Sitting on a bus surrounded by Jews carrying rifles was once an exotic quirk of visiting Israel. But that may be changing.

Last month, the American National Rifle Association announced it was teaming up with Lox & Loaded, a national Jewish gun club, to help in the fight against antisemitism.

It’s one of several Jewish gun groups serving a growing cohort of newly gun curious American Jews since Oct. 7, 2023. Chicago’s Gayle Pearlstein, who launched Lox & Loaded in March 2025, says the group already has more than 1,000 members and 49 local chapters across the country. And that was before the partnership with the gun lobbying behemoth.

Bullets & Bagels membership, based in California, has skyrocketed by about 20%, to 1,000 members, and numerous interviews with gun range operators and firearms instructors across the U.S. revealed similar upticks in interest from Jewish community members.

Not everyone is as sanguine on the new turn of events.

As the number of Jews arriving at synagogues with a firearm on their hip or in a tallit bag increases, rabbis are reckoning with the place of firearms in their most intimate communal spaces, and trying to balance congregants’ - sometimes diametrically opposed - conceptions of safety. In September, the Secure Community Network - the organization that coordinates security for Jewish institutions across the US and Canada - urged synagogues to only allow congregants to carry weapons if they are part of an “organized, vetted, and well-regulated safety and security team.” Others who are wary of the intensifying situation cite well replicated data showing personal guns in the US are far more likely to be used in suicides, domestic violence, or accidents than in fending off an attacker, both for an owner and their family.

In Canada, Jewish schools and synagogues have been shot at in at least 8 separate incidents in the past three years. These incidents have sparked calls from some Jews in Canada to allow private security guards to carry firearms, something that is largely illegal under the federal government’s strict gun laws.

On Sunday, Not in Heaven sent our very own Avi Finegold to join his local Lox & Loaded chapter’s shmooze and shoot in Chicago to get a better understanding of this new phenomenon in North American Jewish life. We hear about what he learned and what this shifting relationship to guns means for our communities.

Credits

• Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
• Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director)
• Music: Socalled

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This month, the province of Quebec passed Bill 9, a law that bans employees at publicly subsidized daycares from wearing religious symbols—including kippot, tzitzit, hijabs, turbans, and Stars of David—while also phasing out subsidies for religious private schools; banning prayer rooms in public institutions such as hospitals and universities; and compelling institutions like the Jewish General Hospital, which serves patients only kosher-certified food, to also offer equivalent non-kosher food.

It is the most recent salvo in Quebec’s ongoing campaign to suppress and push out Judaism, among all religions, from the public square.

And while Montreal’s Jewish community has expressed some concern over the measures, the response has been somewhat muted. Many understand the true target of these laws to be the province’s Muslim population—which can be construed as being in the interest of the Jewish community. One Montreal rabbi told The CJN that the Jewish community must balance its principles with its interests, saying, “Right now, we have to focus on where our interests lie. It’s in our interest to see radical extremism tamped down. This is not targeting us. This is a reaction to extremism within the Muslim community.”

This week on Not in Heaven, rabbi podcasters Avi Finegold and Matthew Leibl discuss what this means for the future of Jewish life in Quebec. They also compare the situation to the ongoing one in the southern half in of our southern neighbour, where a series of American states have recently mandated the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.

Credits

• Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
• Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director)
• Music: Socalled

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• Subscribe to Not in Heaven (Not sure how? Click here )

Yom ha-Atzmaut is in the air: circle dancing, falafels, inexplicable inflatable squeaky plastic hammers and, of course, Israeli flags galore.

But this year’s Israeli Independence Day may be the final time the old kachol v’lavan is hoisted up the flagpole in front of Toronto’s City Hall.

Ceremonial flag raising began as a way for public institutions to spotlight local communities’ heritages and celebrate the bonds of friendship between nations. But, like all good things, it didn’t last.

For years, the questions of which local politicians did or did not show up to which particular flag raising grew into a perpetual fuel for outrage, purity tests and catalyst for demonstrations. Then, last November, Jewish organizations and activists across Canada strenuously campaigned and mounted legal challenges against municipalities raising the Palestinian flag in the wake of recognition of the state by the federal government.

Now, municipalities are throwing up their hands. Calgary and Toronto have both passed legislation ending all ceremonial flag raising; no Palestine, no Israel, no Brazil, no one.

This week on Not in Heaven, our rabbi podcasters ask: Should this be seen as a win? Was it worth it? What do we get when public institutions celebrate our particular nationalities, and is it worth the trouble?

Credits

• Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
• Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (editor), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director)
• Music: Socalled

Support The CJN

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