Avi Finegold Rabbi Avi Finegold loves coming up with new and interesting ways to present Judaism to the world. As the founder of the Montreal-based adult education initiative, Jewish Living Lab, Finegold has anchored the weekly “Bonjour Chai” podcast since its debut in March 2021.
“I love podcasts,” Finegold told the Journal. “I’ve always listened to them.”
At the beginning of the pandemic, a podcast was an easy way to reach people – and it’s proven to still be a great way to communicate with an audience.
“You can prepare a class and [it’s] a smashing success to get 20 people to show up to an event on a Tuesday night,” Finegold said. ”If I put out a podcast and 100 people listen to it, by podcast standards it’s [not great], but that’s five times as many people.”
A cornerstone project of the Canadian Jewish News, “Bonjour Chai” is co-hosted by Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy, who was born and raised in New York and now lives in Toronto.
On the podcast, Finegold and Bovy share their takes on Jewish culture, society, parenting, politics, fashion, food and religion. With more than 110 episodes, some feature guests from across Canada and beyond, while others are the two of them talking about meaningful, Jewish topics.
“I find that we get to ask questions that I know people are asking themselves [and] each other, but not hearing [the answers] in a large communal setting,” Finegold said. “I’m the voice of so many of these [listeners], and that’s a big responsibility.”
Finegold, whose wife, Rachel Kohl Finegold, is also a rabbi, has been teaching Jews and Judaism for nearly 20 years.
“We tried once to have a pulpit … at the same time,” Finegold said. ”I was at one synagogue and she was at the other, and it was just too much. The logistics of it was a nightmare.”
He added, “I really liked the idea of having the entrepreneurial piece of being a rabbi, doing classes in unconditional settings, doing life cycles for people that aren’t otherwise members of synagogues … That became a big part of my rabbinic work.”
Finegold also produces podcasts for others, including “Verses,” which his wife co-hosts . On each episode they select a song from Broadway and match it with a selection from the Tanakh.
“It’s a lot of fun, and it’s a super niche podcast,” he said.
While you have to really be into both Broadway and Jewish text study to be able to deconstruct them, there’s an incredible community of people who listen to it.
“I realized that my energy was just so much better suited towards creating programs … and podcasts like that,” he said.
“Bonjour Chai,” which has become Canada’s leading Jewish podcast, is not just for Canadians, but there is a Canadian slant.
“It’s become almost like an op-ed page,” Finegold said. “I have a co-host [who is] very secular, so we come from very different backgrounds. …
We look at what’s going on in the world, and we sometimes call out something that we don’t like or whatever it might be. And to me that’s a form of community building just as much as creating a class.”
Established in 1960, the Canadian Jewish News (CJN) is a not-for-profit, award-winning media organization. Their sister podcast, “The CJN Daily,” is 15 minutes long and comes out four times a week.
“It’s just like a brief news bit of what’s important that you need to know,” Finegold said. “And we’re the opinion page.”
Other CJN podcasts include “Menschwarmers,” billed as the world’s most popular Jewish sports podcast, and “Culturally Jewish,” where actors David Sklar and Ilana Zackon schmooze with creative Jews of all disciplines.
“Podcasting is an incredibly important medium for the future,” Finegold said. “Even though there’s so many podcasts out there… many quality ones still have yet to be born.”
Check out Avi Finegold’s conversation with Debra Eckerling on the Taste Buds with Deb podcast:
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