Podcast
Yehupetzville with Ralph Benmergui
Hosted by The CJN Podcast Network · ENGLISH
If you're a Jew in Canada, odds are good you live in a big city. But Jews have built communities all across our home and native land, and in this podcast, veteran broadcaster Ralph Benmergui journeys across Canada in search of proud Jews from small places. From Moncton to Moose Jaw, Glace Bay to Thunder Bay, join Ralph as he travels from coast to coast to coast in search of a truly national Canadian Jewish identity.
43episodes
Episodes
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S2E10 - One woman's mission to revitalize the Jewish community of Quebec City
Sep 6, 202200:29:50Tap to summarizeOver the past generation, the Jewish community of Quebec City has been decimated—first by the Quebec Referendum, slowly by an outward migration of young people, and finally by COVID-19, which coincided with a loss of funds to keep any paid staff. The outlook for the couple dozen active remaining Jews looked grim. Debbie Rootman wouldn't accept that. She moved there in September 2019, and swiftly took it upon herself to revitalize the newsletter, organize events and galvanize community members as best she could. After facing extreme challenges in the last two years, Rootman felt so inspired by a recent episode of Yehupetzville that she reached out to share her own story—and share the proud, centuries-old Jewish history of her adoptive home city. Credits Yehupetzville is hosted by Ralph Benmergui. Michael Fraiman is the producer and editor. Our music was arranged by Louis Simão and performed by Louis Simão and Jacob Gorzhaltsan. Our sponsor is PearTree Canada, which you can learn more about at peartreecanada.com. This show is a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, watch this video.
Transcribe →S2E9 - Small-town Judaism is in danger. Here's how it can be saved
Aug 25, 202200:30:13Tap to summarizeAcross North America, Jews are increasingly migrating to large urban centres, abandoning smaller towns for more opportunities and a more convenient Jewish life. One rabbi is on a mission to change that. As a student at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Rabbi Rachel Isaacs was assigned to a one-year stint in Waterville, Maine, with one small synagogue and a handful of Hillel students at a local liberal arts college. She quickly realized that the disparate, dwindling community had a chance at surviving through innovative thinking and consolidation: bring together the students and older families to make a minyan, get Hillel kids going to local homes for Shabbat, and foster a cross-generational, non-denominational community that would inspire younger Jews to get engaged. Today, Rabbi Isaacs is the head of the Center for Small Town Jewish Life, a university program that runs events and brings together Jews from across the Pine Tree State. She's now expanding the concept to cities across the United States, from Honolulu to Lexington. Her pitch: if you believe Judaism is not a privilege to be enjoyed exclusively by those living in the densest cities in the country, the impetus is on you to help redistribute wealth and opportunity. Rabbi Isaacs joins Yehupetzville to share her story, describe her project and explain why small-town Jews are so often primed to become community leaders. Credits Yehupetzville is hosted by Ralph Benmergui. Michael Fraiman is the producer and editor. Our music was arranged by Louis Simão and performed by Louis Simão and Jacob Gorzhaltsan. Our sponsor is PearTree Canada, which you can learn more about at peartreecanada.com. This show is a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, watch this video.
Transcribe →S2E8 - How a handful of Jewish doctors formed an unlikely community in Sioux Lookout, Ont.
Aug 9, 202200:30:52Tap to summarizeIf you've heard of Sioux Lookout, a largely First Nations town of fewer than 6,000 people in Northern Ontario, you probably wouldn't expect it to be home to any number of Jews. The rural community, nestled between clear blue lakes and verdant forests, is an attractive summer getaway—but living there full-time can be difficult. It's that much harder to practice medicine there, with little support or infrastructure, travelling north to fly-in First Nations communities with sometimes no resident physician of their own. But these are the challenges that attract a certain kind of doctor—and, as it happens, several of them are Jewish. After Benji Goldstein, an Israeli-born doctor, became perhaps the town's first practising Jew, Ben Langer moved next door, on a mission to help underserved communities as a rural family doctor. Together, and with a few other Jews in the area, they began baking challah, celebrating Shabbat and building an ice hanukkiah every winter, becoming an unexpected focal point of Jewish life. Both men join Yehupetzville to chat about the risks and rewards of making a life so far from home. Credits Yehupetzville is hosted by Ralph Benmergui. Michael Fraiman is the producer and editor. Our music was arranged by Louis Simão and performed by Louis Simão and Jacob Gorzhaltsan. Our sponsor is PearTree Canada, which you can learn more about at peartreecanada.com. This show is a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, watch this video.
