This photo of Orthodox Jew Isaac Theil letting an unidentified black man sleep on his shoulder on the Q train in Brooklyn last week has gone viral.
This straphanger’s shoulder has become an internet sensation.
Oscar “Isaac” Theil, 65, was on his way home to the Kensington section of Brooklyn on the Q train when an unidentified man fell asleep on his shoulder for more than a half hour last Thursday night.
Another rider was amazed at the scene — a black man sleeping on the shoulder of a white man in a yarmulke — so he gently asked if he wanted help to wake the slumbering straphanger.
“He had a long day so let him sleep. We’ve all been there,” Theil responded.
The other rider captured the moment with a quick cell phone picture that he then posted online with a brief explanation.
The picture and caption has gone viral on the internet, with 1.3 million “likes” and 172,563 shares on Facebook. It’s also received a whopping 228 comments on reddit, where it was originally posted.
“There’s still hope in humanity,” said Facebook user Michael Bartley, whose comment alone got 13,583 likes.
“I don’t see a black man and a Jewish man — I see two people,” added Georgina Gainsford-De Giogrio.
Theil, an Orthodox Jew, is surprised by all the attention — and there was a lot of it, thanks to social media.
In fact, hours after the picture was posted last week, Theil got a call from his sister, Pam Russ, who lives in Montreal and saw the photo online.
“She was the first person to call and tell me how proud she was of me,” Theil said. His phone has been ringing constantly with messages from friends and family as far away as Israel. Of course, he downplays his Morphean heroism.
“I just kept steady so he would be able to sleep,” said Theil, who had been returning home from watching his granddaughter on the Upper East Side. “It wasn’t easy to do because he was dead weight.”
And the reddit user who started it all is amazed how it has become an international sensation.
“It really wasn’t about the ethnicity of the people,” he told The News, asking to remain anonymous. “It was just more that New Yorkers, especially in the subway, don’t want to touch people or have them get in their personal space. That was striking to me and made me smile and I thought was a very nice gesture.”
Alas, the unidentified man wasn’t able to doze off the whole ride because Theil had to exit the train at Newkirk Ave.
“I didn’t want to scare him awake,” Theil recalled. “I turned around to look at him and he was dazed.”
Do you know the identity of the sleeping beauty? Email Reuven Blau at rblau@nydailynews.com.
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