When Abe Kugielsky first began photographing the Hasidic Jewish community in Borough Park, Brooklyn, in 2010, he was an outsider with a camera, met with resistance from a community unaccustomed to being documented.

But by 2017, he had amassed a bank of roughly 50,000 photographs, and decided it was time to start posting his images to an Instagram account he called “Hasidim In USA.”

Today, his account has drawn 80,000 followers curious for a glimpse inside a traditionally private world. And this month, it has also landed him a place in Humans of New York’s “Dear New York” exhibition in Grand Central’s Vanderbilt Hall. The free exhibition, curated by Brandon Stanton of the online photo sensation Humans of New York and including dozens of local photographers, runs until Oct. 19.

By day, Kugielsky, who is 45 and identifies as Modern Orthodox, runs a Judaica antique auction house in Cedarhurst, Long Island. But his photography, and efforts to gain inroads in the Hasidic community, have become his true passion.

“Judaica is my full-time job, but I will close shop whenever I feel like I need a day off to go,” said Kugielsky. “It’s very therapeutic to me when I go out to shoot, I’m in my own little bubble, my own zone.”

This interview was condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

JTA: What first drew you to photographing the Hasidic communities in New York?

Kugielsky: When I moved to Brooklyn after we got married, my wife had a job in Borough Park. I would drive her to work every day. I had started street photography as a hobby back in Israel a little bit, and then got married and I let go of it. But when I started visiting Borough Park every morning, and I was getting that Roman Vishniac vibe by seeing the scenes, and I figured, I’ll pick up a camera and start documenting something that’s been untouched in New York.

It’s been very popular in Israel. There’s so many photography books on Orthodox life in Jerusalem, but there’s nothing about Hasidic life in America. There’s one book from like 1974, a small book with some photos, but that’s about it. It’s really very little. So I felt like it was an untouched niche, and I picked up a camera and I started photographing.

How do you build trust with your subjects in a community that is often described as insular?

To see someone walking on Borough Park with a camera taking pictures is not common. It’s not Mea Shearim [the Jerusalem neighborhood] where we have tourists and Americans and photographers. This is very uncommon, so there was a lot of fear of resistance, and of course, the resistance came. So it started off really more in hiding from distance, and over time, I built trust in the community to a point where they celebrate me.

I made it my goal to post in a very positive light, either a positive caption or a positive scene or a positive story, to show them I’m not here to bring out what everyone else has been doing. I realized over the years that it’s really rooted a lot in generational trauma, where, whenever media came into Borough Park or Williamsburg, it was always for a negative story, and that’s where the resistance really came from. So over time, when they recognized that my work is not with that goal, they started to appreciate it more and more.

Can you tell me more about the response from the Hasidic community to your work?

I started off with an article in a local Yiddish magazine, and then a couple of months later, another article and I came out publicly with my name, my identity, so people started recognizing me more. And over time, I started getting more and more positive feedback.

I remember a woman in Williamsburg stopped me once, and she said, “I want to tell you that your photos made me fall in love again with my own culture.” So it really had a certain impact on the community, recognizing that these photos tell a positive story. It tells the story of the community that no one else does in a positive light.

It really shifted to the point where, if I walk down Williamsburg, people stop me and ask me for a selfie, and people will DM me and say, ‘Hey, there’s an event going on here, please come down and photograph.” My goal was to go in deeper and deeper, more and more intimate, and I’ve gotten there. Especially this past summer, we had some invites into family life, which is a whole new level that I’ve been really trying to get to.

What kinds of reactions from the public to your work have surprised or challenged you?

Of course, I get a lot of antisemitic comments from time to time with DMs. Anyone who posts anything Jewish nowadays gets them, but I’ve had a lot of interesting positive feedback from non-Jews worldwide. I’ve had people in Iran reach out to me, and I’ve heard from people in Middle Eastern countries, in Germany, Poland. I think they love the concept where they can look into another culture, have a window into another culture, something they don’t get to see.

