Shows / Not in Heaven
Not in Heaven
A weekly podcast about Judaism in the 2020s—because the Torah was left for us to figure out on the ground. Sublime and irreverent conversations about the present and future of communal, religious and spiritual life, led by Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat and Matthew Leibl.
Episodes
- Not in Heaven
Will another Netanyahu government push Diaspora Jews past their breaking point?
On Oct. 27, Israeli voters cast their ballots in the highest-turnout election in decades and gave their judgment on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu…
- Not in Heaven
J’Oy Vey: What the push towards ‘Jewish Joy’ misses
“Jewish joy” is having a moment. It shows up in grant guidelines, new organizational mission statements and frothy headlines like “This Hanukkah Episode of…
- Not in Heaven
Can synagogues raise money without ruining Yom Kippur?
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…
- Not in Heaven
All shepherd, no flock: With congregation numbers declining, freelance rabbis are on the rise
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…
- Not in Heaven
Conservative Judaism cracked open the door to interfaith families. Critics say it should go further
Eight months after the Conservative movement issued a public apology to interfaith families for historically treating them as a threat to Jewish survival, the…
- Not in Heaven
High Steaks: With kosher meat prices soaring, should Jews eat less of it?
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…
- Not in Heaven
Hoax or Hasid: Why stay in a religious community after you’ve stopped believing?
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…
- Not in Heaven
Do you need to feel hate to commit a hate crime?
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…
- Not in Heaven
Is enthusiasm for flags in synagogues flying at half-mast?
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…
- Not in Heaven
Turns out Jews also live outside major cities
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…
- Not in Heaven
Don't rain on my pro-Israel parade
Two weekends, two parades, two attendance-taking exercises. On each of the past two Sundays, the United States and Canada each held their largest annual…
- Not in Heaven
Gett Naked: A revealing campaign about community accountability
Adina Sash, known online to over 100,000 followers as Flatbush Girl, is an American Jewish social media influencer and activist based out of Brooklyn…
- Not in Heaven
Do AI Rabbis Dream of Electric Herring?
On Monday, Pope Leo XIV (an unusual place for us to start, but bear with us) released “Magnifica Humanitas,” or “Magnificent Humanity,” a letter to the world’s…
- Not in Heaven
Jewish communities must face an uncomfortable question: Who is a Jew?
Ask most Jews what their favourite holiday is and you’ll hear Hannukah, Passover, Purim, Sukkot—maybe even Yom Kippur for some diehards. But despite being one…
- Not in Heaven
Smartphone, dumbphone, kosherphone, anglophone, francophone: How Canadian Jews are trying to find a healthy relationship with their devices
Most parents share concerns about rising rates of depression, anxiety, and social disconnection among younger generations, especially how those issues…
- Not in Heaven
Up in arms: Why Jewish interest in gun ownership is surging
Sitting on a bus surrounded by Jews carrying rifles was once an exotic quirk of visiting Israel. But that may be changing. Last month, the American National…
- Not in Heaven
Is there a future for Jewish life in secularist Quebec?
This month, the province of Quebec passed Bill 9, a law that bans employees at publicly subsidized daycares from wearing religious symbols—including kippot…
- Not in Heaven
Cities are shying away from foreign flag raisings. But is it really a victory for Canadian Jews?
Yom ha-Atzmaut is in the air: circle dancing, falafels, inexplicable inflatable squeaky plastic hammers and, of course, Israeli flags galore. But this year’s…
- Not in Heaven
Holocaust education isn’t coming to save us
What moral lessons should we take from the Holocaust? In 1998, the late Israeli Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer told the Bundestag about the three additional…
- Not in Heaven
The fifth annual Great Canadian Seder
For some reason, the number "five" feels particularly weighty—and so it's with great pride that we bring you the fifth annual Great Canadian Seder. For those…
- Not in Heaven
Boys, men, and Kiddush clubs: The state of Jewish masculinity
Outside of orthodox communities, there’s a trend of boys and men increasingly disengaging from Jewish institutional life. A new article in the winter 2026…
- Not in Heaven
Synagogues under fire: What solutions can actually keep the Jewish community safe?
