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He documented a changing Jewish world, and the Jewish world changed him
“I have to tell you,” Bill Aron told me as he walked around The World In Front of Me, a retrospective of his photography at the American Jewish Historical Society. “My photography allowed me to walk into rooms I might never have otherwise walked into.”
We had just looked at some of his work documenting Jews on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 1970s and 80s: a sofer bent over a Torah scroll, a glowering rabbi with imposing eyebrows, a Hasidic wedding in the Bobover movement. Each photo begat the next; when he showed a reticent subject the results of his film, they would invite him back to take more.
Aron has become known for his work documenting Jewish communities around the world — his first book, From the Corners of the Earth, shows Jewish life in New York, Los Angeles, Cuba and the then-Soviet Union. His next, Shalom Y’all, was the result of a decade spent in the lesser-known Jewish communities of the American South.
His images are joyous and warm, portraits of resilience and invention, not dour investigations of poverty and antisemitism, offering respect to each subject he was able to meet through his work.
But his camera didn’t just change his access to the communities he documented. It changed Aron’s own experience of his Judaism.
A series of photographs shows scenes from the New York Havurah, a lay-led, egalitarian Jewish religious movement: A rabbi stands in reverent contemplation under his tallit in a misty forest, a child smiles from her father’s shoulders during a Shabbaton. Aron was a member in the 70’s, which is how he found himself in the middle of those scenes. But, he said, he didn’t grow up observant, and without his camera, while he might have been a member, he would have been “a much more passive one,” he said.
These photos are anything but passive. People smile or glower directly into the camera, and proudly present their life to the lens — a handful of shrimp from a Jewish man who built a business selling the shellfish to New Orleans restaurants, a woman showing off a bowl full of her famous chopped liver, a woman grinning as she carries a Torah on Simchat Torah. There is a clear symbiosis between Aron and his subjects, in which they each shaped and enlivened each other.
This, Aron said, was not the style of street photography at the time he came up. People were not supposed to document their own communities, nor were they supposed to engage with their subjects.
“It was frowned upon to study your own community — you were supposed to go out,” he said. “Street photography was supposed to be dispassionate.”
But of course people saw the camera and reacted to it, so he embraced that fact, spending hours talking to his subjects and learning their stories. Now that he has bequested his work to the AJHS, those stories are now preserved not only in images but also in a podcast accompanying the exhibit, in which Aron is able to preserve the memories behind each photograph.
The stories come through in the images alone, too; each shot is redolent of Aron’s affection for his subjects. An Israeli soldier in Jerusalem’s Old City makes flirtatious eye contact with a woman as his companions smirk. An elderly man on a bench dives in to kiss his wife on the cheek. Holocaust survivors beam out from full color photos, not reduced to the numbers on their arms but presented as “people who lived lives, lived beyond their nightmares, had families where they could, given back to their communities,” Aron said.
Not every image, on its surface, seems Jewish — there isn’t always a yarmulke or a lulav or a Torah scroll in frame. Nevertheless, Aron manages to find the sense of Jewishness that knits these images into the tapestry of Jewish life.
In a photo of a couple embracing at the liquor store they ran in Arkansas as part of the Shalom, Y’all series, Aron told me that only the husband was planning to be photographed, because his wife wasn’t Jewish. The photographer invited her anyway, and the couple ended up explaining that an Orthodox rabbi had performed their marriage ceremony. This seemed wrong to Aron — Orthodox rabbis don’t perform intermarriages — so they produced their marriage certificate to show him. As they pulled it out of the envelope, he recounted, another slip of paper fell out in which the rabbi had written that the wife had consented to become a member of the people of Israel and was now a Jew, a fact she was unaware of but delighted, Aron recalled, to discover.
“I loved interacting with people while I was photographing,” he said, “and the people became part of the portrait.” Aron did too.
The World in Front of Me is showing now through June 4 at the American Jewish Historical society. More information is available here.
The post He documented a changing Jewish world, and the Jewish world changed him appeared first on The Forward.
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German Lawmakers, Jewish Leaders Push for Mandatory Imam Certification Amid Rising Antisemitism
Ali Erbas, president of Diyanet, speaks at a press conference following an August 2025 gathering in Istanbul, where 150 Islamic scholars called for armed resistance and a boycott against Israel. Photo: Screenshot
German lawmakers and the country’s Jewish community are calling for a mandatory certification process for all imams amid a surging wave of antisemitism, including multiple cases of religious leaders promoting anti-Jewish violence.
“Mosques must not be places where hatred against Jews is spread. It is our responsibility to ensure that Jews in Germany can study, work, celebrate, and pray in safety,” Klaus Holetschek, a member of the Bavarian State Parliament in southern Germany, told the German newspaper Bild.
