I am writing this as a Lakewood mother whose daughter is currently stuck in Israel. And I know I am far from the only one.
Like many heimishe families, we sent our daughters to seminary in Eretz Yisroel this year. It is not easy to send a child across the world, but we do it because we believe in the year of growth and what it gives our daughters.
Then the war broke out. Every mother knows the feeling since then. You go to sleep with the phone next to you. Every alert from Israel makes your heart race. You count the days until your daughter can come home safely.
We booked tickets with El Al when we sent our daughter. And let’s be honest, those seminary tickets are extremely expensive. Parents paid top dollar when booking originally through the seminary specifically because it was El Al. El Al knows very well that seminary families are strong customers, and every year they charge an arm and a leg. The assumption is simple: when things get complicated, El Al will take care of its passengers.
Instead, the tickets were canceled.
Girls who were supposed to come home have suddenly found themselves stranded. There was no proper warning, no organized plan, and no clear communication about what happens next.
These are seminary girls. They packed their bags thinking they were finally coming home to their parents, and instead they are sitting in Israel with no idea when they will be able to leave.
The frustration from parents is indescribable. We are calling, emailing, trying travel agents, trying anything we can. And the response is chaos. Flights appear and disappear. El Al adds flights and then removes them. Seats show up and vanish within minutes. Parents are left refreshing screens and making frantic calls while the airline seems completely disorganized.
Even more painful is what we are hearing around us. While my daughter who paid full price through her seminary group ticket is stuck in Israel, my neighbor, who originally had a United ticket, somehow managed to get a new ticket home through Europe.
Other people are getting seats while these girls who already had confirmed tickets are being left behind.
How does that make sense? Where is the priority for the passengers who already paid top dollar and were already ticketed?
Heimishe families are among the highest-paying customers El Al has. Seminary flights alone bring the airline enormous revenue every year. Parents choose El Al because we believe that when things go wrong, we will be taken care of. Right now it feels like the opposite.
We are not blaming El Al for the war. No one expects an airline to control a war. But we absolutely expect them to manage their passengers responsibly. There should be a clear system. There should be organized rebooking. There should be communication.
And the passengers who already paid should be treated as a priority.
But instead, it feels like people are being shuffled around randomly while families who did everything right are being ignored.
Parents are hearing that Egypt is an option. But for many families that is simply not realistic. We are hearing frightening stories of girls being harassed along the way and mothers are understandably terrified to send seminary girls through that route.
So the girls remain stuck, and their parents remain helpless.
The airline that took our money has yet to show that it is actually taking responsibility for the passengers it already committed to bring home.
At this point many parents are asking the same question: What exactly are we gaining from paying the high prices of El Al if, when things go wrong, we are treated like we don’t matter? If paying top dollar does not secure our daughters a seat home, if confirmed tickets can simply disappear, and if there is no system to make sure stranded passengers are taken care of first, then what exactly are we paying for?
Maybe the painful lesson many families are learning right now is that paying more for El Al does not actually give us security.
And when a mother is sitting in Lakewood worrying about her daughter stuck in Israel while others manage to find their way home, that realization hurts more than words can describe.
Signed,
A Very Concerned Mother
The views expressed in this letter are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of YWN. Have an opinion you would like to share? Send it to us for review.
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60 Responses
Hey mother dear! Grow up! Your daughter is getting a dose of immature and anxiety messages from you. Stop it! There is something called Ribono Shel Olam – have you ever heard of Him. Stop acting so silly! Your daughter is in good hands. Relax!
“Then the war broke out.” — It broke out in 2023. You choosing to bury your head in the sand and send to EY anyways is not the airlines fault.
Israel is in the middle of a war.
Hashem is helping us defeat our biggest and strongest enemy.
Be grateful to Hashem that your daughter is safe. If she has to spend Pesach in Israel, be grateful to Hashem your daughter is alive and well.
Stop with the complaining. Do you want Hashem to be angry at klal Yisrael because all we do is complain.
What a waste of the 2 minutes to read this. She complains she’s a top paying customer so she should get priority.
