Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: North Star with Ellin Bessner
Episode: Edmonton Heritage Festival still celebrates Israel, despite antisemitism and COVID
Description: Last year, the Edmonton Heritage Festival, one of the city's biggest celebrations, was cancelled due to the pandemic. This year, organizers decided to go ahead—though at half capacity—and invited the Jewish Federation of Edmonton to join with their annual pavilion for Israel.
The pavilion could mark the only Israel-themed public gathering in Canada this summer, as many other large-scale events remained on hiatus or have gone virtual. The Edmonton pavilion featured Israeli folk dancers, selfie photo ops against a backdrop of the Dead Sea, a display wedding and, of course, Israeli food, from falafel to froz...