Not in Heaven

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 betw...

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 secon...

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
• J...

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...

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 fu...

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 mili...

A handwritten letter by a Jewish luminary of the 18th century, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, also known as the Ramchal, hit the auction block earlier this year. The event grabbed headlines both because of the nearly $400,000 US sale price, but also because, until recently, many believed that the letter was safely among the hundreds of other handwritten pages that make up the Ramchal collection at The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS)...

Taglit-Birthright Israel was founded just over 25 years ago, with the aim of strengthening Jewish identity among young adults through a 10-day, free of charge trip to Israel. The program has brought over 900,000 young adults from 70 countries to Israel.

The ambitious program began as a grand solution to solve a crisis of Jewish continuity and unity as the world entered the new millennium, spearheaded by Canadian Jewish philanthropi...

This cold week in February has been dominated by two major sporting events: the 2026 Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl. Jews played roles in both; the Olympics regularly see a handful of Jewish athletes competing on the world stage, including nine Israeli delegates and a smattering of Americans in mainstream sports like curling and hockey. While no Jewish football players played in the Super Bowl, Robert Kraft's anti-antisemitism ...

With the return of Ran Gvili’s body, many Jewish leaders are publicly inviting community members to stand up from their proverbial shivas and re-engage with normal life. Federations across North America are welcoming—even memorializing—the return of ceremonial dog tags and yellow pins. But it's been two and a half years of incorporating these thoughts into Jewish ritual life, adding prayers for the hostages at High Holidays and the...

OneTable is a non-profit organization with two goals: make Shabbat a regular part of young people's Jewish lives, and combat the epidemic of loneliness among that same demographic. Hosts can receive a small stipend for every guest who attends their Friday night dinner, and the broader Jewish community benefits from higher levels of Shabbat engagement. But despite hundreds of thousands of young Jews being interested, OneTable laid o...

With the release of Wicked: For Good, Jewish audiences have been asking online: Are the munchkins supposed to be Jews? What about Elphaba—the vilified, bookish, green-skinned witch? Is she Jewish-coded?

It's a question asked by some Jewish culture critics seemingly every time a movie with goblins, elves or hook-nosed monsters comes out. Are J.R.R. Tolkien's dwarves Jewish? Is Nosferatu Jewish? Are Star Trek's Ferengi species Jewish...

Antisemitic acts don’t all mean the same thing, even if they provoke the same fear. A swastika sprayed on a synagogue door in Winnipeg is not the same as a fire set at a synagogue in Mississippi. And while community members understand this, when violence and intimidation come to their own neighbourhood, it's easy to fall into a maximalist trap that treats all threats as equal.

On this week's episode of Not in Heaven, our rabbinic ...

The winter holiday season is upon us, which means binging TV shows and comfort movies is one of the only ways to pass the time while temperatures plummet outside. With this annual tradition, in the Jewish media world, come annual think pieces about Jewish onscreen representation. And while our rabbinic podcasters have delved into this subject already with the ever-popular sitcom Nobody Wants This, there is a better—and much more de...

A recent, landmark study of current and future rabbis was met simultaneously with celebration, skepticism, and concern by groups across the Jewish community.

The survey by Atra – Center for Rabbinic Innovation, indicated significant upward trends in rabbis choosing community positions rather than leading congregations from the pulpit, rabbinical students who identify as LGBTQ+ (51 percent), and the number of students receiving rabb...

This episode originally aired on The CJN's peace-building podcast, In Good Faith. To subscribe and hear more, visit thecjn.ca/faith.

Mainstream Jews, who support Israel and consider themselves Zionists, feel like they are under attack. When they see people wearing keffiyehs and storefronts stamped with Palestinian flags, they hear an implicit attack: "You are not welcome here."

But for Palestinians, watermelons and keffiy...

In the lead-up to New York's mayoral election, many prominent Jewish New Yorkers came out against the eventual winner, Zohran Mamdani. Now that Mamdani has won, what do they do? How do they reconcile that a third of the city's Jews voted for someone who has spoken out against Israel? And how can they preach about unity when they already made clear they were taking sides?

This is the topic of today's episode of Not in Heaven, inspir...

The hit Netflix rom-com Nobody Wants This is back, and with it are Jewish debates about intermarriage and onscreen representation in mainstream media.

The show's first season tells the story of heartthrob Rabbi Noah (Adam Brody) and non-Jewish podcaster Joanne (Kirsten Bell) falling in love. It was an unexpected hit for Netflix last fall, topping its most-watched list for weeks. Some Jewish viewers rejoiced at a popular portrayal...

This week, many Jewish schools will be participating in a hallowed end of October tradition: sending out letters discouraging families from celebrating Halloween.

The prominence of Halloween in public has ballooned in recent decades, evolving into a full-blown seasonal phenomenon. But despite the celebratory spiders and inflatable pumpkins, Jews tend to have a mixed relationship to the festival. Many see it as a bit of harmless, se...