Eva Kuper, a Holocaust survivor from Montreal, spent the first five years of her life hiding from the Nazis in German-occupied Poland. Now, the well-known Holocaust educator is stranded in Israel together with a group of university and CEGEP students on the “Journey of Hope”, a trip supported by Montreal’s Federation CJA.
After visiting Auschwitz with the students two weeks ago, and taking them to see the sites in Poland where Kuper grew up between 1940 and 1945, the delegation landed in Israel a week ago—just before Israel launched its surprise air raids on Iran on June 13. Since then, Iran has been retaliating with nightly barrages of missiles and drones that have now killed 24 people and injured more than 600 others. The action curtailed the Canadians’ trip, and the group is now spending its time confined to their hotel, rushing down to bomb shelters when the air raid sirens go off.
While the students—and their worried parents—have been anxious, Kuper has been impressed by the scenes of resilience she has observed. She joins North Star host Ellin Bessner from Israel. In this episode, you’ll also hear from Yair Szlak, the CEO of Federation CJA of Montreal, who explains what his organization is doing to help bring people home, and from Glenn Nashen, a parent of a teenager now on Birthright who is also stranded in Israel.
Transcript
Ellin Bessner: That’s the sound from a TikTok video filmed Sunday inside an Israeli bomb shelter with 85-year-old Montreal Holocaust survivor Eva Cooper. Lynn lip-syncing together with some of the Canadian university and CEGEP students she’s accompanied first to Poland and then to Israel this month. But instead of boarding a plane back to Montreal, which they were expected to do Monday, the Montrealers, 65 of them plus chaperones, found themselves confined and on an unexpected extended stay at their Jerusalem hotel, taking shelter from deadly Iranian missiles and the answering IDF Iron Dome shooting them down. The TikTok video shows Cooper and the students with big smiles. Some wear their Journey of Hope sweatshirts and blue delegation lanyards, and they bop and gesture to a hit song from 2013 by Naughty Boy featuring Sam Smith. Perhaps they chose this song to drown out the booms and the air raid sirens because the lyrics go, I’m covering my ears like a kid when your words mean nothing. I go la la la la. And it keeps going. You don’t want to hear me sing, but you get the idea. Cooper survived the Holocaust as a hidden child in the 1940s. She’s walked through Auschwitz as an educator countless times, including just this April with the International March of the Living event. And despite the anxiety for some of the students and for their worried parents back home, Cooper is calm and resigned to wait out the war. She marvels at how the Israeli hotel staff is able to feed so many stranded groups like theirs and trying to keep everyone’s spirits up even though no one yet knows when or how they’ll be able to come home. Hello, I’m Ellin Bessner and this is what Jewish Canada sounds like for Wednesday, June 18, 2025. Welcome to North Star, a podcast of the Canadian Jewish News and made possible in part thanks to the generous support of the Ira Gluskin and Maxine Granovsky Gluskin Charitable Foundation. Eva Cooper started her life during the Holocaust. She was born in 1940 in Warsaw and lived in the ghetto with her parents until 1942, when the Nazis rounded up her mother and Eva, who was two years old. They were placed on a cattle car bound for the Treblinka death camp. When her frantic father came home from his slave labor job, he learned of the impending transport and sent a cousin down to the train yard. She screamed at the guards and pretended to be Eva’s mother and demanded they retrieve the girl. Eva’s real mother twigged to the desperate ruse and handed her daughter down. The mother was never heard from again. But the child was soon hidden with non-Jews, including some Polish nuns. Eventually, Eva and her father survived the Holocaust. The family came to Montreal in 1949. After she retired, Eva started speaking to school children about her mother’s incredible sacrifice, and she volunteered at the city’s Holocaust Museum. She accompanies groups on trips like March of the Living and this one called Journey of Hope. She’s been to Israel many times, but Cooper never expected to be caught in this historic Middle East war. She joins me now from her hotel. We can’t say which one for security reasons. Where are you? Jerusalem?
Eva Kuper: Yes.
Ellin Bessner: You’re in a hotel in Jerusalem, Eva. It’s an honor to speak to you. So when did you guys arrive in Israel?
Eva Kuper: Oh, Lord, I have no idea what day it is, even. But we came. I think it was Thursday, Wednesday, or Thursday. The students went down to the Dead Sea. The next day, we all went on a journey through the Nova Festival and at various sites on the way there and on the way back, we heard from the mother of a young woman who was murdered that day, leaving two children and a husband. We stopped at the shelter where Alexander Luk, who was a Montrealer, saved 12 lives, having sacrificed his own, and we went to the Nova Festival grounds. It was a very moving day. We heard from a survivor of the Nova Festival there as well, and we came back and then there was the invasion of Iran. And since then, we’ve been kind of incarcerated in the hotel with a very short tether. We’ve made many, many trips down to the shelter with each siren, but we are cool in terms of air conditioning. We are well housed in a very comfortable hotel. We are fed, fed, fed all the time, and we are safe. And the students are handling it quite well. You know, they’re getting some very frightened parents, messaging them from home, which I understand. I’ll speak for myself, because I’m sure that there are people on our trip who do feel less safe. I’ve always felt safe in Israel. I’ve been here many times, and even now I feel safe. We’re in Jerusalem, though, you know, we’re not in Tel Aviv.
