About
Who’s spoken at The Chevra
Authors, broadcasters, teachers and guests who have stood in front of our community. Most recent first.
2026
Amy Fish
Author of three non-fiction books and a member of The Chevra, Amy regularly speaks, teaches and writes about the importance of never giving up.
A Montreal author and ombudsperson at Concordia University. Her books include The Art of Complaining Effectively, I Wanted Fries with That and One in Six Million.
2025
Shabbos Kestenbaum
A graduate of Harvard Divinity School, Class of 2024, he joined us for a Shabbat of learning, community and connection.
A graduate of Harvard Divinity School (2024), where he founded and led the school’s Jewish Student Association. He earlier graduated from Queens College, where he was president of Hillel.
Emily Austin
Welcomed alongside Douglas Murray in front of a 1,000-strong crowd.
An American journalist and broadcaster from New York, host of the podcasts The Hoop Chat and The Emily Austin Show.
Douglas Murray
The bestselling author and commentator has spoken here twice. In September 2025 a 1,000-strong crowd came together to hear him; in June 2024 the evening was filled with knowledge, inspiration and hope for the future.
A British author and journalist, associate editor of The Spectator. His books include The Strange Death of Europe, The Madness of Crowds and The War on the West.
Brendan O’Neill
Author and news columnist, he spoke about his newest book, After the Pogrom.
A British author and journalist, chief political writer of the online magazine Spiked, which he edited from 2007 to 2021. His books include A Heretic’s Manifesto and After the Pogrom.
Annette Vezina
The Chevra Sisterhood’s speaker on aging well, for an evening on Zoom.
Erin Molan
The Australian television and radio presenter, best known as the former host of Erin on Sky News. Over 400 Montrealers came to welcome her.
A former Nine Network sports and news presenter, known for The NRL Footy Show, who later worked at Sky News Australia and now hosts The Erin Molan Show podcast.
2024
Mosab Hassan Yousef
Known as the Green Prince, the author and speaker shared his journey of working with Israelis to thwart terror attacks during the Second Intifada.
Born in Ramallah, he is the author of the memoirs Son of Hamas (2010) and From Hamas to America (2024), and the subject of the 2014 documentary The Green Prince.
Mitch Albom
The nine-time New York Times bestselling author spoke to close to 350 of us about his book The Little Liar, then met every guest and signed books at a dessert reception in Singerman Hall.
An American author and long-time Detroit Free Press columnist, known for Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven.
Marvin Rotrand
The long-time municipal councillor, hosted by The Chevra Sisterhood.
A Montreal city councillor for the Snowdon district from 1982 to 2021, the longest-serving member of council, and later national director of B’nai Brith Canada’s League for Human Rights.
2023
Gary Perlman
A genealogist, on tracing your roots, for The Chevra Sisterhood.
A Montreal genealogist and webmaster of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Montreal, who has photographed more than 30,000 gravestones in Montreal-area Jewish cemeteries.
Carl Bird
An accredited sommelier, he gave a wine tasting lecture after a pre-Chanukah dinatoire.
Rae Gropper
The inspiring story of a Holocaust survivor, told in her own words.
A Holocaust survivor who came to Montreal as a child in 1949. An educator, she was Dean of Continuing Education at Vanier College and has served on the board of the Montreal Holocaust Museum.
2018
David Luchins
- October 2018 · David Luchins at The Chevra
A guest at The Chevra in October 2018.
Chair of the political science department at Touro College in New York, and for 20 years a senior aide to U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He has been a national vice-president of the Orthodox Union.
Stephan Ouaknine
Featured speaker at the third Chevra Business Club.
Montreal entrepreneur who founded the telecommunications company Blueslice Networks (acquired by Tekelec in 2010) and co-founded Inerjys, a clean-technology and renewable energy investment fund.
Professor Nathaniel Lasry
One of the lecturers at the Tikkun Leyl Shavuot night of study.
Physics professor at John Abbott College in Montreal who works in physics education research.
Rabbi Myer Kizelnik
Rabbi Emeritus of Beth Hillel, one of the lecturers at the Tikkun Leyl Shavuot night of study.
Jeff Hart
Guest speaker at the launch of the Chevra Business Club, a new initiative for entrepreneurs and professionals.
2017
Dr. Louise Pilote
Professor of Medicine and James McGill Chair at McGill University and Director of Internal Medicine at the MUHC, a guest speaker at the Sisterhood’s evening of Phenomenal Women.
Professor of medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine at McGill University and the MUHC, holder of a James McGill Chair since 2008. Her research focuses on heart disease, including differences between women and men.
