "Toronto Suburb Delays on Changing Street Named for a Nazi" at The CJN
- Find Beth Tzedec's three-part series on "Judaism and Homosexuality"
- Order Osnat and Her Dove on Amazon
- Find The Hug-it-Out Haggadah at The Haggadah Collective
- Listen to more Canadian Jewish podcasts at thecjn.ca
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.
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.)