Ellin Bessner: Yeah, I was going to say you’re in Jerusalem. And there were some, obviously, rockets. What did you hear? Tell me a bit about some of that.
Eva Kuper: Well, we heard that there were casualties in Tel Aviv, that there was property that was damaged, and certainly we would feel less safe if we were in that area. So we’re very lucky that we’re here. I don’t think anybody wants to bomb Jerusalem. I think it’s a holy site for all religions. But you never know. It’s war.
Ellin Bessner: Did you hear any Iron Dome protecting or any missiles going overhead? Tell me what that sounds like.
Eva Kuper: We just heard the boom. We’ve heard them repeatedly. The booms, the booms, the booms. We have not. I have not personally seen rockets, but some people may have. I don’t know.
Ellin Bessner: And when you talk about going into the shelter, what do you do with the young people there? You’re still their chaperone and their sort of guest speaker. How are you pivoting in order to, or are you doing any sort of programming?
Eva Kuper: We are. I personally am not. I did my part really more in Poland. My role now is just to be supportive to the students. I’ve got a connection with them, but it’s really the staff, the chaperones and Stephen Rabinovich and Amy Roustein who are really in charge of the group. And they have, together with the chaperones, made very clear guidelines for the kids as to how to go down to the shelter. Which shelter? We all go to the same shelter. Each of the chaperones has a list of the students for whom they’re responsible. They’re checked off. We have a very good system. We are now seamless in going down to the shelter. I mean, yesterday and the night before, I think was five times that we went down to the shelter. In the shelter, nobody is panicked. We know what to take, we know what to bring. Everybody brings their knapsack. Some people bring their pillow towels to sit on. Some of the girls made a TikTok video in the shelter yesterday. It was great fun. And there’s a, you know, there’s many groups in the hotel. One of them, a very Orthodox group, and they were dancing and singing after one of the exits from the shelter. And we joined them and it was joyous and life-affirming and hopeful. And I think we’re sitting in place until the skies open up and we can go home.
Ellin Bessner: When was this trip supposed to end?
Eva Kuper: We were supposed to leave at just after midnight tonight.
Ellin Bessner: Oh, wow. Today?
Eva Kuper: Yeah. But the hotel can accommodate our group for a longer stay since there is no tourism, nobody’s coming. And a large group from Angola, I think left today. So they probably have a lot of space and our rooms are secure.
Ellin Bessner: Wait, how did they go anywhere? The Angola people?
Eva Kuper: I don’t know. I don’t. All I saw was their suitcases in the lobby and they’re gone. Angola, I think. Angola, yes. A Pentecostal group.
Ellin Bessner: Oh, a religious group. Got it, got it. A Christian group from Angola left the hotel.
Eva Kuper: Yes. And when I said to them, I’m sorry that you’re here at this time. I’m sure you planned this trip for a long time. They told me, this is the best time to be here. God will take care. I said, good.
Ellin Bessner: So, when you went to Poland, was it the same usual routine, kind of, for adult university students? It’s not March of the Living, but it’s kind of for the older group. Right? It’s the same routine.
Eva Kuper: It’s similar, except this time for the first time. And I’ve been on several marches and have been here with groups. I think my first group from Federation was 2017 when they did the Mega Mission. And it’s basically the same routine in Poland. This time, we went to the Warsaw Zoo, which was extremely interesting. We all saw the movie Zookeeper’s Wife, and we visited the zoo and we visited their home. You know, the movie is largely true. It has, you know, of course, Hollywood tendencies in some of the aspects. But we saw the building that they lived in, and we saw the places where people were hidden. And I found that very moving, maybe because I was born in Warsaw. And it was just… It’s an amazing story, and it’s a true story.
Ellin Bessner: What are you telling your family back home about how you’re getting home? Do you know?
Eva Kuper: Well, they don’t know and I don’t know, and I tell them I don’t know. We’re playing it day by day, you know, and we could be in a worse place. This is really not terrible. And the kids are getting an authentic Israeli experience, in a sense. They now know. They know very well what it’s like to be a Jew on campus in Canada now. And now they know a little bit more about what it’s like to be a Jew living in Israel and facing the stress and the threat of war almost from the beginning of the state and defending this small country for not only themselves, but for all of us who live in the Diaspora.
