Chai Montreal

On today's episode of Chai Montreal: the Podcast we're entering a rather magical world – one that brings together Jewish folklore, Middle Eastern mythology and the immigrant experience in early twentieth-century New York.

Our subject is the wonderful trilogy by American author Helene Wecker of The Golem and the Jinni. You can buy Helene’s third instalment of the trilogy, The Gates of Midnight, out now, in your local bookstore or order it online.

In Jewish folklore, a golem is a creature made from inanimate material, traditionally clay, which is brought to life through mystical or magical means. The most famous golem legend is associated with Rabbi Judah Loew, the Maharal of Prague, who is said to have created a golem to protect the Jewish community from persecution. A golem is powerful, obedient and generally created to serve or protect human beings. But the stories also raise fascinating questions: What does it mean to be alive? What happens when something created by human hands develops a will of its own?

The second character is the jinni, a supernatural being from Middle Eastern and Islamic folklore. They are traditionally understood to be beings created from smokeless fire. They possess free will, and can be good, bad or somewhere in between. They are often associated with the desert, ancient stories, magic and the mysterious world beyond human understanding.

Wecker brings these two very different traditions together in a wonderfully imaginative way.

The story takes place in New York in 1899. Chava, a female golem made of clay, arrives from Poland after the death of the man who created her. Ahmad, a jinni born in the Syrian desert, has been imprisoned for centuries in a copper flask before being accidentally released in Manhattan.

In today’s episode, Lisa speaks with Dr. Ori Werdiger, from the Department of Jewish Thought at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, about his research, the remarkable Jewish intellectual world of postwar France, and specifically about the fascinating Jewish thought leaders Emmanuel Levinas and Leon Askenazi.

Emmanuel Levinas transformed modern Jewish thought by placing ethics, responsibility for the Other, and human encounter at the heart of philosophy and Jewish life.

Leon Ashkenazi brought Jewish philosophy, Torah, and Sephardic tradition into dialogue with modernity, profoundly influencing Jewish education and identity in postwar France and Israel. 

Their legacies remind us that Jewish thought is not only about understanding the world, but about transforming the way we encounter one another within it. Their lives and teachings invite us to carry Torah, ethics, and responsibility beyond the page, into the choices we make, the people we meet, and the kind of Jewish future we help create. 

Music licensed through Soundstripe.

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In today’s episode of Chai Montreal: The Podcast, we’re taking you along with us on our little country holiday in the middle of London and exploring why Kew Gardens may be much more than just a garden.

We speak with Alex Summers, the Curator of Living Collections who helped us look at Kew Gardens from another perspective and explore what this extraordinary place can teach us about nature, art, culture, and the ways we care for the world we share.

Kew Gardens has gardens and landscapes to explore, of course, but also galleries and exhibitions where art and nature come together. Henry Moore sculptures, his larger-than-life works, are scattered throughout the acres of Kew Gardens to view until until 31 January 2027.The sculptures don't simply look as though they had been placed there; they looked as though they had always belonged there, as if they had grown out of the landscape and were meant to remain.

Across cultures and civilizations, people have revered the natural world and created traditions to honour it. From the Jain tradition of the Indian subcontinent, with its profound respect for all living beings, to Jewish traditions that celebrate trees through Tu B'Shvat, a yearly holiday sometimes called the birthday of the trees, nature has been woven into our spiritual and cultural lives for centuries.

On this episode of Chai Montreal: The Podcast, Alain Dancyger, Executive Director of the Montreal Jewish Public Library, joins us to talk about the library's special screening of the award winning documentary titled Egypt: A Love Story, which is a journey of discovery of Souad Zaki by her granddaughter, documentary filmmaker Iris Zaki.

The film introduces the audience to Souad Zaki, a celebrated Jewish-Egyptian singer and actress, who rose to the top of the music scene in 1940s Egypt, and the Arab world. She sang with her Muslim-Egyptian band, which included her Muslim-Egyptian husband. Being Jewish didn't affect Souad Zaki's career in Egypt, but she fled to Israel after her husband abandoned her, the only place she knew her husband couldn’t take her son away from her. Although that meant that she left a glittering career behind, and, as you’ll hear in the interview, she became a cleaning lady to provide for her son, she did sing with Zuzu Mousa’s Arab Orchestra for Kol Israel Radio’s Arabic Service for 20 years, until she retired at the age of 57, recording around 200 songs for the radio.

In an interview for The Times of Israel, Souad Zaki’s son, Moshe, said that his mother never criticised Israel, she simply did a ‘reframing’ of her life.

After finding out that she had moved to Israel, the Egyptian government burned all of her musical recordings, and copies of the four films she acted in in Egypt. The only remaining copies are the small number that were purchased abroad prior to 1950. It’s thanks to those, and now her granddaughter’s film, that we can hear, see and celebrate Souad Zaki’s talent.

Join the Montreal Jewish Public Library on March 26, 2026 to discover the story and talent of Souad Zaki!

On today's episode, we're joined by Tabea Zimmermann, a world renown musician, who has been among the premier violists for over four decades. She made her debut on the Berlin Philharmonie stage at age 11 and won numerous music competitions between 1982 and 1984, cementing her prominence in the field. She became the youngest professor in Germany at age 21, which, as you’ll hear in the interview, was just the beginning of her role as a musical mentor.

Tabea speaks with Lisa about how she started playing the viola as a child, her upcoming performance with Javier Perianes at Montreal’s Bourgie Hall on March 18, and her new album with works composed by Johannes Brahms, Robert and Clara Schumann and Joseph Joachim titled Romances et Mélodies Hébraiques, accompanied by Jean-Guihen Queyras on the cello and Javier Perianes on the piano.We’d love for you to hit subscribe and follow us on instagram @chaimontreal.thepodcast!

In honour of International Holocaust Memorial Day, Mario Venezia joins us on Chai Montreal: The Podcast to speak about his father Shlomo Venezia and the documentary he produced about his father, Il Respiro di Shlomo (Shlomo's Breath).

Mario, an accomplished business consultant, professor, and President of the Museo della Shoah di Roma, tells us about the Venezia family history, leaving Spain at the time of the Inquisition in 1492 for Venice, then to Thessaloniki/Salonika.

Born in Thessaloniki in 1923, Shlomo Venezia and his family were taken from their home in 1944 and deported to Aushwitz-Birkenau. Shlomo survived Auschwitz-Birkenau, Mathausen and Ebensee, including the death march from Birkenau to Mathausen in January 1945. Shlomo was selected amongst the prisoners to be in the Sonderkommando, a forced labour unit compelled to work within the crematorium. The Nazis regularly killed and replaced the sonderkommando to eliminate witnesses, making Shlomo’s survival even more miraculous. Shlomo’s testimony has become one of the most important witness accounts.

Shlomo Venezia was an incredible man with incredible strength, and Mario recounts the greatest lessons that his father instilled in him and his brothers.

As Mario says in the episode, there was a Jewish life before the Shoah and there’s Jewish life now. And that’s what we’re here to celebrate on Chai Montreal: the Podcast.

On this episode, we’re excited to introduce you to Nate Ben-Horin and Jaclyn Grossman, who make up the Likht Ensemble, a piano-vocal duo dedicated to sharing music by Jewish artists from the Shoah & educating about Jewish representation in music. They'll be bringing their show, Kishef, to Montreal on January 18 at the Bourgie Hall. For tickets, click here.

Kishef, the Yiddish word for magic, honours the creative spark that animated Jewish composers during World War II and the years leading up to it. The programme of Kishef includes new arrangements of songs from Czech and Lithuanian ghettos, as well as a Bourgie Hall commission from Nate.

In this episode, we're so excited to speak with Esther Levy Chehebar, author of her debut novel Sisters of Fortune. She talks to us about the unique Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn, the process of writing the novel, and the elements of the community that were important for her to include, such as female characters who wanted to pave their own path. And of course, the food!

Esther is also the author of "I Share my Name", a children's book about Jewish Syrian naming traditions and a contributing writer at Tablet Magazine, where she writes about the Sephardic community. 

It's fitting that we welcome Esther to the podcast and talk about her novel in November because it's both Mizrahi Heritage Month and Jewish Book Month. Mizrahi Heritage Month honours and promotes the heritage, history, and culture of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa, and Jewish Book Month is the annual celebration of Jewish literature.

Sisters of Fortune is perfect for a Chanukah gift!

In Canada, you can find Sisters of Fortune at Indigo book stores. 

We'd love for you to hit subscribe and follow us on Instagram @chaimontreal.thepodcast.

The Jewish Public Library's upcoming season of events is not to be missed!

Alain Dancyger, Executive Director of the Jewish Public Library in Montreal, is back to talk about two upcoming programs, the screening of Heart of Courage and Q&A with producer Avi Benlolo on November 19th and 20th, and the 'Café Philosophique: Political Radicalism, The enemy of Democracy?' (a reflection on the thoughts of Hannah Arendt) on December 3rd.

We are so excited to welcome Yohay Sponder on today’s episode. Yohay is a stand-up comic and producer and headliner of Funny Monday, Israeli Comedy in English in Tel Aviv.

Yohay has gained a huge following on social media thanks to his quick witted comedy, which he’s bringing to Montreal on November 16th at L’Olympia with his show Self Loving Jew. 

Get your tickets here to share in the laughs.