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Podcast: North Star with Ellin Bessner
Episode: Drumming, chanting, climate change: Canada's Jewish Renewal movement is growing
Description: With the three-week-long Jewish holiday season behind us, Ralph Benmergui, the well-known TV and radio personality—and former podcaster with The CJN—is still kvelling about the first-ever High Holiday services offered by Ha’Sadeh in Toronto. The new-ish, Jewish Renewal community welcomed 150 attendees for its Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah services this season.
It wasn’t just a new beginning for Ha’Sadeh, but also for Benmergui himself, who was recently named as the new executive director for the Canadian branch of Jewish Renewal, ALEPH Canada. The movement is more popular outside Canada than inside—there are 50 congregations worldwide, i...