With more than five million Muslims in Germany, many turn to imams for spiritual guidance.
Most of these religious leaders are trained abroad — especially in Turkey — and brought to local mosques by large Muslim organizations on multi‑year contracts, shaping the religious education and messaging that reaches the community.
“We must ensure that imams are trained in Germany without the influence of Islamist associations, or that they complete an integration course before assuming their duties,” Holetschek said.
Amid Germany’s push to train more imams domestically and curb the import of foreign clergy, Holetschek emphasized that the effort is not an attack on Muslims, but “a key measure for effective prevention.”
“Many of the people who have reached out to us over the years come from countries where antisemitism is state-sponsored and children are taught to hate Israel in schools,” the German lawmaker said.
The Conference of European Rabbis (CER) has joined the new initiative, praising it as a vital step toward combating antisemitism and promoting safe, inclusive communities
“The impact of hate preachers and foreign-controlled extremist networks in Europe has long been underestimated,” CER’s president, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, told Bild.
“Imams must demonstrate a clear commitment to democracy, the rule of law, equality, religious freedom for all, and social cohesion — and embody these values in their daily practice,” he continued.
Last year, amid a rising wave of anti-Jewish hate crimes, the German government urged the country’s main mosque association to publicly break with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric, citing the association’s close ties to him.
According to local reports, German authorities told the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB) — the country’s largest mosque network — to formally break with Erdogan’s hateful statements or risk losing government support and cooperation.
For years, the German government has supported DITIB in training imams, as well as helping to foster community programs and religious initiatives.
In 2023, then-Interior Minister Nancy Faeser signed an agreement with the Turkish government’s Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) and DITIB for a new imam training program.
By sending imams from Turkey and paying their salaries, the Diyanet oversees DITIB and its hundreds of communities across Germany, shaping the ideological direction of more than 900 mosques and influencing the training of their imams.
Under a new program, the Diyanet no longer sends imams directly from Turkey. Instead, Turkish students are trained in Germany in cooperation with the German Islam Conference (IKD).
With this new agreement, imams live permanently in German communities and have no formal ties to the Turkish government. Still, experts doubt that this alone would curb the Diyanet’s political influence.
In the past, DITIB has faced multiple controversies, with some members making antisemitic remarks and spreading hateful messages.
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North Carolina Democratic Party Muslim Chair Says Zionists Are Nazis, and a ‘Threat to Humanity’
In May, Students for Justice in Palestine poured red paint which resembles spilled blood on the steps of the South Building, an office for administrative staff and the chancellor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Photo: UNCSJP/Screenshot
Elyas Mohammed, president of the North Carolina Democratic Party’s (NCDP) Muslim Caucus, recently posted on social media, “Zionists = Modern day #Nazis.”
Mohammed, also a member of the NCDP’s State Executive Committee (SEC), posted, “#Zionists are a threat to #Humanity.” He has publicly referred to Israel as “IsraHell.”
The Muslim Caucus was founded in 2024, is in the review process, and seeking final approval by the party.
Jibril Hough, first vice president of this same caucus, publicly said, “Zionism is a branch of racism/white supremacy and must be fought with the same intensity.” He has described Zionists as the “worst of humanity.”
Numerous leaders and members of the NCDP are out of step with the Democratic Party’s platform, which expresses its support for Israel nearly 30 times, prominently leading with an endorsement of Israel as “a Jewish and democratic state.”
I contacted NCDP leadership for comment on Mohammed’s posts, including Governor Josh Stein and his Communications Director; State Party Chair Anderson Clayton; and First Vice Chair Jonah Garson. None responded.
The NCDP’s acquiescence and silence concerning the extreme and hateful remarks made by some of its leaders about Israel is anticipated at this point. The NCDP has been targeting Israel for years instead of focusing on statewide issues. For example, on Saturday, June 28, 2025 — during Shabbat — the NCDP’s State Executive Council passed six anti-Israel resolutions.
Rather than publicly clarify these actions, the NCDP quickly removed information about the resolutions from public view. This decision, or coverup, has left many with the impression that the party is attempting to bury the issue. Before the resolutions were taken offline, I made a copy.
One of the resolutions that passed, titled “Resolution for Democratic Unity,” actually claimed that Israel had taken “Palestinian hostages.”
Just a few months after this resolution passed, Mohammed shared a grotesque post on Facebook, suggesting that the hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 could or should be considered “prisoners of war.” The post continued, “If they [the hostages] were CIVILIANS, ISRAEL IS GUILTY OF A WAR CRIME FOR PLACING THEM THERE.”
