Steve Jobs remembers well that it was not the first time he went with some of his friends to this restaurant in the city of Sacramento, the capital of California. This restaurant was known for providing delicious Mediterranean food, in which Arabic oriental dishes are served alongside Italian, French and Spanish dishes.
It is also reported that the owner of the restaurant - who was known to be of Syrian nationality - ran to him once to shake hands with him in astonishment, and told him that he was very proud that the global technology legend personally visited his restaurant, and that it was a great honor for him to keep coming to him several times. Jobs mentioned that the
owner of the
restaurant 's
name was an
Arab rude ,
"Abdel -
Fattah Jandali," and probably found it
difficult in his
first name pronunciation, would
only proclaiming his name second Mr. "Jandali" (
Jandali
), which was enough to hand him peace passing while in the
busy restaurant to
speak with His friends have something about his magic apple that changed the course of technology worldwide.
But the fate that recorded this situation was in store for both of them, “Steve Jobs” the legend of technology and “Abdul Fattah Al-Jandali,” the owner of the restaurant, one of his biggest surprises, when he would reveal to them later - and to the world as well - that their fleeting meeting was much more than just an ordinary meeting.
In fact, this was the only time that Steve Jobs met his father, who had been searching for him for years, and at the time could not imagine that he was shaking hands with his real biological father.
(1, 2)
An image spread of the "Al-Jandali" house in the Syrian city of Homs, which is supposed to be the house of "Steve Jobs' grandfather" (communication sites)
In 1931, Abd al-Fattah al-Jandali was born in the Syrian city of Homs to the widely known and influential al-Jandali family in the town, which extends to an authentic Arab tribe that is said to be related to the Prophet’s lineage. The family applied all the strict standards of traditional Syrian life, the father was not educated but was very influential, and the mother was an ordinary devout housewife. An ordinary, completely traditional Syrian family that adheres to inherited principles and morals, nothing out of the ordinary. (3)
After completing his high school studies, Abdel Fattah al-Jandali traveled to Beirut to join the American University to study political science at the end of the forties, imbued with all Arab nationalist ideas.
While studying at the American University, his political interests grew, he went out in the Algerian independence demonstrations and spent several days in prison.
He did not directly belong to political parties, but he was supportive of the axes of Arab unity and interested in the regional political situation, even in Lebanon, where he resided for about a year and a half, which he later described as "the most beautiful days of his life."
At the beginning of the fifties, Abdel Fattah Al-Jandali traveled to America to start a new phase of his life at the age of twenty. He moved to New York and joined a scholarship at the University of Wisconsin that enabled him to obtain a doctorate in economics and political science.
A few years passed, but fate had arranged his meeting with that beautiful girl, who would be the second party to the story.
(4, 5)
As a doctoral student, one of Abdul-Fattah Al-Jandali's academic tasks was to lecture in some training courses for students, to meet for the first time "Joan Carol Schieble" who charmed him when he saw her for the first time while she was attending one of his lectures.
She was a blonde American of German and Swiss Catholic descent, about the same age.
He found everything impressive in her, and a romantic relationship began to develop between them, which turned into an affair between the Syrian Muslim immigrant young man and the Catholic American young woman of purely European origin.
A picture of Abdel-Fattah Al-Jandali and Joan Schieble in old age (communication sites)
Several months later, Joan's stomach swollen, announcing the imminent arrival of her first child, from her affair with Abdel Fattah al-Jandali, who has been called "John" since he came to America. Although this matter is considered "normal" for liberal American traditions, it did not pass that easily after the problems aggravated between "Joan" and her conservative Catholic family, which expressed complete dissatisfaction with her dating an Arab Muslim young man, and expressed complete rejection of her possible marriage to him, but rather She threatened to cut off all relations with her if she continued her relationship with him.
In 1954, during Joan's pregnancy, the two traveled together to Homs to get to know Joan's family, Abdel Fattah al-Jandali, and spend some time with him in his country away from her problems with her family.
In the end, the two returned to America, seeming to acquiesce in her parents' categorical refusal to marry.
The two decided that the best course of action was for Joan to give birth to the child, and put him up for adoption to a family that would raise and take care of him.
