Our Collections

The OJA’s records span all segments of Ontario’s Jewish community. We have records from businesses, families, labour unions, organizations, and synagogues. These records date from the community’s earliest days to its present. What’s more, they come from all over Ontario and in every format you can think of. If you were to lay out all of our boxes, they would stretch from the foot of Yonge Street to Dundas Square!

Below you can find highlights from our newest acquisitions as well as collections that have recently been processed and added to our website search.

Do you have records to donate to the OJA? Click here to learn how.

Acquisition of the Month

In July, the Ontario Jewish Archives acquired records documenting Letters to the Future, a poignant and timely collection of writings, photographs, and ephemera created by a grassroots group of Jewish women in Toronto. Sparked by the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza, the initiative began as a community-led effort to process grief, fear, and solidarity through the written word. What emerged was a legacy project aimed at preserving the voices of Jews living through a moment of historic upheaval.

The donation includes fourteen written reflections to an imagined future generation. These texts are accompanied by colour photographs of participants and organizing members, along with a striking event poster for a gathering held on 24 June 2025, at Beth Tikvah Synagogue. The event drew more than sixty attendees and featured readings, workshops, and presentations by artists, educators, and activists. A selection of the letters was read aloud or shared in journalling sessions, underscoring the project’s emphasis on testimony and collective witnessing.

Conceived by poet and activist Ruth Abrams, the initiative responded not only to the conflict overseas but also to the palpable rise in antisemitism felt locally. When attempts to send letters directly to IDF soldiers were blocked by Canada Post, the group found alternate channels—before ultimately turning their focus inward and forward. 

Through this donation, future researchers will encounter a rare and intimate portrait of Jewish life in 2025, one shaped not by institutions but by the urgency of lived experience. As both time capsule and call to memory, Letters to the Future reminds us that archival records are not just about what happened, but about how it felt to live through it.