Not in Heaven

On Oct. 27, Israeli voters cast their ballots in the highest-turnout election in decades and gave their judgment on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu government. On the ballot was how Netanyahu has handled some of the most tumultuous years in the country’s history, from attempts to overhaul the Israeli judicial system to the largest mass-casualty event in the country’s history on Oct. 7, 2023, as well as the ensuing hostage crisis and wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. While much is still unknown about the messy electoral results, one thing is clear: a plurality of Israeli voters gave a stamp of approval to Prime Minister Netanyahu and his Likud party’s vision for the future. But what that means for Israel’s advocates in the Diaspora, and indeed Jews around the world, remains an open question. Earlier this month, the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS)—an Israeli national security think tank affiliated with Tel Aviv University—published No Longer on the Sidelines: How the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Impacts Diaspora Jews. Drawn from conversations with 20 senior leaders from 15 major Jewish communal organizations in the United States, Canada, Britain, France and South America, the report argues that Israeli policies are taking a mounting toll on Jewish life abroad: dividing communities, accelerating antisemitism and increasingly isolating Israel and its advocates on the world stage. It seems that while Israelis can accept Netanyahu’s status quo, Jews in the Diaspora are living in a different reality. Just days before the election, Ronald Lauder, the chief of the World Jewish Congress and longtime confidant of Netanyahu, broke years of silence to urge Israelis not to re-elect the prime minister, saying that the country risks losing U.S. and Diaspora support. “If Bibi is elected, Israel stands to lose badly,” he said. This week on Not in Heaven, our rabbinic podcasters discuss whether different Israeli leadership would affect Jewish life around the world, or whether the convulsions in Jewish Diaspora life would remain largely the same regardless. Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (producer), 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)

“Jewish joy” is having a moment. It shows up in grant guidelines, new organizational mission statements and frothy headlines like “This Hanukkah Episode of NPR’s Tiny Desk Is Full of Jewish Joy,” “How to Connect to Your Jewish Joy,” “What Brings Cookbook Author Leah Koenig Jewish Joy” and “Simchat Torah: A road map for Jewish joy.” In spring 2027, Jewish Joy LLC—an umbrella organization that includes The Jewish Joy Book Club, The Jewish Joy Box, Jewish Joy Publishing and Jewish Joy Media—is hosting Jewish Joy Con: three funtastic days of Jewish pop culture, merch vendors and book lectures at a sprawling convention centre in Fort Lauderdale. (Jewish Joy Con was previously scheduled for March 2026, but organizers had to joyfully postpone.) In a post-Oct. 7 world, rediscovering Jewish joy became an important corrective to the idea that Jewish life should be defined primarily by crisis—and that victimization and grief could provide a sustainable foundation for Jewish identity. But now, some critics wonder whether binging on all that traditional, syrupy Jewish joy might result in an equally traditional Jewish tummy ache. Today on Not in Heaven, our rabbinic podcasters ask what the movement for Jewish joy gets right—and what it misses. What is Judaism’s relationship to joy? Is joy a means or an end in itself? Can joy coexist with substance? Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (producer), 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)

You know the scene. Darkness falls. A hush settles over the gathered crowd. The rabbi intones: “The hour is nigh! Yom Kippur is upon us! Atone, turn your hearts toward righteousness, for today our fates are sealed. Who will live and who will die, who by fire, who by water, who by wild beasts?” A pregnant pause. Your future hangs in the balance. Is there any way to tip the scales? “Now, I’d like to tell you all about our capital campaign. There are pledge cards in the seat pockets in front of you…” The High Holidays, when synagogues are at their fullest, offer a natural opportunity for annual fundraising appeals. It’s also the time of year when many Jews engage in cheshbon hanefesh, literally “soul-accounting,” meditating on what they’ve invested over the past year—in time, energy and resources—and how they want that to change in the year to come. On this week’s episode of Not in Heaven, our rabbinic podcasters talk philanthropy. Is tzedakah purely monetary? What makes an effective High Holiday appeal? And while it might be more efficient to fundraise one $20,000 donation than 20 $1,000 donations, what does that mean for cultivating a culture of widespread giving? As it says in Pirke Avot: “Without flour, there is no Torah. Without Torah, there is no flour.” So, how do we raise the dough? Credits Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (producer), 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)

