ABOUT THIS EPISODE
In this special episode, Jonathan Slater passes the microphone to historian David S. Koffman, the J. Richard Shiff Chair for the Study of Canadian Jewry, for a solo reading of his essay, "Two Inward Turns: Canadian Jews Since Multiculturalism, Since October 8, and Since Trump's Annexationist Threat," which appeared in the summer 2025 volume of Sources: A Journal of Jewish Ideas, published by the Shalom Hartman Institute.
Tête-à-tête: Conversations in Canadian Jewish Studies thanks the Shalom Hartman Institute for helping us bring David's words from the page to the podcast, and gives thanks in particular to Claire Sufrin, director of research and publication at SHI-North America and editor-in-chief of Sources, who joins us on the show to introduce David's work. We also thank Karen Kollins, the Shalom Hartman Institute's Canada director and the lead on its Courageous Leadership Canada program, for which the germ of David’s essay was created.
OUR GUEST
David S. Koffman is the J. Richard Shiff Chair for the Study of Canadian Jewry, and an associate professor in the Department of History at York University. He is the author of The Jews’ Indian: Colonialism, Pluralism, and Belonging in America (Rutgers University Press, 2019), the editor of and a contributor to No Better Home?: Jews, Canada, and the Sense of Belonging (University of Toronto Press, 2021), a co-editor and co-contributor to Promised Lands North and South: Jewish Canada and Jewish Argentina in Conversation (Brill Press, 2024), and numerous articles, book chapters, and essays. He serves as the associate director of York's Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies, the executive producer of the podcast Tête-à-tête: Conversations in Canadian Jewish Studies, and the executive editor of Parchment: A Journal of Contemporary Canadian Jewish Writing.
RECOMMENDED READING
"Two Inward Turns: Canadian Jews Since Multiculturalism, Since October 8, and Since Trump's Annexationist Threat," David S. Koffman, Sources: A Journal of Jewish Ideas
No Better Home: Jews, Canada, and the Sense of Belonging, David S. Koffman
EPISODE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Host: Jonathan Slater
Producer/Editor: Theadora Draper
Music: J.K. Bradley
Executive Producers: Joshua Tapper and David S. Koffman
Tête-à-tête: Conversations in Canadian Jewish Studies is made possible by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada’s Aid to Scholarly Journals program and the Israel and Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies and J. Richard Shiff Chair for the Study of Canadian Jewry, both at York University.