Do you have a favorite image from the exhibit, and what makes it stand out to you?

I have one great image that I really, really love. This was a silver shop in Borough Park I walked into and I asked the owner, an older Hasidic Jew, if I can photograph him, and his response is, “What do I need it for?”

I have an album on my phone with photos I downloaded from Brooklyn Public Library, old images from Williamsburg taken by a photographer in 1964, and I figured, let me show him what it looks like looking back at photos from 50 years ago. I started showing him on my phone. He was scrolling through the photos, and I said, look how beautiful it is to look at pictures from 50 years ago.

But then he froze on a certain picture, and his demeanor changes, and he goes, “This is my wife.” He found a picture of his wife and his first newborn son from 50 years ago in those photos, so I captured that moment where he’s really reminiscing about those years.

Humans of New York has drawn criticism for a series focused on aid workers in Gaza as well as for featuring a member of Neturei Karta, a small anti-Zionist sect of the Orthodox community. Was that something you thought about before deciding to participate? 

I was tagged when he posted his request for people to submit. I didn’t follow him, it’s just not really my style of work, he’s more storytelling. I went into his page, and I saw all these posts, I wasn’t sure what to make of it.

The vibe that I got was I didn’t feel an antisemitism there. I felt like he was more going with the trend, showcasing Palestinians from Gaza or Neturei Karta, more from a place of ignorance.

I believe a lot of New Yorkers, a lot of Americans, a lot of people worldwide, don’t really know and understand the conflict. It’s just in style now to hate, and it’s in style now to side with one side or the other without really understanding.

I didn’t give it a lot of hope when I submitted my photos, and I was actually surprised that he chose my photos to be included, and throughout my conversations with him, I understood that he really doesn’t understand much of the conflict.

Have you received any critical feedback about your involvement in this project?

Very, very little. I think one or two people commented like, why would you do this? But for me, A, It’s an opportunity for me, for my work, to showcase my work out there more, and, B, I thought it was so important to have a representation of Jewish life, or Hasidic life, Orthodox life, in such an important exhibition.

What are you hoping people take away when they encounter your Grand Central exhibit?

What I’m expecting people to take away is really to see the humanistic side of this culture. People could be living literally a block away from the community, and not really know the community, and not understand them.

I’m hoping that this gives them a little bit more of a humanistic view of the Hasidic community, where they live, their life, their culture, their religion. After all, we’re all human, we all coexist in the same city.

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The post How Abe Kugielsky’s photos of Hasidic Brooklyn ended up on display in Grand Central Terminal appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

With a long-anticipated hostage–prisoner exchange expected to begin early Monday, this moment is being described as both hopeful and harrowing—and as a test of communal resolve. About 1,500 people from across the country registered for a Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) webinar this weekend to hear from relatives of victims and hostages’ families, while weekly rallies in multiple cities prepared to mark the expected returns with prayers, posters and pleas to “keep going” after the headlines fade.

The deal calls for Hamas to release all living hostages within a tight window as international teams work to recover remains believed to be buried in Gaza. Israel, in turn, is set to free a large group of Palestinian detainees once the hostages are back on home soil in Israel. For Canadian families, the logistics matter—but the meaning dominates: closure for some, new beginnings for others, and a reminder that the fight for safety and truth isn’t over.

“She was courageous, and she was strong”

From Ottawa, Ont., Jacqui Rivers Vital spoke during the CIJA webinar about her daughter, Adi Vital-Kaploun, 33, who was murdered in her home on Kibbutz Holit. Adi’s children, Negev and Eshel, were taken hostage but were later freed and returned safely to Israel. A courageous mother who defended her family, Adi was also an accomplished academic whose love of the desert shaped her research in solar energy.

“I’m really happy for all the families who are getting their loved ones back—whether they’re alive or whether they’re dead—because at least they’ll be able to bury them the way we did,” Rivers Vital told the webinar audience. “But it doesn’t change my reality. Adi is gone.”

