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
Mazel Tov Cocktail
Antisemitic crimes have been on the rise across the world in the past month, but Montreal in particular has been rocked by sudden violent acts: two bullets…
- Not in Heaven
The Sermon on the Mount Herzl
If you'd asked Diaspora Jews earlier this year, in the wake of the mass protests against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's judicial reforms, how they…
- Not in Heaven
Live from Holocaust Education Week
As Stella Levi was growing up on the island of Rhodes, she lived a normal life. She played with her sisters, lounged on the beach and was excited to start high…
- Not in Heaven
This Land is My Land
Join Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy for a special live taping of Bonjour Chai, as we kick off Holocaust Education Week in partnership with the Toronto…
- Not in Heaven
The Misconceptia Edition
After two weeks of war between Israel and Hamas with no resolution in sight, many Jews have experienced a similar phenomenon: non-Jewish friends asking how…
- Not in Heaven
Awoke O Zion
Nearly one full week after Hamas terrorists attacked Israel and sparked a new war, Canadian politicians and institutions have had plenty of time to react…
- Not in Heaven
Some of My Best Friends are Jewish
It's Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, which means Jewish Canadians will most likely... be doing nothing special. Because a lot of Canadian Jews, it turns out…
- Not in Heaven
Hunka Hunka Burning Parliament
Today: a post-Yom Kippur repentance fest. We discuss the teshuva of the recently resigned Speaker of House of Commons, Anthony Rota. Is it enough that Rota…
- Not in Heaven
The Great Canadian Sermon Slam 2023
With Rosh Hashanah in the near past and Yom Kippur on the horizon, it's time for Canadian Jewry's most important annual event: the Great Canadian Sermon Slam…
- Not in Heaven
Shakshuka like a Polaroid Picture
As Rosh Hashanah draws near, we wanted to take our annual look back at the biggest news stories of 5783. To get a sense of what topics dominated the Jewish…
- Not in Heaven
X-Rated Antisemitism
One of this week's biggest online fights was between the Anti-Defamation League and Twitter (is anyone calling it "X"?)—or, more specifically, Twitter's CEO…
- Not in Heaven
Value and Values of Jewish Day School
September is upon us: school supplies are being purchased, backpacks are being filled, books are being covered. In that same vein, it's time podcasts like ours…
- Not in Heaven
Everybody Nose
Last week, Phoebe Maltz Bovy—who, when she's not co-hosting Bonjour Chai, can be found writing for the opinion pages of the _Globe and Mail—_penned a column…
- Not in Heaven
Zaftig Barbie
In their long-awaited return to podcast form, Avi and Phoebe catch up on their summer break—including their thoughts on the blockbuster Barbie movie and its…
- Not in Heaven
Klaus Barbie
By now, you've probably seen the takes: "Barbie is secretly Jewish," "Meet the Jewish woman who created Barbie," yadda yadda. Let's be honest: there's nothing…
- Not in Heaven
Over the Hill
Before advice columns were popular, the Forverts, originally a Yiddish newspaper in the early 20th century in New York, was running "A Bintel Brief", an advice…
- Not in Heaven
Notes on Camp
It's camp season, which means at least one thing: horny Jewish teenagers are probably hooking up right now, as you're reading this. Not only is this inevitable…
- Not in Heaven
Smoke and Mirrors
This week, millions of Central Canadians woke up once again to the distant smell of what seemed to be campfires. As was the case weeks ago, Canada's wildfires…
- Not in Heaven
Good Girls and Bad Gays
At 14, Hadley Freeman—now a prominent American-British journalist, then a teenager struggling with anorexia nervosa—moved into a psychiatric ward to treat her…
- Not in Heaven
Pride & Prejudice
In early May 2023, a number of parents whose children attend Bialik Hebrew Day School in Toronto wrote an open letter to the school claiming that the…
- Not in Heaven
Come For Your Girlfriend, Stay for the Podcast
In recent days, billboards have been popping up across New York City—and social media. Created by a company called JewBelong, the massive hot-pink ads display…
- Not in Heaven
Inherently Fertile
On this week’s show, pop culture takes over. We’re talking about Taylor Swift’s probably-not-Nazi maybe-boyfriend, the biblical undertones behind the recently…
- Not in Heaven
A Good Rabbi is Hard to Find
Back in March, Tablet published an article called “Wanted: More Rabbis", about how non-Orthodox seminaries are trying to adapt to changing communal needs and…
- Not in Heaven
Ham Sandwich Topped with Shrimp on Lard Bread
On today's show, we reflect on the tragic death of Herschel Siegel. Siegel, an accepted and embraced gay Orthodox Atlantan who attended Yeshiva University…
- Not in Heaven
Live from Shaar Hashomayim: What's the secret to Chabad's success?
Last Sunday, the Bonjour Chai team recorded a live podcast at Shaar Hashomayim in Montreal, as part of their day of learning about the future of Judaism. We…
- Not in Heaven
Secular? I Hardly Even Know Her
On April 19, Mark Oppenheimer—formerly a host of the popular Jewish podcast Unorthodox and an editor at Tablet—penned an open letter to Jessica Grose, a New…
- Not in Heaven
Defenders of the Faith
Israel's 75th birthday has been a monumental one for a myriad reasons. A day that should have celebrated three-quarters of a century of having a Jewish…
- Not in Heaven
Zionist Occupation of the Dance Floor
On Easter Monday, Quebec Premier François Legault tweeted out a column praising the province’s Catholic heritage. While Quebecois history is indeed steeped in…
- Not in Heaven
DJ Elmaghribi
As has become a tradition here at Bonjour Chai, we're going to turn to the Sephardic side of Passover celebrations with a deep dive into Mimouna and its…
- Not in Heaven
The Second Annual Great Canadian Seder
We’re proud to host our second annual Great Canadian Seder! Politicians and proletarians, cantors and comics, all coming together to share stories, songs…
- Not in Heaven
Morah-Core
The "tradwives" trend has taken off lately—a lifestyle fad wherein "traditional wives" espouse their happiness in cooking, cleaning, keeping working husbands…
- Not in Heaven
Home Base
The new urban, decentralized, personal style of Judaism is perhaps best exemplified by Base, an organization that first sprung up in 2015 out of New York…
- Not in Heaven
Do we still need to celebrate Jewish excellence?
