Stephen Lewis, who once made Time magazine\u2019s list of the world\u2019s 100 most influential people, was a humanitarian and ambassador who led Ontario\u2019s NDP before pushing the world to help millions of HIV\/AIDS patients in Africa obtain life-saving medicine. His passing on Mar. 31 prompted an outpouring of tributes from global leaders and African grandmothers alike.<\/p>\n
Hours before Lewis died, at the age of 88, he was able to watch his son, Avi, continue the family\u2019s political legacy by being elected as the new federal NDP leader.<\/p>\n
Lewis is just one of several noteworthy Canadian Jews to have passed away recently. The CJN\u2019s obituary columnist, Heather Ringel, joins North Star host Ellin Bessner on today\u2019s episode to reveal how Lewis and this spring\u2019s four other featured \u201cHonourable Menschen\u201d gave back to their communities.<\/p>\n
The others include Wolf Bronet, the Auschwitz survivor who founded Montreal\u2019s \u201cWolf Pack\u201d running club and helped raise funds for 14 ambulances for Israel through Magen David Adom; Sara Vered, who fought in Israel\u2019s War of Independence before helping bring Israeli and Jewish culture to Ottawa through education, the arts and philanthropy; Al Osten, the former singer who built a Weight Watchers empire in Western Canada and donated millions, alongside his late partner Buddy Victor; and Sondra Gotlieb, the Winnipeg-born journalist and author whose sharp observations made her one of the most recognizable Canadian voices in Washington diplomacy and media circles.<\/p>\n
Related stories<\/p>\n
Learn more about the late Calgary philanthropist Al Osten in The CJN.<\/a>Why Sondra Gotleib\u2019s Washington home became a sought-after invitation while her husband was Canada\u2019s ambassador to the United States, in The CJN.<\/a>Sara Vered fought in Israel\u2019s War of Independence then helped bring Israeli and Jewish culture to Ottawa, in The CJN<\/a>.Wolf Bronet started running outdoors for his 40th birthday. Hundreds have followed his footsteps around Montreal. In The CJN.<\/a>Stephen Lewis launched the Stephen Lewis Foundation<\/a> during his time helping to fight against HIV\/AIDS and assist surviving orphans and grandmothers.\u00a0Transcript:<\/p>\n Stephen Lewis from a 2020 speech in Brampton: I was thrown back to my years trekking through Africa where every country felt like a graveyard\u2026<\/p>\n Ellin Bessner: Stephen Lewis believed that indifference is a choice.<\/p>\n A law school dropout who once debated John F. Kennedy, Stephen Lewis\u00a0led the Ontario NDP. Before him, his father David helped found the party that became the national NDP. Now his son Avi leads it.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the late Stephen Lewis\u2019s greatest impact came far from Canadian politics \u2014 helping save millions of lives during Africa\u2019s AIDS crisis 25 years ago\u2026and to this day his Foundation still supports the grandmothers and orphaned children left behind.<\/p>\n And in very different ways, the other prominent Jewish Canadian who we remember today on this episode of The CJN\u2019s \u201cHonourable Menschen\u201d lived that same instinct.<\/p>\n Unlike Lewis, who was known as a skilled orator, as you heard, the other community leaders weren\u2019t known for speeches. Although one WAS known for his singing voice! But\u00a0they were known for what they built. And what they gave.<\/p>\n Al Osten of Calgary went from a one-hit 1950s boy band to building the Weight Watchers business in Western Canada \u2014 then turned that success, with his late partner Buddy Victor, into millions for culture, hospitals, theatres, and Camp BB-Riback.<\/p>\n Sara Vered was a teenage Haganah fighter at the birth of Israel who later helped bring Israeli and Jewish culture into her adopted home of Ottawa, through the National Arts Centre, the University of Ottawa, and the city\u2019s Heart Institute. Even in her \u201990s, she was still taking classes herself.<\/p>\n Wolf Bronet survived Auschwitz, came to Montreal, and started running the streets. Like the Pied Piper, lots of people followed him. His Wolf Pack running club eventually helped send 14 ambulances to Israel through Magen David Adom. He used to say: \u201cI was put on this planet to help people.\u201d before he died before Passover.<\/p>\n And author and journalist Sondra Gotlieb moved through media, politics and diplomacy with a sharp voice on the page that made her impossible to ignore. As did the infamous slap that was heard around the world!<\/p>\n I\u2019m Ellin Bessner and this is what Jewish Canada sounds like for Wednesday May 20, 2026. Welcome to North Star, the Yizkor edition ahead of Shavuout this week. The flagship podcast of The Canadian Jewish News and made possible thanks to the generous support of the Ira Gluskin and Maxine Granovsky Gluskin Charitable Foundation.