With more than 41,000 members and counting, the Facebook group Everything Jewish Toronto has found itself serving as an unofficial virtual public square for Canada’s largest Jewish community. The group was created a decade ago by two Toronto sisters, Jennifer Stallman and Brittney Sultan, as a vehicle to promote Jewish businesses, for a fee, to a Jewish audience.
It has since morphed into a popular online space where Jewish people who don’t necessarily belong to any formal Jewish organization could connect, network and vent. But since Oct. 7, Everything Jewish Toronto has exploded with hundreds of posts per day from members reporting on the Israel-Hamas war and spotlighting local instances of antisemitism in the city.
So who is behind Everything Jewish Toronto? How do they decide who can join and post? And how do they keep the discourse civil in a space that can easily get flooded with online trolls and hate? On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, we meet the founding sisters behind the platform.
What we talked about:
- Visit Everything Jewish Toronto on Facebook
- See Entertain Kids on a Dime, a related website run by one of the sisters
- Hear Ellin on Bonjour Chai discussing antisemitism in Canada on The CJN website
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. Hear why The CJN is important to me.
