Next week’s supplement

The CJN’s annual Community Focus supplement is done! But you’ll have to wait until next week to read it.

The special section will be part of our Aug. 25 issue, and will be downloadable online.

In my editorial for the supplement, I wrote that it offers a bit of a mixed bag – just like Toronto’s Jewish community – and that it reflects changes that have come about in recent years.
How are congregations dealing with diminishing appeal of synagogues to some men? What approaches are different denominations taking with intermarried couples? How are university students adjusting to living away from the community they grew up in?

There are also articles about Israeli and Russian Jews, deaf Jews and a program for bar mitzvah students with Asperger Syndrome.

Now that the supplement is done, I’m already thinking about what to include in it next year.

The Sukkah: An unusual Mitzvah

Rabbi Michael Stavsky will illustrate the meanings behind and wrapped up in the customs and practices of the Chag of Sukkot:

We’ve just completed the high holiday period known as the Yamim Noraim. We’ve spent countless hours praying, fasting and beseeching Hashem to bless us with a sweet, healthy and happy New Year. Now that it’s behind us, we are blessed with the most joyous of our holidays, Sukkot. Yet this festival (which the Torah and Talmud simply refer to as Chag, and is the only festival where we are specifically commanded to rejoice) requires us to leave the comforts of our homes and sit in a temporary hut called a sukkah. In this article, we’ll explore this most unusual of mitzvot....

Read the full article online now from The Canadian Jewish News.

Comedian Elon Gold parodies "ShamWow!"

Elon Gold is coming to Toronto on July 7th, performing on the ticket for this years Just For Laughs Festival. This is a great clip of him parodying the "ShamWow" towels and exposes all the potential of the ShmataWow.


Watch the main site for The Canadian Jewish News or sign up for our news brief The Scoop and you too can win tickets to see him live in person.