<\/p>\n MUSIC<\/p>\n Over 1,000 people attended a memorial service for Stephen Lewis held at the Toronto Metropolitain University on April 26. Including retired Supreme Court Chief Justice Rosalie Abella, who called him \u201ca hero, a mensch and the only Jewish saint\u201d she knew. Stephen Lewis once made TIME magazine\u2019s list as one of the world\u2019s 100 most influential people.\u00a0<\/p>\n The CJN\u2019s obituary columnist Heather Ringel joins \u201cNorth Star\u201d today episode to reveal how Lewis and this spring\u2019s four other featured \u201cHonourable Menschen\u201d gave back to their communities in words and deeds.<\/p>\n HEATHER: Good to see you again. You too. Thank you.<\/p>\n ELLIN: Well, you\u2019ve had such a fascinating cast of characters whom we\u2019ve lost in the last few months to write about, to honour as \u201cHonourable Menschen:. I\u2019m wondering whether our listeners might remember a 1956 hit song by a Canadian \u201cboy band\u201d called The Rover Boys, who moved to the United States and made it big. The hit was called Graduation Day.<\/p>\n [Music clip plays]<\/p>\n HEATHER: Right.<\/p>\n ELLIN: Well, Al Osten was one of those four members, and that\u2019s the subject of our first Honourable Menschen. Al Osten, who passed away in his late 90s, and you had the privilege to write about him. Tell us more about Al Osten from Calgary.<\/p>\n HEATHER: Al Osten as you said, was a \u201cdoo-wop\u201d singer back in the 1950s. He was born in Saskatoon but grew up in Edmonton, and he was the youngest of seven kids \u2014 always loved performing.<\/p>\n In fact, in Edmonton in the early \u201950s, he sang with \u2014 he was friends with Robert Goulet, future senator Tommy Banks, who had a club there. He decided to make it big, first went to Toronto and then on to New York.<\/p>\n As you mentioned, he was part of this group called The Rover Boys. It was kind of a one-hit wonder with a song called \u201cGraduation Day\u201d in 1956. And he ended up falling in love with the group\u2019s lead singer, Buddy Victor, and they were together for 67 years.<\/p>\n As part of the Rover Boys, he was there when Paul Anka\u2019s career started, and just a really great time \u2014 until things sort of petered out and they didn\u2019t have a lot more singing to do, and he returned to Edmonton. Buddy followed him, and wasn\u2019t sure what to do with his life. Buddy\u2019s mother had suggested there was a business opportunity \u2014 that he come back to New York \u2014 and she set up a meeting with Jean Nidetch, who was starting, as we know, a company called Weight Watchers at the time. And Al ended up cobbling together some money, and he bought the Alberta and Saskatchewan franchises.<\/p>\n He and Buddy ran these franchises. It did extremely well, until in 2013 they decided to sell their shares, and they pocketed a nice amount of money. And they were extremely generous supporting the arts. They also invested in and funded some original plays on Broadway, like \u201cLittle Shop of Horrors\u201d, \u201cHairspray\u201d, \u201cBack to the Future\u201d. And they gave a lot of money very quietly over the years \u2014 donations to the Art Gallery of Alberta, Calgary Fitness Centre, and also a lot of Jewish charities.<\/p>\n [Sound up: Al Osten archival audio]<\/p>\n We had just sold our business, in a way, and we had money. And then we said, you know, we\u2019ll do something like that. So we said we wanted to be anonymous. And as the building was going up, they kept saying, where can we put your name? We said we wanted to be anonymous. We kept saying we\u2019re anonymous. Finally, they said, look, you\u2019re two guys who don\u2019t have any families. You\u2019ve got to leave a legacy for yourself. Put your name on the building. So we said OK.<\/p>\n So we put their name on the building, but today we went up to look at it for the first time. It\u2019s the top floor of the museum and it\u2019s got two doors. And then over each door is our names. And he looks up, and he says \u2014 he looks up and he says \u2014 it\u2019s so small!<\/p>\n [Sound out]<\/p>\n ELLIN: That was from an interview with Al Osten from last summer. He was interviewed by the local CBC radio station in Calgary about a $5 million gift they gave to the Glenbow Museum, where he and his late life partner\u2019s names are on the wall.<\/p>\n Heather:<\/p>\n And one of the final things he did was he pledged a million dollars to Camp B\u2019nai Brith Riback in Alberta. He died several years before Buddy, so he was by himself \u2014 but just a very friendly, gregarious, beloved figure in Alberta.<\/p>\n Ellin: Why did he want to help Jewish youth go to camp?