I recently stumbled upon this lovely TEDxJaffa talk given by Ronny Edry, an Israeli graphic designer. It’s from 2012, back when most people still felt strongly that Facebook connected people—and the relationship between Israel and Iran was fraught in familiar ways.

Edry told the story of an unusual poster he made: a photo of himself holding an Israeli flag, with his young daughter perched on his hip, over which boldly colorful text declared, “Iranians, We Will Never Bomb Your Country, We ❤️ You.”

He made the poster in response to a conversation he heard at the grocery store in Israel, where the owner and customers worried about Iranian bombs coming their way. The fear: They were going to get ten thousand missiles a day reigning down on their heads.

“‘Ten thousand missiles.’ This is the context,” said Edry. “This is where we are now in Israel. We have this war with Iran coming for 10 years now, and we have people, you know, afraid. It’s like every year it’s the last minute that we can do something about the war with Iran. It’s like, if we don’t act now, it’s too late forever, for 10 years now.”

A graphic designer makes posters, so he made the “We ❤️ You” poster, shared it on Facebook, and went on with his life. “Most of the time, I make posters, I post them on Facebook, my friends like it, don’t like it, most of the time don’t like it, don’t share it, don’t nothing, and it’s another day,” he said good-naturedly.

But this poster was different.

Suddenly, Erby had friends from Iran. And they were surprised and grateful. “Because you have to understand, in Israel we don’t talk with people from Iran. We don’t know people from Iran. It’s like, on Facebook, you have friends only from—it’s like your neighbors are your friends on Facebook. And now people from Iran are talking to me.”

And then he had a sudden rush of orders for posters—from other Israelis who wanted photos of themselves with the same language. So, he decided to make it a thing. “I went to my neighbors and friends and students and I just asked them, give me a picture, I will make you a poster. And that’s how it started.”

Click through to hear his sweetly funny tale—it’s definitely better in his voice—and the many, many beautiful posters he made from Israeli and Iranian Facebook messages, as well as the posters Iranian designers made in return. You’re going to want to watch all the way to the end, trust me.

Edry’s thing turned into a thing.

Enjoy this bit of hope from way back in 2012, when Israelis and Iranians swapped posters and got to know each other better, and when Facebook helped make life a little bit better for a volatile corner of the world.

Where there’s a ❤️ there’s a way.

Ellen McGirt
@ellmcgirt
Ellen.McGirt@fortune.com

On Point

BAFTAs so white? The British Academy of Film and Television Arts announced its annual BAFTA award nominees yesterday, with only white actors in all the major acting categories. The #BAFTAsSoWhite hashtag was swift. “Neither Lupita Nyong’o, Jennifer Lopez, or Jodie Turner-Smith were nominated for their outstanding and challenging performances. But Margot Robbie was nominated for saying 10 lines in 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood'? The BAFTAs are moving backwards,” tweeted activist and attorney Benjamin Crump. Click through for the full weight of the missed opportunities.
Too Fab

Economists take on racism and sexism in their profession The annual meeting of economists was held last weekend in San Diego, and there were visible signs that the scientists were facing some overdue facts. There were panels on racism and sexism in their profession; someone held “office hours” specifically to help victims of sexual harassment and abuse. But outgoing American Economic Association (AEA) president and former Federal Reserve chair Ben S. Bernanke says more is coming, including procedures for investigating code of conduct violations and punishing offenders. A 2018 report found widespread sexual abuse across the sciences, but the racial and gender gap in economics is wider than in other fields. Do you think it matters that the people who set economic policy have unaddressed issues with misogyny and race? Send incoming president AEA Janet Yellen all the power vibes, please.
New York Times

The “Bushwick Birkin” is having more than a moment The Telfar Shopping Bag is a simple but elegant carry-all tote, comes in three sizes, and is affordably priced. But Telfar Clemens, the bag’s designer, has created a fashion sensation, a “Brooklyn-based status symbol” that has been seen on the arm of celebrities like Solange and influencers on social media. The bag debuted in 2015 but didn’t catch fire until 2017, when Clemens won the top prize of $400,000 at the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards. The Liberian-American who grew up in Queens says his clothes are “genderless, democratic, and transformative,” and accessible to people who aren’t white and rich. People LOVE the bag and the joyful buzz around it. “I have always felt super-black, like black as fuck, but I feel extra black as fuck when I wear this bag,” says Raven Baker, a Brooklyn-based video producer and social-media editor.
The Cut

Silvio Horta, creator of Ugly Betty, has died Horta was responsible for adapting the hit Colombian telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea, into the groundbreaking series that ran on ABC from 2006 to 2010. He served as showrunner and head writer for the award-winning series, which followed the travails of Betty Suarez, a brilliant Mexican-American woman who lands a job at a fashion magazine. Series star America Ferrara expressed her shock on Instagram, adding, “His talent and creativity brought me and so many others such joy [and] light. I’m thinking of his family and loved ones who must be in so much pain right now- and of the whole Ugly Betty family who feel this loss so deeply.” Silvio died by suicide yesterday in a Miami hotel. He was 45.
Variety

On Background

Why does Puerto Rico have so many earthquakes? Turns out, the magnitude 6.4 earthquake which jolted Puerto Rico yesterday was not an aberration—since December 28, some 400 earthquakes of a magnitude of 2 or greater have been recorded in the region. Aftershocks are still continuing. Why? “There’s just a lot of complicated tectonics happening in a really close area,” Wendy Bohon, an earthquake geologist at the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) tells National Geographic. The story explains the science behind the “earthquake swarms” that characterize the island’s unique tectonic vulnerability, while noting the human cost. “These people have been through a lot,” says Bohn.
National Geographic

A “Catfish Queer” tells all Confession: I’ve never watched the television show Catfish, the MTV series about online relationships and, uh, disappointment. But this essay from Maddy Court, a writer from Appleton, Wis., offers more than a simple review. The self-described “queer spending-the-summer-in-my-hometown” sad sack who had little to do after earning her MFA sweetly chronicles a world of love, questing, and identity, and a deeply specific kind of longing. “Catfish is populated by fat queers, rural queers, poor queers, disabled queers, and queer people of color,” she begins, and their commoditized drama reveals some important truths about the world. While the show and its hosts are far from perfect, the show “has been serving diverse, bittersweet queer representation for almost a decade and it seems like nobody notices.”
Autostraddle

Poet Nikki Finney: History tells us there is always a renaissance of the arts in a society when war has been declared This is one of the many important tidbits gleaned from this interview with poet, professor, and 2011 National Book Award-winner Nikki Finney, a thoughtful and dedicated South Carolinian who has mined her life experience for rich insights. She discusses her upcoming book, Lovechild’s Hotbed of Occasional Poetry, due this year. One poem is dedicated to her father, the first black justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court. “My mother gave birth to me but my father gave birth to my sense of justice and fairness,” she writes.
Scalawag Magazine

Quote

"During bad circumstances, which is the human inheritance, you must decide not to be reduced. You have your humanity, and you must not allow anything to reduce that. We are obliged to know we are global citizens. Disasters remind us we are world citizens, whether we like it or not."

—Maya Angelou in an interview with CNN (2011)