Israel’s pro-democracy protest leaders are coming to Canada—and looking for support

"I don't think we're engaging enough with Jews outside of Israel."
Jerusalem sign
The Jerusalem-based protest group "Safeguarding our Shared Home" invites all Jews around the world to hold parlour meetings in their Sukkahs this holiday to try to find a compromise to the political turmoil engulfing Israel since January 2023. (Safeguarding our Shared Home photo)

On Sept. 26, Temple Sholom in Vancouver is hosting two of the leaders of Israel’s months-long protests: Jerusalem professor Michal Muszkat-Barkan and Ora Peled Nakash, a computer engineer who lives on a kibbutz outside Haifa. The pair will speak about their grassroots efforts these past nine months to stop the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. The two women are being flown in on the invitation of progressive Jewish groups including JSpace Canada, Ameinu Canada, ARZA Canada, the New Israel Fund, UnXeptable and the America-Israel Democracy Coalition.

This is the first time anyone from the self-described pro-democracy protests (which have attracted hundreds of thousands of people every weekend for the past nine months) has made the journey to Canada to drum up support from the world’s third-largest Diaspora community. They’re also speaking the next day in Seattle before heading home for Sukkot.

On The CJN Daily, host Ellin Bessner speaks with Muszkat-Barkan and Peled Nakash about why they are coming to Canada—and then we catch up with Joan Garson, of Toronto, who is active in a wide range of local and international Reform and other Jewish organizations. She travelled to New York to protest against Netanyahu while the Israeli leader was speaking at the United Nations a few days ago.

What we talked about

Credits

The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer.Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. Our title sponsor is Metropia. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here.

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