Another me, me, me, spoiled brat.
Why did she send her daughter out of the country in the first place? A Jewish girl belongs at home.
We can appreciate your frustration and disappointment. But let’s remember that HaShem runs the world and hopefully you can turn this situation onto a real life learning experience.
Try to put a “shteiging” vibe to the whole matzav, as opposed to a moaning-how-life-is-unfair vibe.
And yes, 2 of my single children were “stuck” in Eretz Yisroel for Pesach during COVID.
Nobody cares to hear your complaints, Lakewood mother.
ELAl has been dealt with a very difficult situation. You simply expect that because it’s run by Frum Jews they can pull out miracles. They are doing there best with the tools given. Enough kvetching.
My seminary age daughter is not stuck. You know why? She went to sem in Brooklyn. My son in yeshiva on the other hand, is still in Israel. Hopefully he’ll get home next week, but I’m not panicking. I know plenty of people in Israel. He’ll be okay. Maybe parents will finally realize that seminary in israel is a scam and stop sending.
Sent several daughters to seminary over the years, and never did the overpriced group flight. Either booked a flight that was arriving around the same time as the group flight(so she joined the girls in the airport.) Or paid for a taxi. (Still much less than group flight).
STOP USING EL AL ALREADY! You know when you keep buying bad quality toilet paper and refuse to buy better? It’s on you. Literally better to fly out of Iraq then this corrupted arrogant group of goons
Bet you weren’t expecting such a response to your letter. Hope you now realize this war is not all about you.
Why do you think your sem girl should get priority over a mother stranded away from her kids. A businesman away from his business? People with medical conditions etc? You sound so entitled.
I hope a very concerned mother isn’t reading the comments. Totally brutal. If you are, ignore them. Clearly none of them have children and if they do, yikes.
“there should be a clear system” “we were treated”
This whole letter is so dystopian. I think we are too used to money making things change we aren’t thinking clearly, Respectfully and I understand your concern but, there’s a war, all the rules don’t apply. Your concerns and annoyances, may have been warrented before a war, but airspace flights are last minute issues during a war……even money doesn’t make you a priority here,
actually money never makes you a priority over others, It’s an _illusion_
Omg seriously?? You’ve got to Relax Mom
Noone is stuck,
1. She’s with hundreds of thousands of Acheinu Bnei Yisroel.
2. Elal is doing whatever they can to get everyone home.
You seem more obsessed with the price you paid for the ticket, and because you paid full fare you expect the airline to pamper you, well tens of thousands paid full fare, you don’t really expect the airline to waive the magic wand and expect to get tens of thousands on flight instantaneously to you? Just sit back and let God Run the World,
Mods don’t post she got enough backlash from everyone else
@rescue: actually there can not be enough backlash for such a letter. Guess what there is a war going on. Some soldiers are dying to protect your daughter and some are laying their lives on the line. Civilians are dying. The US is investing a massive campaign to rid the world of the largest terror organization in the world and all you can think about it is the extra money you paid for a ticket? Demanding better service like the prototypical spoiled American? If this is not a fake letter just trying to get angry responses then it is indeed a very sad reflection on our dor.
friends of kenny and daryl are all getting your daughters seats.
facts.
thievery at its best.
oh wait. lashon hara.
yea ok.
NOT
Chofetz Chaim is clear about a bad shoe maker in a town. SPREAD THE WORD
https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/israel-news/2074355/mailbag-the-el-al-insanity-is-out-of-control.html
https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/israel-news/2490813/el-al-reportedly-facing-tens-of-millions-in-fines-for-price-gouging-during-war.html
https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/israel-news/2410083/immoral-illegal-and-deeply-cynical-el-al-accused-of-wartime-price-gouging-in-explosive-class-action-lawsuit.html
One of the owners of El Al is Rabbi Pinchas Abuhatzeira, son of Rabbi Elazar z”l, who was stabbed and killed by a maniac.
Rabbi Pinchas inherited a staggering $367 million.