Her “mission,” she said, has been to make sure Canadians know the names and stories of the Canadians killed on Oct. 7. “There are so many people in Canada—they don’t know,” she said. “People always ask, ‘How can you be so strong?’ We have a choice—we go up or we go down. And there’s no way we’re going down. Never give up hope—never, never, never. If we do, they win.”

She described returning to her daughter’s grave to sing Hatikvah a week after her funeral and the countless times she has told Jewish youth: “You have to plant the seed, and you have to be strong. That’s the only way we’ll be stronger.”

On the Oct. 10 episode of The CJN’s North Star podcast, Ellin Bessner spoke with Jacqui Rivers Vital in Jerusalem about the mood in Israel during this heady time, and how she’s navigating the second Yarhzeit of her daughter’s death.

“Maybe we were separated in our bodies, but in our souls we were together”

From Regina, Sask., Ohad Lapidot spoke during the CIJA webinar about his daughter, Tiferet Lapidot, 23, who was murdered at the Nova music festival after calling her mother to say, “I love you.” Tiferet was remembered as “a beautiful and generous soul,” a volunteer for at-risk youth in Israel and in Africa.

Lapidot said that in the 10 days when his family still believed she might be alive, he was overwhelmed by messages of solidarity from Canada. “I got a great hug from the Jewish community in Canada,” he told participants. “Maybe we were separated in our bodies, but in our souls we were together. This solidarity is amazing.”

He said the release of hostages “is a great relief,” but “totally incomplete.” 

“Israel is under grave threat,” he said. “We must continue and keep the spirit alive so that it will not happen again.”

“This is how we bring light to the darkness around us”

From Montreal, Que., Raquel Ohnona Look spoke during the CIJA webinar about her son, Alexandre Look, 33, who was murdered at a roadside shelter near the Nova music festival. “Alex spoke seven languages and loved to explore the world,” she said. “He bravely fought the terrorists with his bare hands and used his own body to save the lives of others.”

Ohnona Look called the imminent releases “an amazing time,” adding that “those we’ve been praying for for two years are coming home.” At the same time, she said, the moment carries deep sorrow: “Every day is Oct. 7. But at least the parents who will get bodies—the remains of their children—will have a place to gather and remember.”

She described the creation of Alex L. Place, a green space in Côte St-Luc between a synagogue and a school, and recalled how her family reclaimed Simchat Torah last year by dedicating a Torah scroll in Alex’s honour. “This is how we bring light to all the darkness around us,” she said. “But we’re not done. We have to keep fighting. We have to all be warriors with purpose.”

“She reminded us who we are”

Ashley Waxman Bakshi, who was born in Hamilton, Ont., spoke during the CIJA webinar about her cousin Agam Berger, a young Israeli soldier and accomplished violinist who was kidnapped from Nahal Oz and held hostage in Gaza for 482 days.

“Agam reminded us who we are,” she said. “She said, ‘I understand that I was taken hostage because I am Jewish. And so I will be Jewish to the end.’”

Waxman Bakshi said her cousin’s faith and resilience inspired the entire family. “When she came home, it was proof that God exists,” she said. “You can see it in her eyes. Somebody who was in the dungeons of Hamas—who was made to do humiliating things—and yet she still has her light.”

Addressing the Canadian Jewish community, she added: “This is not the time to be quiet. Be stronger, be more vocal. Send your kids to Israel. Bring your friends. The best way to counter lies is to see the truth with your own eyes.”

She said the connection between Israelis and diaspora Jews has never been clearer. “We strengthen one another,” she said. “Your strength here strengthens us there.”

Across Canada, a balance of celebration and caution

In Toronto, Ont., Guidy Mamann, a lawyer who has helped organize the weekly rallies at the Bathurst and Sheppard intersection since Oct. 13, 2023, prepared for what he expected to be the group’s 106th gathering. “We committed ourselves to being out here for as long as it takes to celebrate the return of our hostages,” he said in an interview before the noon start. “Two years later… the hostages are going to be returned in a matter of hours. All we can do is pray that nothing comes apart—and that all of our blessed hostages come home, and that our brave soldiers return to their families safely and of sound mind.”

