Canadian Institute for Jewish Research

The Institute's Insider Briefing seminars and Community Colloquia feature experts on Israel, the Middle East, Jewish history, and modern Jewish world issues. Speakers have included Yossi Klein Halevi, Stockwell Day, Itamar Marcus, Dan Gillerman, Norman Podhoretz, Irwin Cotler, Steven Emerson, Moshe Ya'alon, James Woolsey, Alan Baker, and Isi Leiber.

In 2007, CIJR launched the Student Israel-Advocacy Seminars Program, a year-long training initiative.[3] The Institute's Israel Learning Seminar (ILS) is a year-long training initiative focused on students but is also open to the public. Given by CIJR Academic Fellows, it is designed to counter what it sees as anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism on campus and in the media.

Baruch Cohen was born in Bucharest. During World War II, Baruch survived pogroms, antisemitism, and forced labor camps in Romania. Many of his family and friends were killed in the Holocaust. After the war, Baruch and his family went to Israel. They subsequently moved to Montreal, where Baruch worked as a financial officer. When he retired, he enrolled in graduate school to pursue a Master's degree in Jewish Studies at Concordia University. He now serves as a full-time volunteer Research Chair at CIJR, which he helped to create. He has conducted research, written, and mentored student interns. Baruch is also an active volunteer with the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre, where he has served as a docent and speaker. Twenty years ago, he spearheaded and launched the first Montreal Holocaust, Commemoration in memory of Jews murdered in Romania and Transnistria, which has since become an annual event.

The DataBank, an archive of Israel, Middle East, and other materials related to the Jewish world, is accessible on CIJR's website. Which includes entries on issues ranging from Israeli society and regional politics to international Jewish communities, human rights, and the Holocaust.[4]