One of the more upbeat stories coming out of the US elections concerns a gentleman from Brooklyn called Yosef Rapaport.
Mr Rapaport, a Chasid, tweeted a picture of himself holding up his ballot paper together with a message paying tribute to Captain Humayun Khan.
Captain Khan, a Muslim American, was killed in a suicide attack near Baqubah, Iraq, in 2004. His father, Khizr, spoke eloquently about Captain Khan’s sacrifice at the Democratic National Convention in July this year.
The speech was seen as direct criticism of Donald Trump's proposed ban on Muslim immigration. The speech has been compared to Joseph N Welch's famous rebuke during the McCarthy hearings.
Mr Rapaport’s parents were Hungarian Holocaust survivors who moved to the US.
As an Orthodox Jewish immigrant, he wrote, he wanted to highlight how Captain Khan’s devotion 'makes freedom possible.'
“Religious freedom and freedom in general is something that’s near and dear to my heart,” he told news website The Forward.
Mr Rapaport’s tweet was picked up by social media users across the globe – notably by Harry Potter author JK Rowling, whose amplification of his message has made the gesture a viral phenomenon.
Speaking to The Independent, he said:
“Following the issue during the campaign about the loyalty of Muslims, he [Captain Khan] is a prime example of why religious bigotry is wrong and a prime example of the opposite; of how we can come together in one country dedicated to an ideal of religious freedom.”
Art time of writing, Mr Rapaport has not announced which of the candidates earned his vote.