<\/p>\n HEATHER: I think especially after October 7th, he just had a passion about the Jewish community. He loved children \u2014 he didn\u2019t have children of his own \u2014 and really saw that camp was a place where they could enjoy and celebrate their Jewishness. He never went to Israel, unfortunately, but he was extremely Zionistic and passionate about it.<\/p>\n ELLIN: But he was also rubbing shoulders with a lot of famous people \u2014 like the Rat Pack, I was reading, when they were traveling in Vegas. You remember some of the names of those famous singers and entertainers?<\/p>\n HEATHER: The group traveled all around the U.S. and they were opening acts for these guys. Frank Sinatra \u2014 he had rubbed shoulders with, as you said, with the Rat Pack \u2014 so Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. He also met Elvis Presley in Vegas. And at one point, the Paul Anka story was that he traveled to New York with the group, and Paul Anka came along with them, and he introduced Anka to a producer who recorded some of his songs, and they really gave Paul Anka his start. So it was all a lot of fun.<\/p>\n But he was very philanthropic, very beloved, and also very involved in LGBT causes and AIDS research in Alberta, when it was still very difficult and wasn\u2019t widely accepted. But he really helped.<\/p>\n ELLIN: We talked earlier, Heather, about the LGBT community and AIDS, and I think this might be a good place to segue into Stephen Lewis \u2014 former UN ambassador, perhaps a saviour of millions of lives in Africa who were at risk or had caught AIDS and HIV. A towering intellect, and orator.<\/p>\n [Sound up: Stephen Lewis archival audio]<\/p>\n I noticed there was a sort of titter of incredulity and some somewhat cynical applause at the reference of honourary degrees. And I felt I should begin with a confessional. I attended four post-secondary institutions of celebrated higher learning over an infinite number of years and managed never \u2014 but never \u2014 to acquire a degree. I therefore spent my entire adult life shamelessly lusting after honourary degrees, and it has served me well, although I\u2019m prepared to offer them for sale at a discounted price.<\/p>\n [Sound out]<\/p>\n ELLIN: The family and his friends had a celebration of life on April 26th at Toronto Metropolitan University. Thousands of people watched online. Heather, 54 countries in Africa were online watching. 1,200 people attended in person. You never met him, but of course, growing up in Canada, what were you aware of of his origins?<\/p>\n HEATHER: Clearly he was from a family that was absolutely connected to socialism. His grandfather was a Polish Jewish immigrant and an activist in the Jewish Labour Committee in Montreal. And then of course his father David Lewis, who was national secretary of the CCF and later federal NDP leader. And then of course now his son, who is federal NDP leader again. And his work with AIDS \u2014 I think that he was so respected, just in a bipartisan way, across the board. The fact that Brian Mulroney appointed him as Canada\u2019s ambassador to the UN.<\/p>\n And I also found a fun fact which I thought was very interesting: that he debated John F. Kennedy in 1957 when Kennedy came to Hart House.<\/p>\n And here we had Stephen Lewis, a 19-year-old, debating the future president of the United States.<\/p>\n ELLIN: Who won that debate? And this is at U of T. Who won?<\/p>\n HEATHER: Yes, I believe that Kennedy won the debate. So unsurprisingly. And I know that he also remarked that there were no women allowed in Hart House at that time, and so there was a protest outside with a lot of women who were quite upset not to be able to attend.<\/p>\n And of course his wife Michelle Landsberg was also very upset about that at the time, as she would be.<\/p>\n ELLIN: And at this memorial service, much was made of the foundation of his feminism and support for women\u2019s rights that stemmed from what he got at home from Michelle, who was a champion of women\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n ELLIN: Despite his political fame here in Canada and his rise to the head of the Ontario NDP, his biggest impact perhaps came far away from Canadian domestic politics. And a South African newspaper recently paid tribute to him, saying he was \u201cthe man who shamed the world into seeing Africa\u2019s AIDS catastrophe\u201d \u2014 which I thought put it really, really well. What do we know about his work?