Many Democrats have left the party over its obsessive focus on Israel. Former Raleigh City Council member Stefanie Mendell recently switched her party affiliation to Unaffiliated, telling me:
While in my heart I am a Democrat, after the anti-Israel resolutions passed at last year’s NC Democratic Party convention, I am no longer comfortable being associated with the party. I feel like they bent over backwards to focus negatively on Israel when there were so many more critical issues that North Carolinians care about — the cost of living, education, healthcare, etc. I will vote for, campaign for, and support individual Democrats, but I will no longer contribute to the party itself until and unless they stand up to this extremist fringe that seems more intent on virtue signaling than on electing people who can positively impact the people in our state.
According to the NCDP Plan of Organization, SEC members, such as Mohammed, are expected to uphold the values of the Code of Conduct.
The “Code of Conduct for the North Carolina Democratic Party Officers and Leaders” clearly states that leaders are expected to act in ways that do not “negatively impact other members … or the party’s reputation” and “to be sensitive to other people’s feelings.” When communicating electronically, the Code of Conduct encourages leaders to ask, “Am I acting in the party’s best interest?”
Leaders are also asked to consider, “Is what I am doing in line with our Plan of Organization and the Spirit of the Party Platform?”
According to a document recently posted to the NCDP’s website, “The Muslim Caucus is being recommended for Conditional Approval until the Summer SEC Meeting.”
I firmly believe that the Muslim community, as with any religious group, should be robustly represented and included in government and political parties. The question I ask is: What will the North Carolina Democratic Party do concerning caucus leaders who are making hateful and divisive statements that contribute to Democrats leaving the party?
Lisa Jewel, president of the NC Democratic Jewish Caucus, told me:
We understand that Mr. Mohammed is resigning his position as Chair of The NCDP Muslim Caucus. It is our hope that, under its next Chair, as the Muslim Caucus works its way through the approval process — and beyond — it will pivot its focus and efforts, to uplifting democracy here in North Carolina.
Last summer, Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, Lt. Gov. Rachel Hunt, and former Democratic Gov. and senatorial candidate Roy Cooper expressed their opposition to their party’s anti-Israel resolutions. It is now the moment for Democratic Party leaders at the state level to announce a reset and reclaim the party from the divisive, anti-Israel extremists within it.
The North Carolina Democratic Party needs to decide if they want to represent all Democrats in the state or just those Democrats who hate Israel.
Peter Reitzes writes about antisemitism in North Carolina and beyond.
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Anti-Israel Activists Prepare New Flotilla to Break Israel’s Gaza Blockade
A Palestinian flag is seen as people gather at the port of Ermoupolis before the departure of two sailing boats, Electra and Oxygen, part of the Global Sumud Flotilla aiming to reach Gaza and break Israel’s naval blockade, on Syros island, Greece, Sept. 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Giorgos Solaris
Organizers of a pro-Palestinian flotilla said Thursday they will make a renewed attempt next month to reach the Gaza Strip with more than 100 boats, once again challenging Israel’s blockade of the war-torn territory.
During an event at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in South Africa, the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) announced that it will embark on a new “mission” to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza in late March, with speakers urging the international community to prevent Israeli forces from intercepting the operation.
The anti-Israel flotilla represents the latest attempt by activists to defy Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza, even as Israel has reopened the Rafah crossing to allow Palestinians to travel to Egypt for medical care.
Before the war, the Rafah border crossing with Egypt served as the only direct exit for most Gazans and a crucial entry point for humanitarian aid. The crossing has been largely closed since May 2024 and remains under Israeli military control on the Gazan side.
COGAT, the Israeli military unit responsible for humanitarian coordination, said the crossing will reopen in both directions for Gaza residents on foot only, with operations coordinated alongside Egypt and the European Union.
The GSF described its latest initiative as a “coordinated, nonviolent effort to challenge the illegal Israeli siege on Gaza, confront global complicity, and stand alongside Palestinians.”
According to organizers, more than 1,000 activists — including medical doctors, war crimes investigators, and engineers — will take part in the flotilla. A land convoy is also expected to bring thousands more from countries such as Tunisia and Egypt, while the boats depart from Spain, Tunisia, and Italy toward the enclave.
“This time, we expect hundreds of thousands to sign up and to mobilize entry through Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and every other feasible border to reach occupied Palestine and Gaza,” Mandla Mandela, grandson of the late South African president and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela, said in a statement.
“We want to mobilize the entire global community to join forces with us,” he continued.
The anti-Israel campaigners have also organized previous flotillas carrying symbolic humanitarian aid, including a similar mission last year that Israeli officials repeatedly denounced as a publicity stunt.
About 50 vessels carrying 500 activists took part in last year’s mission, but all were intercepted by Israeli forces and deported, including Mandela, climate activist Greta Thunberg, and European Parliament member Rima Hassan.