Last week, three Toronto synagogues were hit with gunfire in overnight shootings. Shocked and exasperated, the city’s Jewish community demanded that action…
- Not in Heaven
The power and perils of blurring an ancient and modern day Purim
The story of Purim is well known: in ancient Persia, a wicked royal vizier plots to wipe out the Jewish people — but he didn't count on Queen Esther, a…
- Not in Heaven
Sold to the highest bidder: whose manuscript is it anyway?
A handwritten letter by a Jewish luminary of the 18th century, Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, also known as the Ramchal, hit the auction block earlier this year…
- Not in Heaven
What's the next big idea? Birthright's co-founder wants to know
Taglit-Birthright Israel was founded just over 25 years ago, with the aim of strengthening Jewish identity among young adults through a 10-day, free of charge…
- Not in Heaven
Jewish parents want their kids to play sports—just not professionally
This cold week in February has been dominated by two major sporting events: the 2026 Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl. Jews played roles in both; the…
- Not in Heaven
End of a Grieving Era
With the return of Ran Gvili’s body, many Jewish leaders are publicly inviting community members to stand up from their proverbial shivas and re-engage with…
- Not in Heaven
A non-profit pays young people to host Shabbat dinners. It wound up firing 25% of its staff
OneTable is a non-profit organization with two goals: make Shabbat a regular part of young people's Jewish lives, and combat the epidemic of loneliness among…
- Not in Heaven
Why do Jews keep comparing themselves to movie goblins?
With the release of Wicked: For Good, Jewish audiences have been asking online: Are the munchkins supposed to be Jews? What about Elphaba—the vilified…
- Not in Heaven
Reflecting on the community response to the Winnipeg graffiti spree
Antisemitic acts don’t all mean the same thing, even if they provoke the same fear. A swastika sprayed on a synagogue door in Winnipeg is not the same as a…
- Not in Heaven
'Long Story Short' and the evolution of Jewish TV
The winter holiday season is upon us, which means binging TV shows and comfort movies is one of the only ways to pass the time while temperatures plummet…
- Not in Heaven
Plumbing the Rabbinic Pipeline: What New Data Says About The Future of Jewish Leadership
A recent, landmark study of current and future rabbis was met simultaneously with celebration, skepticism, and concern by groups across the Jewish community…
- Not in Heaven
[In Good Faith] How a Palestinian and a Jewish Canadian are trying to depolarize the country
This episode originally aired on The CJN's peace-building podcast, In Good Faith. To subscribe and hear more, visit thecjn.ca/faith. Mainstream Jews, who…
- Not in Heaven
Escape from New York?
In the lead-up to New York's mayoral election, many prominent Jewish New Yorkers came out against the eventual winner, Zohran Mamdani. Now that Mamdani has…
- Not in Heaven
Nobody wants this (but everyone wants to talk about it)
The hit Netflix rom-com Nobody Wants This is back, and with it are Jewish debates about intermarriage and onscreen representation in mainstream media. The…
- Not in Heaven
Challahween? How Jewish families navigate Halloween
This week, many Jewish schools will be participating in a hallowed end of October tradition: sending out letters discouraging families from celebrating…
- Not in Heaven
Who’s afraid of Zohran Mamdani?
For months, Zohran Mamdani has held a double digit lead in the New York City mayoral race. The 34-year-old media-savvy firebrand burst onto the scene with a…
- Not in Heaven
Rosh Hashanah Roundup
Even for the least religiously involved Jews, the High Holidays are a high point—and sometimes the only point—of organized Jewish engagement. For many…
- Not in Heaven
Binge eating through the High Holidays
Jews may joke about the High Holidays being a time for binge eating—overflowing tables of multiple meats, several courses, soups, sides and desserts—but for…
- Not in Heaven
The state of Jewish education
School has returned—and with it, the annual anxiety of Jewish parents fretting over the cost, and results, of Jewish day school. What good is Hebrew knowledge…
- Not in Heaven
Elul: High Holiday Foreplay
Buckle up, sports fans, it’s synagogue pre-season—a.k.a. Elul, the Hebrew month of spiritual preparation directly before the High Holidays. It's somehow both a…
- Not in Heaven
How can anyone be certain of anything happening in Israel?