<\/p>\n HEATHER: He was a UN special envoy and he went to Africa. He did listen to people there, which is what no one else was really doing at the time. And this was in the very early 2000s. He listened to grandmothers who had buried their children and were now raising grandchildren. And he came back and named names. He knew who these people were, and he accused the G8 group of turning their backs on this crisis. He co-founded the Stephen Lewis Foundation with his daughter in 2003. And he brought 100 African grandmothers and 200 Canadian grandmothers together in Toronto in something called the Grandmothers Campaign in 2006, and it was something that really brought that, as you said, to the forefront here. And eventually of course the G8 and the international community \u2014 who had kind of been hoarding the medicine \u2014 because of this attention, he wouldn\u2019t let up. He went to everyone he could think of to call it out.<\/p>\n ELLIN: Finally, I want to ask you about something a bit controversial. According to Avi, his father had come to take a different position on Israel.<\/p>\n HEATHER: I know that he required a walker, he was frail. He stood for over an hour outside his former riding to protest the deaths in Gaza. He was very connected Jewishly, but just had a very strong conscience about what he believed was right and wrong. He was very passionate about that cause, certainly.<\/p>\n ELLIN: It\u2019s not to say that he didn\u2019t also fight antisemitism, which he had endured or witnessed while he was in the diplomatic and political world, and always was sympathetic to Israel as a refuge for Jews. But after October 7th, he and his wife became visible on the protest circuit for Palestinian rights.<\/p>\n Somebody said he was the greatest premier Ontario never had.<\/p>\n Music<\/p>\n Coming up, why the University of Ottawa has launched a new student award and also a lecture series in honour of patron Sarah Vered \u2014 and also in honour of the late Dr. Gertrude Rosenberg, a Holocaust survivor and psychologist who died two weeks after Vered at the age of 95.<\/p>\n ELLIN: We spoke about the diplomatic and parliamentary circles that Stephen Lewis moved in. And kind of parallel to that is our next Honourable Menschen: Sondra Gotlieb, a Canadian journalist and novelist whose husband Alan Gotlieb was Canadian ambassador to Washington. And Sondra made her own name for kind of being like a Page Six \u2014 if you know what I mean. For Canadian listeners, that\u2019s like a New York City newspaper with all the bold-faced who\u2019s who of society. She would write books and articles for very important newspapers about all the goings-on in diplomatic Washington and then Canada, in the social world.<\/p>\n So I guess one of the things our listeners may remember was the slap that was heard around the world \u2014 which I\u2019m sure she didn\u2019t want to be remembered by, and wouldn\u2019t want to be. But we\u2019ve got to talk about it because it\u2019s famous.<\/p>\n HEATHER: We can talk about it, although as you said, I think given the era that it happened \u2014 she was hosting parties, a number of parties. They were the toast of the town in Washington and everyone wanted to attend the parties that they hosted at the Canadian embassy. They would have celebrities like Christopher Plummer, Donald Sutherland. She would put actors next to intellectuals and mix things up.<\/p>\n And unfortunately this happened in private. She was planning a party. She said she was absolutely overhungry, hadn\u2019t eaten, was cranky. Her secretary had told her someone wasn\u2019t attending. She got really upset and slapped her. This was before the party started, and someone saw it. And at the time, it just \u2014 what today we would say went viral. It was an incident that really was meant to be a private thing, but it really became one of the things that she became known for, latterly. However, she was already an award-winning Canadian journalist and writer when she went to Washington. She had written many food articles for Chatelaine magazine and contributed to books here. So she went down already with a career. And this was an unpaid position as \u201cwife of\u201d \u2014<\/p>\n ELLIN: That was the name of her column in The Washington Post. Wife Of. I love it.<\/p>\n HEATHER: And she was picked up by The Washington Post.<\/p>\n She had met her husband when she was 19, in Winnipeg. He was already an Oxford professor and had come back to visit his parents in Winnipeg, and it was a little bit of a setup. They wanted him to marry a local girl, and she just wanted to get the heck out of Winnipeg. So she went right from Winnipeg to Oxford, and things took off. It was quite a career. And as you said, anyone in the 1980s would remember these columns. They were very funny, and they really did \u201copen the kimono\u201d a little bit on what went on behind the scenes in Washington.<\/p>\n ELLIN: Here\u2019s a clip from Sondra Gotlieb being interviewed in 1990 by a CBC journalist, trying to explain that she really didn\u2019t want to talk much about the slap of her assistant \u2014 while hosting a party for Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and American Vice President George H.W. Bush \u2014 while she was the wife of Canada\u2019s ambassador to the US, Alan Gotlieb.