Lufthansa’s Apology Takes Things From Bad To Worse With 9 Things That Remain Unaddressed; The Media Needs To Get This Story Right

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Update, 5/11 at 3pm ET: Lufthansa’s CEO has apologized to the Rabbi of Berlin and suspended employees involved in the incident. The company has not yet corrected their public apology.

Update, 5/11 at 12pm ET: This story has been picked up by the New York Times, the Washington PostCBS News, CNN, JTAForwardThe Jerusalem PostTimes of IsraelHaaretz, and all major publications in Germany such as the Frankffurter AllgemeineDie WeltBILD, and more.

The ADL has also chimed in about this “apology,”


On Sunday, after several days of interviews with passengers on Lufthansa flight 401, I wrote about the shocking story (read that first for background information) of Lufthansa collectively punishing over 130 Jews by barring them from catching their connecting flight on Lufthansa flight 1334, and barring them from flying on any Lufthansa flight for 24 hours.

I’m not an investigative journalist, but I heard rumors of what happened and couldn’t find any actual journalists pursuing and writing about the story. Since I cover travel deals and news and was shocked by the story, I decided to take it on.

Eventually that led me to uncovering the chilling video of a Lufthansa supervisor blaming problems on the Jews and explaining why collective punishment, or Sippenhaft against the Jews was justified. I was horrified that this could have possibly taken place in 2022.

The executive summary here is that Jewish passengers, some of whom were part of a group, but dozens who were not, were refused travel, despite not having any mask compliance issues, solely because they were visibly Jewish. As a Lufthansa supervisor put it, they were “punished for the crimes of a couple.”

After the story started getting picked up in the mainstream media, Lufthansa issued the following “apology” and statement, which in my opinion, makes things even worse for them.

 

After 6 sleepless days investigating and following up on this story, here is what the media and more importantly Lufthansa got wrong.

1. Lufthansa notes that they regret the circumstances, not their actions and poor decisions. A true apology owns up to the actions and misdeeds.

2. As mentioned earlier today, the most egregious part of the apology is that Lufthansa refers to denying “the large group” when that was not the issue. If they only denied a group of passengers on a large group ticket traveling together, this story would not be nearly as egregious. The biggest problem is that there were dozens of Jews on the flight who purchased their own tickets, with cash or miles, and were also denied boarding. On the other hand the flight also had non-compliant non-Jews, but all non-Jews were allowed to catch their connecting flights, including to Budapest. The only 2 Jews allowed onboard the flight to Budapest were wearing a baseball cap and polo shirt respectively, so they were not as visibly Jewish as some of the other passengers. Lufthansa has not apologized for racially profiling over 130 Jews on the flight.

3. Had Lufthansa filed incident reports against individuals who were non-compliant and banned them from Lufthansa, that would have been just fine. Lufthansa’s original statement to DansDeals and other media said that “travelers refused to wear the legally mandated mask (medical mask) on board.” It failed to say it was only a few of the travelers that had compliance issues. Lufthansa has not apologized for putting their false statement out to the media about only banning non-compliant travelers.

4. Lufthansa’s original statement to DansDeals and other media said that they “rebooked the guests on the next available flight to their final destination.” This was blatantly untrue based on my interviews with over a dozen passengers on the flight. In fact, Lufthansa issued a 24 hour ban on all visibly Jewish customers that were on the flight, regardless of whether they were part of the group or not. This ban did not apply to non-Jews that were on the flight. Lufthansa’s new statement still doesn’t acknowledge this 24 hour ban, which was reported by numerous passengers. Lufthansa has also not apologized for putting their false statement out to the media about putting passengers on the next available flight.

5. Lufthansa ignores that their own airport supervisor later confirmed in a chilling video that they issued collective punishment and that all Jews on the flight had to “pay for a couple” because “Jewish people who were the mess, who made the problems.” The video is so bad that both YouTube and Instagram took it down for being hate speech, but reinstated it under pressure as the context is exposing hate speech, not promulgating hate speech. Lufthansa has not apologized for their employee’s hate speech. 

 

6. In that same video, the Lufthansa agent confirms that upper management made these decisions, but Lufthansa has done nothing to address this.

