Dozens of Chabad shluchim were reportedly harassed on a flight to Israel by an American Airlines flight attendant as they returned home from the recent Chabad kinus in Crown Heights.
According to several shluchim on the flight, the harassment began immediately upon boarding the aircraft, and reached its climax when the shluchim got up and stood in the plane’s aisles to daven shacharis.
The many shluchim standing in the aisles blocked the passage of one of the stewardesses, who promptly announced that food and drink would no longer be distributed; only passengers who came to the plane’s kitchen and specifically requested food or drink would receive any.
However, as a line formed by the kitchen, a new rule was announced: food and drink would only be given to passengers who did not look frum. This understandably caused outrage among the shluchim and their families on the flight, and tensions spilled over, resulting in the offending attendant calling security onto the plane upon landing in Israel.
After a brief investigation by Israeli security personnel during which the passports of a number of shluchim were confiscated, the details of the incident emerged and the Chabad emissaried were allowed to enter Israel.
A lawsuit alleging discrimination is reportedly now being prepared against the flight attendant and American Airlines.
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33 Responses
The videos accompanying this article tell me nothing.
So don’t daven in the aisles.
What’s the point of the videos? They don’t show anything
What right do they have to daven in the aisle of the plane. We are in golus. Be discreet in your behaviour and don’t stir up the hatred of the goyim!
As a fellow Chabadnik, I feel the pain and frustration of those flying. HOWEVER, if the men were indeed standing in the aisles for davening, and impeding the distribution by the flight attendants, then as much as the attendant’s reaction was discriminatory and unprofessional, a large part of the blame lies on those who acted without concern for the world around them. Shacharis or no shacharis, there’s never a good time for Chilul Hashem.
Edit: shluchim drive flight attendant up the wall and then put her into a catch 22
Daven in your seat and you won’t have these issues.
To endanger people walking is wrong. You can daven sitting.
i too had a horrible horrible expereince with american airlines
even before boarding i got tormented – and i am a woman not a man, did not do a thing to provoke anyone
they are a terrible terrible airlines
Tefilah requires kavanas ha’lev. That CANNOT be accomplished while people are trying to get by you to get to the facilities or to service the passangers. It is for this reason, and this reason alone (not Chillul HaShem, and not endangerment of other passangers) that any posek who is asked this questions answers to daven in ones seat is preferred. It is also why all the Gedolim – Rav Schwab, Rav YaakovRav Hutner, and many others – always davenned in their seats.
Let’s not confuse the issue with Chillul HaSehm, anti-semetism, or endagerment all of which put the blame on some outside factor or individual. As will ALL tests in this world, it is about the one being tested! ALWAYS! And here we are being tested in our willingness to daven with proper kavannah. PERIOD!
We can only block the aisle, if make sure not to exclude Non-Yiddishe patients from our Teffilos ( eg. Rofeh Choilei Amo Yisroel). Even when we say “Hagomel Chasodim Tovim L’amoi Yisroel”, we should have in mind all decent People.
I do not know from this article if it is justified to call this antisemitism, but as reported it does not sound like it was. If it was, that would be different.
Normally speaking, davening with a minyan on a flight is a preference, not a right. But only if it does not interfere with staff and passengers who need the restroom. Otherwise, many poskim have already declared: remain seated during davening.
…And that was before the virus… Now the airline may have even more strict rules about it.
When in doubt, rely on the chasdei HaShem that your prayer while seated will be accepted, and do Darchay Shalom, and avoid troubling anyone.
We have to be extra careful avoiding Chillul HaShem. Planes werer NOT built for davening, paticularly during mealtimes. Sorry, I vote with the majority of the other comments. AA 1- Chabad 0
My Rav told me to daven in my seat on a plane.
The davening in the aisles really disturbs other passengers who also paid the price e to fly and fly comfortably. This is not an answer for why flight crews of Delta and American seem to have more brawls with their Jewish customers. I, for one do notwith them. them.
Oops! Hit the Post button!
I do not fly with them. They are not nice to their customers. United started to get Twitter but… not there yet.