<\/p>\n [Sound up: Sondra Gottlieb archival audio]<\/p>\n It was very hectic, but I should have been able to handle all that. It was, I was in my fifth year as ambassador\u2019s wife. At 7:30 at night I had to go and look to see who was coming and the guests and start rearranging stuff, and I kind of \u2014 everything. And I was hungry and I was tired and everything kind of exploded. But you see, this was a very private incident. This was not in front of the Bushes. This is not in front of the guests. This was outside, on the front lawn. The guests were not \u2014 there were no guests around.<\/p>\n [Interviewer: No, I understand that, but still \u2014 you did slap her.]<\/p>\n And I apologized immediately afterwards. But you talk in the book thereafter about both the support that you got from many people \u2014 Barbara Bush included \u2014 and also the way the press ran with this. And you seem surprised that the press would have thought this was a big story. Are you still \u2014 it was a big story.<\/p>\n It was a big story because \u2014 it had nothing to do \u2014 it was such a tiny incident. It was not public. If I had sort of slapped my social secretary in front of the prime minister \u2014 I mean, that is the way the story was presented over and over and over again, and there is nothing I could do to defend myself.<\/p>\n [Sound out]<\/p>\n ELLIN: One of the things I love about her \u2014 there\u2019s a quote that she said: \u201cFor some reason, a glaze passes over people\u2019s faces when you say Canada.\u201d She told The New York Times when she first arrived in Washington.<\/p>\n Now, in Ottawa \u2014 Sarah Vered. The Israeli-born philanthropist, educator, founder of Israeli and Judaic studies programs, who basically helped bring culture \u2014 Israeli culture and Jewish culture \u2014 to Ottawa. So she was married to Ze\u2019ev Vered. They were from Israel. Her father owned a pasta factory. She was a Haganah activist fighter when she was a teenager, after high school, and was around at the founding \u2014 at the birth \u2014 of Israel.<\/p>\n ELLIN And I have to tell you, they came to Canada and they were probably the first Israeli students, we\u2019re told, ever accepted to go to McGill. He got an engineering degree, and then they moved to Ottawa where they started a construction firm \u2014 a construction conglomerate that it became \u2014 and that\u2019s where they made their wealth. But they gave most of it \u2014 much of it \u2014 away, and were so involved in the Jewish community.<\/p>\n Heather: I can see that she had left a million-dollar endowment to create what was called the Vered Jewish Canadian Studies Program, which includes courses on Jewish heritage and history in Canada. About 200 students have gone through it since it was founded in 2005. And apparently she attended these courses that she funded \u2014 including writing essays and participating, very low-key, in the class. Just like a regular student. And I guess she was 90-something at that age.<\/p>\n And just so much philanthropy \u2014 the Vered Israel Cultural and Educational Program at the JCC, a research fellowship and cardiology chair at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, the National Gallery. I know she was a member of the Order of Canada. And I think that her family said that, really, to understand her, the book she wrote \u2014 Among the Defenders of Israel \u2014 it really explains so much. I mean, she was able to bring her experiences as a 17-year-old high school student who was in the War of Independence, going through all of that, and then coming to Canada and establishing a life here.<\/p>\n [Sound up: Sarah Vered archival audio]<\/p>\n Keep on working hard the way you\u2019re doing and you\u2019ll be blessed. Study. Remember our traditions. Believe, and you\u2019ll be successful.<\/p>\n [Sound out]<\/p>\n ELLIN: That was Sarah Vered speaking in May of last year, sending a message to her community as donors and Federation joined in a Generations event where she received the Meyasedet HaDor Award \u2014 which means generational founder.<\/p>\n I think you mentioned that the National Arts Centre \u2014 the NAC \u2014 is really where her name is honoured every year by a concert.<\/p>\n HEATHER:I was told she was a very big supporter of the National Arts Centre and the orchestra mentorship program, which allows musicians to work and learn from orchestra members.<\/p>\n They dedicate a performance to her every year. So she was very involved, and she loved meeting the musicians and hearing how people had influenced them.<\/p>\n ELLII know that the flag flew at half-mast on February 28th at the NAC in her honor, which is quite something.