‘Now we’re Jews again’: Toronto photographer documents Jewish identity after October 7

“I really want this book to be a document that goes beyond the headlines and stats today to create a living texture of what it means to be Jewish; how complex it is. Sadness, joy and resilience,” says Toronto-based photographer Marnie Salsky. Photo by Marnie Salsky

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A new book by Toronto-based photographer Marnie Salsky explores how Jewish identity “is shaped, witnessed and archived in the present moment, particularly amid rising antisemitism.”

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Salsky’s book, A Peoplehood | Amiut Yehudit, will be published in mid-May, coinciding with Canadian Jewish Heritage Month. It is based around photos documenting life in Toronto’s Jewish community, press clippings of antisemitic incidents in Canada as well as pictures of European Jewish life before the Holocaust.

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“One of the goals of this book is to show that there’s just not one way of being Jewish,” Salsky told National Post. “Jewish identity gets projected upon you by those outside of the community as well as various ways within the community.”

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Salsky’s inspiration for the book came when she began restoring photographs of a Jewish community in Poland before the Holocaust. She was struck by the diversity of Jewish life along socioeconomic, religious and geographic lines. The front cover of her new book is dotted with the names of some of the different communities of the Jewish world today, including Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Reform, Haredi, Just Jewish and Reconstructionist.

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“I really want this book to be a document that goes beyond the headlines and stats today to create a living texture of what it means to be Jewish; how complex it is. Sadness, joy and resilience,” she said.

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Salsky calls the book a “poetic or conceptual documentary.” The photos are accompanied by quotes from anonymous Jewish people she interviewed, which “highlight some common themes that are expressed and then, also, voices that dissent from what others are saying.”

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One powerful image, rendered in red-and-black, shows a traditional Jewish wedding in Poland. The undated photo was taken before the Holocaust, Salsky said. On the opposite page, there is a quote that came out of one of the many conversations Salsky had with Jews after October 7: “In the ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, we were people, you know, and now we’re Jews again.”

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Salsky said she hoped the book’s intimate portrayal of the community will be a window for those struggling to appreciate what Canadian Jews have experienced since October 7.

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“My ultimate goal,” Salsky said, “is not a book that’s to explain or to defend anything. It’s really to spotlight Jewish identity. It’s nuanced. It’s complicated. And I hope it helps people who aren’t in the community to think about the impact of hateful rhetoric and to reflect upon what true solidarity looks like.”

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Some of the images in the book were part of a gallery installation Salsky ran in 2021 and were featured two years later at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival. She was in the midst of turning the original images into a book when Hamas invaded Israel on October 7 and killed more than 1,200 people.