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…

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, settle…

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…

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…

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 t…

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 bec…

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 eme…

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 o…

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 organiz…

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 typ…

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, ra…

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 au…

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 mo…

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 …

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 sta…

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 #…