For decades, young Jewish kids would often get books with titles like Great Jews in Sports or Great Jews in Entertainment as bar and bat mitzvah gifts. But…
- Not in Heaven
Isabel and Nicki and Albert Hoffman
We are eagerly anticipating Purim—and the only way we thought of topping last year's weedstravaganza was to get even higher. This week, we're going…
- Not in Heaven
[Title Redacted by Sensitivity Reader]
Over the past week, news broke that the novels of Roald Dahl were being rewritten to match modern sensibilities and remove language that some people have…
- Not in Heaven
Just Be a Mensch
Today we're asking an existential question: How can you be a good person? New York Magazine recently published an editorial package on how to behave, declaring…
- Not in Heaven
Sitdown special: Mark (Moishe) Bane
We're starting a new occasional series with Bonjour Chai: extended interviews that dive deep into a person or idea that matters to the Jewish community. In…
- Not in Heaven
Hot and Chanshi
One of the hottest new Israeli shows is Chanshi, about a young Orthodox woman who travels solo to Israel, ditching her fiancé, with the sole mission of having…
- Not in Heaven
You can’t spell "messianism" without "mess"
If you've ever wondered why it seems like there are more Chabad houses than Starbucks in Canadian cities, there's a reason: With their enormous menorahs and…
- Not in Heaven
Israel Is So Basic
Over 110,000 protestors packed Tel Aviv’s city centre, in one of the country’s largest anti-government protests in the past decade. They were rallying against…
- Not in Heaven
Bargain Basement Antisemitism
It seems like discussions of antisemitism have devoured a larger share of the Jewish community’s mental bandwidth in recent years. It dominates the headlines…
- Not in Heaven
J’Accuse…!
In the final days of 2022, Michael Marrus, an author, historian, and foremost scholar of Holocaust studies in Canada, died at age 81. He authored eight books…
- Not in Heaven
Hanukkah, Chrismukkah, Swastika
Once upon a time, the swastika had no correlation to hate. It is, in fact, a millennia-old symbol of well-being and hope. It has been used—and continues to be…
- Not in Heaven
The Ballroom in the Kiddush Room
The idea of inhabiting and playing with an identity you usually don't exhibit isn't new to Judaism, with many aspects of Jewish identity being more fluid than…
- Not in Heaven
The Two Solitudes
Last month, a report from the pro-Palestinian group Independent Jewish Voices came out, titled "Unveiling the Chilly Climate – The Suppression of Speech on…
- Not in Heaven
Family Feud
In the aftermath of Israel's elections, the return of Benjamin Netanyahu means a far-right coalition likely placing controversial political figures Bezalel…
- Not in Heaven
I'll Read What She's Reading
With winter holidays approaching, there's only one thing everyone wants keeping them warm by candlelight on a dark winter's night: a Jewish romance novel. You…
- Not in Heaven
Noah to Shoah
In 2019, 70 Holocaust survivors joined the March of the Living trip to Poland. In 2022, that number plummeted to eight. Separately, but relevantly, Israel…
- Not in Heaven
Vote Ye or Nay
With major elections coming up in the United States and Israel, we faraway Canadian Jews—many of whom just voted in our own municipal elections across Ontario…
- Not in Heaven
All the Genders of Genesis
The Stanley Cup may have already been awarded this year, but an even greater cup has yet to be bestowed to a true national champion: the winner of the Great…
- Not in Heaven
Tabarnak! Kanye Better Not Come to My Sukkah
As the hosts of Bonjour Chai sat in their temporary dwellings to celebrate Sukkot, they got to thinking about housing—specifically, affordable housing in the…
- Not in Heaven
MK Pop
In the last couple months, the Miami Boys Choir—a pop group comprising Orthodox Jewish kids that's been around since the 1970s—began inexplicably trending on…
- Not in Heaven
Return to Teshuvahland
We are smack in the middle of teshuvah season, when Jews usually focus on repentance in the lead-up to Yom Kippur. But the Hebrew root of the word comes from…
- Not in Heaven
If the Teshuvah Fits
As we stand on the cusp of the year 5783, we're getting ready to reflect on our own lives and actions—and the hosts of our weekly current affairs podcast…
- Not in Heaven
Yoh Malkeh
New York's Jews weren't surprised when The New York Times published an exposé on significant issues plaguing Hasidic schools in the state. The local Jewish…
- Not in Heaven
No Campaign, No Gain
It's campaign fundraising season across the country, as Jewish organizations hold banner events with big-name speakers to bring in machers and dollars for…
- Not in Heaven
Shul is Such a Drag
Last week, we convened a panel to discuss the role and effectiveness of day schools in 2022. The response to that episode was huge and mostly positive—so we…
- Not in Heaven
The People of the Pocketbook
The first day of school is coming up, and when the topic came up in a recent CJN editorial meeting, we realized many CJN staffers had strong opinions about the…
- Not in Heaven
Hole-y Sheet
Until 2017, if you were queer and Jewish and looking for someone the same, you had to settle for one of the few Jewish dating apps—or a queer one—and hoped to…
- Not in Heaven
Shvitzing in August
With David on honeymoon and Ilana off camping, we're taking a break from our usual programming. Instead, with ever-more natural disasters and heat waves…