Culturally Jewish

Earlier this month, 18 Canadian theatre companies—including the world's largest queer theatre company, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, based in Toronto—joined a cultural and academic boycott of Israel, in solidarity with Gaza. It was just the latest evolution in a trend that has been particularly noteworthy since Oct. 7, 2023, when the North American arts community turned sharply against pro-Israel and Jewish artists in all fields, noteably theatre, film, literature, poetry. The progression has led us here. After years of isolation, there is more hunger than ever for proudly Jewish art, with calls for increased Jewish arts grants and community support. Here to echo those calls are two Jewish artists who have experienced these struggles in the last two years: Shaina Silver-Baird is a writer, actor and the creator of the TV series Less Than Kosher, and Hal Niedzviecki was the editor of Broken Pencil, Canada's magazine covering independent zine culture, which he abruptly closed after facing backlash from progressive activists to denounce Israel. In this series finale of Culturally Jewish, The CJN's podcast covering Canadian Jewish artists, hosts Ilana Zackon and David Sklar sit down for a frank conversation and take stock of the last two years—while also expressing hopes for the future. Credits Hosts: Ilana Zackon and David Sklar Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Sarah Segal-Lazar Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Culturally Jewish (Not sure how? Click here)

Daniel Pelton hadn't felt much of a musical connection to his Jewish heritage before Oct. 7. But after reality changed for Jews around the world—including his hometown of Calgary—Pelton decided to learn more about both the Holocaust and its artistic representations. He read The Tattooist of Auschwitz, which inspired him to adapt the tattoo numbers used in the book—34902-32407—into musical notes, using their 12-tone counterparts. The result evolved into a 11-minute epic, which Pelton supplemented with two other tracks to create a new trio of songs, released on Jan. 27 for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. To record the three works, Pelton teamed up with Calgary's National Music Centre and successfully applied for a grant to record with the "Violins of Hope", authentic violins once owned by Holocaust victims and survivors. Hear all the three works and learn how he embarked on this journey on this week's episode of Culturally Jewish, The CJN's podcast spotlighting Canadian Jewish artists. Credits Hosts: Ilana Zackon and David Sklar Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Sarah Segal-Lazar Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Culturally Jewish (Not sure how? Click here)

When Adam Wolfond was in his primary school years, the public education system wasn't giving him the support he needed as a nonverbal autistic student. So his mother, Estée Klar, along with other educators and allies, created their own kind of classroom, where neurodivergent kids could feel more free to learn in their own ways, pacing around the room or sitting in bean bag chairs. For Wolfond, using a text-to-speech device, he was finally able to respond in full sentences at his own pace—and discover his own poetic voice. This month, he is debuting an art exhibition at the Koffler Arts Centre in Toronto, "What If My Body is a Beacon for the World?", running from Jan. 9-26. The exhibit includes video installations and projections, along with bean bag chairs and sticks laying around the ground, which are central to Wolfond's way of living and communicating. Wolfond and Klar join Culturally Jewish, The CJN's arts podcast, to describe their artwork and journey to get here. Credits Hosts: Ilana Zackon and David Sklar Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Sarah Segal-Lazar Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Culturally Jewish (Not sure how? Click here)

Erez Zobary spent a long time downplaying her Jewish identity in her music career. Her earlier work—a blend of R&B, pop, soul and jazz—dealt with issues relevant to her audience of largely twentysomethings: love lives, quarter-life crises, feeling stuck and aimless. It may not be surprising, then, that a woman whose songs so often looked inward would eventually turn to her heritage. As she tells Culturally Jewish, The CJN's arts and culture podcast, her songs began feeling increasingly disconnected from who she really was, and she wanted to try something drastically different. The result is Erez, her new album, which dives deep into her Yemenite family history—specifically her grandmother's escape from Yemen to Israel as part of Operation Magic Carpet. Zobary joins the show to explain her process and backstory, and to share how she feels releasing an album with Middle Eastern musical flourishes, covered in Hebrew writing, just one year after Oct. 7. Credits Hosts: Ilana Zackon and David Sklar Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Sarah Segal-Lazar Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Culturally Jewish (Not sure how? Click here)

After Wendy Litner's mother passed away, Litner was surprised that she still heard her voice—felt her presence, even, looking over her shoulder... often judging her. The feeling inspired Litner to write a new web series called My Dead Mom, released on Crave earlier this month. The show gives a modern, distinctly feminist twist to the stereotype of a Jewish mother ceaselessly nagging her daughter. And, as Litner explains on the latest episode of Culturally Jewish, it's less about saying goodbye than accepting the evolution of a relationship with those who've passed on. Also in this episode, co-hosts Ilana and David discuss their own history of using art to process grief and trauma, and give their biweekly round-up of Jewish art events across the country. Credits Hosts: Ilana Zackon and David Sklar Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Sarah Segal-Lazar Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Culturally Jewish (Not sure how? Click here)