El Al worst customer service in the world you can’t get a human even in a case of an emergency. Anytime even not during the war
You have every right to be frustrated and upset at being treated this way. As for most of the comments here, well, it seems the Eirev Rav is alive and well in the YWN audience. Utterly embarrassing. Such crass people as Yaapchik who lack minimal empathy and invoke rhetoric about the RS”O running the world have clearly oozed and trickled down generational crevices, the result of physical abuses and perversions by foreign tormentors carried out against so many other tender Jewish Mothers throughout our painful and torturous history.
Reading the responses to the letter from the “Very Concerned Mother” was deeply disappointing.
One may agree or disagree with the points she raised about airline policies or how flights are being handled during a war. Reasonable people can certainly debate that. But what was striking in the comment section was not thoughtful disagreement – it was the level of harshness directed at a mother who is simply worried about her daughter.
Since when did concern for one’s child become something to ridicule?
Yes, we all know that Hashem runs the world. Yes, we all understand that Israel is in the middle of a difficult war and that many people are suffering far more serious hardships. But acknowledging those truths does not require mocking someone else’s anxiety or speaking to them with cruelty.
The Torah repeatedly emphasizes sensitivity in speech. The prohibition of hurting someone with words – onaas devarim – is taken extremely seriously. It is troubling to see people invoke emunah and bitachon while simultaneously speaking in ways that seem to lack the basic rachmanus that the Torah expects of us.
A mother writing from thousands of miles away about a daughter in a country at war is not something that should provoke ridicule. At the very least it should evoke understanding.
Even if one believes that the airline is doing the best it can under difficult circumstances, it costs nothing to respond with empathy.
In challenging times for Klal Yisrael, we should be strengthening one another – not tearing each other down in anonymous comment sections.
I know nothing about the current situation with El Al and seminary girls, but was put off by the comment made by ujm. Insulting and mocking a mother in tza’ar is really insensitive, to say the least. I have no opinion about the actual situation, but I know that that type of comment lacks basic middos. I would imagine that many people are in this situation (seminary girls or not) and that it’s challenging for most of them. Hashem should help us all during this war, and I’m whishing the best to this the letter writer that everything should work out in the end.
A generation of entitlement. Entitled to go to seminary. Entitled to go on a group flight. Entitled to get the most with her money. Lady, there’s a war going on. Jewish soldiers are fighting on the front lines and in the high skies over enemy territories. When you sent your daughter across the sea you knew there were risks involved as it is a war zone. Yes you paid a lot of money for your ticket. El Al cancels flights and then rebooks when there is availability. Yes your daughter wants to come home for Pesach, but can you believe that there are girls in her seminary who are not coming home? Maybe this is a lesson that money doesn’t buy happiness. Live with the punches and appreciate what you do have.
Also, the whole world knew that war was coming weeks ago. If parents would’ve have been stingy (or maybe tight with money?) they would’ve been wise to bring their sons and daughters home before Purim. It’s not like we don’t hear the daily news. You chose to wait and see what happens and this is the result. Many American Mirrer bochurim were stuck in E”Y by the Yom Kippur war. That’s part of going to Eretz Yisroel. There’s lots of Yidden in Eretz Yisroel camping out in bunkers. She’s not alone.
I feel your pain, and I do think done of the responses are really harsh… but they are right.
We have a booked flight for motzoi Shabbos to get us from Israel to US for our grandson’s wedding. A large part of me is desperate and upset but I also have to accept that at the end of the day, we’re not in charge. Neither is the government. My sheitel and gown are ready, my husband’s sirtug is done… ze hu.
Mother… you do need to calm down. And instead of yelling about El Al (who admittedly do a pretty bad job – again!!) you should be expecting the seminary to make decent arrangements for their students. They are not in the care of El Al, they are in the care if their school.
It sounds like you are regretting sending your daughter to Eretz Yisroel because of the high cost and now you want to get the most from your money to make it worthwhile. No one forced you to send your daughter to Eretz Yisroel. Many nervous mothers, like you, send their daughters to local seminaries. Grow up and face reality of war. Perhaps it seems far away but millions of Yidden are there.
