This is a virtual event via Zoom hosted by Pucker Gallery. This event will be recorded and uploaded to our YouTube channel.
Join us this Friday, 6 March 2026 at 3:30PM ET for a conversation with Pucker Gallery artist Bill Aron.
This conversation will provide an opportunity to travel with Bill through time and place along with his memories and musings. Bill's interest in and affection for each person or place he photographs comes with a great sense of artistic empathy.
Together with:
Bill Aron – Pucker Gallery Artist
Rabbi William G. Hamilton - Rabbi of Congregation Kehillath Israel
Mara Williams - Brattleboro Museum Curator Emerita
Dr. Carl Herbert - Gallery Associate
Bernard Pucker – Gallery Director
The exhibition People & Places will be on view at Pucker Gallery from 14 March through 26 April 2026.
About Our Panelists...
Bill Aron is an internationally recognized photographer whose work has documented Jewish life, culture, and resilience for more than fifty years. Aron is often described as the “Dean of American Jewish Photographers” for being the first American photographer after Roman Vishniac to focus exclusively on Jewish communities and for his long dedication to the subject. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago, a background that continues to inform his human-centered, narrative approach to photography. Aron’s photographs are in the permanent collections of many leading institutions. His work has been featured in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and many other national and international publications. He is the author of three major books: From the Corners of the Earth (1985); Shalom Y’all: Images of Jewish Life in the American South (2002); and New Beginnings: The Triumphs of 120 Cancer Survivors (2015). Since 2006, Aron has photographed and interviewed 100 Holocaust survivors in the Los Angeles area, creating The Indestructible Spirit, a volume currently in preparation that features portraits and personal reflections co-authored with historian Dr. Marilyn Harran. Aron has a career-spanning exhibition of his work currently on view at The American Jewish Historical Society and the Center for Jewish History in New York entitled The World in Front of Me: A Retrospective on Bill Aron.
Rabbi William G. Hamilton has led Kehillath Israel synagogue since 1995. He strives to activate Torah in the service of meaningful living – nourishing growth, solacing grief, and deepening joy. Empowering learners is at the heart of his leadership approach. Lay-leaders, Jews-by-choice, and rabbinic interns, all take responsibility for creating community and celebrating Judaism. A commitment to inclusion is also central to Rabbi Hamilton. His deep involvement with the Ruderman Foundation’s work for disability inclusion alongside his Board leadership with New England Yachad, complements a principled commitment to gender, ideological, and diversified practice inclusion at Kehillath Israel.
Mara Williams assumed Emerita status in 2021, after curating exhibits at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center for thirty-three years. Her area of expertise is modern and contemporary art. Recent solo exhibitions include: Gathering Light: The Art of Stephen Hannock; Wolf Kahn— Landscape of Light; Secrets by Gloria Garfinkel; Andy Warhol—Selections from the Jon Gould Collection. Group shows have included the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Janet Fish, Mary Frank, Keith Haring, David Hockney, Maya Lin, James McGarrell, David Nash, Robert Rauschenberg, Ursula von Ridingsvard, Michael Singer, Tseng Kwong Chi, and Barbara Zucker, as well as a host of regional and emerging talent.
Dr. Carl Herbert is a fourth-generation physician whose career has been devoted to helping infertility patients overcome a wide spectrum of obstacles to create their families. Early in his career he participated in the founding of one of the first eIVF centers in the United States. For more than forty years, Dr. Herbert has contributed to the growth and development of assisted reproductive technologies, continually implementing the evolving techniques and optimizing their clinical applications for care. The ambiguity of a socially awkward accolade, “You got me pregnant!”, has become a recurrent reward, both humorous and joyful. By serendipity, Dr. Herbert walked into Pucker Gallery for the first time in 1985 when visiting Boston for a medical conference. From this point on, his nascent interest in art grew under the generous tutelage and encouragement of Mr. Pucker. A close personal friendship evolved as they visited artists and exhibitions around the world; exchanged thoughts on the experience and intrinsic value that art, in all its many forms, can provide individuals and society; and shared writings which illuminated these principles.
Bernie Pucker is the director of Pucker Gallery, which he founded with his wife, Sue, on Boston's historic Newbury Street in 1967. Pucker Gallery represents over fifty artists from around the world, presenting approximately ten exhibitions annually, often paired with artist talks, virtual “WebinARTs,” and Gallery receptions. Bernie is currently a Board Member at the Japan Society, Boston, and the Jewish Publication Society. He also serves on the Leadership Council for Facing History and Ourselves as well as the Artistic Advisory Board for the Terezin Music Foundation. Previously, he has served as President of Solomon Schechter Day School, President of the Newbury Street League, and Board Member for the Friends of Copley Square and The Unity Project, among others. Bernie received his MA in Modern Jewish History from Brandeis University and his BA in History and English Literature from Columbia College.