In the early hours of Monday, June 16, Alana Ruben Free was sheltering in a friend’s safe room—with her friend, several other women and three cats—when they heard the loudest boom any of them had ever experienced. The six-storey apartment building in a popular Tel Aviv district was one of many that was destroyed or badly damaged by a powerful Iranian missile in the barrage that morning; in this case, the missile exploded in the parking lot directly across the street right smack in the neighbourhood’s central plaza. The playwright and visual artist, who is originally from Fredericton, N.B., does not even live in Tel Aviv, but in Jerusalem. She was spending a weekend visiting friends and family, including several who had come from Canada for the city’s famous Pride parade.and was staying as a guest in a friend’s apartment. We aren’t saying where it was, following the Israeli military’s current censorship protocols. It took Israeli emergency crews a long time to free the four shaken survivors, but except for a cut knee from broken glass, they and their feline friends were fine. Now Ruben Free is crediting her miraculous story to reciting prayers and to reflecting on the story Queen Esther of Persia, her personal Jewish heroine. Alana Ruben Free explains why on today’s episode of The CJN_‘s_ flagship news podcast, North Star.

Related links

• Hear more about how Canadians in Israel are being impacted by the Iranian missiles, on the North Star podcast of The CJN.
• Learn more about Alana Ruben Free.
• Read more about Alana Ruben Free’s art show in Israel, in the archives of The CJN.

Credits

• Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
• Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
• Music: Bret Higgins

Support our show

• Subscribe to The CJN newsletter
• Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)
• Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

Eva Kuper, a Holocaust survivor from Montreal, spent the first five years of her life hiding from the Nazis in German-occupied Poland. Now, the well-known Holocaust educator is stranded in Israel together with a group of university and CEGEP students on the “Journey of Hope”, a trip supported by Montreal’s Federation CJA. After visiting Auschwitz with the students two weeks ago, and taking them to see the sites in Poland where Kuper grew up between 1940 and 1945, the delegation landed in Israel a week ago—just before Israel launched its surprise air raids on Iran on June 13. Since then, Iran has been retaliating with nightly barrages of missiles and drones that have now killed 24 people and injured more than 600 others. The action curtailed the Canadians’ trip, and the group is now spending its time confined to their hotel, rushing down to bomb shelters when the air raid sirens go off. While the students—and their worried parents—have been anxious, Kuper has been impressed by the scenes of resilience she has observed. She joins _North Star _host Ellin Bessner from Israel. In this episode, you’ll also hear from Yair Szlak, the CEO of Federation CJA of Montreal, who explains what his organization is doing to help bring people home, and from Glenn Nashen, a parent of a teenager now on Birthright who is also stranded in Israel.

Related links

• Read more about Eva Kuper, a prolific Holocaust educator, in The CJN.
• Order a copy of Eva Kuper’s autobiography A Beacon of Light, from the Azrieli Foundation survivors memoirs.
• Learn about the Journey for Hope sponsored by Montreal’s Federation CJA.

Credits

• Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
• Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
• Music: Bret Higgins

Support our show

• Subscribe to The CJN newsletter
• Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)
• Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

For the last three nights in a row, ever since Israel's military and the Mossad began the ongoing strikes on Iran's nuclear program, Maddy Eisenberg and Dave Heilbron—two Canadian tourists in the Holy Land—have been spending hours sheltering in a safe zone beneath a beachfront hotel in Tel Aviv.

The two only met this week, while participating in a government-sponsored trip for Jewish LGBTQ leaders who were meant to attend Tel Aviv's famous Pride parade. That was supposed to take place on June 13—but the parade was hurriedly cancelled, and their itinerary curtailed, as news of the initial strikes broke. Since then, every time air raid sirens go off, or their phones alert them to incoming Iranian rockets and missiles, they rush down to the bomb shelter and ride out the anxious hours, together with other tourists and Israelis alike.

While the death toll of Israelis killed and wounded continues to climb, and first responders try to dig out those still missing from direct hits on Bat Yam and other Israeli cities, the Pride delegates—who are required to stay within 100 metres of the hotel—are now also worrying about how they will get home, since all flights in and out of the country have been cancelled until further notice.

Maddy Eisenberg, a broadcaster and communications strategist in Ottawa, and Dave Heilbron, a human resources executive and Jewish leader now living in the Netherlands, join North Star podcast host Ellin Bessner to describe what they're seeing on the ground.

Related links

• What Global Affairs Canada is telling Canadians in Israel to do, in The CJN.
• Follow the IDF's official website account on “Operation Rising Lion”.
• How Canadian Dave Heilbron, a leader of a pro-Israel lobby organization based in Amsterdam, experienced the “pogrom” against Israeli soccer fans in his adopted country, in November 2024.

Credits

• Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
• Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
• Music: Bret Higgins

Support our show

• Subscribe to The CJN newsletter
• Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)
• Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)