Ellin Bessner: In the last trips, have you been coming to take students to Israel? And have you experienced being under fire like this, or is this something new for you, too?
Eva Kuper: No, it’s new for me. I’ve never been in this country during war. Never. And I’ve been here many times.
Ellin Bessner: Why didn’t you want to go even though you knew things were, you know, Houthi missiles and it was a war zone?
Eva Kuper: You know, Ellin, I wasn’t frightened. I’ve never been frightened here. And maybe that’s naive and stupid, because obviously there’s danger. But I’ve never felt safer anywhere in the world in Israel. And I don’t feel differently about it now, because maybe I’m in Jerusalem. If I were in Tel Aviv, maybe I would be saying something totally different. I’m a bit of a fatalist, I think, and whatever will be, will be. And my job, my responsibility, my duty, my compulsion is to do Holocaust education because there aren’t many of us left. And even now they’re getting a story of a… I was born in 1940, so I really have no personal memories of horror. Very different than when I started to travel with the march and with community. And we would have six or seven survivors, many of them in their 90s, who could stand in a barrack in Auschwitz and say, I lived here, this was my experience. So they’re getting a very different story. My story is a story of evil and a story of human goodness, which is a much easier story to tell, especially if you don’t have perfect memories of your own.
Ellin Bessner: And lastly, you mentioned earlier in the interview that there were some students who made a TikTok video.
Eva Kuper: It’s amazing. I mean, there’s one girl that’s kind of organizing it. And everybody participated, including chaperones, including myself and Angie Richt, who’s the other survivor. And Gerda Oros, who, as I think I told you, was born in Auschwitz.
Ellin Bessner: How do people feel about… And this is, I guess, you can answer for yourself, not for everyone else, just politically. Are you supporting what the state of Israel did to take out the Iranian missiles and some of the leadership? Do you think this is something you feel is necessary?
Eva Kuper: I think it was necessary. I always support Israel. I don’t always support the government, this government. I think that Israel did this not only for Israel’s safety but also for the world’s safety. I doubt that we’re going to get… Thanks. But it’s incredible what they can achieve, what they’re capable of, the intelligence that goes beyond any belief that they were able to accomplish what they did. It’s kind of like the exploding walkie-talkies and all that. I mean, these are things that a regular human being won’t even conceive of, and yet they’re able to do it. And it has a devastating effect on the enemy. I… I don’t know if devastating enough, but, you know, I don’t think they’re going to stop. I mean, you know, they’re being told to stop, and if they stop, then two years we’re going to have the same situation. So I don’t know. And again, I’m speaking only for me. I feel great sympathy and pain when I watch what’s happened in Gaza for the people who are innocent because there are many who are innocent. But it’s not a regular war. It’s a guerrilla war like the war in Vietnam was for the Americans. But Israel is always judged by a different standard. To excuse that number of deaths of children and everything else. I have a hard time with that. But can they do something else? I don’t know. I’m not a military strategist. I just think that there has to be another way and we have to find a way where we can share this land because there is no other solution.
Ellin Bessner: You got to see in the shelter. Is it only Israeli visitors like yourselves, sorry, Canadian tourists, or are there also ordinary Israelis with you in the shelters?
Eva Kuper: You know, there are Israelis in the hotel. The place was filled with groups. How they managed just even to feed us because there’s plenty of food and they did not expect this. And we were supposed to be touring. We weren’t supposed to be here for three meals a day and we’re 80 people. We’re nothing. We’re a drop in the bucket. It’s an enormous dining room, and the amount of food that’s available that they’ve prepared is incredible. The hotel has really been excellent in spite of the fact that I have no Wi-Fi or electricity in my room.
Ellin Bessner: Do you have all the medication you need? That’s another thing I was worried about.
Eva Kuper: Yeah, no, we have, we, we, we have a doctor with us who is also a chaperone. You know, we have all the information on the insurance that the kids submitted and that staff submitted, me included, and, and that’ll be taken care of. We may have to pay for it and then, you know, claim it back, but it’s, it’s an issue that they’ve dealt with. They’ve thought about everything. The organization’s been Excellent, excellent.
Ellin Bessner: Well, I really want to wish you only good news and hopefully this will be over shortly and you can come home safely. I’ll be in touch. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us on the North Star.
Eva Kuper: My pleasure. Say hi to your mom.
Ellin Bessner: I will. While Cooper and her charges ride out the hostilities, which the Israeli government said Tuesday could be over within a week or two, back home in Montreal, the city’s federation, CJA, is closely monitoring about 150 people in total from the city who were stuck in Israel, including Cooper’s Group. Yair Szlak is CEO of the Montreal Jewish Federation. Tell me what is. Who’s there and what should we know?
