WATCH: Lufthansa Bars Over 100 Orthodox Jews From Connecting Flight Over Mask Dispute
More than 100 Orthodox Jews were barred from boarding their connecting Lufthansa flight in Germany because some of the Orthodox Jewish passengers refused to wear a mask, as required, during their previous flight.
The incident happened following the first leg of a pilgrimage from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to the Hungarian capital of Budapest that had a stopover in Frankfurt. It was there that, according to a video that has gone viral on Twitter, a Lufthansa representative told passengers that the Jews were kicked off due to the actions of a couple of their fellow Jewish passengers.
Rep from @lufthansa : “It was Jewish people who made the mess, Jewish people made the problem.”
Jewish customer: “Jewish people on the plane made a problem so all Jewish people are banned for the day?”
Rep: “Just from this flight.”
Vid from @DansDeals https://t.co/uSf9wW71Ne https://t.co/EdEMuj0LGh pic.twitter.com/rULKGROIxY
— The Meturgeman (@HaMeturgeman) May 8, 2022
“I’m not with the group [that got kicked off]. I understand the pilot made a decision. We don’t question the pilots’ decisions, but apparently, we’re banned from other Lufthansa flights,” said one passenger. “Is this a Lufthansa decision that all Jewish people on that flight, we can’t go on any other flight today? Because this is 2022 and this is a Western country. So this is to go to upper management because this is an [anti-Semitic act].”
The representative said that the same would’ve happened “if you were African…”
“Everybody has to pay for a couple of,” she added as the passenger grilled her.
The passenger said that non-Jews on the plane were allowed to proceed.
“Because it’s Jewish [people] coming from JFK,” said the representative.
“It was Jewish people who were the mess, who made the problems,” she added.
The representative said that the Jews were banned from just that flight.
Dov Hikind, founder of the group Americans Against Antisemitism, verified the video for Mediaite. He spoke to the people involved in filming it. There has been no refund or apology to the passengers that were stopped from boarding their second flight, according to Hikind.
According to the Hebrew-language newspaper Hamodia, as reported by Insider, the group of passengers barred from their connection “split up and traveled to their destination in Hungary using different airlines and various routes, making their way there via Poland, Slovakia, and Austria.”
Lufthansa confirmed the incident in a statement, noting that a “larger group of passengers” was not allowed to board their connecting flight. “This happened in connection with the previous flight LH401 from New York to Frankfurt, where some of the passengers with a planned onward journey to Budapest had refused to wear masks — even after being asked to do so by the crew.”
“As a general rule, Lufthansa is obliged to follow the legal requirements valid in Germany,” the statement concluded.
A video of the incident was removed from YouTube for violating its terms of service.
This is not the first time Orthodox Jewish passengers were kicked off for the actions of a few of their own.
Last year, Orthodox Jewish passengers were also kicked off a Frontier Airlines flight after a Hasidic family was kicked off for their toddler not wearing a mask even though CDC guidelines don’t require toddlers to wear masks. Also, last year, Delta Airlines booted 18 Orthodox girls from two planes.
Watch above, via Dan’s Deals.
