The photograph went viral, instantly becoming a symbol of interfaith unity and a beacon of hope amid turmoil.
A Muslim father and his young daughter connected with a Jewish dad and son in a chance encounter at O’Hare International Airport in 2017, while taking part in a protest of then-President Donald Trump’s travel ban targeting Muslim-majority nations.
Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell hoisted his then-9-year-old son Adin onto his shoulders when the boy asked for a better look at the demonstration. Around the same time, Fatih Yildirim also lifted his daughter Meryem onto his shoulders, when the 7-year-old became tired.
A Chicago Tribune photographer captured an iconic image of that moment, as one child smiled at the other above the crowd, Adin wearing a yarmulke and Meryem wearing a hijab.
Although they were strangers before that day, the photo that swept the Internet also brought the Yildirim and Bendat-Appell families together. A few days after the protest, they shared a Shabbat dinner, to celebrate peace. And they have remained friends since despite their different backgrounds, cultures and faiths.
Recently, a small gesture of compassion from one of the fathers offered a great deal of comfort to the other, as his family endured tragedy during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 and thrust the region into a bloody war.
The horror overseas became very personal for the rabbi, whose wife’s cousin was among those slain in the act of terror: The 33-year-old woman was shot in front of her 4-year-old son and baby, though the children survived, according to media reports.
When Fatih learned the news through social media posts, he called Jordan and “passed my condolences (on) to his wife.”
He added that he unequivocally condemned the act of violence.
“How would any of us feel?” Fatih said in a recent phone interview. “I was devastated.”
The small act of kindness from Fatih meant so much to Jordan in this period of grief.
The rabbi says that in times of darkness, the Jewish tradition “teaches us that we have to start to bring about more light.”
“When you’re in darkness, it may be hard to imagine a room full of light,” he said in a recent phone interview. “But you actually don’t have to start with a room full of light. Just start with one small candle.”
That call from Fatih “was like one small light that really meant a lot to me,” he added.
The fathers recalled that the photo from 2017 had become deeply meaningful to so many people during a tumultuous time in national history.
The demonstration they attended at O’Hare was in opposition to one of Trump’s first acts as president in early 2017, an executive order prohibiting refugees from coming to the United States for 120 days and barring citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the country for 90 days.
The order, often dubbed the “Muslim travel ban,” was widely decried as discriminatory against Muslims and refugees by civil liberty experts and immigration advocates. Protests similar to the one at O’Hare swarmed airports across the country.
Trump had first announced plans for the ban while campaigning as the leading Republican presidential candidate in 2015.
Jordan, who lived in Deerfield at the time, had told the Tribune he brought his son to the protest to teach him to stand up for his beliefs. The boy’s grandparents are Holocaust survivors who had spent time in refugee camps, and the rabbi emphasized the importance of “remembering our history for the sake of acting out in this world today,” according to a Tribune story.
Fatih, who was born in Turkey and lived in Schaumburg at the time, came to the airport with his wife and four children to bring cookies to attorneys who were giving free law services to international travelers who had been detained.
The two bearded dads with glasses each held signs bearing parallel messages.
Jordan’s sign read, “We’ve seen this before. Never again. Jews against the ban,” flanked by a Star of David on each side.
Fatih’s sign simply stated “empathy.”
Both men had received many calls from loved ones and acquaintances about the photograph. Within about a day, the picture was reposted more than 16,000 times on Twitter, the social media site now known as X. The photo made headlines in national and international news outlets as well. Time magazine listed the image among the top viral photos of 2017.
The world is, in many ways, different now compared with when the photo was taken. President Joe Biden revoked the travel ban on his first day in office in 2021, fulfilling a campaign vow.
The two kids in the photo were thrilled at the news.
“Finally, Trump’s gone,” Meryem had told the Tribune at the time. “(There will be) more equality and just less crazy things happening.”
Adin had also rejoiced.
“As a Jew, if that happened against Jews, I would feel so angry. And it wasn’t fair at all, and we’re all humans at the end,” he had said. “With the Yildirims, we’re good friends, and I really disagreed with it and I’m so happy it’s over.”
Yet echoes of Trump’s travel ban recently reverberated in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, as the 2024 presidential election looms.