For Jews in the pews, the wail of the shofar is the signal sound of the Jewish New Year. But for congregational rabbis, it’s like the crack of a starting pistol, setting them off on a six-week sprint of preparation and facilitation. The role of the pulpit rabbi can be emotionally draining, with unrealistic expectations and a lack of boundaries for their personal lives. Logistics, administration, governing boards and committees take over, leading some to search for a new path. Enter the freelance rabbi. Not in Heaven host Avi Finegold covered the rise of the freelance rabbi in the most recent issue of Scribe Quarterly. As membership numbers at synagogues continue to fall, demand is increasing for spiritual leaders who can fit into their lifestyles. These freelance rabbis are unaffiliated with any synagogue, and they're available for officiating lifecycle events like weddings, funerals, baby namings, or b'nai mitzvah. This week, our rabbinic podcasters—including our very own Matthew Libel, longtime freelance rabbi in Winnipeg—look at what's behind the trend and where it's going. What does a community lose when participation becomes an à la carte experience? And how does shifting to the gig-work world ultimately affect the rabbi's mental health? 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) https://pnc.st/s/not-in-heaven

Eight months after the Conservative movement issued a public apology to interfaith families for historically treating them as a threat to Jewish survival, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (CJLS), the rabbinic arm of the denomination, released a new set of Jewish legal rulings delineating both the possibilities and limits for including interfaith families in Jewish religious and ritual life, entitled “Gateways Into Jewish Living: Guiding the Conservative/Masorti Rabbi in Supporting Families with Non-Jewish Loved Ones”. Two findings make this story of particular interest to Canadian Jews. First, as of 2019, Conservatives comprised the largest denominational affiliation among Canadian Jews, totalling 33 per cent of the population. Second, more than 35 per cent of married Jewish Canadians under the age of 40 have a non-Jewish spouse. While the rulings did provide concrete ways for rabbis and congregations to welcome interfaith couples and families, critics are frustrated that the CJLS said that rabbinic officiation of interfaith marriages remains beyond the pale of permissibility under Jewish law. Defenders say that the rulings deal with how interfaith families can build a Jewish home, raise Jewish children and celebrate life-cycle events—the things that make up Jewish life every day outside of the wedding. The publication solidified a number of practices into Jewish law for the first time. For instance, non-Jewish parents “may and should” be included in English blessings on the bimah during their child’s bar or bat mitzvah. They may not receive an aliyah to the Torah—recite the official blessing before a Torah reading—but may accompany a partner to do so. A Jew may not sell their hametz, leavened bread products, to their non-Jewish spouse. A non-Jewish spouse may perform “labour” that is typically religiously prohibited for Jews to do on Shabbat, as long as it’s not directly asked for by the Jewish partner, though a young Jewish child may ask them to do so. Our rabbinic podcasters react to this set of rulings and wonder if the movement is trying to be “half-pregnant,” or deftly trying to walk the tightrope between tradition and modernity. 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)

The prospect of summer grilling season might bring a tear to the eye of any patriotic Canadian, but it’s the eye-watering prices in the meat aisle that are stirring up the most emotion this year. The cost of beef remains stratospheric—up nearly 63 per cent since 2021 and over 12 per cent over the past year alone, according to Statistics Canada. Even switching to less expensive meats, such as chicken thighs, offers little relief. But for Jews who eat only kosher meat, those prices are almost enviable. A major fire on July 28 at one of the largest kosher meat-processing plants in the United States threatens to drive up kosher meat prices ahead of the High Holidays. The fire at AgriStar Meat & Poultry in Postville, Iowa, destroyed at least 75 per cent of the plant and put more than 600 people out of work, city officials said. While the damaged facility will likely mean a shortage of kosher beef and chicken in the United States, the Kashruth Council of Canada is reassuring Canadian Jews that it does not foresee any disruption to the domestic kosher meat supply chain. But that doesn't change the fact that the rising cost of living is squeezing meat off many dinner tables this year—and some kosher Jews are ahead of that curve, cutting out meat already to hold an easier kosher life, and going full vegetarian or vegan. Today on the podcast, our rabbinic podcasters ask: How did meat come to play such a significant role in Jewish culture and cuisine? What is its spiritual and emotional significance in the community? And does it have to be this way? 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)

