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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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

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What moral lessons should we take from the Holocaust? In 1998, the late Israeli Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer told the Bundestag about the three additional commandments the world had learned in the wake of the Shoah: “Thou shalt not be a perpetrator; thou shalt not be a victim; and thou shalt never, but never, be a bystander.”

The first, "never be a perpetrator," was embraced most strongly by the Jewish left. The second, "never be a victim," became a raison d'etre of the Jewish right. But the message with the largest purchase on civic institutions—within and beyond the Jewish community—was the third, "never be a bystander," underlying school curricula, public museums, and national monuments.

How Holocaust education shapes young people’s views on Jews and Israel was ignited in recent months by the author and former White House speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz. “Holocaust education is absolutely essential," she said onstage at the opening session of the General Assembly of Jewish Federations of North America. "But I think it may be confusing some of our young people about antisemitism, because they learn about big, strong Nazis hurting weak, emaciated Jews.... So when on TikTok, all day long, they see powerful Israelis hurting weak, skinny Palestinians, it’s not surprising that they think, ‘Oh, I know the lesson of the Holocaust is you fight Israel. You fight the big, powerful people hurting the weak people.’”

Today on Not in Heaven, our hosts discuss the messages of Holocaust education, whether the moral lessons we draw from the Holocaust are too binary—powerful vs. powerless, oppressor vs. oppressed—and if Holocaust education should be seen as a tool for advancing a modern social agenda at all.

Credits

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

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For some reason, the number "five" feels particularly weighty—and so it's with great pride that we bring you the fifth annual Great Canadian Seder. For those new to this tradition, every Passover, the team at The CJN collects stories, memories, musings, songs and reflections about the holiday from notable, fascinating and well-known Canadians. This year, you'll hear from:

• Jordi Mand, writer for theatre, TV and film
• Jared Lindzon, CJN podcaster and author of Do More in Four: Why It's Time for a Shorter Workweek
• Alicia Richler, editorial director, The CJN
• Ayelet Tsabari, award-winning author
• Rabbi Carnie Rose, senior rabbi of Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Winnipeg
• Martin Rutte, international speaker and consultant
• Rabbi Laura Duhan-Kaplan, dean of ALEPH Ordination Program
• Ben Carr, Member of Parliament, Winnipeg South Centre
• Jess Grossman, founder of Uncover Ostomy
• Yafa Sakkejha, CJN podcaster and leader of Canadian Friends of Standing Together
• Niki Landau, conflict management specialist
• Miriam Borden, scholar and researcher of Yiddish Studies
• Lorie Wolf, musician and band leader, Queen Kong

Credits

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

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Outside of orthodox communities, there’s a trend of boys and men increasingly disengaging from Jewish institutional life. A new article in the winter 2026 Sapir Journal called “Boyz II Mensches” by Adam Teitelbaum sparks the question: does the retreat of boys and men from Jewish communal life mirror a broader societal pattern of male disengagement from civic and religious institutions?

On today’s episode of Not in Heaven, our rabbi podcasters debate Teitelbaum’s proposal to reimagine the bar mitzvah as a multi-year process of growth through age 18 as one of the ways to reclaim meaningful male identity within Jewish life.

Then, the rabbis turn to one of synagogue life’s most beloved and controversial institutions: the Kiddush club. Is it a harmless break and opportunity for male bonding and community-building — or a boozy affront to the sanctity of prayer?

Related stories:

• Read Adam Teitelbaum's article "Boyz II Mensches"

redits

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

Support The CJN

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Last week, three Toronto synagogues were hit with gunfire in overnight shootings. Shocked and exasperated, the city’s Jewish community demanded that action must be taken to keep them safe. They’re angry at public officials for not offering sufficient protection, and many have voiced their frustration with community institutions for what they perceive as an ineffective use of community security funds.

But, after all the sound and fury, what practical solutions are available to Canadian Jewish communities? What type of security spending could actually reduce the likelihood of these events, and when is it just throwing good money after bad? Are efforts for more security the most effective way to address these incidents, or would other interventions — like pushing for more municipal street lighting or for stricter gun control laws — be the thing that actually makes a difference?

Comments by influencers like Tucker Carlson saying that Chabad is directing the Iran War may only serve to fuel further attacks. Anyone can have their own TV show and broadcast to million of followers from their phon — does that mean that we need to take the microphone away?

As the Jewish community’s calls for action came to a crescendo last weekend, they coincided with the reading of parshat “Ki Tisa,” which tells the story of the Israelites being gripped by fear, dismay, and abandonment after Moses fails to return after weeks on Mount Sinai. The people come to Aaron and demand that he take action, do something, to save them.

On this week’s episode of Not in Heaven, our rabbinic podcasters ask: when community leaders are faced with demands for action, how should they respond? Which solutions are real, and which are, as it were, simply a false idol? And quite apart from solutions, how can we respond and comfort very real fear within a community?

Credits

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

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The story of Purim is well known: in ancient Persia, a wicked royal vizier plots to wipe out the Jewish people — but he didn't count on Queen Esther, a courageous Jewish woman who revealed the plot to the king. The tables were turned for the Jews as the powerful are victimized by their intended victims; those who were once low are brought high, those who were once high are brought low.

When Israel and the U.S. launched a joint military campaign on Iran on Shabbat Zachor, just days before the festival of Purim, it was almost inevitable that politicians, rabbis, and Jews around the world would see themselves in the Book of Esther.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the connection explicit in his first statement announcing the strikes: “Twenty-five hundred years ago, in ancient Persia, a tyrant rose against us with the very same goal, to utterly destroy our people,” Netanyahu said. “Today as well, on Purim, the lot has fallen, and in the end this evil regime will fall too.”

Each week, rabbis stand before their congregations and find connections and explanations about how the Torah portion speaks to their modern lives. They try to give structure and meaning to a world that often feels chaotic.

On this week’s episode of Not in Heaven, our rabbi podcasters ask: what do we risk when we draw these connections too tightly?

Avi Finegold and Matthew Leibl discuss what may be lost in understanding the modern day when we look through the lens of Purim and what is lost in understanding Purim when we look through the lens of the modern day.

Credits

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

Support The CJN

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