7. Usher Schik was a Hasidic passenger who used United miles to book his own travel in business class on Lufthansa 401 and Lufthansa 1334. He was paged to board the flight and then denied boarding when he presented himself at the gate. He told me that the Lufthansa gate agent later told him that the captain of the flight to Budapest refused to fly any visible Jews on his flight. The gate agent tried arguing this, but the captain makes the final decision.

While it’s true that a captain gets to make that final call, he also has to answer for his open discrimination. The vast majority of the passengers from JFK to Budapest were mask compliant and banning all Jews from his flight appears to be clearly anti-Semitic. Had Lufthansa identified non-compliant individuals that would have been fine, but banning everyone based on race or religion is an egregious action. Lufthansa then made things even worse by banning the Jews on Lufthansa flight 401 from all Lufthansa flights for 24 hours. Lufthansa has not apologized for the captain’s decision or the subsequent decision to ban the passengers for 24 hours.

8. Lufthansa paged over 2 dozen police officers, some of whom were holding submachine guns, to rope off over 130 Jews. There were children of holocaust survivors on this flight and frankly, it’s not shocking that they had PTSD and that one person called the officer a Nazi. The officer reacted menacingly while trying to identify the person and intimidate the gathered Jews. I reached out to the Bundespolizei (Germany Federal Police Department) for a statement several days ago, but did not get one. Both Lufthansa and the Bundespolizei owe an apology for this terrifying scene at the gate.

9. Perhaps even worse, these actions all happened in the heat of the moment. However Lufthansa had a week to carefully craft this statement and apology and they are still pretending that the Jews on this flight were part of “the large group” when dozens of Jews on the flight were not part of any group and purchased their own individual tickets. The only common denominator of “the large group” is that they were all Jewish. In my opinion, lumping them all together as part of “the large group” is itself a highly anti-Semitic statement that somehow made it into their official statement! That is shocking and chilling.

The media is getting a lot of this story wrong by quoting Lufthansa about this being a large group, when it was not. I’ve also seen some media that passengers weren’t wearing masks in the videos and pictures, but they don’t state that Frankfurt airport hasn’t required masks in over a month!

The media needs to do a better job conveying these facts and Lufthansa needs to:

  • Immediately come out with a real apology
  • Report what actions are being taken against the employees that made these decisions.
  • Outline what steps they are taking to rectify the situation for the passengers.
  • Explain what steps they are taking going forward so that this kind of anti-Semitism never again happens.

This is the worst case of anti-Semitism that I’ve ever seen from an airline in my lifetime. I hope that Lufthansa can make things right.

My inbox remains open for any media inquiries or questions, dan@dansdeals.com

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208 Comments On "Lufthansa’s Apology Takes Things From Bad To Worse With 9 Things That Remain Unaddressed; The Media Needs To Get This Story Right"

All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.

Memere613

Thank you Dan

Irina

Stay on them Dan! Thank you for fighting this antisemitism and brining it to light. Their actions are beyond unacceptable!!!

ME17

Yeasher koach Dan for all your efforts in getting the story right and educating everyone about the facts and expected results.

Chaya

All i can say Thank You Dan .
Much appreciate your selfless self . No easy way out with Lufthansa now.

David

Other than making noise on social, what else can people who were not on the flight do? Is there someone we can reach out to or somewhere we can file a complaint etc.?

SloMo

I think the FAA and NY Atty General should put some pressure on LH. Someone with clout should ask the Atty General point blank, Do you care about discrimination against Jews?

Flyerco

NY AG has zero power. This is International airline, flying International.

Ricky Holder Adler

Stop flying on the German flagship airline.

DC

Reach out to Ben Shapiro for him to amplify and clarify the story on the Daily Wire.

Est

Second that!

Dave

Third that!

Chesky

Fourth that!

dealjew

Fifth that!

PY

Terrifying. Shame on Lufthansa

# Never Fly Lufthansa

Kudos to you Dan! You’re the gift that keeps giving! Thanks for your continuous effort and work in trying to get the real story out there! Let’s hope Lufthansa owns up to their horrendous wrongdoings and hopefully such stories never have to be covered again in the future.

Yosef_S

Thank you Dan for using your platform to bring this to light! Kudos!!

Sholom

Thanks for this excellent reporting, Dan!

joey

Hey @dan why dont you send this to media people….Im sure you can find some listening folks.

Shkoyach!

All I know is, Lufthansa and its lawyers y’ms, are no match for Dan’s Gemara kup!
Kudos Dan for expressing everything so eloquently and so on target!