This podcast is a proud media partner of Jewish Futures, a day-long arts and culture salon for Jewish arts workers, hosted by the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto on Nov. 24. The 2024 program emphasizes networking, communal learning and the exploration of Jewish artistic identity, providing a foundation for building resilience and leadership for Toronto’s Jewish cultural community. Learn more and get your tickets here. Joseph Landau didn't grow up speaking Yiddish—but something about the language compelled him. Whenever he spent time with his grandfather, Landau would ask him to translate certain words, slowly building a vocabulary. He joined WhatsApp groups that communicated in the language, sought out secular Yiddish-speaking communities and eventually began speaking Yiddish to his own young son. That journey, not coincidentally, has dovetailed with Landau's musical career. As the driving force behind Yosl and the Yingels, Landau writes original songs—entirely in Yiddish—that blend jazz and folk melodies with classic klezmer motifs. Their debut EP, Zikhroynes, releases Nov. 15, 2024._ Landau joins the hosts of Culturally Jewish to discuss life in the Yiddish-speaking arts world, from the politics of klezmer retreats to the reaction of non-Jewish audiences across the city of Toronto. Credits Hosts: Ilana Zackon and David Sklar Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Sarah Segal-Lazar Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Culturally Jewish (Not sure how? Click here)

Last month, The CJN Podcast Network debuted its first original fiction podcast, Justice: A Holocaust Zombie Story. The seven-part audio drama is a work of subversive Holocaust education designed for the digital age, with many of its gruesome facts grounded in truth. Any shock value from merging zombies with Holocaust education was a deliberate attempt at turning heads, particularly among younger, non-Jewish audiences. That's according to the show's creator, Michael Fraiman—who also produces _Culturally Jewish—_and sits in the guest chair for the first time. He and Ilana Zackon were invited by the Toronto Holocaust Museum to record a live conversation about the show, its origins and its intentions, hosted on the night before Halloween. Listings Learn more about Jewish Futures, Toronto's day-long conference for Jewish arts workers, and register for the event happening Nov. 24 See what the Toronto Holocaust Museum is doing for Neuberger Holocaust Education Week 2024, including a conversation between Maclean's editor Sarah Fulford and author Tobias Buck Show Credits Hosts: Ilana Zackon and David Sklar Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Sarah Segal-Lazar Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Culturally Jewish (Not sure how? Click here)

Jacob Samuel has a couple references to his Judaism in his stand-up routine. In the past, whenever he brought it up, it usually created a moment of tension before a laugh. But in the year since Oct. 7, especially in his hometown of Vancouver, he's noticed a shift. It's harder to talk about his Jewish identity onstage. He brings it up later, or takes out a couple jokes if the laugh isn't big enough. Yet Samuel, who won a Juno award for his debut comedy album in 2021, is determined to keep telling audiences he's Jewish. As he tells The CJN's arts podcasters on Culturally Jewish, that visibility is important, even with antisemitism on the rise. And getting people comfortable enough to laugh along with him is critical. Samuel is will be hitting the road this month, performing in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal before returning to B.C. for a headline show at the Chutzpah! Festival in Vancouver. Credits Hosts: Ilana Zackon and David Sklar Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Sarah Segal-Lazar Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Culturally Jewish (Not sure how? Click here)

Arnie Lipsey has spent decades working in animation. But on the side, years ago, he began painting on canvas, using archival family photos for inspiration. He began colourizing and adapting them, eventually reinterpreting them entirely through a modern lens. That often resulted in jarring, traumatic scenes quietly unfolding behind his smiling family members: spiralling tornados, fiery trains, even the barbed-wire fences of a concentration camp. The result is an unsettling, engrossing new series of 30 paintings in a new series on display at the Museum of Jewish Montreal until December 2024. The Past Is Before You blends fond memories and childlike innocence with a traumatic family story of escape from Nazi Europe. Lipsey joins The CJN's arts podcast, Culturally Jewish, to explain his process and share some of the real-life history behind the art. Credits Hosts: Ilana Zackon and David Sklar Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Sarah Segal-Lazar Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Culturally Jewish (Not sure how? Click here)

When Tuesdays with Morrie was first published in 1997, it elevated Jewish author Mitch Albom to a level of literary stardom that reverberated beyond the book world. The story—which detailed Albom's frequent visits with his former professor, Morrie Schwartz, who was dying of ALS—has since been adapted into a TV movie and an off-Broadway production in 2002 before a New York City revival earlier this year. And now, a new staging is bringing this two-hander play to the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre—starring The CJN's own arts podcaster, David Sklar. David took a few moments out of rehearsal to sit down with his director, Mariam Bernstein, to talk about the Jewish themes inherent to the story. But before that, Ilana Zackon catches us up on her busy summer, which included a stop at the KlezKanada retreat in rural Quebec and the Ashkenaz Festival in downtown Toronto, and later offers up some nationwide arts listings, including a couple controversial films about the Middle East debuting at the Toronto International Film Festival this week. Credits Hosts: Ilana Zackon and David Sklar Producer: Michael Fraiman Music: Sarah Segal-Lazar Support The CJN Subscribe to The CJN newsletter Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt) Subscribe to Culturally Jewish (Not sure how? Click here)