On Sept. 29—the same day that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, joined U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington to announce the 20-point ceasefire plan with Hamas—one of Israel’s best-known advocates sent out her own, much lower-profile press release. It was a surprise resignation letter. Michal Cotler-Wunsh, the Canadian-raised lawyer and former Israeli politician who has spent the last two years serving as Israel’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, resigned her post abruptly. She blamed her departure from the voluntary job on Israel’s foreign ministry, who appointed her—but then, she feels, didn’t fund her position or take her proposals seriously. She believes she was “ghosted” by senior Israeli officials, who failed to understand the dangers posed by what she calls the war’s “eighth front”: the tsunami of normalized worldwide antisemitism that has altered public opinion against Israel and Jews. And while this current deal to stop the war and enable the hostage releases appears to be on shaky ground, Cotler-Wunsh warns there is no ceasefire in sight for the anti-Israel, anti-Jewish protests and terrorist attacks that continue from Ottawa to Manchester to Belgium. That is why she is taking on a new job, beginning Nov. 1, as CEO of the International Legal Forum, an Israel-based NGO helping pro-Israel lawyers in 40 countries hold governments, universities, and even the United Nations to account, including defending Israel in The Hague against charges of genocide and war crimes. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner is joined by Michal Cotler-Wunsh to hear why she quit her high-profile role and how she hopes her new platform will be more effective.

Related links

• Read the resignation letter from Michal Cotler-Wunsh as Israel’s antisemitism envoy, and then read the announcement of her new job.
• Israel’s antisemitism envoy says she wasn’t consulted by the Diaspora minister about his controversial guest list at an antisemitism conference where far right speakers were invited, in The CJN.
• Why Canada’s antisemitism special envoy Deborah Lyons quit, well before the end of her term, in 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

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

Kingston’s small Jewish community celebrated the return of the hostages earlier this week, just hours after they took down their large blue-and-white fabric sukkah, which they’d erected right in the city’s most iconic space: outside the historic City Hall building at Springer Market Square. The initiative to bring Jewish culture to the heart of the city started two years ago, right before Oct. 7, 2023, as a response to growing pressure from pro-Palestinian lobby groups on Kingston’s streets and campuses. The Kingston Jewish Council decided that they needed to do more than just hold their annual hanukkiah-lighting to show a positive side to Jewish life. So “Sukkah in the Square” was born, and has run successfully during the last two years—coinciding with the Israel-Hamas war. They’ve welcomed hundreds of visitors from around the world, including many non-Jews. There have been hiccups. One night this year, the sukkah was robbed. Another night, vandals stole a large piece of original artwork, which police later recovered. And all this happened despite organizers shelling out thousands of dollars for private security. But the volunteers say the effort is important and should be copied by other small Jewish communities, because it showcases beautiful Jewish customs and culture, helps to build bridges within the community, and yes, even allows discussions about hostages and antisemitism. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner welcomes Debbie Fitzerman, president of the Kingston Jewish Council, who shares her daily diary of what happened and who came.

Related links

• Learn more about Sukkah in the Square.
• Follow the Kingston Jewish Council.
• How Kingston’s Jewish community is thriving, in 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)

Jacqui Vital has a simple message for the anxious families of the 48 remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza, who are set to be released this week: “I’m glad for them.” But despite the joy and celebration of the long-awaited truce between Israel and Hamas, Vital’s own work in Canada is incomplete. Vital, along with the other families of the eight Canadians murdered on Oct. 7, is still pushing the Canadian government to do more to hold terrorist supporters in this country accountable for their actions. Vital’s daughter Adi Vital-Kaploun, 33, was murdered in her kibbutz safe room on Oct. 7. Terrorists carried her two small boys into Gaza. A neighbour who was with the boys helped them escape to safety the next day. Earlier this week, on the two-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre, the families wrote to Prime Minister Mark Carney, asking to meet in person: not only to tell him Adi’s story, but to get him to show the same level of compassion for Canadian citizens who were killed as she feels Ottawa has shown to the Palestinians in Gaza. Vital, an Ottawa native, engaged in several meetings with the former prime minister Justin Trudeau. But now they feel slighted by Carney, who has not made time for them since his election in March. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, we speak with Jacqui Vital in Jerusalem about the mood in Israel during this heady time, and how she’s navigating the second Yarhzeit of her daughter’s death.

