Monday, May 09, 2022
More than 100 Orthodox Jews who were praying before a flight were barred from boarding by German airline Lufthansa in mask dispute, report says
A group of Orthodox Jewish men has accused the German airline Lufthansa of "antisemitic discrimination" after many were barred from boarding a connecting flight following a mask dispute, according to the Hebrew-language newspaper Hamodia.
More than 100 members were forbidden from taking a connecting flight from Frankfurt, Germany, to Budapest, Hungary, on Wednesday night, Hamodia reported.
The group, consisting of approximately 150 Orthodox Jewish men in total, traveled from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to Kerestir, Hungary, as part of an annual pilgrimage to commemorate the death of a famous rabbi.
German Law requires passengers to wear medical or FFP2 masks to travel, and, according to the group, all but a handful complied on the first leg of the journey from New York to Frankfurt.
"One or two" did not wear masks, claimed passenger Nachman Kahana. Although Insider could not verify this, several other passengers supported the claim during conversations with Hamodia.
On Wednesday morning, per Hamodia, the group was praying as other passengers began boarding the flight. Lufthansa agents told the members of the Orthodox Jewish group that they would not be able to join those boarding due to "operational reasons," the newspaper said.
According to Kahana, a Lufthansa agent pointed out that he is Jewish. "They explicitly said that nobody who is dressed alike on that plane is going to board the Lufthansa plane to Budapest," he told Hamodia.
"They banned us because we are Jews. That's the only reason," Kahana alleged, per Hamodia.
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