Periphery

COVID-19 Protocols: When arriving at the Prosserman JCC by car, transit or foot, you will be required to check in with security. Enter the Sheff Family building through either the south or north doors and make your way to the Sonshine Way. Vaccine passports are not required to view the exhibit, however, contact tracing is in effect and masks are mandatory.

Multiracial and multi-ethnic Jews have a long and rich history globally, and here in Ontario. Yet within our own Jewish community, there exists a lack of understanding of our ethnically diverse Jewish world. Through an exhibition of commissioned portraiture accompanied by a newly produced documentary film, No Silence on Race, in partnership with the Ontario Jewish Archives, will explore the lives of multiracial and multi-ethnic Jews within the community. The project will broaden our concept of Jewish identity that has historically privileged Ashkenazi Jewish culture and present a call to action to the Canadian Jewish community about the need for greater education on Jewish ethnic diversity within the Jewish world both in Ontario and nationally.

Periphery will illustrate the ways that Jewish people in Ontario, with intersecting social identities, negotiate a sense of place and recognition and reflect on what periphery means to them. This film bears witness to the rich ethno-racial diversity that exists within the Ontario Jewish community. Participants ranging in age from 6 to 50 will include Black/African, Middle Eastern, South Asian, Southeast Asian, West Asian, Arab, Latin American, Korean and biracial/multiracial Jewish ethnic descent.

Watch the film at peripheryexhibit.org

Preserving our shared history

Following the exhibition, the photographs and video interview recordings and film will be donated by photographer Liat Aharoni and filmmaker Sara Yacobi-Harris to the Ontario Jewish Archives. This donation will increase the diversity of the OJA’s holdings and preserve and promote access to these stories. The portrait series will also be featured on the No Silence on Race webpage and used as an educational resource for future informal and formal education curriculum. To learn how to preserve your family’s history at the OJA send your inquiry to ojainquiries@ujafed.org.