The Jew Project: Shye Klein – Weinstein
The Jew Project, created by photographer Yisroel Teitelbaum aims to unify the Jewish people through documenting the lives of individuals. To read more on The Jew Project Click Here.
Shye is a 27 year old Canadian Israeli, with Morrocan and Polish background. Despite his name, Shye grew up with little exposure to Judaism outside his family, meeting no other Jew until a teenager. While knowing he is Jewish, it held no significance until recent experiences showed how his personal relationship with Judaism was irrelevant to others’ views of him being a Jew.
As a teen, Shye found a passion for photography when he bought a camera in hopes to get free concert tickets. An impulse turned to a love, getting him to photograph Col. Chris Hadfield, Former Commander of the ISS.
But living in Canada, Shye found himself feeling unanchored and adrift. In a moment of impulse, he made Aliyah in June, 2023, after a month-long trip to Israel.
In Israel, Shye’s friends wanted to integrate him into Israeli culture and invited him to join them at the Sukkot Nova Festival.
Shye enjoyed the festival, until 6:29am when Hamas rockets started pummeling the festival site.
Over the next hour, Shye located friends, grabbed their things and jumped in the car. By then, Hamas arrived at the festival, and Shye drove the car off-road through fields and brush to escape the greatest terror attack in Israeli history.
In escaping, they swerved around the bodies strewn across the highways, speeding to Netivot, to Sderot, to Tel Aviv, while their car was shot at, and rockets were intercepted overhead.
At the festival, Shye photographed friends Dor Avitan and Ran Sheffer, who were murdered by terrorists that day. Shye’s portraits are the last recorded joyful images of them both.
After October 7, Shye dedicated himself to raising awareness about what he experienced. To date, Shye has appeared on dozens of media platforms, and has spoken in almost 200 cities throughout North America, with over 50,000 in person attendees.
Shye has been using his photography passion for a project called “Beyond The Supernova” aiming to re-humanize Nova Survivors as more than victims of tragedy.
Shye’s goals are to live life on his own terms—continuing to pursue his passion for photography, advocate for social change, and ultimately find a place of his own to call home.
