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

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.”

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.

“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.”

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.

“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.

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.”

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.”

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.

“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.”

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.

“I think that this is the exact right time for the book to come out because when you look back at the source material, it clearly shows a community that was on a precipice,” Salsky said. “ I think all people who are Jewish have had to have a moment of reckoning about their identity, either subconsciously or consciously.”

Salsky will be doing a book signing at Indigo in downtown Toronto on the evening of May 20 and is hosting an exhibition at the Avant Garde Gallery in late May as part of the CONTACT photography festival in Toronto.

Salsky said the above photo is one of her favourite images. It shows a man blowing a shofar on a big screen and was taken during a drive-in Rosh Hashanah service in Toronto during the pandemic. She was drawn to the photo because of how “people are physically separated, yet still participating in a shared experience.”

The first photo was taken in Toronto in 2022. “ It feels cheerful because it’s hot pink and it’s a sunny day, but the message in it — does your church need armed guards because our synagogues do — kind of stops you in your tracks,” Salsky said. She wanted to pair the image together with Toronto police in front of Beth Tzedec, a Conservative Jewish synagogue, because she felt it spoke to the genuine concern over security in the community.

The first image was taken outside the Beth Sholom Synagogue in Toronto. The lawn signs were a common sight following October 7 across the city’s Jewish community, encouraging Torontonians to oppose intolerance and be “proudly Jewish.” Salsky compared it to the burned sign outside the Kehillat Shaarei Torah in Toronto that has been attacked over ten times since the October 7 attacks.

Salsky photographed this torn kidnapped poster for Israeli hostages that had been displayed in Toronto. She said the “defacement of such images worldwide after October 7, 2023” spoke to the inability of people to sympathize with Jewish and Israeli victims of terror.

Members of the Jewish community and supporters clashed with counterprotesters during the Walk with Israel in 2024. An anti-Israel protester used his fingers to display an inverted triangle at the crowd, a symbol used by Hamas in propaganda videos to denote enemy combatants.

Salsky took this image at her family celebration of Hanukkah in 2024. Salsky said the arrangement of the menorahs and use of multiple menorahs reflects “how Jewish ritual is adapted and practiced across personal and domestic contexts.”

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.