Related links

• Read the letter to Mark Carney from the families of the eight Canadians murdered on Oct. 7.
• Learn about Adi Vital Kaplun’s life through her parents’ mission to keep her story front of mind, in The CJN from 2024.
• Read more about the families' legal efforts to hold Canada to account for funding UNRWA, in The CJN.
• Watch Jacqui Vital’s conversation Aug. 8, 2025 with former Nepean MPP Lisa MacLeod, during the Jerusalem resident’s summer speaking tour across Canada.

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)

Shye Klein and Joy Frenkiel hadn’t met before last week. But they share some common traits: both are dual Canadian-Israeli citizens, and both are still helping victims of trauma heal, as the world prepares to commemorate two years since Oct. 7, 2023. Klein, 27, is a photographer who had recently moved to Israel when he decided to attend the Nova music festival, which ended up being the site of a horrific massacre from Hamas terrorists. The CJN first interviewed him about two months after Oct. 7, when Klein visited Toronto to showcase photos he had taken at Nova—both before the attack, and while he and his friends narrowly escaped the slaughter. Frenkiel, meanwhile, has been living in Israel for nearly three decades, as a practicing social worker based in Ramat Gan. When The CJN first contacted her, shortly after Oct. 7, she was working at the morgue of the central Shura base of the Israel Defense Forces, where she was helping bereaved families identify victims’ remains. Frenkiel is still on duty, but now her work involves counselling victims of the more recent Iranian missile attacks in June. Unlike Klein, who has told his story in some 240 cities around North America, Frenkiel is just beginning to share her tale more widely. Both meet for the first time on today’s episode of North Star, catching up with host Ellin Bessner about their deeply emotional personal journeys ahead of the solemn day of remembrance.

Related links

• Listen to our original interview with Joy Frenkiel from Oct. 26, 2023 in The CJN and our original interview with Shye Klein, on Nov. 27, 2023, both in The CJN.
• Follow Shye Klein now to see and support his latest project, “Beyond the Supernova”.
• Book Joy Frenkiel to speak to your group about her experiences.
• Learn more or donate to SafeHeart, the Israeli therapy organization for Nova survivors who were on psychedelic drugs.

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)

The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, a documentary about an Israeli couple driving across the country on Oct. 7 to save their children from Hamas terrorists attacking Kibbutz Nachal Oz, opens in select theatres this week. And down the line, once the film’s revenue is more clear, the filmmakers plan to donate proceeds from the film to the kibbutz itself, which is being rebuilt, just a few kilometres from the Gaza border. It’s a gesture that director Barry Avrich and producer Mark Selby, both of Toronto, are eager to make, after all their film has been through. The Road Between Us _was initially invited to hold its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, but was abruptly rejected just days before tickets went on sale. The unexpected ban made international headlines before the film was re-admitted shortly afterwards. _The Road Between Us _went on to win the TIFF People’s Choice Award for documentaries, despite being granted only one scheduled screening (and a hastily arranged second one at the awards ceremony). Now with the controversy behind them, the filmmakers are prepping for a week-long run in 20 theatres across in Canada. On today’s episode of The CJN’s _North Star, host Ellin Bessner sits down with Avrich and Selby, who reveal behind-the-scenes details about what it was like to tell this harrowing story.

Related links

• Learn where to buy tickets to the screenings in Canada and the US for “The Road Between Us” as the film debuts in theatres Oct. 3-9.
• Read how Canadian Jewish community leaders went to bat to have the film reinstated after the TIFF film festival originally excluded it over copyright issues and security concerns, and other coverage of this story in The CJN.
• Hear what it was like at the Sept. 10 public screening of the film, when TIFF’s CEO apologized, on The CJN’s “North Star” podcast.

