into that. that that he will most definitely follow into his father s footsteps. i don t want him to feel that he has no choices. you do have choices and you make your life what you want it to be. you have that power. the power of choice. it s a message that zach carries with him everywhere he goes and today is no different. in new york, he s about to take his turn at shaping future global policy by speaking to an international audience. as an adult, i decided i was going to use what my father did as a means to bring attention to greater causes. i want people to realize that what is in me is inside all of them. that our choices matter. that the implications of our
they drove us to my uncle s car at his apartment in brooklyn and already two detectives waiting there. zach s father was already in jail being charged with murder. i couldn t put together how i could have a loving father capable of such terrible things. as a child, zach new little of the man his father was accused of killing, rabbi mayor kanane. he was controversial, radical. i want to make it clear to those dogs standing there, there is no such thing as an arab village in the state of israel. it is a jewish village temporarily in habit by arabs. after you visited your father for the first time in prison, what did he say to your family about what he had done or didn t do? he said he was innocent. that s all i needed to hear. even if he did what he did there
different. i was dividing people into different groups based on nonsense about people s skin color or sexuality or religion. i had been raised to believe there was a natural animosity between muslims and jews. what was the turning point for you? i turned 18 and started working at an amusement park where i was interacting with all different kinds of people and made me realize much of what i had been taught was a lie. in this magical place, a place that draws all walks of life, zach found the one thing he had been missing for so long. people who i judged and who i hated showed me kindness. the first time i met a gay friend, it was clear did not approve of his lifestyle and yet he showed me kindness. i decided i didn t want to perpetuate the same cycles and hatred my father advocated for. do you think at a certain
this is 34-year-old zach ibrahim. once again, he s leaving town. he has moved more than 30 times and even changed his name. a nomadic life that began when he was just a little boy. in 1983, zach was born in pittsburgh to an american schoolteacher and an egyptian industrial engineer. how would you describe your childhood in those early years with your father? i have a lot of really wonderful memories of my father. he was very funny, very caring. growing up muslim, he would wake me up every morning to make the first prayer of the day. we would have time together and he would talk to me and he felt very much a part of our lives. in pittsburgh, the family regularly attended mosque, until
february 26, 1993, in new york city, it began as a regular day, but at 12:18 p.m., it would make history. i was homesick from school that day. i was watching television and was interrupted by breaking news. pandemonium at new york s world trade center after a powerful explosion less than three hours ago. there were people being brought out of the building, smoke billowing out of the doors and window, soot covering people s faces. before 9/11, there was another terrorist attack on the world trade center. the 1993 bombing claimed six lives that day and a federal investigation would reveal 10 men had conspired to plan it. one of them was zach s father,