A direct hit by two Iranian missiles on June 15 caused an estimated $500 million worth of damage to the campus of Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, in Rehovot, Israel. They destroyed a major cancer research building and a chemistry building that was still under construction. Four days later, Iran targeted the area of Beersheba’s Ben-Gurion University campus, directly hitting its teaching hospital, the Soroka Medical Center. A surgical wing was hit, injuring about 70 people, including some patients. The impact also damaged at least half of the university’s 60 buildings. Meanwhile, a new strike just yesterday on June 24 in the city killed four Israelis, when the missile hit an apartment complex, rendering many more university staff homeless. Since 2003, the Canadian fundraising chapters of Weizmann and Ben-Gurion have sent over $320 million in donations to these two universities in Israel. The gifts purchased research equipment, built labs, funded scholarships and in some cases, had buildings or departments named after them, including the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Theoretical Physics at Weizmann and the Azrieli National Centre for Autism at Ben-Gurion. Seeing the scenes of destruction has been heartbreaking for Canadian philanthropists. But after the initial shock of the last weeks, Canadian supporters are now swinging into action, launching emergency fundraising campaigns to rebuild—even, as they say, if it takes years. On today’s episode of North Star, The CJN’s flagship news podcast, host Ellin Bessner checks in with Susan Stern, CEO of Weizmann Canada, and Andrea Freedman, the CEO of Ben-Gurion University Canada.

Related links

• Learn more about Weizmann Institute Canada’s emergency fundraising recovery fund.
• Find out what Ben-Gurion University’s Canadian branch is doing to raise funds to rebuild labs and classrooms.
• How some Canadian wings of Israeli-Jewish charities quietly, and not so quietly, launched appeals for funds after hundreds of Iranian missiles targeted the Jewish State since June 13, 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

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

For over a week now, we have been reporting stories about Canadians stranded in Israel since that country launched its pre-emptive attack on Iran on June 13. But slowly, and under the radar for security reasons, The CJN has been speaking to some of the first tourists who found ways to evacuate Israel–mostly without any help from the Canadian government. We couldn’t report their stories until it was safe to do so. But now that many of the Canadians we interviewed last week are either home or well on their way, we can bring you some of their amazing stories–whether it was boarding that all-expenses paid, chartered luxury Israeli cruise ship for a party-filled voyage to Cyprus or taking an anxiety-filled secret bus trip through Israel to Jordan and then a flight to Cairo, and finally on to Europe, all while hiding their Jewishness and the fact they are gay. Leonard Temes is an architect and interior designer from Toronto who came to Israel for on a Pride mission with a Jewish Federations of North America group, but left clandestinely five days ago. He had the added fright of finding himself on the same plane as those extremist pro-Palestinian protesters who tried to participate on the global March on Gaza, but were kicked out of Egypt by local authorities. Meanwhile Philip Lerner, a Thornhill data scientist, came to Israel to volunteer with an Orthodox youth group connected to the AISH movement. Lerner was offered a berth on that Israeli cruise ship chartered by Birthright, via Ashdod to Cyprus. He’s dubbed the overnight voyage “The Jew Cruise”. But Lerner says despite what social media videos you might have seen of the 1,500 Jewish young people dancing and partying on the pool deck, the overall journey was anything but smooth sailing. On today’s episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, host Ellin Bessner speaks with both Leonard Temes and Philip Lerner, about how they got out.

Related links

• Hear why some Canadian young people on subsidized Israel-volunteer programs like Birthright and Olami got out of the country, while those with MASA did not, yet, in The CJN.
• How a Canadian survived a direct missile hit in Tel Aviv, by praying and channeling Queen Esther, her personal heroine, on The CJN’s North Star podcast.
• Read more about Philip Lerner and his advocacy for people with autism, 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)

In the early hours of Monday, June 16, Alana Ruben Free was sheltering in a friend’s safe room—with her friend, several other women and three cats—when they heard the loudest boom any of them had ever experienced. The six-storey apartment building in a popular Tel Aviv district was one of many that was destroyed or badly damaged by a powerful Iranian missile in the barrage that morning; in this case, the missile exploded in the parking lot directly across the street right smack in the neighbourhood’s central plaza. The playwright and visual artist, who is originally from Fredericton, N.B., does not even live in Tel Aviv, but in Jerusalem. She was spending a weekend visiting friends and family, including several who had come from Canada for the city’s famous Pride parade.and was staying as a guest in a friend’s apartment. We aren’t saying where it was, following the Israeli military’s current censorship protocols. It took Israeli emergency crews a long time to free the four shaken survivors, but except for a cut knee from broken glass, they and their feline friends were fine. Now Ruben Free is crediting her miraculous story to reciting prayers and to reflecting on the story Queen Esther of Persia, her personal Jewish heroine. Alana Ruben Free explains why on today’s episode of The CJN_‘s_ flagship news podcast, North Star.

Related links

• Hear more about how Canadians in Israel are being impacted by the Iranian missiles, on the North Star podcast of The CJN.
• Learn more about Alana Ruben Free.
• Read more about Alana Ruben Free’s art show in Israel, in the archives of 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)