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)

It’s been five years since Mitch Consky, now The CJN’s Local Journalism Initiative campus reporter, watched his father be diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and, within a few months, pass away at the age of 67. It happened in 2020, right at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when health care access became nearly impossible. In the spring of that year, Consky, then 25, decided to move back into his parents’ home in Toronto to serve as his father Harvey Consky’s main caregiver. At the time, Consky channelled his skills as a journalist to document the period. Before his father’s death in June 2020, the Globe and Mail _published an essay by Consky called “The Top of The Stairs”. Next came a book, _Home Safe. But Consky wasn’t done paying tribute to his late father, and doing what he calls “returning the favour” to a parent to whom he owed so much. So he and some friends from university cobbled together a budget to turn the original essay into a 15-minute short film. Last month, his film aired on CBC TV, and it has since debuted on the free streaming service CBC Gem, after doing the rounds at film festivals. Ahead of Yom Kippur and the Yizkor memorial service, Consky joins Ellin Bessner on this episode of The CJN’s North Star to explain why he hopes his autobiographical film will resonate with anyone who has watched a loved one die.

Related links

• Learn more about Mitchell Consky’s film “The Top of the Stairs” on CBC Gem (create free account to watch).
• Hear Mitch discuss his debut book “Home Safe”, published in 2022, on The CJN Daily.
• Buy the book.

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)

Retired Ontario Justice Harry LaForme isn’t entirely comfortable with the label of “ally,” which many Jewish leaders have been using to describe him since Oct. 7. After all, LaForme—who was the first Indigenous Canadian to be appointed to the highest court in any province—says he always felt a kinship with the Jewish people, ever since his family told him his First Nations people were one of the lost tribes of Israel. But over the last two years, the trailblazing lawyer and judge, 78, has become a frequently honoured guest in official Jewish spaces, earning thanks and praise for his outspoken condemnation of rising antisemitism here in Canada, and for his his support for Israel—which he calls the indigenous homeland of the Jewish people. It’s a view that isn’t universal in Canada’s Indigenous community, and LaForme gets pushback for his stance. He’s aware of the perceived parallels between the First Nations’ centuries-long struggle to overcome the legacy of Canada’s colonial-settler past and the Palestinian battle for their own land and destiny. But LaForme says conflating the two issues is anathema to his religious beliefs about peaceful reconciliation. That’s why he’s come out in strong opposition to Canada’s recognition of the State of Palestine last week, the day before Rosh Hashanah. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner sits down with Justice LaForme to share his life journey, including a recent trip to Tel Aviv.

Related links

• Read Justice Harry LaForme’s remarks in Tel Aviv at the Irwin Cotler Institute’s Democracy Forum in May 2025.
• Learn what Justice LaForme told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights in May 2024 about antisemitism and Indigenous rights, together with Indigenous advocate Karen Restoule.
• A new book by York University professor David Kauffman about the ties between Canada’s Jewish and First Nations peoples, in 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)

When Sunday Hebrew school classes begin on Oct. 5 at Toronto’s Beth Radom Congregation, the students won’t be punished for reading comic books in class. On the contrary: spiritual leader Cantor Jeremy Burko is bringing his extensive collection of over 550 Jewish superhero comics into the curriculum. It’s his (graphic) novel way to explore the messages of Jewish culture and resilience that he finds in the pop culture stories of beloved comic book characters with Jewish back stories or creators, like Superman, Batwoman, Sabra and Magneto. The idea came to Burko as a response to the growing international movement to boycott Jewish and Israeli culture after Oct. 7. He hopes these larger-than-life heroes and heroines can help families find strength and pride amid rising domestic antisemitism. He believes much can be learned from studying these historic Jewish characters and their creators, from Marvel’s The Golem to modern screen adaptations of The Thing in the new Fantastic Four movie, and Moon Knight, a Jewish hero who struggles with his identity. But, as Cantor Burko explains on today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, the heyday of Jewish representation in comic books may be behind us.

Related links

• Learn more about Beth Radom’s Hebrew school and the now-concluded 2025 winter edition of Cantor Jeremy Burko’s Jewish Superheroes course.
• Read more about when award-winning Canadian Jewish graphic artist Miriam Libicki was banned from exhibiting her work at a Vancouver Comic Fair as a result of anti-Israel boycotts, in The CJN.
• How a Jewish Heroes Corps. comic series was born, in 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)