J

What can we do to help bring this to light and give it the attention that it deserves?

HHH

Retweet @dansdeals tweets on the story and any other tweets on the story and tag Lufthansa and any other high profile individual that can help spread it.
Twitter is the pressure that can get them.

notice

Notice that he’s holding on to that submachine gun. If he was carrying it without touching it ,it would be a different story. It looks chillingly like a picture taken in 1943 that is now put in color.

Eli

Kol Hakavod Dan,

You did an amazing job on this. My only question is, how do you manage to keep on going through with this investigation? Just reading your report makes my blood boil. My hands are literally shaking as I type these words. (and I don’t even personally know anyone that was on this flight)

Keep up your great work!

איציק

כל בכבוד

Jay

The fact that they wrote “Anti-Semitism” together with saying race and discrimination, shows that it was in FACT that and not the “large group”
They’re trying to hide behind their general statement!!

Jack out of the Box

Someone with the right connections should get your highly thorough write-ups referenced in mainstream media.

@Dan

@Dan
Why is the Lufthansa supervisor’s face blurred in the video?!

abef

@dan You wrote on line 7 that the captain was the blame because he refused to take visible Jews on his connecting flight it seems conflicting with what you wrote previously that first-class passengers did make it on the connecting flight

Bruce

@dan; Thank you for bringing this story to light.
We should all reply on twitter what bad apology they made!
Anywhere other places where we can bring this to public via social media or something??

MYK

Absolutely FIRST CLASS reporting! Thank you!

Eli

Everyone knows Dan only flies first class…

Former frequent flyer

Excellent job Dan, excellent job!

That being said I’m thinking, maybe they shouldn’t come out with an apology. Let people know them for who they are. When apologies are made under the rest when they don’t mean it, the original intent seems to get lost. If they apologize then they make it look like oops, it was an accident when in reality, no it was not an accident.

I also believe Lufthansa should apologize for having extremely crazy and misguided rules as far as their mask compliance is concerned. One would think two years after the CCP virus began, that they would already understand that you could put food in your mouth, chew, and it’s not going to kill anybody if the mask is not over their face. They also have, as you noted, various different rules within airports as well as the planes that are flying into the airport. This, for people who don’t necessarily fly often, or even for those who do fly more often, is very confusing as you noted.

Anon

Yeah, I think I’ll never visit Naziland or buy German. Sadly.

Ahuva

Whats so shocking ? History repeats itself until mashiach will come
The jews are always blamed.”eisav sonei lyaakov”.the more achdus amongst us.the less iprevalent it will be.. why when yidden banned their own from attending yeshivas and shuls wasn’t there such an uproar ? that’s more devastating.

MK

Just wow. Horrifying story.

But the issue is not the story, the story just shows us the deeper issue in the culture.

Unbelievable.

J

Thanks Dan.

Mendel

Lufthansa removed the Jews from the flight. Now they remove the Jews from their “apology”.

Ed

Dan, thanks. Elliott advocacy is a website that provides contact information for executives at various companies. This is the Lufthansa page. Perhaps you and others can reach out to them directly to apply pressure.

Here is the link
https://www.elliott.org/company-contacts/lufthansa-airlines/

Israeli

If this was African Americans on a US Airline we are talking a couple hundred million dollar lawsuit.

Ari D

It can very likely cost Lufthansa more than that in negative pr

Amein to that!

Sure hope it does. I hope this is the beginning of their end!!

1991

Thank you Dan!
כל העוסקים בצרכי ציבור באמונה הקב’ה ישלם שכרם

B

What about DOT?

Jew

Why is this post not stickied all the way on top

Mayle

Send this to Tucker Carlson. He’d probably do it justice.

Mendel

Hah! Do you feel cozy with his Red State audience…like they love you? We may share some of his politics, or indignation at the antics of the American Left, but discrimination against visibly Jewish Orthodox Jews is not anyone’s pet peeve.

JR

Do you really think it was ok to have someone yell nazi at the police? I thought it was highly inappropriate and out of line, the reaction by the cop could’ve gone either way but I don’t think it went too far. No one knows anything about the people working there who they are, where they’re from or what their religious beliefs are. The blame should be on Lufthansa for the whole thing how it unfolded.

