Jobs, who died of cancer at the age of 56 on Wednesday, was given up for adoption soon after his birth in San Francisco to an American mother, Joanne Carole Schieble, and a Syrian-born father, Abdulfattah “John” Jandali.
Jandali, 80, a former academic, has told how Schieble’s “tyrant” father refused to allow his daughter to marry a Syrian and so the baby was adopted by a married couple from California, Paul and Clara Jobs.
Only in recent years did Jandali, born in the Syrian city of Homs and latterly an executive of the Boomtown Casino in Reno, Nevada, realize that the Apple chief was his son.
“Without telling me, Joanne upped and left to move to San Francisco to have the baby without anyone knowing, including me,” Jandali told the New York Post in an interview in August. “She did not want to bring shame onto the family and thought this was best for everyone.”
Many Syrians were unaware of the connection between Apple and their homeland until recently. But they were quick to embrace Jobs when news broke of his death.
Users of the social networking site Twitter were also quick to draw parallels with Syria’s uprising against President Bashar Assad.
“The wrong Syrian died today,” said one Twitter user, echoing sentiments of the Syrian leader’s bitter opponents.
“A sick world we live in when Steve Jobs has to die of cancer and Bashar Assad remains Syria’s cancer,” another opposition supporter said on the website.
Others hailed Jobs as “a great Arab American” and “the most famous Arab in the world.”
In Syria, some people said Jobs would have been unlikely to have had such a stellar career if he had lived in the land of his father’s birth.
“I felt sad, not because he is of Syrian origin but because we will miss the inventor and his inventions,” said Rana, a 21-year-old student. “But I think that if he had stayed in Syria, he would not have invented anything.”
“This is sad and we will miss a lot of his achievements, but the company will continue,” said Ali, a website designer. “If he had lived and died in Syria, he would not have accomplished anything.”
A 28-year-old Damascus resident, who gave his name as Ahmed, said he was happy to learn that Jobs had Syrian antecedents, although he was unable to afford any of Apple’s products.
