This episode originally aired on March 15, 2023.

Montreal filmmaker Ezra Soiferman loves the winters in his native city so much, he’s made a new film about them, called Montreal, Snowbec. It’s a love letter to the season where the city is covered by nearly six feet of white stuff each year. In the film, Soiferman showcases the beauty of Place Ville Marie’s searchlight, plus many Jewish winter scenes, including two Hasidic men walking through a snow covered lane, and the famous St. Viateur bagel bakery, in the snow.

Soiferman feels Montrealers who spend winters in Florida or Arizona are missing out on the joys of the season, from watching snowplows clean the streets to driving by the white-capped iconic Orange Julep restaurant.

Ezra Soiferman’s film was released two weeks ago and is already getting people smiling, which was his aim. He joins North Star host Ellin Bessner—a former Montrealer—to compare notes and memories of potholes, driveway plastic car protectors and sledding on Mount Royal.

What we talked about

• Watch

Montreal, Snowbec

for free on

Ezra Soiferman’s YouTube channel

• Read more about the filmmaker

on his website

• Learn about Ezra Soiferman’s previous films, in

The CJN

Credits

• Host and writer:

Ellin Bessner

• Production team:

Zachary Judah Kauffman (senior producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director)

• Music:

Bret Higgins

As Gary Kapelus grew up in Canada, his father, Jerry Kapelus, never talked about what it had been like to be forcibly tattooed by Nazis in Auschwitz in 1944. But Kapelus noticed that his dad never tried to hide or remove the tattoo, either; indeed, he often displayed it as he spoke to thousands of school children over the years about his experiences.

After Jerry died in 2021, Kapelus took up the mantle as a Holocaust educator, sharing his father’s story. Recently, at the age of 70, Kapelus decided to take one extra step: he got that same number, B-7619, tattooed on his own left arm.

The act is a growing trend among descendants of Holocaust survivors, known as “re-marking”, taking ownership of something that was done against the will of the Nazi’s victims. The tattoos are done for many different reasons: some do it in defiance of their grandparents’ persecution, while others see it as a way to honour the six million killed. Kapelus’s motivation was to spark conversations.

On today’s episode of The CJN’s flagship North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with Gary Kapelus ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27.

Related links

• Read more about Gary Kapelus’s father, Jerry.

• Why descendants of Auschwitz survivors are tattooing their own arms, in The CJN archives (from 2021).

• Learn more about the (Re)marked project Stories from the Skin at the University of Waterloo.

Credits

• Host and writer:

Ellin Bessner info@thecjn.ca

• Production team:

Zachary Judah Kauffman (senior producer),

Michael Fraiman (executive producer)

Alicia Richler (editorial director)

• Music:

Bret Higgins

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

There’s a teaching that appears almost word-for-word in both Jewish and Islamic scriptures: whoever kills a soul, it's as if he killed the entire world; anyone who saves one soul, it is as if he had saved mankind entirely. Judaism and Islam diverge on many points—but on this one, they’re in unanimous agreement.

Yet over the last two years, both Jews and Muslims in Canada and around the world have felt like they’re in a constant state of mourning over the violence and death in Israel and Gaza. And it’s not just the weight of the loss itself—there is also rage when it feels like someone else’s grief is being prioritized above your own, or when the reality of your grief is questioned.

At the same time, grieving is fundamentally not about death. Grief can heal us and bring communities together—as it has for both guests on today’s episode of In Good Faith.

First, you’ll hear from Layla Alsheikh, a Palestinian mother whose six-month-old son died after inhaling tear gas that Israeli soldiers shot into her West Bank village in 2002. After her story, Yonatan Zeigen discusses life after the murder of his mother, the Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver, at the hands of Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7. What connects these two bereaved voices? After suffering a brutal loss, both wound up turning toward peace-building as a way to honour the legacy of their late family members.

Credits

• Hosts: Yafa Sakkejha and Avi Finegold

• Producers: Michael Fraiman and Zachary Judah Kauffman

• Editor: Zachary Judah Kauffman

This podcast is sponsored by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, with support from the Ronald S. Roadburg Foundation.