As darkness fell last night, Jews around the world sat on synagogue floors and listened to the chanting of Eicha, the Book of Lamentations, marking the beginning of Tisha B’Av. Traditionally the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, it is a day of mourning for the calamities that have befallen the Jewish people over the centuries—chief among them the destruction of the First and Second Temples and the devastation of Jerusalem. While the community survived and continued going through the motions of worshipping the god of their forefathers, surely many Jews—in the generation that saw the Temple burn, and the streets of their holy city strewn with starved and butchered bodies—must have lost their faith. And today, as Jews read Lamentations and refrain from eating, drinking, washing, wearing leather shoes or even greeting one another, some may participate in rituals they no longer entirely “believe” in. On this episode of Not in Heaven, rabbis Avi Finegold and Yedida Eisenstat ask how closely Jewish observance has to line up with personal conviction or theological belief. Sparked by the new Israeli television series Behasture, about a secret group of Jerusalemites who outwardly live fully haredi, strictly religious lives despite having lost their faith long ago, they explore why people remain in communities they no longer internally align with; the pressures of living with the cognitive dissonance between practice and belief; and the costs of searching for a community whose rituals and values perfectly mirror your own commitments. 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)

How much does motive matter when it comes to hate crimes? In recent years, Canadian Jews have been rocked by a series of attacks on their community institutions, including late-night shootings at schools and synagogues, attempted arson, and smashing community centres' windows. Many Jews have met the situation with a profound sense of dislocation and disbelief; a feeling that the country they once thought they knew had radically shifted around them, that their non-Jewish neighbours were not who they thought they were. But last month, new information emerged about the alleged perpetrators of these crimes. According to reports in both Toronto and Montreal, some significant portion of these attacks were carried out by ‘gig-criminals’, a kind of gun-for-hire network of young people getting paid thousands of dollars from anonymous clients to shoot at targets as varied as waste managment plants, the American embassy, tow truck companies—and Jewish instiutions. This prompted our rabbinic podcasters to ask: if the perpetrators of at least some of these shootings were motivated by financial gain, and not animus towards Jews in particular (as one arsonist has claimed in court as recently as this week), how does that change our community narrative? Will collective pressure on politicians to combat antisemitism actually help the situation, if the criminals are not motivated by antisemitism? And, on a deeper level, do you need to feel hate to commit a hate crime? 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 )

Canada Day and the Fourth of July are coming up, which means flags are popping up across North America like summer flowers. But Jewish Canadians — and Jewish Americans — have fair reason to be skeptical of nationalism. Jewish parents would be forgiven for feeling uneasy seeing their children pledge allegiance to a national flag — and that's even before getting into the extreme evolution of modern nationalism movements that, in North America and Europe, tend to skew anti-Jewish. So on this week's episode, we're looking at flags. Specifically, flags in synagogues. Whether the flag is Canadian, American or Israeli, not everyone will feel comfortable with broad national symbols on the bimah. Some view them as "idol worship". Others insist they're a unifying force for the majority of congregants. No one is right, so how do community leaders bridge the divide? 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 )

Too often, when people talk about Jewish life in Canada, they are really talking about Jewish life in Toronto and Montreal. But the truth is more than a quarter of Jewish Canadians live outside those cities. Yes, many still live in large cities, but Jews live in mid-sized and smaller communities, from the coasts of Nanaimo, B.C., to Sydney, N.S. These communities have a different texture, richness, set of challenges, and needs than those in the largest Jewish population centres. Today on Not in Heaven, our resident rabbis talk about some of the work happening to support Jewish life and leadership in smaller communities. We'll discuss the Jewish Federation of British Columbia’s Community Connector program, which partners with local Jewish leaders across the province to facilitate whatever Jewish culture looks like in their grassroots community, and the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Courageous Leadership Canada Initiative, which brought together lay and professional leaders from small and mid-sized communities to study, collaborate, and reflect on common challenges. 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 )