Transcribe →S2E7 - Meet the Jamaican Jewish leader who once took Louis Farrakhan to synagogue
Jul 7, 202200:27:40Tap to summarizeDespite Jews living on the island of Jamaica for more than 200 years, the Caribbean island isn't a logical hotspot for Jewish life. Yet Jewish life has thrived over the years. One man at the centre has been Ainsley Henriques, a longtime leader of Jamaica's Jewish community—he's worn many hats, including as the Honorary Consul of Israel in Jamaica, and met with many important figure, including Louis Farrakhan, whom he once took to a Shabbat service at the synagogue in Kingston. To share that story and others, Henriques joins to discuss Jewry in Jamaica, the future outlook and the Jewish origins of Jamaica's tradition of "Saturday soup". Credits Yehupetzville is hosted by Ralph Benmergui. Michael Fraiman is the producer and editor. Our music was arranged by Louis Simão and performed by Louis Simão and Jacob Gorzhaltsan. Our sponsor is PearTree Canada, which you can learn more about at peartreecanada.com. This show is a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, watch this video.
Transcribe →S2E6 - Born in Barbados, Simon Kreindler spent years chronicling the island's Jewish history
Jun 14, 202200:27:50Tap to summarizeSimon Kreindler was born in Barbados, where he lived until he graduated high school. After that, it was off to Canada—he left behind the Caribbean island's few dozen Jewish families and studied medicine at McGill University. But decades later, in 2013, he felt an urge to revisit memories of his old home and his family's settlement there. He began researching his parents' journey from Europe to Barbados, and reached out to acquaintances who shared their own family histories. Kreindler stitched these tales together into a self-published book, Peddlers All: Stories of the First Ashkenazi Jewish Settlers in Barbados, released in 2017. Kreindler joins to discuss his research, what's left of Barbados's community and what it was like growing up Jewish under the Caribbean sun. Credits Yehupetzville is hosted by Ralph Benmergui. Michael Fraiman is the producer and editor. Our music was arranged by Louis Simão and performed by Louis Simão and Jacob Gorzhaltsan. Our sponsor is PearTree Canada, which you can learn more about at peartreecanada.com. This show is a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, watch this video.
Transcribe →S2E5 - 'I was not ready to move on': After schoolyard antisemitism struck Stratford, Carrie Wreford took action
May 30, 202200:26:37Tap to summarizeIn big cities, Jews have large organizations that can advocate on their behalf. In small towns, it's the locals themselves that need to step up. That's what happened when antisemitic incidents were recently revealed to have happened at a school in Stratford, Ont.—just one of a rash of similar incidents in Ontario schools this year. After Carrie Wreford heard about Hitler salutes and inflammatory videos at her son's school, she wasn't satisfied by the school's reaction, which focused on this specific incident—but didn't get at the root of the problem. So she initiated class tours of a local Holocaust museum exhibit on loan from the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, which she hopes will educate local kids about the dangers of hatred and bigotry against all people, not just Jews. Wreford shares her story, and describes life as one of the few Jews in Stratford, with Ralph Benmergui on Yehupetzville, The CJN's podcast about Jews in small-town Canada and beyond. Credits Yehupetzville is hosted by Ralph Benmergui. Michael Fraiman is the producer and editor. Our music was arranged by Louis Simão and performed by Louis Simão and Jacob Gorzhaltsan. Our sponsor is PearTree Canada, which you can learn more about at peartreecanada.com. This show is a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, watch this video.
Transcribe →S2E4 - It's a lonesome life for a Jew in Western Newfoundland—and that's just how Sheina Lerman likes it
May 17, 202200:29:00Tap to summarizeSheina Lerman has moved around a lot in life, but never has she wanted to live in a big city. After moving to Newfoundland some years ago, during the pandemic, she decided to settle in Deer Lake, a town of 5,000 people—perhaps none of them Jews. She found a nice house across from a sandy beach. Life, for the most part, is quiet. Except when it isn't. Like in 2021, when she decided to stand for the provincial New Democratic Party in the Liberal stronghold that was home to former premier Dwight Ball, who handed it over to his successor, Andrew Furey. Furey won with 2,838 votes; Lerman came in third with 107. But when you're a come-from-away Jew in small-town Newfoundland, you're no stranger to being the odd person out in a crowd. Lerman sits down with Yehupetzville host Ralph Benmergui to chat about why she chose this quaint and coastal life, and why she believes more Jews need to leave urban centres and make their presence known across the country. Credits Yehupetzville is hosted by Ralph Benmergui. Michael Fraiman is the producer and editor. Our music was arranged by Louis Simão and performed by Louis Simão and Jacob Gorzhaltsan. Our sponsor is PearTree Canada, which you can learn more about at peartreecanada.com. This show is a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, watch this video.