Kathleen Weil
Then the newly appointed Quebec Minister of Relations with English-speaking Quebecers, a guest speaker at the Sisterhood’s evening of Phenomenal Women.
Member of the National Assembly for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (2008–2022), she was Quebec Minister of Immigration, Diversity and Inclusiveness (2014–2017) and Minister responsible for Relations with English-Speaking Quebecers (2017–2018).
Dr. Victoria Kaspi
An internationally renowned astrophysicist and professor of physics at McGill University, a guest speaker at the Sisterhood’s evening of Phenomenal Women.
Astrophysicist and professor at McGill University who studies neutron stars, pulsars and magnetars. In 2016 she became the first woman to win the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal, Canada's top science prize.
Myra A. Freeman
The first Jew to be appointed Lieutenant Governor of a Canadian province and the first woman to hold that office in Nova Scotia, a guest speaker at the Sisterhood’s evening of Phenomenal Women.
Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia (2000–2006), the first woman to hold the office in that province and the first Jewish person appointed lieutenant governor of a Canadian province. She was earlier an elementary school teacher in Halifax.
Yahya Mahamid
A young Israeli Arab, he came with the team from StandWithUs Canada for a sold-out evening, with several students in attendance.
Israeli Arab from Umm el-Fahm who began working for the Israel education organization StandWithUs in 2016 and has spoken for it in the United States, Britain and Canada.
Dennis Ross
Ambassador Dennis Ross gave the lecture “Doomed to Succeed”, sponsored by the Max Margles Lecture Fund.
American diplomat who served as Middle East envoy under Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and is a counselor at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Author of Doomed to Succeed: The U.S.-Israel Relationship from Truman to Obama (2015).
2016
Sydell Stern (Ann Novick)
The author of Behind Prison Walls was special guest speaker at the Sisterhood’s opening luncheon.
Writing as Ann Novick, author of Behind Prison Walls (Mekor Press), a true account of her daughter and son-in-law's imprisonment in France.
Salvador Litvak
Known as the “Accidental Talmudist”, he filled the house for a Shabbaton in the middle of the construction holidays, with a sold-out screening of his film When Do We Eat?
Chilean-American filmmaker and author known online as the Accidental Talmudist. He co-wrote and directed the Passover comedy film When Do We Eat? (2006).
Jesse Rabin
Canadian born, he moved to Israel in June 2015 after a life-changing trip two years before, and spoke at an Oneg Shabbat on “A Canadian Pilot in the IDF: Finding My Identity in the Defense of Israel.”
2015
Dr. Suzanne Levitz
Special guest speaker at the Sisterhood’s Sukkot luncheon, on “Reconciling Jewish Medical Ethics with Modern Medicine.”
Dr. Kellie Leitch
Then a Member of Parliament, she gave a talk that “proved to be an event that was informative and warm.”
A paediatric orthopaedic surgeon and Member of Parliament for Simcoe—Grey (2011–2019), she was federal Minister of Labour and Minister of Status of Women (2013–2015).
Rabbi David Nesenoff
Guest at a special Friday night Shabbaton.
American rabbi, filmmaker and songwriter from Long Island, New York, educated at Yeshiva University and the Jewish Theological Seminary. Author of I Never Met the Rebbe Many Times.
2013
Rebbetzin Simcha Fine
Guest speaker at the Sisterhood opening luncheon in her continuing Kabbalah series; her third lecture was the “Kabbalah of Emotion and Anger Management”.
Jason Kenney
Representing the Government of Canada at the Tribute Gala for Rabbi Asher and Lieba Jacobson and Martin and Tina Rosenthal, he “was inspiring and spoke very meaningfully.”
A Member of Parliament for Calgary (1997–2016) and federal cabinet minister, including Minister of Employment and Social Development and Minister for Multiculturalism (2013–2015). He was later Premier of Alberta (2019–2022).
Lisa Steinmetz
A guest teacher in The Chevra’s Adult Bat Mitzvah Program for the Jewish women of Montreal (2012–13).
Rabbi S. Emanuel
A guest teacher in The Chevra’s Adult Bat Mitzvah Program for the Jewish women of Montreal (2012–13).
Rabbi Adam Scheier
A guest teacher in The Chevra’s Adult Bat Mitzvah Program for the Jewish women of Montreal (2012–13).
Senior Rabbi of Congregation Shaar Hashomayim in Westmount, past president of the Montreal Board of Rabbis, and co-editor of the Canadian Haggadah Canadienne (2015).
Rebbetzin Chana Carlebach
A guest teacher in The Chevra’s Adult Bat Mitzvah Program for the Jewish women of Montreal (2012–13), for 2 of its lectures.