The davening in the aisles really disturbs other passengers who also paid the price e to fly and fly comfortably. This is not an answer for why flight crews of Delta and American seem to have more brawls with their Jewish customers. I, for one do not fly with them. They’re routinely not nice. United is not far behind although they’re improving. Bottom line! We still need to be the best we can be, always!
This is the same airline that ousted a frum couple for their alleged body odor.
That does not bode well for frum people flying with them.
This flight attendant handled it very poorly, and should be either dismissed or disciplined severely for her gross misconduct.
However, davening in the aisle blocks the passageway, not only of the flight attendants, but of the passengers who need the restroom (and some people can’t wait till davening is over).
The only respectable way this could have been handled is by asking an attendant if there is an area they can use briefly to daven. If they were refused, then they needed to work with the given.
Definitely discrimination.
Did you ever see the flight attendants bother non-religious people who block the aisles en-masse, for half-an-hour at a time, thinking only of themselves, only stopping to scream at the flight attendants and at everyone who dares object?
OK, now that I think of it, it’s only the frum people who consider themselves entitled to do that; non-frum don’t.
So forget my question.
The Chabad Shluchim had another option:- Don’t travel anywhere, and you are assured to never miss your local Minyan & with space to stand for Amidah as well
yaakov doe:
What is your point? They don’t have the same Rav as you and neither does anyone else.
Typical all the Jewish haters are out in mass right here in their favorite place TWN
One sided story!!!
Spoke to somebody on that flight, yes a PASSENGER ON THE FLIGHT
The AA crew were not ready for this type of crowd but the Shluchim clearly did not coordinate their davening with the crew, they acted as they run the show bc the plane was clearly majority Chabad.
Shacharis was a long stretch which took a few hours for a few minyanim, then they sang שיבנה בית המקדש.
“The harassment started when they davened shmoneh esrei in the aisle”, are you crazy, this is a public flight, who gives you a heter to daven in the aisle!!!! In addition, the בעל תפילה also davened חזרת הש”ץ in the aisle and that’s when they cancelled the second meal, bc that was the 2nd meal time.
I would give this article a slightly different header “Chabad Shluchim clash with AA crew when trying to make the plane a Chabad House”
I’ve been flying AA for 30+ years, including a lot of international routes and never observed overt anti-semitic behavior by the flight crews. Any airline with 6,700 flights per day to nearly 350 destinations in more than 50 countries will always have anecdotal incidents like this but they are rare and not reflective of any institutional bias or regular pattern of behavior. I’ve seen more overt broigas on this issue of davening in the aisles/blocking galleys on El Al than other airlines and El Al flight attendants have supposedly been trained on how to “de-escalate” these incidents.
I am glad most everyone here is in violent agreement. One more nekuda – these (gentle?)menchen were allegedly on “shlichut”. I wonder how many people they were able to attract to Yiddishkeit during this flight?
Maybe they are akin that proverbial Israeli bus driver who made so many people to daven. These guys possibly prompted a lot of people to say Gomel after they (the people) were released from the ordeal.
Is Ader not happy with the leshonos of Tefila established by Chazal?
y2r, you don’t understand flight attendants to be upset by people praying in the isles?
If people understood how much their Tfilos to their Rebbe helped the world you would want them blocking for another hour. When with laser focus they are pleading every Bracha of Shmoneh Esrei to the Rebbe it makes a tremendous difference in the world.
Gadolhadorah: how can an anti-Semite feel anti-Semitism? Probably only if it involves blood
I definitely only fly United to Israel. By far the most accommodating, patient and professional airline to Israel.
AA is a disaster. My wife and I took an AA flight to Israel abut 2 months ago and a MALE flight attendant unlocked the bathroom door on my wife and opened it without any warning or even a knock. He claimed it was “procedure”. It still sounds bizarre even writing about it. It was a total violation and breach of privacy. I tried reaching out to a few lawyers about a suit and no one knew where to even start. If anyone’s got any ideas please let me know… (I have video documentation of him admitting to it)
Kuvult i hope you are being sarcastic
Kuvult. I am not sure if you are aware, but davening to a person is api’korsus. You can only daven to Hashem. It doesn’t matter how holy the person is. Maybe you can daven b’zchus someone. Which is what people do by k’varim.
R R R, unites stopped giving kosher meals “due to covid” , but they provide every other meal. very accommodating