Later, according to Al-Jandali's account, Joan traveled secretly to San Francisco alone to put her newborn away, who came to the world on February 24, 1955, and begins a journey to find someone to adopt him to get rid of the child, whom everyone considered it convenient for all parties to get rid of him for the benefit of a family. other
.
(4, 5, 6, 7)
Steve Jobs in his childhood (networking sites)
When Joan Schieble gave birth to her child, she stipulated - apparently to raise some guilt in leaving her child in an adoption home - that the family that adopts her child be an educated, Catholic and wealthy family.
It didn't take long for a family to come along that seemed to fit all three of them, but when they saw the child they later changed their minds and said they didn't need it, and that they decided to adopt a girl.
Then the Jobs family appeared, Paul Reinhold Jobs was a young mechanic working in the Coast Guard and married to Mrs. Clara of Armenian descent, and both grew up in San Francisco.
After several years, the couple knew that it was impossible to have a child due to major problems in the womb that Clara suffered from, which prompted them to search for the adoption of a child in 1955.
The reaction of "Joan Schieble" was a categorical rejection at first, as the spouses do not meet the three conditions; Neither of them have a college education, and neither of them appear to be that religious, nor are they considered wealthy but rather middle class - by American standards -. With both Paul and his wife insisting on adopting the child, Schieble finally agreed to leave the child to them for adoption, after taking a direct judicial promise from them that they would make him enroll in university.
Finally, the baby moved to Paul and Clara's house to take the name "Steve Jobs".
During the first six months, the mother spent time raising the child with caution and fear because she believed that Steve could be taken from her at any time from his biological mother, and she - according to what she herself later told Steve's friend - prevented herself from loving him especially for fear From his sudden disappearance from her life.
Later, two years later, Steve was such a difficult child that his adoptive mother felt they had made a mistake by adopting him, and they considered sending him back to the foster home, which didn't happen.
Steve Jobs (the child) accompanied by his adoptive father (Paul) (networking sites)
Later, in 1957, Patricia joined the family, another child who was adopted by Paul and Clara to become Steve's sister.
In 1961 the family moved to a new home in Mountain View California, and Paul was keen to set aside a garage workshop for Steve, so that he would "pass on to him the love of mechanics that runs in his blood."
Of course, Paul didn't know that his love for mechanics would actually pass on to Steve, and that his kid would be a two-legged tech legend in later decades.
(4, 5, 6, 7)
Surprisingly, only 6 months after Schieble offered her baby boy up for adoption, her father, who was determined not to marry his daughter to a Syrian immigrant, passed away.
Immediately after his death, the two married and started their lives again and had a girl whom they called an Arabic name "Mona", at a time when they seem to have forgotten everything about their first child, whom they left in San Francisco to become "Steve" and grow up in the Jobs family.
After Abdul-Fattah al-Jandali finished obtaining his doctorate, he returned to his homeland, Syria, to search for a good job opportunity, but things had worsened with his wife, so the matter ended in divorce in 1962 after Mona reached the age of four, to begin another tragedy of the father’s abandonment of his daughter for many years, especially After Shepley married another person, "George Simpson," to take Mona's new father's name, Mona Simpson, and to live with her mother for a long time.
Abdel-Fattah Al-Jandali lives in America today and is on the cusp of his ninety (networking sites)
Later, Jandali will return to America again, marry several times, work as a professor at the University of Michigan and then the University of Nevada, and then open several restaurants for oriental food in Las Vegas and California away from his first family almost completely, while the world will know Mona Simpson as a famous writer with many novels and literary works, and is married to Richard Apple, writer of the
famous comedy television
series "The
Simpsons
".
(4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
Cover of the Arabic edition of Steve Jobs' biography (networking sites)
"I never wanted my parents (Paul and Clara) to feel that they weren't my parents, because they were really my parents. They were 1000% my parents, I loved them so much and I never wanted them to bother them about my interest in looking for my biological parents, I even agreed with the people who help me with my Looking to keep it a secret if they can get access to them."
Steve Jobs in his autobiography (Walter Isaacson)
During his life until his mid-twenties - he had shone his name as a legend in the world of technology - Steve Jobs never sought to communicate with his biological father and mother, content with the love and respect he received from his adoptive parents, until Clara - his adoptive mother - was diagnosed with lung cancer. At that time, Steve Jobs began to spend more time with his mother, and began to learn more information about the circumstances of their adoption and what exactly happened, this information is what motivated him to start searching for his biological mother.