The uncaring and unJewish vitriol against the letter writer is pretty stunning.
We are baishanim, rachamanim and gomlei chasadim. That’s not the way to address a concerned mother whose daughter is stuck in a war-zone.
In addition, her point seems fair, even if you disagree.
If it is true that El Al charges a premium for their tickets with the understanding that they “will be there” for their customer, then she has every right to ask why they were not there for her daughter. This is all the more so if other airlines have managed to help their customers from that same airport.
“The airline said it has contacted affected passengers via WhatsApp, offering rebooking options on alternative flights. Those who responded affirmatively are being assisted with reassignments.
Passengers who have not confirmed their interest in rebooking will not be automatically placed on other flights. Instead, they are eligible for a credit voucher for future travel or a full refund, in line with Israeli law and company policy. Details are available at elalisrael.info/3Oyeyci.“ – VIN News
Does your daughter want a Window or Aisle seat ?
Lady, your daughter wasn’t ANYWAY supposed to go home until after Rosh Chodesh! Obviously passengers whose ticket is for another week and a half isn’t going to be prioritized.
If the money hurts you so much, you can get a refund!
The airline has thousands, possibly millions of stranded passengers who (gasp!!) ALL PAID FULL PRICE!
And you know as well as I do that this is a unique situation, but after June’s attacks, it was something that you knew was possible going in. Everyone knows that if the airspace is closed, even El Al doesn’t fly, but they’ll be the first to start again once airspace reopens.
Pesach isn’t for another 3 weeks, and her ticket wasn’t for another week at least.
Take a chill.
Also, it is the government- not the airline- that keeps changing the rule. The airline would love to take as many people as possible, but the govt keeps changing how many people are allowed on the flights at one time!
The government’s priority is getting citizens home from around the world, and as of yesterday more than half of the people stranded at the start of the war were already home. Your daughter is not a citizen and pays no taxes, and therefore she is not the top priority to the Israeli government. Be patient, wait your turn, and understand that your precious seminary girl going home for pesach is not the most important thing in the world.
Again, you can get a refund of your ticket if it bothers you so much.
Lesson learnt: don’t send young, immature, incapable girls to seminary in Israel. Keep them in Lakewood, Brooklyn etc…. Hashem should keep everyone safe! Hatzlacha
Hi Lakewood Mom!
I am a Jerusalem Mom. Israel is home for all Jews. For me and for my family, and for you and for your daughter, and for the rest of your family, and for all of Am Yisrael.
???? ???? ????????, ?????? ?????? ????? ????? ??????
are not supposed to be cute sayings or songs, they are supposed to be Jewish reality.
It might be comforting for you to remember that halachikly jews have an obligation to live in Israel. B”H your daughter gets to be here for a few more days or weeks. ?????? ????? ??????. Rejoice! Sooner or later she will probably be able to join you in galus. You have my sympathies.
Love how this was obviously supposed to be click bait to bash ELAL and it totally backfired on YWN. Kenny is a one of a kind person!
Some people wish they had daughters.
100% true! Elal is dealing with their customers THE WORST! They shut their phone system and just add you to a flight and cancel you right before! If there’s no new law today to minimize passengers, then if for some odd reason you wanna throw me off the flight, don’t do it right before, they should’ve thrown me off a few days ago and i would’ve been home via egypt!
Why isn’t life easy!??!
I just crossed off your daughter’s name off my son’s Shidduch list. While it’s true she has a great reputation and an amazing resume, she has a Prima Donna as a mother. My son doesn’t need that type of shvigger.