Founder and director of Seminary Beis Moishe Chaim, a teachers' seminary for women in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, Quebec.
Rabbi Sydney Shoham
A guest teacher in The Chevra’s Adult Bat Mitzvah Program for the Jewish women of Montreal (2012–13), for 3 of its lectures.
Founding rabbi of Beth Zion Congregation in Côte Saint-Luc, which he served for more than 50 years from 1955. He died in 2015.
Rabbi Mordechai Zeitz
Guest speaker on kashrut at the Bat Mitzvah class in 2005, and a teacher in the Adult Bat Mitzvah Program in 2012–13.
Founding rabbi of Congregation Beth Tikvah in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, which he led until retiring in 2013, then Rabbi Emeritus. He was also responsible for founding the Hebrew Foundation School.
Rabbi Reuben Poupko
A guest teacher in The Chevra’s Adult Bat Mitzvah Program for the Jewish women of Montreal (2012–13), for 2 of its lectures.
Rabbi of Beth Israel Beth Aaron Congregation in Montreal since 1986, and co-chair of CIJA's Canadian Rabbinic Caucus.
Rabbi Schachar Orenstein
A guest teacher in The Chevra’s Adult Bat Mitzvah Program for the Jewish women of Montreal (2012–13), for 2 of its lectures.
Rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of Montreal, Canada's oldest Jewish congregation, from 2009. He was earlier an assistant rabbi at Congregation Shaar Hashomayim.
Rabbi Boruch Perton
A guest teacher in The Chevra’s Adult Bat Mitzvah Program for the Jewish women of Montreal (2012–13).
Montreal rabbi and educator, formerly educational director at Hebrew Academy, who later became rabbi of Beth Zion Congregation in Côte Saint-Luc.
Julie Gniwisch
A guest teacher in The Chevra’s Adult Bat Mitzvah Program for the Jewish women of Montreal (2012–13).
Rabbi Michael Whitman
A guest teacher in The Chevra’s Adult Bat Mitzvah Program for the Jewish women of Montreal (2012–13), for 2 of its lectures.
Rabbi of Adath Israel congregation in Montreal since 2001, and a sessional lecturer at McGill University's Faculty of Law, where he created its Talmudic Law Moot Court Competition.
Nechama Mintz
A guest teacher in The Chevra’s Adult Bat Mitzvah Program for the Jewish women of Montreal (2012–13).
2012
Rabbi Moshe Jablon
A guest teacher in The Chevra’s Adult Bat Mitzvah Program for the Jewish women of Montreal (2012–13).
Rabbi Yossi Shanowitz
A guest teacher in The Chevra’s Adult Bat Mitzvah Program for the Jewish women of Montreal (2012–13).
Rabbi Emanuel Carlebach
A guest teacher in The Chevra’s Adult Bat Mitzvah Program for the Jewish women of Montreal (2012–13).
Rabbi of the House of Israel Congregation in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, Quebec.
Vivian Kaplan
A guest teacher in The Chevra’s Adult Bat Mitzvah Program for the Jewish women of Montreal (2012–13).
Rabbi Dr. Barry Levy
A guest teacher in The Chevra’s Adult Bat Mitzvah Program for the Jewish women of Montreal (2012–13).
Emeritus Professor of Jewish and Biblical Studies at McGill University, where he taught from 1975 and served as Dean of the Faculty of Religious Studies and Chair of Jewish Studies.
Rabbi Mark Fishman
A guest teacher in The Chevra’s Adult Bat Mitzvah Program for the Jewish women of Montreal (2012–13), for 2 of its lectures.
Rabbi of Congregation Beth Tikvah in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Montreal.
Abe Worenklein
A guest teacher in The Chevra’s Adult Bat Mitzvah Program for the Jewish women of Montreal (2012–13).
Rabbi Ronnie Fine
A guest teacher in The Chevra’s Adult Bat Mitzvah Program for the Jewish women of Montreal (2012–13).
Director of Chabad Queen Mary in Montreal, and a lecturer and teacher known for teaching the Tanya.
Rabbi Michael Wolff
A guest teacher in The Chevra’s Adult Bat Mitzvah Program for the Jewish women of Montreal (2012–13).
Montreal rabbi and chaplain: coordinator of chaplaincy services for the Montreal Jewish community (1990–2006) and chaplain at the Maimonides Geriatric Centre. He was earlier rabbi in Moncton, New Brunswick.
Richard Marceau
The author of A Quebec Jew gave a formal talk at a Friday night Shabbaton dinner.
A lawyer and former Member of Parliament (1997–2006), author of A Quebec Jew: From Bloc Québécois MP to Jewish Activist (2011). He later worked with the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA).