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Podcast: North Star with Ellin Bessner
Episode: This 96-year-old Canadian is moving to Israel in the middle of the war, as have hundreds of Jews
Description: Israel’s government says 45,000 new immigrants came to live in the Holy Land in 2023, including over 720 alone who landed since Oct. 7–when Hamas terrorists attacked and slaughtered 1,200 Israeli residents and took 240 others hostage. Among the newcomers is Irving Matlow, 96, a well-known member of Toronto’s Jewish community, who may be among the oldest people ever to make Aliyah.
Matlow has been deeply attached to the State of Israel since he grew up in a Zionist home in Toronto, the son of Jewish immigrants from Belarus. In 1948, while studying for his business degree at the University of Toronto, he left Canada...