Im amazed what nebech parents of girls have to cough up thirty thousand dollars to send their daughter to seminary in order that a Shadchen calls them to get a shidduch date. Then they have to cough up another thirty to seventy thousand dollars to marry her off. And if you have several daughters do the math. Chassidim are smart. Marry off your daughter young and just have an outdoor quick chupah and just invite the bulk of guests for ten aclock dancing serving kugel. The money people spend on weddings is getting insane. One person I know rented a truck load of furniture as they didn’t like the couches of the hall. Instead of kallahs spending their time preparing for their wedding with tehillim and character building they are shopping like super movie stars. Parents are buying giant silver menorahs,silver esrog boxes,silver Megillah holders,expensive machzirim for two thousand dollars and gowns and sheitlich in the high thousands. No wonder so many parents get heart attacks and go bust. Where is the leadership. What is the meshugas of streimels growing to two feet tall and sheitlich getting longer by the year. It’s runaway gashmiyos destroying middle class families. Expensive party planners. Expensive Hugh bands. Sheva brochas for fifty thousand plus. Streimels can now go for as high as eighteen thousand dollars. Wigs are not far off. The Shidduch crises is getting worse as girls have to now wait a year after seminary before getting first date. We are creating a society of insanity. No wonder everyone is running to therapists and life coaches. We need serious leaders to step in and lay the law down. Streimels dont need to be circus sizes. It’s whats under the streimel that counts. By Covid a wedding on the street was simple and very moving as neighbors stood on porches singing and clapping along. They were mostly humble weddings and there was an atmosphere of ruchnius. Today everyone is running to the five towns of New Jersey and no longer the five towns of Long Island. Take a drive through both communities and see for yourselves. Not that Brooklyn is left out. Apartments are selling for as much as two million dollars. Instead of buying expanding into other areas that are cheaper and getting a one family house there is Massive construction of apartments being built six floors up. Why do peoples choose to live in tuna fish can dwellings. There is zero seichel. It’s monkey sees and monkey does.
ElAl has limits too. It’s a war. There are thousands of people trying to get home to Israel and home to the US. There are extreme limits on how many people can safely take off and arrive at Ben Gurion. I cannot explain why this is so in a public forum, but for those of us who live nearby, trust me when I say that there is reason for caution.
I understand that as a mother you are concerned. But this is primarily an emotional concern, not a rational one. The physical risk to a Seminary girl in Yerushalayim who goes to the ma’amad during a siren is nearly zero. In this entire war with Iran, there have been almost no deaths to people in safe rooms – nearly all serious bodily harm occurred when people stayed outside. She is at greater physical risk getting into a car to drive around Lakewood or Brooklyn. These are cold, hard facts.
Please remember that there are thousands of readers here who live proudly in EY, raising children and sending spouses into places where there is real danger, and doing so with deep emunah and bitachon. Worrying in this forum about your daughter, who is 100% safe in Yerushalayim, shows a lack of sensitvity to those of us with friends, neighbors and family members who are actually putting their lives on the line to protect our land and our people. Over the last week, we have helped so many friends and neighbors with fathers literally on the ground in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and over the air in Iran. Mothers who are in late stage pregnancy, and sending their husbands to protect am yisrael. Families with 7, 8 or 9 kids with fathers running out to war with a gemara daf yomi. This is incredible mesiras nefesh. And yes, some of these mothers are Americans and read this website.
Unless your daughter has a mental health condition, she will be fine. And if she does, it is your responsibility to work with the seminary to keep her in a safe mental space. That means being calm, engaging mental health professionals (there a ton of great ones in Yerushalayim) and helping your daughter grow from this experience. If you need a referral, reach out to Chaim VChessed or Neve. I cannot say enough good things about the amazing American, English-speaking mental health resources for Sem and Yeshiva students.
Throwing punches at ElAl is the last thing Hashem wants from us right now. Please take a breath, say some tehillim, and focus on the bigger issues facing klal yisrael right now.
I wish people would pause and think for a minute before responding. Whether you agree or disagree with someone, please stop the cancel-culture put-downs! There’s a way to get your point across respectfully, without personal insults. You can show empathy for a mother’s worry, while pointing out that, nevertheless, stranded mothers with young children, etc., rightfully have priority.
????? ????? ends up hurting the insulter (in Olam Haba) more than those s/he insulted. I’m not validating the writer’s viewpoint. I’m simply begging you to bear the words of Reb Elimelech mi’Lizhensk’s ????? in mind when speaking or writing. Today is his yartzeit – ??”?. We need his good word on our behalf now more than ever. Many of these responses will not hasten Moshiach’s arrival.
