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Professor turns into baby whisperer when student's child cries during class

A photo of a professor at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University holding a baby during a lecture is making Sydney Engelberg a household name.

When a student's baby started crying in class at Hebrew University, one professor did a very neat thing.

What a mensch.

This image of a man holding a baby has ignited an important conversation about parents and education. (Sarit Fishbaine)

Hebrew University's Sydney Engelberg — who allows his students to bring their babies to class — is making headlines right now not for his intellectual prowess, but for his baby whispering talents.

A photo of the professor holding a baby during one of his lectures has captured the hearts of thousands since it was uploaded to Imgur by a student on Monday.

The story behind the picture is as follows: When one of the babies starts crying, instead of insisting the mother (many of whom are mature students) leaves, Engelberg picks up the baby and soothes it, all the while continuing to lecture. 

And apparently, he's quite good at it.

"He's gotten love letters," the professor's very amused wife, Fredi Siskind Engelberg, tells Yahoo Parenting, noting that he's been getting nonstop calls from radio and TV stations.

"He's pretty blasé about it, and we just find it all very funny," she said. "I think it must have happened on a no-news day."

(Sarit Fishbaine)

This is what his daughter, Sarit Fishabine, had to say about her father on Facebook. (The language has been translated from Hebrew to English and may seem choppy.)

"The University is known in Jerusalem.
The course-organizational behavior.
Teacher-Dr. Sidney Engelberg. 
The event-one's understanding of the students attended class, begins to cry. Instead it drops out, the teacher (who is also an accountant grandfather) did not hesitate to soothe the baby himself and continues the nonchalance that lesson. 
In short, this moment where you discover that a foreign student documenting the situation. 
Apparently all his courses to bring mothers and breastfeeding their children regularly. 
That's what I call "organizational behavior"! Show me another run like that.
Because my father is the best in the world."

In the three days since the photo hit Imgur, it has been viewed over a million times.