Arron Snowden

Arron Snowden

Arron Snowden’s life is a testament to resilience, transformation, and spiritual purpose. After spending 15 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections, shaped by childhood trauma and years of searching for healing, he devoted himself to change from the inside out. While incarcerated, Arron became a model inmate, working in violence-reduction initiatives, supporting fellow inmates  and preparing others for release.

His life took a profound spiritual turn in 1991 when he met Rabbi Binyomin Scheiman, a chaplain who was given permission to visit him when no one else could. Through study and deep philosophical conversations, including letters sent to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Arron embraced the path of a Noachide, a non-Jew committed to observing the Seven Laws of Noah.

Upon release, Rabbi Scheiman advocated for him in court, supported him during crises—including a stabbing and life-threatening pneumonia—and remained one of his strongest partners and inspirations. He joined the rabbi for Jewish holidays, visited the Rebbe’s synagogue in New York and even sat shiva with him. This relationship grew into a lifelong friendship. 

Reintegration & Professional Life

After his release, now 27 years ago, Arron successfully rebuilt his life. He became a union electrician, eventually founding his own company, “Greater Chicago Home Improvements”.  He hired and mentored workers from community organizations such as St. Leonard’s and volunteered extensively in reentry programs, including with the Black United Fund of Illinois. His work emphasized economic empowerment, trades education, and the power of second chances.

Artist & Exhibitor

Arron discovered art while incarcerated. He developed a distinctive “assemblage” and “objets-d’art” style, later exhibiting in shows across Chicago, including the Murphy Hill Art Gallery, the largest African American run international art space in the city. His work reflects memory, reconstruction, and spiritual renewal.

The Noachide Center & Community Work

In 2020, driven by his spiritual identity and the universal ethics of the Noachide laws, Arron founded a Noachide-based education and reentry initiative on the South Side of Chicago. He secured part of a building to run a safe house, distribute clothing and food, host community events, and offer short-term support for individuals returning from incarceration.

He later moved to Carbondale to study housing solutions for returning citizens. Feeling called to give back to his community, he returned there to expand reentry and homelessness-support services. Today he works on mobile shower projects for the unhoused, financial-literacy programs, employment pathways and a Noachide-inspired halfway house model with support from local leadership.

Full Circle

Carbondale became a place of healing and reconciliation. After reuniting with his children and making peace with his late mother, Arron found himself honored in the same community where he had once been marginalized.

Through faith, service, and the guidance he received from the Jewish community, Arron Snowden now serves as a shaliach (emissary)  for Noahides, dedicating his life to spreading ethical living, human dignity, and opportunities for those reentering society.

Arron’s Fresh Start 

I wasn’t out of prison very long when I decided I needed a real trade, something that could carry me into a new kind of life. Becoming a union electrician felt impossible at first—like a world built for someone other than me. But people showed up for me in ways I’ll never forget.

Alderman Walter Burnett took a chance on me early on. He didn’t distance himself, didn’t look at me like a risk. He pushed me toward the test and encouraged me like I had a future worth investing in. Rabbi Scheiman helped me get temporary housing—just enough stability to stay in school for the required 11 weeks and stay focused. And at St. Leonard’s, Greg Fraley taught me how to be creative in solving problems, how to stay productive, and how workforce development was really about rebuilding a person, not just training them.

When I took the electrician’s test, Greg actually waited for me in the parking lot the entire time, just so I wouldn’t walk out alone. That meant something. It still does.
By week eight of the program, everything almost fell apart. I was stabbed. I ended up in the hospital, weak, scared, wondering if this was the universe telling me I wasn’t meant to make it out.

But Greg and the Rabbi didn’t let me disappear. They visited, they advocated, they fought for me to get back into school. Their belief in me was louder than the violence I’d survived. Because of them, the union let me return. I finished. I made it.
“Fresh Start” wasn’t just about a career. It was about people who stood in the gaps of my life—people who held the door open long enough for me to walk through it on my own.

And I’ve been walking forward ever since.
 

Click here to read more about the 7 Noahide Laws.