With the U.S. election less than a week away, the hosts of Bonjour Chai are turning their attention south with a comprehensive pre-election primer. Pollsters tend to lump Jewish voters together in a bloc, but there are different priorities for Jewish communities across the United States—and Jewish residents of certain swing states, namely Pennsylva…

During our extended break for the High Holidays, we're bringing Bonjour Chai subscribers something different. Sukkot is described as the holiday of joy—a time when the Israelites would gather together as one people in the temple to worship and to rejoice. The easy thing this year would be to say that we hope that we will be able to rejoice with eve…

Whenever there's a new mainstream TV show with a Jewish bent, Jewish audiences share a familiar reaction: excitement over representation, followed by dread over how bad that representation will be. The latest example is Nobody Wants This, the new Netflix rom-com series about a sex-advice podcast host (Kristen Bell) who, despite not being Jewish, fa…

The cover illustration of the fall issue of The Canadian Jewish News Magazine drew hundreds of responses from readers across the country. The image depicted a fictional family gathered for Rosh Hashanah. This family included a matronly woman in an apron wearing a yellow ribbon in support of bringing the hostages home; a young girl with a dog tag ne…

Last week, Toronto's public school board came under fire after footage emerged on social media showing students partaking in a public protest for Indigenous water rights... that also happened to feature pro-Palestinian chants and signs. A provincial investigation ensued to learn how it happened and why teachers allegedly encouraged students to get …

On a recent trip to Poland, the writer Tanya Gold visited the Auschwitz concentration camp memorial site. In her lengthy travel essay on the visit, "My Auschwitz Vacation", published in the September 2024 edition of Harper's Magazine, she details the numerous absurdities of the Disneyfied extermination camp, from its notable lack of Jews to the oft…

The Toronto International Film Festival is going on, and while it only has a handful of Jewish-themed or Israeli-produced films, those films have drawn some of the biggest spotlights. Chiefly among them has been The Bibi Files, a new work-in-progress documentary that received its world debut this week, and which shows never-before-seen leaked foota…

Joshua Leifer made headline last month when he was slated to do a public talk at a Brooklyn bookstore about his debut book, Tablets Shattered: The End of an American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life, and discovered, an hour before the event was scheduled to start, that the event had been unilaterally cancelled by an employee who didn't …

It's time to head back to school—but this year, for some Jewish students in North America, school is going to look a little different. Some will be receiving what's known as a "classical" education: a curriculum based on a return to fundamentals, a focus on time-tested great books and a rejection of mandates that emphasize diversity and inclusion. …

Canadian Jews may have noticed a trend in their communities this summer: Conservative politicians making the rounds. Leader Pierre Poilievre, Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman and even former prime minister Stephen Harper have all made numerous appearances at synagogues, pro-Israel rallies and fundraising galas. It's nothing new to see the country's p…

Avi and Phoebe are taking a little summer vacation and will return soon. In the meantime, we're presenting an episode of The CJN Daily that Avi was on earlier this summer about kosher slaughter in Canada. Last week, the Federal Court of Canada sided with Jewish communities in Montreal and Toronto in their dispute with the federal government over ne…

This week, the hosts of Bonjour Chai are digging into the explosive world of U.S. politics. It began with President Joe Biden announcing on July 21 that he would, after significant pressure and plummeting poll numbers, drop his bid for re-election as the Democratic nominee for president. The next day, Vice-President Kamala Harris all but secured he…

Last week, two very different sex-related 1980s icons passed away: Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the 4'7" German-born Holocaust survivor, who was 96; and Richard Simmons, whose mother was Jewish, and who rose to fame as a sweat-focused TV fitness guru whose personal sexuality was famously ambiguous . So, clearly, the hosts of Bonjour Chai had sex on the bra…

This month, two major elections have changed the European political landscape. In both France and the United Kingdom, progressive parties have overcome significant right-wing counterparts, overthrowing 14 years of British Conservative power and staving off Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party in a surprising result. Jews, as they often ar…

It was true before Oct. 7, but especially afterwards: an increasing number of progressive-minded people are viewing Jews as settlers in Israel. "Go back to Europe," some especially antisemitic ones chant at rallies. But it begs the question: if Jews are settlers in Israel, where aren't we settlers? Ben Wexler, a writer and academic who recently gra…

What does Palestine have in common with climate change, gender equality and indigenous rights? The Omnicause, that's what. In the modern era of left-wing protests, these issues become conflated—think queer Palestinians, viewed as indigenous to their homeland, fighting climate change with organic farming practices. Or something. Perhaps something no…

The trope of Hasidic women leaving their communities—particularly during a journey of queer self-discovery—is not exactly unique. And yet, memoirs and documentaries continue to come out, the latest being Kissing Girls on Shabbat by Sara Glass, who is now a therapist. After Phoebe Maltz Bovy reviewed the book for The CJN, she had more questions—so w…

We're taking the week off for Shavuot. Instead, we're airing a new episode of a podcast miniseries from our friends at the Jewish Public Library, called recollections. Avi and Phoebe will be back next week. May 2024 marks the 110th anniversary of the Jewish Public Library. Our opening season is a celebration of our Jewish Leftist roots in Montreal.…

Israel had some strange bedfellows in the news this week. The New York Times unveiled that country's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs created social media bots that posted AI-generated comments to influence American lawmakers and the general public; meanwhile, a rally against antisemitism in Manhattan drew headlines when it was revealed that the organi…

When Israel's Judaica store, a prominent retailer in the Toronto area, announced it was closing after 40 years, it felt like another moment in an unfortunately increasing trend: the decline of Jewish "third spaces", places beyond the home and office where Jews feel comfortable and welcome. Synagogues are closing and merging; community centres are b…

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 …

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. Wh…

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 no…

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…

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 p…

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…

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, ev…

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 ha…

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 …

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 …

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,…

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 Ph…

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 h…

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 co…

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 s…

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 antisemi…

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 govern…

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…

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 go…

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 sea…

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 co…

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 se…

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 Americ…

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…

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 f…

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 gove…

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 livi…

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 …

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 globa…

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 politician…