A few days after the Oct. 7 attack, Trump — once again the Republican front-runner in the upcoming race for president — promised to ban refugees from Gaza and immediately expand his 2017 Muslim travel ban if elected.
“We’ll do it again,” Trump said while campaigning in Iowa in October, during a speech that drew cheers from the crowd. “We’ll put it right back into place.”
The fathers believe the 2017 photograph — as well as the enduring bond between the two families that the image forged — resonates just as strongly today amid the war in the Middle East and its repercussions worldwide, which include a horrific recent rise in Islamophobia and antisemitism.
For Jordan, his family’s enduring friendship with the Yildirims became even more powerful than the symbolism of the picture.
“It was moving to me how that photo spoke to so many people,” Jordan said. “It was profound for me to know that it was much more than an image. An image represents something … but behind that was actually a genuine connection. So that always made me feel really proud.”
After the photo went viral, the Yildirims and Bendat-Appells went on to share more moments together, including a meal to break the Ramadan fast, a Passover celebration and a 5K walk for peace outside the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie.
The families often reach out to one another after horrific events that target Jewish or Muslim communities, such as the 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and an earthquake in Turkey earlier this year.
The Bendat-Appell family moved to Toronto a few years ago. The Yildirim family now lives in the Indianapolis area. The kids in the photograph are teenagers. Jordan jokes he can no longer lift his son onto his shoulders, as he did in the photograph.
Yet the families have still kept in touch long-distance over the years, with occasional emails around the holidays or messages on social media.
“From the beginning, one thing I loved about the connection with Fatih and his family is that it’s just human. … We’re coming together as two different human beings who happen to like each other and connect with each other as any two human beings,” Jordan said. “It just happens he’s Muslim; I’m Jewish. We care about things. We love our families. We love our people. And my heart’s broken about what’s going on (in the world), on many levels.”
Both men hope for peace in the Middle East and around the globe.
After the Oct. 7 massacre, Israeli airstrikes pounded the Gaza Strip. More than 5,300 Palestinian children have reportedly been killed in the war, according to UNICEF.
For the past week, Israel and Hamas have been in a temporary cease-fire amid a hostage exchange, though Israel has pledged to resume the war with the intent to destroy Hamas as soon as the truce is over.
Antisemitism has surged following the war, with the Anti-Defamation League tracking 300 antisemitic incidents in just over two weeks following the Hamas attack, a 388% rise compared to the same period in 2022. An ADL report released Wednesday showed that 73% of Jewish college students surveyed said they had seen or experienced some form of antisemitism since the start of this school year.
Islamophobia and anti-Arab sentiment have also recently spiked locally and around the globe.
In a high-profile case, a 6-year-old Muslim child was slain and his mother was wounded in an October stabbing in Will County. In connection to the attack, the family’s landlord pleaded not guilty to murder, hate crime and other charges; authorities have said the landlord was motivated by listening to conservative talk radio discussions about the Israel-Hamas war.
More recently, three college students of Palestinian descent were shot and seriously injured Saturday in Vermont. Police said the young men were speaking both English and Arabic and two were wearing Palestinian kaffiyeh scarves, according to The Associated Press; a suspect has pleaded not guilty and authorities were investigating whether the shooting was a hate crime.
Since the war began, Fatih has been more worried about the safety and security of his family, he said.
“But this is America, so there’s rule of law in this country,” he said. “So I’m not worried about it so much, I’m not thinking about leaving America or anything. But it’s just kind of hard.”
He added that he’s optimistic “some kind of diplomacy will win over this violent cycle, this endless violent cycle in the Middle East that’s kind of affecting everyone around the world.”
Jordan said his “heart is broken about Oct. 7 and all the loss around it.”
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Yet the rabbi invoked the Biblical verse from Leviticus, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
He explained that there are two parts to that command.
“The second part is that you have to love yourself and you have to love your people and stand up for your family,” he said. “And the other part of it is that we have to love others. I think all of us can challenge ourselves — on both sides of this equation — can I love more?”
When the world feels scary, humans have a tendency to build walls for self-protection, he added. Yet he encourages people to “find other human beings to connect with, including people who are different.”
“Ultimately, we can’t all live in a world that’s just filled with walls,” he added.
The Associated Press contributed.