Jewish
and Muslim fathers and kids protest the Trumpster together
The story behind the viral photo of Muslim and Jewish
children protesting at O'Hare
Meryem Yildirim, 7, left, sitting on the shoulders of her dad,
Fatih, of Schaumburg, and Adin Bendat-Appell, 9, on the shoulders of his dad,
Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Apell, of Deerfield, during a protest at O'Hare
International Airport on Jan 30, 2017. (Nuccio DiNuzzo / Chicago Tribune)
A
Muslim and a Jewish father had never met before bringing their children to O'Hare International
Airport Monday
to join in a protest of President Donald Trump's
immigration ban. But after a photograph showing their son and daughter
interacting went viral, they decided to bring their families together next week
for dinner to celebrate peace.
As of midday Tuesday, the photograph taken by
Chicago Tribune photographer Nuccio DiNuzzo and shared on Twitter by
@ChiTribPhoto had been retweeted by other Twitter users more than 16,000 times.
The two fathers said they have fielded calls from friends, acquaintances and
national news outlets wanting to hear their story.
"It all happened pretty quickly,"
said Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell, of Deerfield, who lifted his 9-year-old son,
Adin, onto his shoulders Monday night when the boy asked for a better view of
the crowd there to protest Trump's executive order that freezes entry of all
refugees for 120 days and blocks entry for 90 days of citizens from seven
predominantly Muslim countries.
At about the same time, Fatih Yildirim had
lifted his 7-year-old daughter, Meryem, onto his shoulders because she was
getting tired of standing.
The day after a
Tribune photo of his child protesting at O’Hare with a Muslim family went
viral, Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Apell, of Deerfield, tells the story behind
the photo. (Nuccio DiNuzzo/Chicago Tribune)
Adin was wearing his kippah, or yarmulke,
while holding a sign that read "Hate has no home here." Meryem wore
her black hijab while holding a sign that said "Love."
DiNuzzo, a Tribune photographer for 25 years
who had been assigned to capture images of Monday's protests, said the scene
immediately caught his eye.
"I thought, 'This is too good to be true.
I've got a Muslim kid on one side, I've got a Jewish boy and his dad — all cute
kids,'" DiNuzzo said. "I knew that this was an important picture to
make."
But because the children were young and didn't
realize they were being photographed, DiNuzzo said they were fidgeting so much
with the signs he wasn't sure he'd be able to catch them in focus. Finally,
when the dads turned to each other in conversation, the signs were visible
enough.
"I knew I had my shot of the night,"
DiNuzzo said. "This is what it's all about. It's about human beings being
together in harmony."
Bendat-Appell brought his son to the airport
after his weekly swimming lesson to help show the boy how to stand up for what
they believe in. The boy's maternal grandparents were Holocaust survivors who
spent time in refugee camps, Bendat-Appell said. And as a rabbi at the Institute
for Jewish Spirituality in New York, Bendat-Appell said he believes strongly in
using history to guide actions.
Protesters
rallied over the weekend at O'Hare International Airport after authorities
took travelers into custody in response to President Trump's immigration order.
Lawyers from throughout Chicago showed up to assist travelers.
"Our tradition is not ambiguous about
remembering our history for the sake of acting out in this world today,"
he said.
Yildirim, a store manager from Schaumburg, had
come to the airport with his wife and four children to bring cookies to the
lawyers offering pro bono services to immigrants that had been detained.
"I told them they are the real heroes
here," said Yildirim, who, along with his family, joined the protest as
lawyers munched on his wife's homemade chocolate chip sweets.
Neither of the fathers know what their
children said to prompt the huge grin on the boy's face in the photograph,
perhaps because they were engrossed in their own conversation about where to
find a good kosher steak house and other pleasantries, they said.
"I know the tension between the Jews and
the Muslims. People think we hate each other. But we're not fighting. When we
come next to each other we can have normal conversations," Yildirim said.
"We can promote the peace together."
When the children jumped off their father's
shoulders, Adin happily approached the little girl and asked her name. Meryem,
a bit shy, managed a "hello" before the fathers exchanged phone
numbers.
When they started hearing from hundreds of
friends and acquaintances, they texted each other, in awe of the way the small
moment became momentous.
As the response grew, they spoke on the phone
and finalized plans for a Shabbat dinner at the Bendat-Appells' home next week.
"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," he said.
