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, British Columbia and Manitoba—wanted to better understand what’s on the ballot in the two countries with the highest Jewish populations on the planet.

As Israel approaches its fifth election in three years, how has the landscape changed (or not) with Benjamin Netanyahu out of office?

Looking stateside, how has the influence of Christian nationalism affected the Repulican party and the American political landscape?

Gil Troy, a professor of American history and scholar of Zionism, who also used to write a political column for The CJN, joins to explain how each election feels like elections past—and how they’re also hugely different.

Credits

Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. Zachary Kauffman is the producer and editor. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a co-production from The Jewish Learning Lab and The CJN, and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.