The family was “shocked” after the photo went viral across the world, largely after being posted on Imgur, where it was viewed over a million times and applauded by commenters.
“He’s gotten love letters,” the professor’s wife, Fredi Siskind Engelberg, told Yahoo Parenting.
But Engelberg doesn’t understand why the picture has made such an impact on people, because it’s “so natural for him,” his daughter said.
“The way he sees the concept of getting education is not only learning the dry facts that you need to learn in class,” she added, “but also learning values. And that’s the very important message that my dad wants to endow to the world.”