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ACJS Speakers' Bureau

The ACJS Speakers' Bureau provides access to leading voices in Canadian Jewish studies for public speaking engagements and community learning opportunities. Members of the Bureau are historians, political scientists, sociologists, artists, archivists, novelists and poets, journalists, and religious and civic leaders, with expertise on issues of historical and contemporary concern to the Canadian Jewish experience. 

 

The Bureau serves as a resource for social and cultural organizations, religious congregations, museums, universities, schools, and more, to bring specialists on Canadian Jewry to their communities for lectures, readings, and conversation.

 

If you are organizing an event, seminar, workshop, or training session, please browse our catalogue of more than 80 speakers and fill out one of the booking forms below. We will be happy to facilitate a speaker for your next program!

How It Works:

Organizations interested in hosting a talk select speakers that spark their interests. The ACJS will coordinate the match between speaker and host, and from there the host will coordinate topic, format, and scheduling directly with the speaker.
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The default rate for booking any speaker is 500 CAD, with a 10 percent administrative fee earmarked for the ACJS. We will receive the full 500 CAD payment and subsequently process the speaker’s fee. 
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Hosts are responsible for all event planning and logistics and will bear all costs associated with bringing a speaker from out of town, if applicable. We will be pleased to assist with advertising and promotion.

Please write to bureau@canadianjewishstudies.ca for more information, or consult the FAQs below.

Find a Speaker!

Browse our available talks by theme, a speaker’s willingness to travel, their preference for in-person or virtual appearances, and availability in English or French—or scroll through the entire catalogue. If you are interested in booking more than one talk, you may include multiple requests on the same form or submit separate forms for each request.

Zionism, Israel, Archival Research, Art & Visual Culture

David Matlow

The Herzl Project

Collecting the Dream: Owning the World’s Largest Herzl Collection and Telling its Stories from Toronto

CITY

WILLING TO TRAVEL?

Toronto

Yes

OPEN TO VIRTUAL?

LANGUAGE

Yes

English

David Matlow owns the world’s largest private collection of Theodor Herzl memorabilia (over six thousand pieces). He founded the Herzl Project, whose goal is to inform people about Herzl and his achievements so as to inspire them to continue Herzl’s work to benefit the State of Israel and the Jewish people. David writes a weekly column in The Canadian Jewish News called "Treasure Trove" in which one item from his collection is showcased and contextualized to the events of the day. David’s passion for collecting provides a quirky and novel perspective to discuss important current issues relating to Israel and Zionism.

Zionism, 20th Century, Identity, Israel-Diaspora Relations

David Matlow

The Herzl Project

Pavilions of Promise: A Fascination with the Zionist Movement at World’s Fairs That Started at Expo 67

CITY

WILLING TO TRAVEL?

Toronto

Yes

OPEN TO VIRTUAL?

LANGUAGE

Yes

English

David Matlow owns the world’s largest private collection of Theodor Herzl memorabilia (over six thousand pieces). He founded the Herzl Project, whose goal is to inform people about Herzl and his achievements so as to inspire them to continue Herzl’s work to benefit the State of Israel and the Jewish people. David writes a weekly column in The Canadian Jewish News called "Treasure Trove" in which one item from his collection is showcased and contextualized to the events of the day. David’s passion for collecting provides a quirky and novel perspective to discuss important current issues relating to Israel and Zionism.

Memory, Oral History, Community Institutions, Literature

David Matlow

The Herzl Project

The Canadian Jewish News: Treasures from the Treasure Trove

CITY

WILLING TO TRAVEL?

Toronto

Yes

OPEN TO VIRTUAL?

LANGUAGE

Yes

English

David Matlow owns the world’s largest private collection of Theodor Herzl memorabilia (over six thousand pieces). He founded the Herzl Project, whose goal is to inform people about Herzl and his achievements so as to inspire them to continue Herzl’s work to benefit the State of Israel and the Jewish people. David writes a weekly column in The Canadian Jewish News called "Treasure Trove" in which one item from his collection is showcased and contextualized to the events of the day. David’s passion for collecting provides a quirky and novel perspective to discuss important current issues relating to Israel and Zionism.

Literature, Yiddish, Quebec, 20th Century

Seymour Mayne

University of Ottawa

A Rich Garland: An Introduction to Jewish Canadian Poetry

CITY

WILLING TO TRAVEL?

Ottawa

No

OPEN TO VIRTUAL?