Based on the information given to him by his adoptive mother, Jobs was able to reach the doctor who was responsible for his birth in San Francisco, but the doctor did not provide Jobs with real help throughout his life.
After a short period, and similar to American films - except that it was a documented fact this time - the doctor passed away, leaving Jobs a letter that he recommended not to be opened until after his death, in which the doctor mentioned that his real mother was an unmarried university student from "Wisconsin" and that her name was Joan Schieble.
Steve never moved to communicate with his biological mother until after his adoptive mother died and after obtaining the consent of his adoptive father "Paul" who allowed him to search for his biological parents as he wanted.
However, Steve asked the media to never report on his search for his parents, out of respect for his father Paul and not to hurt his feelings.
Finally, Jobs moved to meet his real mother, and said in his autobiography that the reason he wanted to meet his biological mother was to reassure her and thank her that she had let him come to life rather than go to the abortion decision that she could very well have taken to get rid of him.
During the meeting, his mother, Schieble, was clearly affected by Seale, who did not stop apologizing to him and feeling pain, but she did not seem to know Jobs and his position in Apple well.
During this meeting, Jobs got acquainted for the first time with his biological sister "Mona Simpson" and offered her to go out for a long walk, during which they talked about everything.
Steve Jobs, his daughter Lisa and his sister "Mona Simpson" in 1986 (communication sites)
Later, Jobs' relationship with his sister "Mona" would gradually grow until it escalated into a real brotherly relationship, so that she was interfering in his personal disputes with his family later and trying to resolve them, to the extent that Jobs described her in his autobiography as "from his family", and that he did not know what it was He would do without her, that he could never have imagined a better sister, and that his adopted sister Patricia was never as close to him as Mona.
(9, 10)
"For me they are just a sperm bank and an egg bank, nothing more, nothing less. I don't mean to be rude, it's just what it was, just a sperm bank, nothing more."
(Steve Jobs in his autobiography, about his opinion of his biological parents, Abd al-Fattah al-Jandali and Joan Schieble. (11))
Later, with the consolidation of the relationship between Steve and Mona, he told her that he wanted to help her in the process of searching for their father, who was then completely unknown to them after being completely separated from them.
The search led them to find his presence in the city of Sacramento, California, and Steve Jobs decided that his sister Mona should go alone to meet their father, and stipulated that she should not tell him anything about him at all, and let him speak.
A famous graffiti in support of refugees shows Steve Jobs carrying a bag as an immigrant / refugee, in a sign that immigrants may shape the world for the better (networking sites)
The first meeting between Abdel Fattah al-Jandali and his daughter Mona Hara, the two spent many hours talking about everything, including his confession to her that she had an older “brother” that he and her mother had to offer for adoption, and that he had never seen her brother. Mona did not tell him the truth about her brother, at his request, not to talk about him. Then, among the stories that her father, "Al-Jandali" told her about his life, was that he ran a famous restaurant in the city near San Jose, and technology celebrities flocked to his restaurant, including that young genius. "Steve Jobs"!
"Oh, yes, Steve Jobs, he came to us all the time at our restaurant, he was a nice guy and he gave us a big tip!"
This is what he told her excitedly, as he tells her about the stories of the great technology pioneers who visited him in his restaurant during that period, which made her meet his enthusiasm with silence tinged with amazement from the shock of shock, shocking that he speaks enthusiastically about Steve Jobs and does not know that he is - literally - his son!
When Simpson returned to tell this astonishing story to Steve Jobs, he seemed to already remember this man, and said in his autobiography:
"This was amazing, I really remembered it. I had been to this restaurant several times, and I remember meeting the owner of the restaurant, he seemed to me to be managing or the owner of the restaurant. I knew he was Syrian, and he was bald.. and we exchanged peace with hands.. just nothing more than that. !"
