This episode of Menschwarmers originally aired on July 9, 2026. Subscribe at thecjn.ca/menschwarmers. __

The recent FIFA World Cup match between Egypt and Argentina became a surprising battleground for—what else?—the Israel-Palestine debate.

The Egyptian coach, who had been waving a Palestinian flag during the competition, grew frustrated when Argentinian fans began waving Israeli flags at him. It’s the latest culmination of a longstanding anti-Zionist (and weirdly antisemitic) dislike of Argentinian star Lionel Messi, who has been accused of being a Jewish Zionist by Egyptian officials in the past. So is Messi an honorary Jew now? According to antisemites: yes he is. And you know what? Sure, we’ll take him.

Outside of the soccer pitch, a Jewish baseball newcomer Cole Carrigg is making noise in Colorado; veteran Alysha Clark is still making appearances on WNBA courts; and Max Homa is enjoying a mid-season comeback on the greens. Our Jewish sports podcasters explain it all on the latest episode of Menschwarmers.

Plus: take a first listen to our brand new theme song by Kosha Dillz.

Credits

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

Support our show

• Subscribe to The CJN newsletter
• Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) https://thecjn.ca/north
• Watch our podcasts on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@TheCJN

This episode originally aired on July 26, 2023, when this podcast was called The CJN Daily_. We will resume all-new stories next week._

There were whistles and angry shouts of “Go back to New York” and “Get lost” on July 19, 2023, at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, as a group of observant Jewish women known as Women of the Wall conducted their monthly morning prayer service—complete with a small Torah scroll they’d smuggled in with them. Using the scroll is against the rules set down by the holy site’s authorities, which still only permits men to have the sacred scrolls or to chant prayers out loud.

And as has happened for years, the women had to run a gauntlet of security forces who searched them for religious items. They also had to endure noisy insults and even physical attacks from Haredi men and women who oppose the women’s non-Orthodox methods of praying at the Kotel. Some threw red juice at the women’s prayer shawls.

The Israeli courts have just handed a legal victory of sorts to the women, thanks to a ruling by a Jerusalem judge that says they can no longer be subjected to invasive special searches of their bags and purses for religious articles. However, the ruling stopped short of legalizing their requests to use Torahs.

On this Tisha b’Av episode of The CJN Daily, producer Zac Kauffman took his recording gear into the crowd to bring us this special on-the-ground report. He talks to the women involved in the service, and to some protesters, including one with Canadian roots, who came to drown them out.

What we talked about

• Learn more about the Canadian woman with the Women of the Wall, Rachel Cohen Yeshurun, working to expand egalitarian prayer services at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, on The CJN Daily .
• Read when Israel’s government proposed to expand prayers for non-Orthodox at the Kotel, in 2017, in The CJN.
• Anat Hoffman, founder of Women of the Wall, bringing social change to Israel, in The CJN.

Credits

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

Support our show

• Subscribe to The CJN newsletter
• Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) https://thecjn.ca/north
• Watch our podcasts on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@TheCJN

This episode originally aired on Not in Heaven on July 9, 2026. Subscribe to Not in Heaven here.

How much does motive matter when it comes to hate crimes?

In recent years, Canadian Jews have been rocked by a series of attacks on their community institutions, including late-night shootings at schools and synagogues, attempted arson, and smashing community centres' windows. Many Jews have met the situation with a profound sense of dislocation and disbelief; a feeling that the country they once thought they knew had radically shifted around them, that their non-Jewish neighbours were not who they thought they were.

But last month, new information emerged about the alleged perpetrators of these crimes.

According to reports in both Toronto and Montreal, some significant portion of these attacks were carried out by ‘gig-criminals’, a kind of gun-for-hire network of young people getting paid thousands of dollars from anonymous clients to shoot at targets as varied as waste managment plants, the American embassy, tow truck companies—and Jewish instiutions.

This prompted our rabbinic podcasters to ask: if the perpetrators of at least some of these shootings were motivated by financial gain, and not animus towards Jews in particular (as one arsonist has claimed in court as recently as this week), how does that change our community narrative? Will collective pressure on politicians to combat antisemitism actually help the situation, if the criminals are not motivated by antisemitism? And, on a deeper level, do you need to feel hate to commit a hate crime?

Credits

• Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner )
• Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director)
• 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 )
• Watch our podcasts on YouTube.
• https://www.youtube.com/@TheCJN Help others find this podcast by leaving us a review for “North Star” on Apple Podcasts via your iPhone or iPad device, or with your Android. (Spotify allows only starred ratings but you can do that, too!)