LANGUAGE

Yes

Bilingual

Seymour Mayne is the author, editor, or translator of more than eighty books. Six collections of his poetry have been rendered into Hebrew, including Fly Off Into the Strongest Light: Selected Poems and Ricochet: Word Sonnets. A selection of his short fiction, The Old Blue Couch and Other Stories, has been published in Hebrew, French, Romanian, and Spanish. His most recent books are In Your Words: Translations from the Yiddish and the Hebrew, Le chant de Moïse: A bilingual English-French Offering of Biblical Poems, and Perfume: Poems and Word Sonnets. His poetry and short fiction are represented in over a hundred anthologies including Voices within the Ark: The Modern Jewish Poets, The Penguin Book of Canadian Verse, and The New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse in English. He is professor emeritus at the University of Ottawa and the Vered Jewish Canadian Studies Program.

Literature, Yiddish, Quebec, 20th Century

Seymour Mayne

University of Ottawa

A.M. Klein: the Life, the Work, and the Legend

CITY

WILLING TO TRAVEL?

Ottawa

No

OPEN TO VIRTUAL?

LANGUAGE

Yes

Bilingual

Seymour Mayne is the author, editor, or translator of more than eighty books. Six collections of his poetry have been rendered into Hebrew, including Fly Off Into the Strongest Light: Selected Poems and Ricochet: Word Sonnets. A selection of his short fiction, The Old Blue Couch and Other Stories, has been published in Hebrew, French, Romanian, and Spanish. His most recent books are In Your Words: Translations from the Yiddish and the Hebrew, Le chant de Moïse: A Bilingual English-French Offering of Biblical Poems, and Perfume: Poems and Word Sonnets. His poetry and short fiction are represented in over a hundred anthologies including Voices within the Ark: The Modern Jewish Poets, The Penguin Book of Canadian Verse, and The New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse in English. He is professor emeritus at the University of Ottawa and the Vered Jewish Canadian Studies Program.

Identity, Literature, Religion & Ritual, Memory

Seymour Mayne

University of Ottawa

Cultural Tradition and Transmission: A First Generation Jewish Canadian Response

CITY

WILLING TO TRAVEL?

Ottawa

No

OPEN TO VIRTUAL?

LANGUAGE

Yes

Bilingual

Seymour Mayne is the author, editor, or translator of more than eighty books. Six collections of his poetry have been rendered into Hebrew, including Fly Off Into the Strongest Light: Selected Poems and Ricochet: Word Sonnets. A selection of his short fiction, The Old Blue Couch and Other Stories, has been published in Hebrew, French, Romanian, and Spanish. His most recent books are In Your Words: Translations from the Yiddish and the Hebrew, Le chant de Moïse: A bilingual English-French Offering of Biblical Poems, and Perfume: Poems and Word Sonnets. His poetry and short fiction are represented in over a hundred anthologies including Voices within the Ark: The Modern Jewish Poets, The Penguin Book of Canadian Verse, and The New Oxford Book of Canadian Verse in English. He is professor emeritus at the University of Ottawa and the Vered Jewish Canadian Studies Program.

Literature, Music, Ontario, Human Relations

Sean Michaels

Independent

Love, Espionage, and Electricity: The True(ish) Story Behind Us Conductors

CITY

WILLING TO TRAVEL?

Montreal

Yes

OPEN TO VIRTUAL?

LANGUAGE

Yes

English

Sean Michaels is the bestselling author of Us Conductors, The Wagers, and, most recently, Do You Remember Being Born?, described by Wired magazine as "the definitive novel of art in the age of A.I." His non-fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, Maclean's, and Rolling Stone. A music critic and cultural essayist, Sean is a recipient of the Giller Prize, the QWF Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize, the Grand Prix Numix, the Vine Award for Fiction, the Prix Nouvelles Écritures, and he has been nominated for the Dublin Literary Award, the Kirkus Prize, the Peabody Awards, and the Prix des libraires du Quebec. Born in Stirling, Scotland, Sean lives in Montreal, Canada.

Western Canada, Memory, Religion & Ritual, Oral History

Isa Milman

Independent

Revisiting “Prairie Kaddish” Twenty Years After Stepping Through the Gates of Saskatchewan’s Lipton Hebrew Cemetery

CITY

WILLING TO TRAVEL?

Victoria, BC

Maybe

OPEN TO VIRTUAL?

LANGUAGE

Yes

English

Isa Milman is an award-winning poet and memoirist. Victoria has been her home since 1996.

Antisemitism Policy, Identity, Politics & Activism, Community Institutions

Karen Mock

Independent

Validating and Affirming Jewish Identities: Recognizing and Countering Antisemitism in Canada

CITY

WILLING TO TRAVEL?

Toronto

Yes

OPEN TO VIRTUAL?

