In Good Faith

Over the course of this miniseries, we've heard stories of broken friendships, murdered love ones and campus protests. But from those same stories, we also heard about how the people involved walked away with hope and optimism. And so we want you, too, to come away with a bit of that at the end of this series. In the final episode of In Good Faith , hosts Avi Finegold and Yafa Sakkejha reflect on...

When Richard Wood recently took over Omnitsky's Kosher, a staple of Vancouver's Jewish community for three decades, he made a few changes. He found a new building, opened a small market section, and hired the restaurant's first-ever head chef. When accepting applications, one name stood out to him: a Palestinian Muslim man named Mustafa Ghanim. Richard wound up hiring Mustafa, who left his hometow...

There’s a teaching that appears almost word-for-word in both Jewish and Islamic scriptures: whoever kills a soul, it's as if he killed the entire world; anyone who saves one soul, it is as if he had saved mankind entirely. Judaism and Islam diverge on many points—but on this one, they’re in unanimous agreement. Yet over the last two years, both Jews and Muslims in Canada and around the world have...

Look at how university campuses are represented in today's media landscape, and you'll often see the word radical . Since Oct. 7, this concept of campus radicalization—and censorship—is often pegged to Israel and Palestine, and the fear that students are being fed slanted narratives from their freshman year. But that fear misunderstands what’s actually happening on many campuses. What makes univer...

Mainstream Jews, who support Israel and consider themselves Zionists, feel like they are under attack. When they see people wearing keffiyehs and storefronts stamped with Palestinian flags, they hear an implicit attack: "You are not welcome here." But for Palestinians, watermelons and keffiyehs aren't anti-Jewish icons at all: they're symbols of national pride.  How can everyday Canadian...

In  The Devil’s Arithmetic , a historical fiction novel of a young Jewish woman during the Second World War, Jewish author Jane Yolen famously wrote, “If we do not laugh, we will cry.” The quote ends: “What you laugh at and make familiar can no longer frighten you.” Everyone knows that war, death and destruction are no laughing matter. But humour can help in fundamental ways. It can bring people t...

Ever since Oct. 7, if you're a Jewish Canadian, odds are you've had a personal falling out. If you haven't personally, you likely know someone who has. Across the world, Jews have seen and heard shocking posts and comments by friends, acquaintances and colleagues. This isn't a left-right issue. As we explore on today's episode of In Good Faith , The CJN's interfaith podcast miniseries, even within...

Ever since Oct. 7, 2023, Muslim and Jewish communities in Canada have been torn apart. Dialogue groups disbanded. Friendships bottomed out. Campuses became battlegrounds. And what happens when two groups stop speaking to one another, both reeling from a raging war halfway around the world? Dehumanization. Anxiety. Trauma. Hatred. It is against this backdrop, as a fragile ceasefire slowly cools the...

This podcast features strong expletives and language that some audiences may find offensive. In a post-Oct. 7 world, news feeds are filled with videos, podcasts and reports of Jews and Muslims talking at each other, or about each other, but rarely with each other. We're doing something different. This limited series brings together Jews, Muslims, Israelis and Palestinians, from across Canada and t...