Transcribe →S2E3 - Remembering the last Jews of Maitland, Ont.
May 4, 202200:26:36Tap to summarizeElena Kingsbury grew up in Maitland, Ont., a small town of about 1,200 people—including just two Jewish families. She would hop across the St. Lawrence River into Ogdensburg, NY, where her family were members of the international Anshe Zophen synagogue, which supported congregants from nearby towns on both sides of the border. In 2000, Kingsbury would be the last bat mitzvah in the now-closed synagogue. The 9/11 attacks made border crossings too difficult, and a declining population led to the regional exodus of many young locals—including herself. Now an education specialist at the Friends Of Simon Wiesenthal Center For Holocaust Studies in Ottawa, Kingsbury joins to recall her years growing up in the tiny riverside town, and how it shaped her conception of what it means to be Jewish. Credits Yehupetzville is hosted by Ralph Benmergui. Michael Fraiman is the producer and editor. Our music was arranged by Louis Simão and performed by Louis Simão and Jacob Gorzhaltsan. Our sponsor is PearTree Canada, which you can learn more about at peartreecanada.com. This show is a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, watch this video.
Transcribe →S2E2 - The rise, fall and rebirth of FrumCity, the Orthodox migration to Innisfil that never happened
Apr 6, 202200:25:32Tap to summarizeYears ago, a small group of Orthodox Jews from Toronto decided to start a new community north of the city. They chose Innisfil, a town south of Barrie; plans began to build news houses, import kosher food and leverage a nearby 80-year-old synagogue, Tent City, that's been enjoyed during summers by beach-seeking vacationing Jews for generations. They called the project "FrumCity". It never happened. The original plan required at least 90 families to buy in—but too few were willing to take the plunge, and housing prices have only risen since then, prohibiting even more off from entering the real estate market. A handful of Jews, however, took up the mantle, and one of them joins us today. Joseph Friedberg currently has a house being built in Innisfil and plans to move there later this year. And while he isn't yet backed by a mass migration of community support, he's hopeful that between him and a few others making the move, the dream of a simple, traditional, self-sustaining Orthodox community—more affordable and more enjoyable than renting in the big city—will still come true. What we talked about Learn about Tent City Shul at tentcityshul.ca Read about the original plans for FrumCity, circa 2016, at thecjn.ca Credits Yehupetzville is hosted by Ralph Benmergui. Michael Fraiman is the producer and editor. Our music was arranged by Louis Simão and performed by Louis Simão and Jacob Gorzhaltsan. Our sponsor is PearTree Canada, which you can learn more about at peartreecanada.com. This show is a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, watch this video.
Transcribe →S1E24 - Meet the Canadian who hung up the first mezuzah in Girona's Jewish Quarter since 1492
Mar 23, 202200:26:18Tap to summarizeWhen Leah Stoch Spokoiny moved to Girona, halfway between Barcelona and the French border, in the heart of Catalan, she finally felt at home. The smells, food and social norms connected with her immediately, even though she wound up there almost by chance. The irony in her feeling at home is that she sticks out—not just as a Canadian, but as one of perhaps 50 Jewish residents in the city of 100,000 people. Despite Girona being the hometown of the Ramban, Rabbi Moses ben Nachman, today it has barely any Jews living there, especially in its historic Jewish Quarter. That is, Until Stoch Spokoiny moved in. Since nailing up perhaps the Jewish Quarter's first mezuzah since 1492, Stoch Spokoiny has joined the board of the city's Jewish community, planning communal events and promoting her people's history in the region. She joins Yehupetzville as the first guest in our second season, which will feature Jews living in small communities beyond Canada's shores, anywhere around the world. Credits Yehupetzville is hosted by Ralph Benmergui. Michael Fraiman is the producer and editor. Our music was arranged by Louis Simão and performed by Louis Simão and Jacob Gorzhaltsan. Our sponsor is PearTree Canada, which you can learn more about at peartreecanada.com. This show is a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, watch this video.
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