LANGUAGE

Yes

Bilingual

Karen Mock is a human rights consultant, psychologist, and teacher educator well-known as a dynamic lecturer and workshop facilitator in the public, private and non profit sectors. She is a former psychology professor, past national director of the League for Human Rights of B'nai Brith Canada, former CEO of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, past chair of the Pearson Centre for Progressive Policy, and current Coordinator of the Enhancing Social Justice Education group. A recipient of many awards and honours, Karen has received the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal, the King's Coronation Medal, and the Order of Canada for her interfaith, intercultural and human rights work.

Interfaith, Antisemitism, Politics & Activism, Youth & Education

Karen Mock

Independent

Stop the Hate, Start the Dialogue: Strategies to Reduce Polarization and Build Allies in Canada

CITY

WILLING TO TRAVEL?

Toronto

Yes

OPEN TO VIRTUAL?

LANGUAGE

Yes

Bilingual

Karen Mock is a human rights consultant, psychologist, and teacher educator well-known as a dynamic lecturer and workshop facilitator in the public, private and non profit sectors. She is a former psychology professor, past national director of the League for Human Rights of B'nai Brith Canada, former CEO of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, past chair of the Pearson Centre for Progressive Policy, and current Coordinator of the Enhancing Social Justice Education group. A recipient of many awards and honours, Karen has received the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal, the King's Coronation Medal, and the Order of Canada for her interfaith, intercultural and human rights work.

Gender & Sexuality, Early Modern, Oral History, Immigration

Jordan Molot

Concordia University

Early Jewish Canadian Women

CITY

WILLING TO TRAVEL?

Montreal

Yes

OPEN TO VIRTUAL?

LANGUAGE

Yes

English

Jordan Molot is a PhD student at Concordia University, specializing in pre-Confederation Jewish history in Canada. His dissertation investigates the overlap of religion, kinship, and commerce in eighteenth-century Jewish settler life in Quebec. Employing archival research, material culture analysis, and methodologies of transnational history, his research particularly aims to examine the role of women (both Jewish and non-Jewish) in this history and to illuminate the community’s participation in slave networks.

Early Modern, Immigration, Archival Research, Environment / Nature

Jordan Molot

Concordia University

Early Jewish Settlement in Canada, 1749–1800

CITY

WILLING TO TRAVEL?

Montreal

Yes

OPEN TO VIRTUAL?

LANGUAGE

Yes

English

Jordan Molot is a PhD student at Concordia University, specializing in pre-Confederation Jewish history in Canada. His dissertation investigates the overlap of religion, kinship, and commerce in eighteenth-century Jewish settler life in Quebec. Employing archival research, material culture analysis, and methodologies of transnational history, his research particularly aims to examine the role of women (both Jewish and non-Jewish) in this history and to illuminate the community’s participation in slave networks.

Holocaust Remembrance, Literature, Yiddish, Gender & Sexuality

Goldie Morgentaler

University of Lethbridge

Letters from the Afterlife: Letters Between Two Holocaust Survivors, Chava Rosenfarb and Zenia Larson

CITY

WILLING TO TRAVEL?

Toronto

Maybe

OPEN TO VIRTUAL?

LANGUAGE

Yes

Bilingual

Goldie Morgentaler is professor emerita of English at the University of Lethbridge. Her most recent publication is: Letters from the Afterlife: the Post-Holocaust Correspondence of Chava Rosenfarb and Zenia Larson. She is the editor of this book of translated letters between two women Holocaust survivors who both became novelists. She is also the prize-winning translator of Chava Rosenfarb's book of short stories, In the Land of the Postscript, as well as the translator and editor of Rosenfarb's book of essays, Confessions of a Yiddish Writer. In a previous life, she was a Dickens scholar and a language columnist for the Montreal Gazette.

Literature, Archival Research, Food & Material Culture, Youth & Education

Nadav Sharon

University of Toronto

Highlights of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library's Judaica Collections

CITY

WILLING TO TRAVEL?

Toronto

Yes

OPEN TO VIRTUAL?

LANGUAGE

Yes

Bilingual

Nadav Sharon holds a PhD in the history of the Jewish people in the Second Temple period from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (2013). His PhD dissertation focused on the end of the Hasmonean state and the beginning of Roman rule in Judea (67–37 BCE), and a revised version of it was published as a book in 2017. He has published several academic studies in the field of Second Temple Judaism. Following a number of postdoctoral positions, he earned a Master of Information degree from the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, and, as of January 2020, serves as Judaica Librarian at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library of the University of Toronto and Jewish Studies selector for the university's Central Libraries.

Literature, Holocaust Remembrance, Archival Research, Memory

Nadav Sharon

University of Toronto

The Alain Goldschläger Collection of Holocaust Memoirs

CITY

WILLING TO TRAVEL?