<\/p>\n ELLIN: And we should say that I was listening to the eulogy, the ceremony for Stephen Lewis, and Olivia Chow got the City of Toronto to have the CN Tower lit up in orange the night of his memorial service.<\/p>\n [Sound up: Wolf Bronet archival audio]<\/p>\n I was put on this planet to help people.<\/p>\n [Sound out]<\/p>\n ELLIN: I wanted to bring us to Montreal, and Holocaust survivor and runner extraordinaire \u2014 fundraiser extraordinaire \u2014<\/p>\n HEATHER: Wolf Bronet. Firstly, he was 102 when he died, so the running seems to have paid off.<\/p>\n And he started running in the \u201960s. And as I did a little bit of research \u2014 I actually spoke to Canadian Running magazine and they were shocked. They had no idea. And I was told this is probably the first running club \u2014 the Wolf Pack \u2014 in Canada. It just didn\u2019t exist until the \u201970s. Street running \u2014 not in the gym, but on the streets. T<\/p>\n his is what\u2019s so amazing. No one ever did that. It was a very odd sight in the 1960s to see a bunch of people running through the streets, running up Mount Royal.<\/p>\n He was also, importantly, a Holocaust survivor. He was put into the Russian gulag, in a Siberian forced labour camp, during the war. He started running at age 40. And jumping back to the war \u2014 he met his future wife, Henya, in a DP camp. His sister also thankfully survived the war, along with his brother, and introduced them there. He was an integral member of helping the Jewish Y flourish in Montreal. And the Wolf Pack \u2014 their neshama is still in the building. There are still bagels that come out on Sundays, sponsored by remaining Wolf Pack members or children of the Wolf Pack.<\/p>\n The Wolf Pack raised money for so many causes and was just so supportive. But the big thing that they did was Magen David Adom \u2014 14 ambulances. The 14th was donated on Wolf\u2019s 100th birthday in 2024. They also supported the Terry Fox Run, Heart and Stroke, JNF, and cancer research. He really was Mr. Y.<\/p>\n ELLIN: And I remember going to the March to Jerusalem \u2014 which is like the Toronto Walk with Israel, except they ran it 25K up onto the mountain \u2014 and I remember they had their distinctive white T-shirts with sort of Adidas-style shorts in those days, and they did marathons around North America. And you know how much it costs to raise money for one Magen David Adom ambulance \u2014 not with all the extra trimmings? That\u2019s between $100,000 and $180,000 for each of these ambulances. So he did 14 of them, which is amazing.<\/p>\n We do need to pay tribute to somebody who was part of The CJN family as our last mention of Honourable Menschen: Lionel Schipper. He was on the board of directors as well as a donor. His name still appeared in the last couple of editions of The Scribe Quarterly, our CJN magazine.<\/p>\n He was a lawyer, co-founded the CJPAC Political Affairs Committee, was an Order of Canada recipient, very supportive of the Bora Laskin Law Library, the U of T Law Library, a health division at U of T. A major donor, major legal figure, also on the board of big names like the Four Seasons Hotel and the Toronto Sun. Born in Toronto in 1932, he died February 5th at the age of 93.<\/p>\n And two things. First of all, he apparently \u2014 according to the family\u2019s obituary \u2014 was an avid birder, which I am, so that was amazing to hear. But also, he was a very longtime customer of the House of Chan Chinese restaurant in the Eglinton-Bathurst-Avenue Road area, that was owned by a Jewish man, started by a Jewish man to feed egg rolls to Jewish people who lived in that area of Toronto.<\/p>\n So, all in all, a very interesting episode, Heather. May their memories be a blessing, and thank you so much for bringing these amazing stories to our audience for this edition of the CJN\u2019s \u201cHonourable Menschen\u201d. We\u2019ll see you again.<\/p>\n Heather: Thank you.<\/p>\n ELLIN: And that\u2019s what Jewish Canada sounded like for this episode of \u201cNorth Star:, made possible thanks to the Ira Gluskin and Maxine Granovsky Gluskin Charitable Foundation.<\/p>\n Do you have any memories of or connection with any of our Honourable Menschen? You can write to us at [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/p>\n The show is produced by Zachary Judah Kauffman with Izzy Hellenchilde. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Alicia Richler is our editorial director. We\u2019re closed for the Shavuot holiday, so we\u2019ll be back on Monday, May 25th. Thanks for listening.<\/p>\n Credits<\/p>\n Host and writer: Ellin Bessner ( @ebessner<\/a> )Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Izzie Helenchilde (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director)Music: Bret Higgins<\/a><\/p>\n Support our show<\/p>\n