Zak Ebrahim: I am Not My Father

Zak Ebrahim is an odd name for a Muslim man. Even odder for the son of a terrorist convicted for assassinating a Rabbi. Changing his name is a symbol of his firm rejection of the indoctrination into hatred that was part of his upbringing.

Ebrahim recounted his path to that rejection. A turning point for him was discovering that a friend he'd made at a conference  was Jewish. It was a revelation to him that a Jew could be a nice person. And ironically, he said that a Jewish media person like Jon Stewart was actually a father figure to him because he gained perspective from watching his show.

His declaration "I am not my father" will ring in my ears for a long time. Ebrahim touched everyone in the room and earned a rousing standing ovation for this talk