Toronto

Yes

OPEN TO VIRTUAL?

LANGUAGE

Yes

Bilingual

Nadav Sharon holds a PhD in the history of the Jewish people in the Second Temple period from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (2013). His PhD dissertation focused on the end of the Hasmonean state and the beginning of Roman rule in Judea (67–37 BCE), and a revised version of it was published as a book in 2017. He has published several academic studies in the field of Second Temple Judaism. Following a number of postdoctoral positions, he earned a Master of Information degree from the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, and, as of January 2020, serves as Judaica Librarian at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library of the University of Toronto and Jewish Studies selector for the university's Central Libraries.

Literature, Gender & Sexuality, Canada

Ruth Panofsky

Toronto Metropolitan University

An Introduction to Canadian Jewish Women Writers

CITY

WILLING TO TRAVEL?

Toronto

Yes

OPEN TO VIRTUAL?

LANGUAGE

Yes

English

Ruth Panofsky is professor of English at Toronto Metropolitan University, where she teaches courses in Canadian Jewish literature and Holocaust literature. She has published extensively on authors Adele Wiseman and Miriam Waddington, as well as other women writers of their generation. Most recently, she edited The New Spice Box: Contemporary Jewish Writing (2020). In 2017, Panofsky received the Association for Canadian Jewish Studies' Louis Rosenberg Distinguished Service Award. In 2024, she was awarded the Royal Society of Canada's Lorne Pierce Medal for achievement in critical literature written on Canadian subjects.

Literature, Canada, Religion & Ritual

Ruth Panofsky

Toronto Metropolitan University

An Introduction to Canadian Jewish Literature

CITY

WILLING TO TRAVEL?

Toronto

Yes

OPEN TO VIRTUAL?

LANGUAGE

Yes

English

Ruth Panofsky is professor of English at Toronto Metropolitan University, where she teaches courses in Canadian Jewish literature and Holocaust literature. She has published extensively on authors Adele Wiseman and Miriam Waddington, as well as other women writers of their generation. Most recently, she edited The New Spice Box: Contemporary Jewish Writing (2020). In 2017, Panofsky received the Association for Canadian Jewish Studies' Louis Rosenberg Distinguished Service Award. In 2024, she was awarded the Royal Society of Canada's Lorne Pierce Medal for achievement in critical literature written on Canadian subjects.

Digital Humanities, Archival Research, Global / Diaspora, Memory

Kaye Prince-Hollenberg

Independent

Landscape of Dreams: Jewish Genealogy in Canada

CITY

WILLING TO TRAVEL?

Hamilton

Maybe

OPEN TO VIRTUAL?

LANGUAGE

Yes

English

Kaye Prince-Hollenberg is a professional genealogist based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. She specializes in Jewish Genealogy and Holocaust Research. Kaye is on the Board of Directors of Gesher Galicia, and is the associate genealogist at the Holocaust Reunion Project. She serves as Director of Education and DATO Research Associate at Gesher Galicia, volunteers as the JRI-Poland town leader for Korolówka and Zaleszczyki, and was the founding curator of the Margaret’s Legacy Holocaust Learning Centre in Hamilton. Her Substack, “Paper Trails with Kaye Prince-Hollenberg,” and website "Northern Noshes" combine vintage cookbooks and recipes with genealogy research in an effort to reunite searchers with family recipes.

Archival Research, Holocaust, Community Institutions, Economy

Kaye Prince-Hollenberg

Independent

Holocaust Compensation and the United Restitution Organization for Survivors in Canada

CITY

WILLING TO TRAVEL?

Hamilton

Maybe

OPEN TO VIRTUAL?

LANGUAGE

Yes

English

Kaye Prince-Hollenberg is a professional genealogist based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. She specializes in Jewish Genealogy and Holocaust Research. Kaye is on the Board of Directors of Gesher Galicia, and is the associate genealogist at the Holocaust Reunion Project. She serves as Director of Education and DATO Research Associate at Gesher Galicia, volunteers as the JRI-Poland town leader for Korolówka and Zaleszczyki, and was the founding curator of the Margaret’s Legacy Holocaust Learning Centre in Hamilton. Her Substack, “Paper Trails with Kaye Prince-Hollenberg,” and website "Northern Noshes" combine vintage cookbooks and recipes with genealogy research in an effort to reunite searchers with family recipes.

Yiddish, Literature, Canada, Gender & Sexuality

Norm Ravvin

Concordia University

Canadian Yiddish Writing: Chava Rosenfarb and Her Compatriots

CITY

WILLING TO TRAVEL?

