Cuter together
Thousands of demonstrators — including many Jews — flooded airports across the country last weekend to protest President Trump’s executive order, which among other things temporarily banned travel from seven Muslim-majority countries. The Internet has been saturated with images from the various protests.
But this photograph perhaps has resonated the most on social media.
The photo, taken by Chicago Tribune photographer Nuccio DiNuzzo, shows a Jewish boy wearing a kippah and a Muslim girl wearing a hijab holding protest signs while they sit on their fathers’ shoulders at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. The Jewish boy’s father’s sign, like many other Jewish-themed signs seen at this weekend’s protests, references the Holocaust.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the photo has been liked more than 220,000 times on Twitter and retweeted more than 110,000 times.
It also has been shared on Facebook thousands of times, including by former San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom, who now is California’s lieutenant governor.
DiNuzzo identified the Muslim father and daughter as Fatih and Meryem Yildirim of Schaumburg, Illinois, and the Jewish father and son as Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell and Adin Bendat-Appell of Deerfield, Illinois. Rabbi Bendat-Appell is the program director of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and the Center for Jewish Mindfulness in Chicago.
Bendat-Appell told the Tribune that Adin’s maternal grandparents were Holocaust survivors who had lived in refugee camps after the war. “Our tradition is not ambiguous about remembering our history for the sake of acting out in this world today,” he said.
He told the Tribune that he lifted his 9-year-old son onto his shoulders so the boy could get a better view.
At the same time, Fatih Yildririm told the paper, the 7-year-old girl got tired of standing.
“I just feel like if this picture, in some small way, can bring a bit more light and love into the world, I’m so happy about that,” Bendat-Appell said.
One concrete result: The Bendat-Appell family is hosting the Yildirim family for Shabbat dinner next week.
JTA Wire Service
comments