More in ‘Canada’

• Laura Rozen notes a spurt in high-level diplomatic and defense meetings between the United States and Israel. Most notably, Vice President Biden heads there next month. [Laura Rozen]
• Could recent scandals in the ultra-Orthodox community—Tropper, Balkany, Dwek, et al—lead to a waning of the bloc’s political influence? [The Jewish Week]
• Dan Senor, one of ...

Canada’s ruling Conservative Party has been hammering the opposition Liberals as wishy-washy when it comes to Israel, in an attempt to woo the country’s 350,000-strong Jewish community. Now, the Liberal Party has found an inventive response: instead of portraying itself as every bit the one-dimensional, no-questions-asked Israel supporters that the Conservatives claim they themselves are, ...

We had never thought of it this way, but JTA’s reporter correctly notes that Vancouver, Canada, is “the most Jewishly active city ever to host the Winter Olympics.” The town, in the Canadian province of British Columbia, is home to upwards of 30,000 Jews, who will be represented in the Olympic Village (actually, both of ...

Canada’s Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, has continued trying to win more votes from the 350,000-strong Jewish community by ever-so-delicately implying that its rivals are not big fans of Israel. (As in the United States, Canada’s relatively small Jewish population is disproportionately powerful. Canadian Jews tend to favor the Liberal Party, but ...

In advance of the Canadian national elections that will likely be held sometime soon, the country’s currently-in-power Conservative party is sending mailers to households in heavily Jewish districts that claim Conservatives have a monopoly on pro-Israel sentiment—and, opposition Liberals say, strongly imply that their own party is anti-Semitic. The fliers accuse Liberal MPs of participating ...

Having trouble keeping track of all the boycotts on Israeli products? A Canadian group plans to set up a database “that will allow our subscribers to notify others when they find out about an attempt to boycott a particular [Israeli] item.” The catch is that the group is pro-Israel, and wants people to go out ...

• The Holocaust Museum shooter, James von Brunn, was indicted for first-degree murder, and is therefore eligible for the death penalty. [Washington Post]
• Canada’s largest Protestant sect, the United Church of Canada, plans to call for a “comprehensive boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions.” Canadian Jewish groups have called this an “obscene gesture.” [JTA]
• ...

When Rabbi Arthur Chiel first visited Winnipeg in the summer of 1944, he was immediately impressed by the vigor of the local Jewish community. A native of Taylor, Pennsylvania, and a graduate of Yeshiva University, Chiel was working at the time as the religious director of New York’s 92nd Street YMHA. He was so deeply impressed by Winnipeg, however, that he returned five years later to become the first Judaic Studies professor at the University of Manitoba and the rabbi of the city’s Conservative Rosh Pina synagogue. Fascinated by the strange energy of his adopted community, he spent the next five years poring through old newspapers and personal correspondence to write its history, The Jews in Manitoba, which was published in 1961.

• A new Holocaust board game: “Once a train reaches the ‘finish line,’ the game is completed and it is revealed that the destination of the trains is Auschwitz. Nobody ‘wins.’” Sound like fun? It’s not supposed to be. [WSJ]
• On the Orthodox Union’s website, Chana Willig Levy draws parallels between the Kindle and Jewish ...

• Bernard Madoff’s lawyers have asked for a 12 year sentence for their client—just short of life, as actuarial tables suggest the 71-year-old has 13 more years. [NYT]
• Richard Nixon told Billy Graham that the Jews may have “a death wish,” what with the history of persecution and all, according to newly released secret White ...