It seemed clear that Steve Jobs was careful not to have a relationship with his father in the first place, perhaps more hostile than it was not important to him. “I learned a little about him, and what I did not know about him was not very good,” Steve Jobs replied when he was asked why he ignored communication with his father, it seemed clear that he took a particularly hostile attitude from him than his mother Schieble, who showed her that he forgave her to some extent, and visited her In her home, however, he held a position on his father because of his abandonment of his family and his complete negativity in communicating with them later. He did not want to meet him, and said in his memoirs:
"I had become a rich man, and I didn't know him, I didn't trust him. Maybe he tried to put pressure on me or go to the press to talk about it in detail... I asked my sister Mona not to tell him anything about me."
Which actually happened, and Mona kept the matter a secret until it was leaked to the press, and "Abdul Fattah Al-Jandali" knew for the first time that Steve Jobs was his son through a website she had referred to.
(4, 5, 9, 11)
"I think if my son Steve had grown up with a Syrian name, he would have achieved the same success. He has a creative mind, and he didn't even finish university. That makes me think he would have been successful no matter his background."
(Abdel-Fattah Al-Jandali talking about Steve Jobs)
Unlike his sister, Mona Simpson, Steve Jobs had no interest in knowing his Syrian heritage or origins at all.
Mona became highly involved in the Syrian American community, and her father organized several trips to Syria for her, and she herself went to Homs and explored her country of origin, and is still considered an important symbol for Americans of Syrian origin.
As for Jobs, no one mentioned him that he cared at all about his Syrian origins.
In his autobiography, "Isaacson" mentioned several key situations regarding Steve Jobs' relationship with his Syrian origins, including that Steve took his son Red to dinner with his sister Simpson at her home in Los Angeles, where Red spent some time looking at pictures of his biological grandfather, "Abdul Fattah al-Jandali." Mona hung it on the wall, while Jobs completely ignored it and did not stop there for a moment.
It is also mentioned that Steve Jobs did not seem to care at all about what is happening in the Middle East before and after the outbreak of the Arab Spring revolutions, and he did not even have a strong opinion about anything.
(5, 9, 11)
“I don’t think anyone knows what we should do there.” This was his response to a question Isaacson asked him about his opinion of what was happening in the Arab Spring revolutions in early 2011, and asked him about his opinion if the Obama administration should interfere in the events in Egypt and Syria and Libya, and he continued: "You will get involved if you do that, and you will get involved if you don't!"
(12)
"I don't have a close relationship with him, but I sent him a letter congratulating him on his birthday soon and didn't get a response, but neither of us took any steps to get closer to each other. I tend to think that if he wants to spend time with me he definitely knows where I am and how to find me."
(Abdel-Fattah Al-Jandali about the possibility of communicating with his son, Steve Jobs)
In the last days of Steve Jobs' life, with the growth of his pancreatic cancer in 2006, he died
On the surface once again a general question about the possibility of him meeting his biological father even as a last farewell, but it never occurred.
Steve Jobs lived his entire life with everything in it while completely ignoring his biological father, whether in person or with his Syrian-Arab heritage.
And everything he mentioned about his father was in order to answer the questions put to him by Walter Isaacson, who wrote his autobiography as one of humanity's brightest minds in the field of technology.
Jandali had spoken to the media, commenting on his son's illness, where he said that he wished to have one cup of coffee with his son Steve, and this would make him very happy, but he also stated that he would not seek to be the initiator of communication with him:
"It may sound strange, but I'm not ready, even if one of us is dying, to pick up the phone and talk to him. Steve must, because my "Syrian pride" prevents me from that so he doesn't think I'm after his fortune!"
(5, 13, 14)
____________________________________________________
Sources:
How Steve Jobs Accidentally Met His Biological Dad
Steve Jobs and biological father unknowingly met, biographer says
Al-Jandali Al-Rifai family
Who is Steve Jobs' Syrian immigrant father, Abdul Fattah Jandali?
How Syrian is Steve Jobs?
Steve Jobs: adopted a child who never met his biological father
Abdulfattah John Jandali Biography, Wiki, Religion, Restaurant & More
8iRoots: Steve Jobs' Arab Ancestry
Steve Jobs - Wikipedia
Mona Simpson
Steve Jobs (book)
Steve jobs in his own words not being arab
'Syrian pride' stopping Steve Jobs' biological dad from calling his son
Dad waits for Jobs for iPhone