Take a stand

Not shocking at all! I’m sure everyone was thinking the same while only one verbalized it. It’s simple. Act like one, you’ll be called like one. Don’t traumatize others and then play victim.

connie

Not shocking, but it emphasized the perpetual victimhood: all of my misbehavior is excused by the misbehavior of others, or by the holocaust.

realworlddude

You have to say, the police did not know was happened either (you actually hear them chatting about it). It might had been a terrorist attack or people fighting. And airport police is highly sensitive about security.
There is only to blame the communication and decision by the Lufthansa crew. But it shows also how powerful airlines crew are.

ross

Does Lufthansa really care? I told you, this is old news no matter how much you try. Even if you succeed in getting an ‘apology’, it’ll be buried in small print under page 23 and no one will notice a thing. Good for you for pushing things…but I’m not optimistic. Let’s see.

Yaakov

Kol Hakavod Dan. IMHO Jews plus anyone who cares about discrimination should boycott Lufthansa & German tourism. Should let the company & government know that this behavior is unacceptable.

Suggestion

I know how some people here view the NYT, but they are perhaps the most widely read newspaper in the world. Melissa Eddy writes most of their coverage from Germany. You should try reaching out to her if you haven’t already.

Jeff

@Dan

Can’t believe no one posted this gem tucked away at end of one of the online articles.

A reply from the local police that responded.

They literally used the “just following orders” excuse:

https://www.thejc.com/news/news/over-100-visibly-jewish-passengers-barred-from-lufthansa-flight-after-mask-dispute-6QvlZ3OPwppR66yPwnMpDc

At the very end of the article


PS
The German Police should have actually cited or arrested the airport staff upon observing illegal discrimination. The police should be disciplined. They cannot hide behind the “following orders” excuse.

JL

A spokesman for the federal police at Frankfurt Airport told the JC: “Lufthansa called us and said that some of this group from JFK were not following the rules – putting on seat belts, wearing masks etc.

“They said they had decided not to take them any further when they arrived in Frankfurt, and so, as a preventative measure, they called us simply as a security measure.”

“We did not make any decision at all about who could fly and who could not. As the police even if we did think that their decision was discriminatory, as the police we can’t then make the decision about who can and who cannot fly.

jeff

The NY Post covered this story with above mentioned errors/missing info. It was very dissapointing and certainly left impression that ban was justified in light of “group” non-compliance.
Listed as source was HaModia…?

Jay

Thank you Dan for everything you do for us!

How about we all leave a negative 1 star review on the LH mobile app and explain why we are leaving it. Bookers should know to stay away from this airline.

Perle

I agree with Lufthansa in regretting “the circumstances surrounding the decision” and these must be avoided in the future. It would be advisable that Lufthansa, German airlines and airports be avoided so as not to occasion similar incidents or subject oneself to overzealous police. Apologies at this late date are not acceptable, and would not guarantee a against a repeat of this type of incident in the future.

Mendel

Won’t help to boycott them. They actually would prefer not to see visibly Jewish people.

# Never Fly Lufthansa

Wow! Lufthansa just can’t seem to get anything right. Thanks for showing the public just how truly messed up you are! You can’t even get an apology straight! Let’s keep on spreading this in as many ways possible!

Yoni

What will the class action lawsuit look like? Is Is there anyway we could be involved in that?

Flyerco

There won’t be one thanks to Warsaw/Montreal Convention. Only US/GERMAN governments can take action. Personal lawsuits not allowed except on conjunction with accidents/ incidents (this term has specified meaning in aviation) SCOTUS has even ruled on this specific issue before.

DR

Thanks!

rob

You forgot point #10….

Not once in the entire statement/apology did they use the phrase “Jew” or “Jewish”

That should tell you all you need to know about how sincere they are with their apology

Jeff

Israel should ban the Lufthansa group from Israel for a while, as well as demand an apology from there Chancellor. Remember, consist of a bunch of airlines, Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines.

Yochai

The problem is that Israel May view Orthodox Jews not far from the way the Germans do…

shlomo

Disgusting comment
and not relevant

Sad But True

Very true!
HIGHLY RELEVANT.
Read the comment?

Aviz

Time for a rally at JFK – that’s the only thing the media will take seriously. Dan, you set the date and people will show up. I will bring some Congressmen and other elected officials.

