The newsletter about our current affairs
We promised to start this in November!
Welcome to our effort to keep you posted on everything related to Bonjour Chai, which involves inviting your feedback on everything we do. Let your people know about the show that keeps you up to date on the hotter-than-horseradish takes.
Why is there no #MeToo for the victims of Hamas? Phoebe Maltz Bovy on the unsurprising silence of progressives
In no particular order, the theories floating around my mind. Maybe there’s nothing to any of them, but here they are…
The lines defined by Klein
A current focus for Naomi Klein involves the hate-crime charges against activists who targeted the Indigo bookstore at Bay and Bloor Sts. in Toronto on Nov. 10. The protest involved splashing the windows with red paint along with posters accusing founder Heather Reisman of “Funding Genocide” by providing free tuition to Israeli lone soldiers through the HESEG Foundation created with her husband, Gerry Schwartz.
Klein phoned into a Thursday morning protest in front of the store in the wake of 11 people charged with alleged defacement—three of whom work for York University, which was the site of a walkout protesting their suspensions as a result of the charges.
You can read Phoebe’s feature on Klein’s book Doppleganger at The Canadian Jewish News—and also in the print magazine! We also discussed the book review on the pod.
“pov: you’re in DC surrounded by 150,000 nice Jewish boys”
While the 26-year-old influencer who brought this sign to the March for Israel in Washington on Nov. 14 says she wasn’t looking for a date, Morgan Raum also told The Forward that she also isn’t against the idea that a new mutual might deliver a match in the DMs. After all, she previously lost 1,000 followers after posting about antisemitism, and was reportedly “shamed” for her “privilege” due to the stunt.
What else we’ve been talking about…
Montreal anti-racism commissioner Bochra Manaï has promised not to attend any more pro-Palestinian rallies
Jesse Brown popped up on the Canadaland podcast to editorially answer the question “Is Jesse a Zionist?”
Isabel Slone compiled the wildest stories from the 888 Dupont art squat for an oral history published by Toronto Life
“Second Genesis: When a Tribute Band Transcends the Original” written by Dafna Izenberg at The Walrus
Mark Oppenheimer, our two-time guest, is working with Toronto’s Antica Productions and New York’s Leo Baeck Institute on a podcast about the lives and histories of German-speaking Jews
Look out for more from Bonjour Chai as we figure this newsletter thing out! Subscribe to the show which usually appears in the feed by Thursday night inside every podcast app.