Lakewood Heimish Seminary mother-
I feel for you. No one should be bashing another yid. It is onaas divarim and wrong. The ones doing it are having fun joking at your expense but to you the reactions probably hurt. I’m sorry.
My daughter is also stuck in E”Y so I get the frustration. As you stated, the system is a mess. We have resigned ourselves to the fact that she may spend pesach there while working hard (and davening) to get her home. We lived there for a few years so we are luckier than many – we know people who can host her (and make her a second day) but likely her seminary will be making a matzav for the girls.
Being from out of town, we never booked El Al for any of our daughters and instead the local seminary girls fly direct to E”Y on another airline, in groups, according to the date their seminary starts, costing us much less money. I’m sorry your El Al booking as ‘insurance’ did not pan out (yet).
Now that the situation is what it is- a bit of advice- your daughter’s reaction and anxiety will reflect your own. The more she sees you bent out of shape, the more her response will mirror yours. When little things don’t go your way, what is your reaction? The lines are super long at the store, the one open table at the pizza shop is dirty, the car won’t start….. when the “small” things are not perfectly orchestrated and aligned with our ideal vision, it is an opportunity to model the proper reactions for our children so they in turn will follow suit. Then when the “bigger” problems occur, which they inevitably will, our children will be more resilient and handle them with emunah and bitachon, not anger and blame.
So dear Lakewood mother, do your daughter a favor and model for her now, while she’s still impressionable, that even when things don’t go the way you wish, you have true emunah peshuta. She will get through this and no matter the outcome, be a stronger person. Hashem runs the world. The more she learns resiliency now, the more she will absorb that it’s okay when things don’t pan out exactly as we expected and the better marriage she will have, her relationship with Hashem will be that much better too. Keep trying to get her home (and davening) while realizing that the outcome is only in Hashem’s hands! You will be calmer! Wishing you hatzlacha
@jdb – well said.
an Israeli Yid
Dear Lakewood mother,
You need to pull yourself together, for your own sake. El-al is doing it’s utmost to transport passengers under the circumstances given. Nobody is trying to make life sour for you on purpose.
Please drop the argument of “We paid and therefore we are entitled”
Everyone else also paid, not just you.
When I war and crisis we see the jarring differences between the Israeli population versus The Entitled Americans. It ain’t becoming for frum Jews.
Uch???????????
Nasty shameful ? comments!!!!!
*If you have nothing nice or comforting to say to this concerned mother, don’t comment!!!*
Dear Mother,and all concerned mothers and fathers.
We are all in the same boat, thousands of our sons and daughters are stranded.
But we need to believe that this is Hashem’s world , we are merely pawns, none has power not from there money , connections or anything else. Your daughters are exactly where they are meant to be . The same Hashem that’s in Lakewood ( or anywhere) , is protecting your children in Israel. We need to bow to his will and strengthen our emuna. This is our test as well ,yes it’s painful and the situation is disappointing. We are celebrating pesach soon, a time when we relive emuna. It’s not the fault off the airlines, the seminaries, yeshivo’s , the war etc, its only Hashem’s will . Keep telling yourself that!! and lets be there for each other in this trying time . We love you Hashem, everything you do is for our good !!
instead of spending time complaining better spend time finding an alternate flight home, unless you want your daughter spending the seder in israel (perhaps in a bomb shelter)
I am sorry your daughter is stranded, and I hope the return flights to the United States are resolved soon. Having said that, you should realize that we are in an extremely fluid security situation here in Israel, and things that are allowed one day are suddenly not allowed the next due to rapidly changing conditions. For example, Israel opened the air space to a certain number of passengers per flight, then doubled the allowed number of passengers a few days later, and then halved it again the very next day. To compound the problem, many people have been called up for reserve duty, leaving customer service and other offices in many industries understaffed, so there is often a long wait to get someone to answer your call. (I am sure that El Al is no exception.) Children are home, working women are juggling childcare, remote schooling, and their jobs, often when their husbands have been called up by the military. It is frustrating even for those of us who live here, but we are doing our best, and all of Am Yisroel can be proud of our resilience in times like these. Wishing your daughter a continued meaningful stay in Eretz Yisroel as she is privileged to see Hashem working open miracles in our time. May you and your daughter be reunited soon, and may you have a happy, kosher Pesach.