Depending on which side of the political spectrum you're on, and which media outlets you trust, you perspective of what's happening in Israel and Gaza will be…
- Not in Heaven
The Jewish Angle: Is it ‘lashon hara’ to make fun of the Coldplay Jumbotron couple?
We're taking some time off to recharge this summer and prepare for new projects at The CJN. Instead of a new episode, we're bringing you another podcast from…
- Not in Heaven
Brave Jew World: The future of Judaism and AI, feat. David Zvi Kalman
David Zvi Kalman, a research fellow at the Hartman Institute and Sinai and Synapses, is one of the foremost thinkers looking at the intersection of artificial…
- Not in Heaven
The great Cholent debate + Grok's wild antisemitism
It’s a brave new world out there for the Jews. Over the past two weeks, we've seen a series of stories published showing the ways new technologies are…
- Not in Heaven
Small-tent Judaism: The way of the future?
Jewish congregations and institutions—particularly non-Orthodox ones—often focus on how they can be more appealing and accessible to the growing number of Jews…
- Not in Heaven
UJA, JNF, ADL, CIJA... TTYL?
Over the last century, North American Jews have poured untold millions of dollars into an alphabet soup of legacy institutions: UJA, CIJA, ADL, JNF, et al. And…
- Not in Heaven
Rabba Yedida and the taxonomy of orthodoxy
In 2013, Rabba Rachel Kohl Finegold, one of the first graduates of Yeshivat Maharat—a trailblazing institution in the Orthodox world that ordains women clergy…
- Not in Heaven
Shabbat-observant Jews: Keep your phone on for war updates, or stay religiously offline?
Observing Shabbat is one of the most important markers of religious Jewish identity and defining rhythms for religious communal Jewish life. It’s one of the 10…
- Not in Heaven
Debating the World Zionist Congress: Should Diaspora Jews get a say in Israeli affairs?
Have you heard of the World Zionist Congress before? Until relatively recently, a lot of people hadn't—including two hosts of The CJN's Not in Heaven podcast…
- Not in Heaven
How to speak to your kids about the Washington murders
The world feels increasingly unsafe for Jews. Digital spaces are riddled with antisemitic rhetoric. Israel recently issued a travel warning for Jews visiting…
- Not in Heaven
Are denominations still relevant?
Recently, Congregation Dorshei Emet—the only Reconstructionist synagogue in Quebec, and the oldest in Canada—took a major vote on whether to secede from the…
- Not in Heaven
1 in 3 Canadian Jews have a non-Jewish spouse. What does that mean for the country's Jewish future?
A new study on Canadian Jewry was recently published by Robert Brym and Rhonda Lenton in Canadian Jewish Studies, an academic journal out of York University…
- Not in Heaven
Burlesque Shabbat and kosher omakase: Is this really the future of Judaism?
Mainstream Jewish communal leaders have, for ages, been talking about "skewing younger" with programming. But none of them would dare come near Sinners'…
- Not in Heaven
How do we memorialize events when we're still living through them?
Most Jewish holidays date back thousands of years. We commemorate the time when an ancient Persian with a triangle hat tried to kill the Jews, when the…
- Not in Heaven
Should rabbis politicize the pulpit?
It's election season in Canada, with a record-breaking 7.3 million voters having already cast their ballots ahead of April 28. And between Passover seders and…
- Not in Heaven
The Fourth Annual Great Canadian Seder
It's that time of year again, when all of us at Bonjour Chai reach out to noteworthy, interesting, prominent Canadian Jews to share their thoughts, stories and…
- Not in Heaven
Conscious Uncoupling
Quick editorial announcement: after four years of weekly shows this will be the final regular episode of Bonjour Chai. After Passover, this podcast feed will…
- Not in Heaven
Hasid or Hipster?
For years, Heeb was the Jewish hipster's answer to _Vice—_an early 2000s-era counter-cultural protest in print form, dripping with satirical comedy and…
- Not in Heaven
Is Trump the New Achashverosh?
On March 13, nearly 100 protesters were arrested for storming Trump Tower in New York City. Their cause? Not government cuts, Medicaid, migrant rights or the…