Last week, thousands of Jews made an annual pilgrimage to visit the grave of Rabbi Yeshaya Steiner of Kerestir, known as Reb Shayala Kerestirer, on the 3 Iyar yahrtzeit (date of his passing) in 1925.Lufthansa flights from JFK and Newark to Frankfurt on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, were filled with Jews, mostly Hasidic.[Many Jews booked through agencies.] Dozens of other Jews on the flight booked their own travel not as part of any group, some with cash and others using miles. It would seem that somewhere between 135-170 Jews were on the flights in total, [about 80% of the flight.]
[H]alfway through the flight, a pilot made an announcement that the flight attendants were frustrated with people blocking the galleys in prayer, and for having to repeat themselves about needing to wear a mask. He warned that people not obeying orders would have a problem with their connecting flight.
From talking to several passengers in economy, it seems like there were a couple of isolated masking issues in economy class, both among some visibly Hasidic Jews as well as non-Jews. It’s a shame that they flouted the rules, but it’s unclear why those few passengers weren’t singled out for punishment as would happen on most airlines in the world.What happened next is just astounding.Usher Schik was one of the first passengers to arrive at the connecting gate to Budapest. He was surprised to see police officers coming to the gate, at first half a dozen, and then two dozen armed officers. [As he] was sitting at a nearby gate, his brother-in-law ran to tell him that his name had been paged to board the flight. When he went up to board the gate agent asked if he was part of “the group from NYC.” He said that he was not with any group and had booked his own ticket with his miles, however the gate agent denied him boarding. When he asked why his name was paged to board, the Lufthansa agent had an officer push him away from the boarding area.
Yitzy [Schmidt] tried asking the Lufthansa agent if being Jewish made him part of “the group from NYC,” but police kept them away from the Lufthansa agents, while saying that they were just there to enforce what Lufthansa tells them to do. It seemed to him that Lufthansa was using the police to shy away from answering passengers’ questions.It appears that the only Jews that made it onto the connecting flight to Budapest were first class passengers and business partners Max Weingarten and Eli Meisels.Max tells me that when they heard individuals being paged, he quickly got in line behind them and was able to board. He has wearing a black polo shirt and didn’t look like most of the Hasidic Jews on the flight and had no problem boarding. Max readily admits that he wasn’t wearing a mask in first class from JFK to Frankfurt as the flight attendant also wasn’t masked and nobody asked him to wear a mask.Eli tried boarding behind him, but when they scanned his boarding pass it blinked red and said do not board. The gate agent asked if he was coming from JFK, and he said yes. Eli was wearing a white dress shirt, as were most of the Jewish passengers on the flight, but unlike most of the others, he was wearing a baseball cap. His business partner Max in the black polo shirt but wearing a yarmulka, was already in the jetbridge, but came back to see what was going on. Max explained that Eli was his business partner and the Lufthansa gate agents had a discussion and then allowed him to board the flight. He recalls seeing a Hasidic Jew trying to board, but was denied and pushed away from the area.Eli says there were 5 total people in the Euro-business class section and roughly 12-15 people in economy on the connecting flight to Budapest. After they boarded the captain announced boarding complete, the doors were closed, and the plane pulled away from the gate faster than he has ever seen a plane do so in his life. After moving away from the terminal, the plane sat for several minutes before departing. The plane should have held up to 192 passengers, but took off with no more than 20.
This video shows a Lufthansa agent pretty much agreeing that all the religious looking Jews who boarded at JFK were not allowed on the flight:
Passenger: This is gruesome.Lufthansa: It would have been if you were African, if you were Polander.Passenger: I was wearing a mask the entire time, why am I lumped in with them?Lufthansa: It was one, everyone has to pay for a couple.Passenger: What do you mean everybody, everybody from that race? Everybody else on the flight went.Lufthansa: Not everybody.Passenger: The non-Jewish people on the flight went. Why are only the Jewish people paying for other people’s crimes?Lufthansa: Because it’s Jews coming from JFK.Passenger: Oh, so Jewish people coming from JFK are paying for the crimes of a few people?Lufthansa: NoPassenger: Jewish people are paying for the crimes of Israel?Lufthansa: NoPassenger: Just the Jewish people on that flight?Lufthansa: Do you want to discuss with me or no? Do you want to listen to me?Passenger: I’m like shocked beyond, never in my adult life. I’ve never heard this.Lufthansa: If you want to do it like this, Jewish people who were the mess, who made the problems.Passenger: So Jewish people on the plane made a problem, so all Jews are banned from Lufthansa for the day?Lufthansa: Just for this flight.
Plus this:
[A Lufthansa] agent told Usher that if it were up to them, everyone would have just gone. However the captain of the flight to Budapest decided that he didn’t want any of them on his plane. The gate agent said that they tried arguing with the captain twice to no avail and ultimately it was his call. But Usher points out that with two dozen police officers at the gate, Lufthansa’s intentions were perfectly clear, they had no intention of letting people fly.
Dan notes that first class passengers on the initial flight were not rebuked for not wearing masks, and indeed one of the first class flight attendants did not wear one either.
The Frankfurt airport does not require masks.
Lufthansa is saying they did nothing wrong.
This is the definition of stereotyping and bigotry.
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