Montreal

Yes

OPEN TO VIRTUAL?

LANGUAGE

Yes

English

Norman Ravvin is a writer, teacher and critic based in Montreal. For twenty-six years he has taught in Concordia's Department of Religions and Cultures, where he was for thirteen years its chair of the Institute for Canadian Jewish Studies. His publications include Who Gets In: An Immigration Story (2023), a novel of Poland and Vancouver, The Girl Who Stole Everything (2019), and A House of Words: Jewish Writing, Identity, and Memory (1997). Other books include a story collection, a volume of travel essays, and co-edited volumes on A.M. Klein and Canadian Jewish studies. His fiction and non-fiction have appeared in venues across the country. Among the writers he has written about are: Leonard Cohen, Philip Roth, Mordecai Richler, Saul Bellow, and Chava Rosenfarb. Recent work has focused on travel in contemporary Poland, Jewish heritage in a variety of Polish sites, including his own ancestral village, Radzanów. Raised in Calgary, he attended the I.L. Peretz School there. His university training took place at UBC and the University of Toronto. Before coming to Concordia he taught creative writing at the University of New Brunswick.
Bureau FAQ

FAQs

I'd like to invite a speaker. Is my organization the right fit? The Bureau is a resource for any and all individuals and organizations interested in engaging community audiences and learners in thoughtful conversations about Canadian Jewish history, heritage, and culture. Appropriate venues include but are not limited to: synagogues and other religious institutions; adult education groups; community centres, Jewish or not; schools; literary and film festivals; book clubs; employee resource groups (ERGs); retirement homes; DEI seminars; professional development seminars; board meetings; historical societies; and genealogical societies.

I'm interested in a particular speaker but would like them to speak on a different topic than what appears in the catalogue. Is that possible? Yes. Once you are connected with the speaker you will be able to negotiate a different talk. Revising or customizing a talk already listed in the catalogue or creating a new one entirely is at the speaker’s discretion.

Where are the speakers based? Speakers are primarily located in Canada, though several are based in the United States and Israel. Many are willing to travel. Please consult the catalogue for speakers’ preferences and availability.

Are the speakers available to present online? Most of our speakers will present in-person or online. Please consult the catalogue for their preferences and availability.

Does the Bureau offer talks in languages other than English? Yes. Several speakers are available to present in French, Hebrew, Yiddish, Spanish, and Russian. Please contact us for more information.

Does the Bureau insist on a particular format for any given talk? No. Some of the talks listed in the catalogue are lectures, others are seminars, and still others are hands-on workshops. The total length of the event will be negotiated between the host and speaker.

Are there costs associated with booking a speaker? Yes. Our default fee for booking any speaker is 500 CAD, paid to ACJS. ACJS takes a 10 percent administrative fee to offset the costs of coordinating the Bureau. The remaining money goes directly to the speaker. Hosts are expected to bear any travel costs for out-of-town speakers. Note that some of the Bureau’s members are accustomed to higher rates for speaking engagements. Please contact us if you have any concerns and we will do our best to assist.

I’m a prospective host. What are the basic expectations for me and my organization? Once we connect you with a speaker, you will coordinate directly with the speaker to schedule dates and times, select a format (if applicable), and customize the presentation (if applicable). Hosts are expected to handle all of the local event planning, logistics, and advertising.

As a host, how do I promote the event as being connected to the Association for Canadian Jewish Studies? We kindly ask that any communications assets associated with your event include the ACJS logo and/or mention the talk’s association with the ACJS Speakers' Bureau. We provide all hosts with ACJS graphics, as well as a short description of the Association and the Bureau that can be used in promotional materials and/or welcome remarks. Likewise, all speakers are asked to acknowledge the ACJS prior to their talk. If you provide us with a digital flyer and/or descriptive text about your Bureau event, we will gladly promote it through our own social media and other communications channels.

I’m planning a series of talks for my organization over a period of months. Can I work with the Bureau to curate a program? Yes, we would be happy to facilitate a speaker series involving more than one of our Bureau members. Please contact us for more information.

I have research, insights, and knowledge to share. How do I become a member of the Bureau? The Bureau is open to new members on a rolling basis. If you are a scholar, advanced graduate student, archivist, museum professional, journalist, artist, writer, or community or religious leader, please complete our application form. You are invited to submit up to three talks. Only talks that have both Canadian and Jewish content will be considered. We will assess your application and follow up within three weeks.

I'm already a member of the Speakers' Bureau and would like to edit an existing talk title, add a new one, or update my bio. How can I do that? Please write to bureau@canadianjewishstudies.ca and we will be happy to revise your offerings.

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