Over 100 Jews Barred From Lufthansa Flight Because Some Didn’t Wear Masks

By Reuvain Borchardt

Last updated Tuesday, May 10, 2022 at 20:50

A Lufthansa plane at Frankfurt Airport. (File)

NEW YORK — More than 100 Orthodox Jews were barred from taking their Lufthansa connecting flight Wednesday, though only some of them, perhaps as few as just one or two, had violated the airline’s mask policy.

The initial Lufthansa flight left JFK airport shortly after 4 p.m. Tuesday, May 3, en route to Frankfurt. The flight included Orthodox Jews who were traveling to Hungary for the yahrtzeit of Reb Shayala of Kerestir, zy”a, with a planned connecting flight from Frankfurt to Budapest. According to estimates by passengers who spoke with Hamodia, there were approximately 150 Orthodox Jews onboard, comprised of several groups and individuals.

While a U.S. federal judge recently overturned the federal mask requirement for flights, Lufthansa, per German law, still requires its passengers to wear masks. Nearly all the Jewish passengers complied with the mask mandate, according to to several passengers who spoke with Hamodia for this article.

Passenger Nachman Kahana says that “one or two people” on the flight did not wear masks, and there was an issue over it with “one of the stewards.”

Another passenger, who asked to be identified only as Yaniv, says that in his section of the plane, all the Jewish passengers except one were wearing masks. “A flight attendant asked him to put a mask on, and he did,” says Yaniv. “He then took it off to drink, but she said, ‘You have to wear it between sips.’ ” Yaniv said he doesn’t believe this passenger was the cause of the problems, because after he put the mask on the flight attendant remained on friendly terms with him. 

Yaniv alleges that another nearby passenger who was not Jewish was wearing her mask only on her chin, but the flight attendant didn’t say anything to her.

The plane arrived in Frankfurt on Wednesday morning, and the Jewish passengers davened Shacharis, then headed to their connecting flight to Budapest.

However, they say, the Lufthansa agents began boarding only the non-Jewish passengers. Then, when only Jewish passengers remained at the gate, video taken by a passenger shows a Lufthansa official announcing, “Due to operational reasons coming from the flight from New York, for all passengers here we have to cancel you on this flight.”

As to how many passengers on the first flight had actually violated the mask policy, Yaniv said that a Lufthansa agent stated there had been one, and that a police officer at the airport said there had been two. 

Several other passengers who spoke with Hamodia say that only two passengers had refused to wear masks.

Yaniv says that when he protested that he, as well as the 31 others in his group, had all been wearing masks, and that any mask-violators were not in his group, a Lufthansa agent replied, “You’re Jewish.”

According to Nachman Kahana, “They explicitly said that nobody who is dressed alike on that plane is going to board the Lufthansa plane to Budapest.”

“They banned us because we are Jews,” says Kahana. “That’s the only reason.”

“Why should they ban everyone for just one or two people not wearing masks?” says Yaniv. “This was antisemitic discrimination.”

According to Yaniv, when passengers protested, a Lufthansa employee said that a company vice president had made the decision to bar the travelers. And when the passengers asked the police officers at the gate for their names, the officers refused to give their names.

Kahana called the U.S. consulate for assistance. “The person I spoke with asked to talk to Lufthansa customer service,” Kahana says. “I tried going to the customer service counter. But the agent at the gate he said he got the message that no one from this flight can go to customer service.”

The stranded passengers scrambled to get to Kerestir in Hungary before the yahrtzeit was over.

Kahana’s group got a flight from LOT Polish Airlines to Warsaw, then traveled to Kashau (Košice) in Slovakia, from where they took a bus to Reb Shayale’s kever in Kerestir (Bodrogkeresztúr), finally arriving in the evening.

“We got here at almost 7:00, instead of 2:00,” Kahana says. “But at least we made it.”

Yaniv’s group took an Austrian Airlines flight to Vienna, then drove to Kerestir. When he initially spoke with Hamodia, he said he feared they would miss the yahrtzeit.

But in a subsequent call, he said the group arrived at the kever 25 minutes before sunset.

“Baruch Hashem we made it on time for the yahrtzeit,” he exclaimed.

Yaniv said that after he takes his return flights home, “I will for sure never fly Lufthansa again.”

