This story is nothing short of adorable.

Lindsey Bever reports for the Washington Post:

How an Israeli professor was dubbed the ‘baby whisperer’

Israeli professor Sydney Engelberg has been dubbed the “baby whisperer” over the past week on the Internet, when someone posted a photo online showing him comforting a student’s crying baby while lecturing a class.

But ask him about it and he will tell you he can’t remember when or even where it happened because, to him, the moment was “nothing exceptional or unusual.” For decades, he said, he has encouraged his students to bring their children into the classroom.

“In Israel, in particular, it’s a very family-oriented culture,” he told The Washington Post. “Many students have young infants. … For those students, it’s very difficult to find a childcare arrangement for extended periods of time. There’s a social need to accommodate them.” As well as ideological one: “If one doesn’t act on those values then what’s the point in teaching them?”

Engelberg, 67, lectures at Hebrew University of Jerusalem as well as Israel’s Ono Academic College, teaching graduate courses in organizational behavior. Earlier this week, the photo of him holding the baby lit up the Internet when a former student posted it on a social media site in Israel and others started commenting on it. Then Engelberg’s daughter picked it up and posted it on her Facebook page, saying, “Show me another run like that. Because my father is the best in the world.”


 
 0 
 
 0