Yair Szlak: There are a number of other delegations, including a Birthright volunteer program, which has 28 Montrealers as part of the contingency. Around the country, we’re aware of Montrealers who are participating in ONWARD programs, which is another type of Birthright program, as well as MASA programs, which is a longer program that people stay in Israel for. Aside from that, of course, there were a few Birthright programs that ended mid-January. Sorry, I mean mid-June. And many of those participants extended their stay here in Israel and are now scrambling to figure out their plans and what to do. Above and beyond that, the regular programs like Magena Vida Dom, and so on, include Montrealers, because this is such an incredibly committed and passionate community, one that loves Israel and shows it through its feet. I would estimate at this point that we’ve interacted with somewhere around 150 different—no, again, the delegation is about half of that, about 75 others who are in Israel right now and are looking to find a way out. We don’t have an evacuation plan at this point. We’re working on various things, looking at different options, but we don’t have something concrete at this point. As you understand, the skies over Israel are closed. The seaways are closed as well, and while there’s a lot of news, rumor—and I don’t even know if it’s rumor—but news is reporting that the skies will open for Israelis to come home.
Ellin Bessner: No, it wasn’t a rumor. The Israeli government announced it.
Yair Szlak: Yeah, right. But the rumor becomes that we can jump on those planes. Having been on a call with officials, it’s very clear that the planes will land and take off as soon as people are off the plane. They’re not waiting to board Montrealers or anybody else. So there’s a lot of different things that people are hearing. The fact is, we don’t have an evacuation plan right now. We have been in touch with the Canadian government as well. They’ve been very responsive, trying to figure things out. No solution at this point that we can articulate. Governments are very much preoccupied. The state services, the security services, and the home front command are very occupied with what they need to do to protect those who are there, including everyone who’s from another country. I understand the number—by the way, we were on a call earlier today. The number of tourists in Israel right now is about 40,000. So you’re talking about a significant number of people they have to worry about outside of their own citizens and about 200,000 citizens who are outside the country who need to get back. Because imagine you’re sitting outside the country in, let’s say, Italy on vacation. Your kids are in Israel now, sheltering for four nights in a row. Unfortunately, the PTSD will be very difficult. We have, just as an aside, provided a Journey of Hope group some professional help with Healthy Minds, which is an organization we supported through our Israel Emergency campaign that does PTSD and trauma therapy. We are keenly aware that waking up in the middle of the night a number of times for four nights straight, getting very little sleep, and being anxious is not a good, healthy dynamic. Of course, Israelis live through it all the time. We pray for their safety, that they have the resilience and strength to get through this. We hope that we will see calmer times soon. Yet, we don’t have a trajectory that says on this date we’ll be out.
Ellin Bessner: The Birthright organization chartered an Israeli cruise ship to take 1,500 North American birthrighters out of Israel to safety in Cyprus. The Israeli navy was escorting the ship along its journey. We don’t know how many of those kids on board, if any, are Canadians. Meanwhile, Glenn Nashen handles communication for the Federation in Montreal. He’s also a worried parent. One of his daughters was in Israel on Birthright. Are you hearing?
Glenn Nashen: Well, mostly there’s disappointment. Kids of that age have missed out quite a bit over the last few years, from COVID and missing proms and graduations to actually missing March of a Living. So, this was a great opportunity to go to Israel on an organized trip. Unfortunately, only the first day or two actually took place. So there’s frustration and a great sense of resilience and belonging to the greater Jewish people in the state of Israel. I’m hearing there’s a great sense of pride in being there. They’ve been awakened, as all Israelis have been, for the last four nights, plus two or three times throughout the night. So I think they’re tired, and many are ready to come home. Many probably think that things will continue. The situation is very fluid, obviously.
Ellin Bessner: And that’s what Jewish Canada sounds like for this episode of North Star, made possible in part thanks to the generous support of the Ira Gluskin and Maxine Granovsky Gluskin Charitable Foundation. Now, Global Affairs Canada says it knows of nearly 7,000 Canadians who are in Israel and have registered with the government. The government and the Canadian embassy in Tel Aviv advise people holding valid Canadian passports who want to leave Israel to try to cross into Jordan or cross into Egypt and then get flights out from there, but warn Israelis who want to come back home not to take those routes. North Star is produced by Zachary Judah Kaufman and Andrea Varsany. Our executive producer is Michael Fraiman, and the music is by Brett Higgins. Thanks for listening.
Show Notes
Related links
- Read more about Eva Kuper, a prolific Holocaust educator, in The CJN.
- Order a copy of Eva Kuper’s autobiography A Beacon of Light from the Azrieli Foundation survivors memoirs.
- Learn about the Journey for Hope, sponsored by Montreal’s Federation CJA.
Credits
- Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
- Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
- Music: Bret Higgins
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