In a statement to Hamodia on Wednesday, May 4, a Lufthansa spokesperson wrote, “We find the claim of anti-Semitism unwarranted and without merit!” and issued a statement emphasizing that passengers must wear masks, and saying, “We confirm that a larger group of passengers could not be carried today on Lufthansa flight LH1334 from Frankfurt to Budapest, because the travelers refused to wear the legally mandated mask (medical mask) on board.”

The spokesperson would not answer Hamodia’s questions about how many people were banned from the connecting flight, and how many of them had not worn masks on the initial flight, and whether all Orthodox Jews were excluded because some had not worn masks.

Then, over the weekend, the website Dan’s Deals published a lengthy article on the incident, with testimonials and videos from passengers. One video shows a Lufthansa agent explicitly stating that all Jews were being banned because some had not worn masks.

“I was wearing a mask the whole time,” asks the passenger filming the video. “Why am I lumped in with them?”

“Everybody has to pay for a couple,” the agent responds, and goes on to say, “Jewish people who were the mess, who made the problems.”

The passenger asks, “Jewish people on the plane made a problem, so all Jews are banned from Lufthansa for the day?”

“Just for this flight,” responds the agent.

(YouTube removed the video Monday morning, for “violating YouTube’s policy on hate speech.” By the afternoon, it had been restored, and YouTube tweeted at Dan’s Deals, “confirming we reinstated your video & removed the warning from your channel! so sorry this happened, we absolutely should have taken into account the proper context when reviewing this the first time & we’ve passed this feedback along to improve future reviews.”)

The firestorm over the incident grew, with increased media coverage, Jewish organizations like the ADL and Agudath Israel calling for investigations, and with the video evidence of the Lufthansa agent explicitly stating that many Jews were being punished for the violations of the few. On Tuesday, May 10, Lufthansa issued a statement to Hamodia in which it apologized and admitted that not all banned passengers had violated the policy.

Below is the statement, in full:

On May 4, a large number of booked passengers were denied boarding on their onward flight with LH 1334 from Frankfurt to Budapest.  

Lufthansa regrets the circumstances surrounding the decision to exclude the affected passengers from the flight, for which Lufthansa sincerely apologizes. 

The reasoning for the decision was based upon various instances of non-compliance by numerous guests with mask requirements and crew-safety instructions on the previous flight LH401 from New York to Frankfurt. 

Regulatory requirements in Germany and other markets obligate airlines to enforce the wearing of medical or FFP2 masks on board flights for all passengers and crewmembers. 

While Lufthansa is still reviewing the facts and circumstances of that day, we regret that the large group was denied boarding rather than limiting it to the non-compliant guests.

We apologize to all the passengers unable to travel on this flight, not only for the inconvenience, but also for the offense caused and personal impact.  

Lufthansa and its employees stand behind the goal of connecting people and cultures worldwide.

Diversity and equal opportunity are core values for our company and our corporate culture.  What transpired is not consistent with Lufthansa’s policies or values. We have zero tolerance for racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination of any type. 

We will be engaging with the affected passengers to better understand their concerns and openly discuss how we may improve our customer service. 

But some criticized this apology for not stating explicitly that Jews were discriminated against, and for continuing to refer to the banned passengers as a “group.”

The ADL tweeted, “This non-apology fails to admit fault or identify the banned passengers as Jews. It also refers to them as a group, even though many were strangers. They had one commonality — being visibly Jewish.”

New York Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein tweeted, “It wasn’t a ‘large group’, it was individual Chasidic Jews that had nothing in common other than their religion that you blatantly discriminated against. The firsthand accounts I’ve heard are deeply disturbing. This “apology” by @lufthansa is not even worth the piece of paper.”

Orthodox activist Chaskel Bennett tweeted, “Let me fix [the statement]. Lufthansa is deeply ashamed for excluding Jews from flight LH 1334 on May 4. We apologize & will conduct a full investigation into this unacceptable prejudice & terminate anyone found to have violated our policy. We understand the pain caused & ask for forgiveness.”

A Lufthansa spokesperson did not respond to Hamodia’s request for comment on the criticisms of its statement.

rborchardt@hamodia.com

To Read The Full Story

Are you already a subscriber?
Click to log in!