Temple Israel’s photographer shares story behind haunting photos of attack aftermath

4 days after an attacker drove a automobile full of explosives into her synagogue, Rabbi Jen Lader known as a trusted photographer.

Emily Iris Elconin took what would grow to be the primary official photographs of the aftermath of the assault on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan. On Thursday morning, one week after the assault, the synagogue posted Elconin’s photographs to social media, revealing for the primary time the true extent of the destruction: a hallway completely caked with ash, bits of shrapnel littered on the ground, affirmation photographs burned past recognition, a preschool frozen in time when its workers and youngsters evacuated.

“It was very onerous to abdomen being there, taking the photographs,” Elconin, who’s Jewish and grew up in West Bloomfield, instructed the Jewish Telegraphic Company. “And all I may hope was that it might come by way of within the photos themselves.”

Elconin is a freelancer who has revealed her work in The New York Occasions, The Washington Publish, CNN and different nationwide platforms. She grew up attending Temple Shir Shalom down the street from Temple Israel and now serves on the Detroit Jewish federation’s young-adult board. 

In sharing her photographs, Temple Israel mentioned it needed “to take again management of our narrative” after photographs and movies of the harm had been leaked to social media and brought about hurt to the assault’s survivors. 

“We share these photos as a result of our group deserves to see our constructing by way of eyes of affection, not by way of the lens of spectacle,” the temple’s publish reads. “That is our sacred area, and we would be the ones to inform its story.”

Serving as these “eyes of affection,” Elconin instructed JTA which particulars of the aftermath stood out to her and what she hopes the photographs can accomplish.

This dialog has been edited for size and readability.

Affirmation photographs scorched within the hallway the place the attacker drove by way of Temple Israel final Thursday in West Bloomfield, Michigan, U.S., on Monday, March 16, 2026. (Emily Elconin)

JTA: Inform me how these photographs got here to be.

Elconin: I obtained a name on Monday from Rabbi Jen Lader, and he or she requested me if I may come to the temple and {photograph} the aftermath of the destruction. I’m a photojournalist, and he or she needed me to convey that storytelling strategy to capturing these photos in a method that captured time standing nonetheless, but additionally simply in a method that individuals can higher perceive and connect with the imagery.

I’m a West Bloomfield Jewish native myself. I grew up about three miles from Temple Israel and belonged to Temple Shir Shalom. So I’ve at all times been very interconnected within the Jewish group. Final yr, Rabbi Jen really employed me to {photograph} the Ladies’s Rabbinic Community conference, which was right here in Michigan.

I knew the significance of getting this documented. As horrible because the destruction is, and the way sickening these photos are, it’s essential for individuals to see what occurred and to simply have a greater understanding of the destruction. 

Lunches left behind by kids inside a classroom at Temple Israel after an attacker drove by way of the doorway subsequent to the early childhood care middle final Thursday in West Bloomfield, Michigan, U.S., on Monday, March 16, 2026. (Emily Elconin)

You have been one of many first individuals exterior the temple workers and legislation enforcement to see the situation of the temple after the assault. What have been your impressions?

It smelled like a burning constructing — we have been sporting N-95s the entire time. If you’re standing within there, you get the complete understanding of what occurred, the place the automobile drove by way of, the place the automobile stopped, the place the automobile exploded, seeing the bullet holes on the home windows. I feel that it’ll most likely take me some time to completely course of the scope.

There have been these moments simply frozen in time, like somebody was warming up their soup, and there’s, you understand, a serviette over the soup. After which there’s all of the meals from the youngsters, like a yogurt with a straw in it nonetheless. If you see all of the toys and the whole lot, and all of the footwear and issues flipped over, you sort of are transported again to the scene when this was taking place. The place the automobile got here by way of, on the proper aspect is straight the place the preschool lecture rooms are. In order that’s immediately the place the automobile drove by. 

A broken stroller is seen inside Temple Israel subsequent to the hallway the place an attacker drove his automobile into the constructing entrance subsequent the early childhood middle final Thursday in West Bloomfield, Michigan, on March 16, 2026. (Emily Elconin)

I used to be reporting from the scene, I used to be attending the press conferences and following all of the updates. However I had no sense, even from studying the descriptions of what had occurred, simply how intensive the harm was, till I noticed your photographs.

Proper, I don’t assume any of us actually understood. The temple is making an attempt to course of issues themselves. There have been items of the automobile; he was driving a Ford F-150, and a chunk of one of many aspect mirrors was on the bottom. There’s ash all over the place. One of many first places of work on the left that the automobile glided by — it’s a metallic automobile, and it’s simply burned during, right down to the underside. And you’ll simply see the place individuals stopped in these moments. They have been making an attempt to get individuals out, and there’s damaged home windows.

It’s a extremely lengthy hallway. There’s heaps and many lecture rooms. I imply, the entire temple had harm too, as a result of the water system was activated. So that you stroll on the ground and also you hear the little squishy noise as a result of the flooring are soaking wet. So whereas probably the most rapid harm is in that first hallway, there may be harm just about all over the place.

Inform me the way you approached taking the photographs. What have been you seeking to talk?

I used to be making an attempt to strategy this how I’d strategy the rest, and making an attempt to seize moments in time that would elicit among the identical feelings and emotions that I used to be feeling in that second. I simply actually needed to convey to individuals what it felt like for these individuals, these children, lecturers, to be in there in these moments: the meals left untouched, artwork tasks left unfinished, the chairs flipped over. There’s Ritz crackers on the ground, Oreos.

There have been papers everywhere in the floor, and there have been some actually highly effective phrases written on one of many papers: “Overflow with love.” I captured that — it’s coated in ash. There are not any individuals within the photographs. It doesn’t matter, proper? It’s like time stood nonetheless.

Classroom paintings lays subsequent to shattered glass on the bottom contained in the early childhood care middle close to the place the attacker drove his automobile into the constructing entrance subsequent the middle at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan, U.S., on Monday, March 16, 2026. (Emily Elconin)

Your photographs are going to grow to be the definitive report of what occurred right here – in the meantime, individuals on-line have been claiming this assault was a false flag, or that it was one way or the other not the whole lot it was reported to be. What do you hope your photos can accomplish right here?

I hope they will get individuals a greater understanding of what occurred, of the destruction. What I can hope for individuals to remove is that antisemitism is an actual risk to all of our communities. Clearly accidents and casualties have been prevented, which is a miracle, proper? However there’s nonetheless this harm. Even when the temple is renovated, that is going to be one thing that our group remembers without end. It may have been any of us, any of our synagogues. And I feel it’s only a very actual actuality for Jewish communities.