On Sunday, more than 100 people arrived at this North York intersection to show support for Israel, waving Israeli flags. Police cruisers surrounded the area. Hostage posters lined the barricades. Israeli music blasted through the speakers but couldn’t fully drown out one booming voice across the street—an anti-Israel demonstrator shouting into a megaphone.

She yelled phrases such as “Hamas brought them home!” and “God bless the resistance!” and “The intifada has been globalized!”

In Vancouver, B.C., organizer Daphna Kedem said the city’s Israel support coalition—which includes Vancouver UnXeptable and other community groups—has gathered downtown for 104 consecutive Sundays.

“This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for,” she wrote in a statement. “It’s been such a roller coaster over the past two years—really unfathomable—and we can only hope that this nightmare is finally over. I celebrate the families who will soon be reunited with their loved ones, while also mourning the unimaginable loss of those whose relatives will return in body bags. The joy and the sorrow are inseparable, and we feel both deeply.”

She added that the weekly gatherings “kept the hostages in the public eye and contributed to this moment. Every voice, every sign, and every act of solidarity has mattered.” But she also cautioned that “this is only the beginning. The ceasefire and the first hostages returning are just the first step. The real work starts now: healing, rebuilding, and holding those responsible accountable, while recognizing that both Israelis and Palestinians have suffered.”

“There is a long road ahead to restore trust, repair lives, and address the deep wounds on both sides,” Kedem said. “We must not lose sight of the lessons of the past two years: there is no military solution, and no community can find lasting security while the other continues to suffer. Real peace will require honesty, responsibility, and leadership that prioritizes reconciliation, dignity, and justice.”

At the close of the CIJA event, Elan Pratzer, chair of the board of directors for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, urged Canadians to celebrate without losing perspective. “There’s a time for war and a time for peace,” he said. “Celebrate the moment. But recognize the war is not over. Our job is to continue to fight for our people in Canada, for Canada itself, and for Western values and for Israel.”

The post Canadians brace for hostage release with relief, vigilance and a renewed sense of solidarity appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.

Tens of thousands joined a pro-Palestinian rally in Sydney on Sunday, organizers said, one of dozens of demonstrations across Australia, with some protesters expressing skepticism a ceasefire in Israel’s two-year-old assault in Gaza would hold.

The organizer, the Palestine Action Group, estimated a crowd of 30,000 in Sydney, the nation’s most populous city, one of about 27 nationwide. Police did not have a crowd estimate for the protest.

The Gaza ceasefire appeared to be holding early on Sunday and Israeli troops had pulled back under the first phase of a US-brokered agreement to end the war, which has killed tens of thousands and left much of the narrow enclave in ruins.

“Even if the ceasefire holds, Israel is still conducting a military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank,” Amal Naser, an organizer of the Sydney rally, said in a statement. “The occupation as well as systemic discrimination against Palestinians living in Israel constitute an Apartheid system.”

Australian Broadcasting Corp footage showed protesters, many carrying Palestinian flags and wearing keffiyeh scarves, marching on closed city streets. Police said no arrests were made.

The rally was held in the business district after a court last week blocked a move to hold it at the Sydney Opera House.

Protester Abbi Jordan said she was at the rally because “this so-called ceasefire will not hold.”

“Israel always breaks every ceasefire they’ve ever done. For 78 years, they’ve been conducting an illegal occupation in Palestinian territories, and we demand the Australian government sanction Israel,” Jordan told Reuters.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, an umbrella group for more than 200 Jewish organizations, condemned the protest organizers. “They want the deal to fail, which would mean the war would continue,” co-Chief Executive Peter Wertheim said in a statement.

Pro-Palestinian protests have been common in Australia, especially in Sydney and Melbourne, since the war in Gaza erupted when militants of the Palestinian militant group Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis in an attack on October 7, 2023.