North Star is on vacation this week, so we're rerunning some of our favourite episodes. This one originally aired May 12, 2022.

You've probably heard "Skinnamarink", the classic children's song by Sharon, Lois & Bram. But you probably haven't heard it on TikTok, where Sharon Hampson, now 82, is putting out quick snippets of classics and new material with her newfound family band.

She's recruited her daughter, Randi, and grandsons Elijah and Ethan Ullmann, both full-time students at the University of Toronto. Although they grew up in a musical dynasty, it took an international lockdown for them to agree to help their Bubbe's resurgent Zoom-based career.

At the time of recording, they were preparing to mount their first live indoor show since the pandemic began, at the Regent Theatre in Oshawa, Ont., back in May 2022. And despite Sharon's worry that her voice isn't as strong as it used to be, her relatives say she’s still got it. All four join to explain how they're trying to make music that stays relevant for a generation raised on the Frozen soundtrack and "Baby Shark".

What we talked about

• Learn about the performance and others at sharonloisandbram.com/events

• Learn about the Brott Music Festival at brottmusic.com

• Listen to "Talk About Peace"

Credits

• Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
• Original Production team: Victoria Redden (producer)
• Current Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
• Original Music: Dov Beck-Levine
• Current Music: Bret Higgins

Support our show

• Subscribe to The CJN newsletter
• Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)
• Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

In the months following Oct. 7, Vancouver native Kai Balin learned wanted to dig deeper into his Judaism, but learned that, despite his strong Jewish upbringing, his family actually isn’t considered Jewish by some in the Orthodox community. The discovery shocked him to his core—not only is Balin the grandson of Holocaust survivors, but he always felt destined to become a rabbi, right from his early childhood. The rejection of his family’s Jewish identity sent Balin on a years-long quest to find out what being Jewish meant to him. He took his cameras along the way as he traced his family’s heritage across four generations on three continents. The Canadian did most of the filming—and all of the financing on his own, interviewing family members and learning, once the film wrapped, that his story had an unexpected twist ending. The result is an hour-long documentary, Son of a Seeker, premiering in Toronto on Aug. 20 at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre. It debuted in Vancouver earlier this summer. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner sits down with Kai Balin to learn about the roots of this project and where his faith has taken him.

Related links

• Learn more about Son of a Seeker and get tickets to see the film in Toronto on Aug. 20.
• Read about the filmmaker’s sister, who co-produced his documentary, once winning _Chopped Canada’_s teen cooking contest in 2017, in The CJN archives.
• Watch the trailer of "Son of a Seeker".

Credits

• Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
• Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
• Music: Bret Higgins

Support our show

• Subscribe to The CJN newsletter
• Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)
• Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)

Under a new Israeli plan, announced Aug. 7 by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, about a million Palestinian residents of Gaza City would be forced to evacuate the area over the next two months, culminating on Oct. 7, 2025. After that, Netanyahu’s plan calls for the Israel Defense Forces to move in and capture the capital city, along with one other area: the remaining 25 percent of the strip that Israel doesn’t yet control. The forthcoming escalation, after 22 months of fighting, has touched off international condemnation, including from the Canadian government, over fears of a worsening humanitarian crisis. However, the plan is also sparking deep divisions within Israel. Families of the remaining hostages call it a death sentence for their loved ones; some reservists and haredi groups have vowed not to answer their call-ups to the armed forces. Other right-wing politicians and settlers support the move, as they have long called for the government to annex the Gaza Strip and re-establish Jewish settlements that stood there until 2005. Negotiating expert John Shulman, based in Nova Scotia, has been watching the developments this week—and they’ve given him déjà vu. Twenty years ago, Shulman, a lawyer, was sent to the region with a Harvard University negotiation program to help facilitate dialogue between Israeli politicians just before Ariel Sharon’s government (which Netanyahu was part of) moved to unilaterally withdraw more than 8,000 Jewish residents and soldiers from Gaza and the West Bank, beginning on Aug. 15, 2005. Shulman says that historic withdrawal, known as “The Disengagement”, had costly consequences—not only because Hamas quickly took over Gaza in 2007, but also because its scars are still playing out inside Israel today, ahead of the planned recapture of Gaza. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, Shulman joins host Ellin Bessner to discuss what’s at stake by not following the rules of successful conflict resolution.

Related links

• Learn more about how the Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiations had a front row seat during the 2005 Gaza Disengagement.
• Read more about our guest, negotiation expert John Shulman of Alignor.
• Why some Israelis want to return to live in the Gaza Strip, in The CJN.

Credits

• Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
• Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer)
• Music: Bret Higgins

Support our show

• Subscribe to The CJN newsletter
• Donate to The CJN (+ get a charitable tax receipt)
• Subscribe to North Star (Not sure how? Click here)