I don’t think that there is an airplane tickets fine print anywhere that leaves out a force majeure clause.
Yeshiva and Seminary parents pay top dollar for their children’s Eretz Yisroel experience. They’re getting the Eretz Yisroel experience.
@JewInIsrael
“Religious Zionism” is not Judaism. Countless Torah greats throughout the ages both did not live in E”Y and also did not attempt to move there. There is no halachic obligation for all Jews to live in E”Y. In fact, the Torah forbids that (though some Jews are permitted to live there).
“LiShana HaBa” and the like are indeed reality, and they express our yearning for Mashiach and the redemption, not the wicked heretics and their idol.
@jdb
Actually, an Iranian rocket hit and killed multiple Jews in a shelter in Beis Shemesh in the early days of this latest Zionist war.
For all those disgusted at the negative comments, please keep in mind that the writer of the letter (assuming it was not just a troll) was looking for a reaction from the public. She got it. This letter was not directed at El Al. It was directed at the public. The public is justifiably disgusted by the whiny, selfish, spoiled attitude of someone overreacting to a minor danger. What was she expecting? A flood of sympathy? A flood of anger directed towards El Al? It is time for the grown-ups to grow up. This is not a person in need of sympathy. It is someone who needs to learn some serious mussar and think outside of herself and get a grip on reality.
@hakatan that’s simply not true. 7 of the 9 people were not in the miklat. 2 were. And this is the only instance where there were fatalities. It was a direct hit. Again, the statistical likelihood is like being hit by lightning. It’s a tragedy, but it’s not a trend.
@jdb – just to add to what you said – most of those who were in the Miklat in Beit Shemesh that was hit survived; the two who were killed happened to be directly underneath the point of impact, and were killed when that part of the Miklat roof collapsed on them.
Unfortunately, there are no shutouts in war, and it is not our place to question why HKB”H decided that those two, plus the remaining seven, were taken at that time – but it is important still to do our practical Hishtadlus to protect ourselves here in Israel by going into protected spaces during attacks. And to those who say that everything is “bashert”, so why bother – the Torah itself says “venishmartem me’od lenafshoseichem” – we have an obligation to do what we can to protect ourselves.
an Israeli Yid
To all the nasty commenters out there, you can read this article from Dans Deals and see that all people trying to leave Israel are having issues with their tickets. https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/israel/a-lifeline-since-october-7th-el-al-dropped-the-ball-during-the-2026-iran-war/
We could do better than sitting and judging a worried mother, when many of the parents with kids in Israel are in the same boat. A nice word with compassion never hurts. Insults and criticism definitely does.
Let’s be speak kindly to each other. It can help us all be in Eretz Yisroel safely with Moshiach!
No one faulted this mother for desperately wanting to get her daughter home.
She was faulted for her extreme sense of entitlement and expectation to be put ahead of the line and in front of everyone else. Especially with her faulty reasoning that because she paid top dollar she should go before others.
Other mothers and other fathers and other brothers and sisters also need to fly home. This mother isn’t entitled to put her daughter first and bump everyone else to after her.
Your neighbor got a new flight because they booked a new flight. Do your hishtadlus and book a new flight.
Just because your daughter is a seminary girl doesn’t mean that her flight was not rebooked because she is a seminary girl.
Chayav Odom Lomar “Bishvili Nivra Olam” doesn’t mean what this prima Donna thinks it means.
The culture of Heimish externals , without an iota of Torah living is tragic.
How many uncle Moishy songs of “gam zu Latova” have your kids heard ?
Here’s a chance to live it and she channels the entitlement mentality of the Kardashians .
I pity the husbands of such narcissists.
Sorry. Not sorry.