It lasted just over 10 minutes, but on Nov. 22, Henry Wolfond became an astronaut. The Canadian business executive is still processing what it means to have fulfilled his lifelong dream, having flown out as a paying tourist aboard a commercial spaceship operated by Blue Origin, owned by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos. During this journey—which took Wolfond and five others roughly 106 kilometres into the sky—Wolfond pinned a yellow ribbon for the Israeli hostages onto his space suit, and carried “Bring Them Home Now” dog tags and other Jewish gear with him, (as well as his granddaughter's Taylor Swift bracelets.) While blasting off on the Blue Origin program, Wolfond reflected on his own family’s origins—how his ancestors escaped pogroms in Tsarist Russia, and how members of his wife’s family perished in the Holocaust. On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, Wolfond explains how he returned to terra firma with a reinvigorated mission: to help end modern-day antisemitism in a post-Oct. 7 world.

Related links

• Watch the whole Blue Origin New Shepard NS-28 mission carrying Toronto’s Henry (Hank) Wolfond, on YouTube.
• Read about Wolfond’s son Adam, a poet living with autism, in The CJN.
• Learn how Henry Wolfond’s father-in-law, a Holocaust survivor, commissioned a new Torah in memory of his lost family, in The CJN.

Credits

• Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
• Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
• Music: Dov Beck-Levine

Support our show

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

It’s been an open secret for a year now: the esteemed Canadian human rights advocate, Irwin Cotler, 84, has been living under round-the-clock police protection in Montreal. But until recently, Cotler had heard only vague chatter about the source of the death threats. A month ago, on Oct. 26, the RCMP warned Cotler to stay home, under guard, because he was in imminent danger—within the next 48 hours—of being murdered by agents tied to Iran’s terrorist regime. The news was kept out of the media until a Globe and Mail story appeared in Nov. 18. Cotler, the founder of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights and a former justice minister, confirmed it was all true. He has since heard that some suspects have been arrested in the U.S., and the threat level against his life has lowered somewhat. So Cotler is now turning his ordeal into a clarion call for an issue he’s been pushing for more than a decade: get Canada to wake up and pay attention to the dangers posed by Iran’s “transnational” interference in our country’s political and civil life, including targeted killings on Canadian soil. Cotler joins The CJN Daily‘s Ellin Bessner to discuss what he’s just been through, the antisemitic protests across Canada, and what Israel should do about the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant.

Related links

• Why the Israeli Ambassador urged Canada to list the Iranian National Guard Corps as a terrorist organization in April 2024, in The CJN.
• Why Canadian Jewish leaders including Cotler have been warning about the threat from Iran for decades, in The CJN from 2010, and in 2018.
• Since 2017, Canada has laws banning listed Iranian nationals from entering Canada, and also banning any Canadians from helping to sell products or handle money or property for Iranian terror entities.
• Why Canada has been trying to deport 22 Iranians linked to human rights abuses and murder.

Credits

• Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
• Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
• Music: Dov Beck-Levine

Support our show

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

Ever since Oct. 7, there has been a deluge of antisemitism propagated under the veil of anti-Zionism. Cartoons of world-dominating Jewish rats and hook-nosed devils; claims that Israel has no right to exist; calls for the death of Jews… the list goes on. These Canadian examples of real-world instances of antisemitism are just some of the many detailed in a new 56-page government handbook, published Oct. 31 by the office of Canada’s special envoy for preserving Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism. For Special Envoy Deborah Lyons, publishing this handbook was near the top of her to-do list after being appointed to the post last year, completing the work begun to fulfill a promise the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made in 2022. While the handbook has no legal power, Lyons hopes that by setting out in clear, understandable terms what contemporary antisemitism looks like, Canadians can recognize it when they see it—and take action in their workplaces, unions, school boards, the police, the courts and on campus. Lyons admits her team wanted to avoid provoking pushback from anti-Zionist activists, and so they agreed to exclude certain current pro-Palestinian references, such as the chant, “From the river to the sea”. But that hasn’t stopped the federal NDP and anti-Israel groups from attacking the handbook already, which Lyons says just proves the need for it, amidst the ongoing tensions that have divided many Canadians since Oct. 7. Lyons returns to The CJN Daily to explain what did and didn’t make it into the handbook, and why. We’ll also hear from handbook’s main author, Noah Lew..

What we talked about:

• Read the Canadian Handbook on the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism, issued Oct. 31, 2024, and watch this short video with simple definitions of what is and is not antisemitism.
• Learn why Canada adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism in 2019, in The CJN.
• Hear why an antisemitism handbook was high on Deborah Lyons’ to do list after she was appointed as Canada’s special envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism in Oct. 2023, on The CJN Daily.

Credits

• Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
• Production team: Zachary Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
• Music: Dov Beck-Levine

Support our show

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