Aryeh

The number to reach Lufthansa phone support is 1-800-645-3880 just sayin…

Barry

Thanks Dan for the investigation. I see you got referenced in the Washington Post!

Manuel

I agree that this was wrong and that Lufthansa should own up to it. However, I also don’t doubt that the same thing would have occurred if it had been any other group of people collectively wearing similar clothing (a group of Amish people for example), so personally I don’t believe this occurred because Lufthansa or the people working for them are anti-Semitic.

# Never Fly Lufthansa

So then why haven’t they ever banned an “entire group” from a different religion, race or culture when one member of that “group” did something they shouldn’t have????

M Gold

Wednesday morning on a flight from Budapest to Frankfort, Lufthansa personnel at the gate carried out a selection as well. One agent quietly walked around choosing only Jewish passengers and forcibly taking away their carry on bags claiming the did adhere to Lufthansa regulations. What is so outrageous is that only jewish owned cabin bags was a problem. Other ethnicities were allowed to board with extremely oversized luggage. When it was pointed out to the Lufthansa supervisor she yelled “you think this is America – here you can’t do what you want”. They were menacing and horrible and threatened to call the police. If you were part of that flight please reach out on the forum. We are looking into legal avenues. Here are partial names of some of the employees M. Fod, Hars and others.

Jeff

Germans should be kissing our toes begging for forgiveness for the horrible crimes and blood spilled by their parents.

They should be profiling Jews but for the good, overweight bags should be waived thru only for Jews

They should be going out of their way to try making the Jews feel comfortable and respected….

beyond disgusting and horrific

this needs to be spread around as well.

po

I appreciate what you highlighted in point 8 and I think the issue is highly underestimated. I am only a GRANDCHILD of holocaust survivors and I have serious PTSD around Germans. I flew LH once and they were perfectly polite, but I was very uncomfortable the whole flight and each FA took on a different sort of uniform in my brain. I kept my feelings to myself and just never flew them again. Do I think its fair to view modern day Germans as those who murdered my ancestors? Of course not. But the association is very justifiably there. Sending German soldiers with guns to block Jews to the side (was it right or left guys?) and then threaten them?! That clip was seriously shocking
All things aside, in any non-criminal situation the police should not behave in such a manner -standing there in a threatening position as if guarding criminals. Isn’t this a Western country with innocent civilians? Add it to the rest of the story and it really is uncalled for

realworlddude

You don’t know what the Lufthansa crew told the police. And airport police is always very sensitive also in other countries. Airport and air travel is just an exemption there civilian (flight crew) can control the police without any legal checks.

It was just handled absolutely unprofessional from Lufthansa crew and it was of course racist and antisemitic to group people because they look Jewish! The statement of the captain is sufficient to make them act.

mark n

So because you have ptsd but choose to fly Lufthansa and be in Germany they need to be careful? Ridiculous.

po

Should Germans be careful how they treat Jews now based on their recent history? I definitely think so. Not sure what’s ridiculous about that. But even if theyre not particularly careful at least behave appropriately the way they would treat everyone else. Are you following the story??

AJ

Amalek

Aryeh

Was egregious what was done especially collectively punishing, but I do want to ask if those who are frum and therefore visibly Jewish behave appropriately. I’m not religious but I do visit kosher stores and I’m appalled sometimes how rude some religious folks are. And hate to say it but those people give all of us collectively a bad reputation also. When at the deli instead of being polite some treat the workers terribly. My suggestion is for those who wear a kippah to make sure they represent all of us well. Maybe I’m way off but perhaps not sadly. I was away in Mexico for yeshiva week and watching others not say thank you and behave terribly not respecting other guests etc. true story

sommer

Thanks dan for covering this story so extensively and for doing all the research! i wish the media would turn to your article for all the true facts and info. unfortunately since we are jews that gives us a very slim chance of being covered fairly. had this happened to the black community im sure Lufthansa planes would be on fire and the media would be all over the story and egging on more protests…

MR

Your display of bigotry doesn’t help the fight against bigotry.

Shame on you Lufthansa!

Aha! And Your display of bigotry probably does, right?

MR

Which display of bigotry is that?

Mike D

Dan, this is your worst deal yet.

Jeff

Why don’t we accept the facts that most people are judgmental and a little bit racist. So when you travel just wear a baseball cap. Problem solved. You’re welcome.

Ellie

Jeff
I am proud to be who I am. I won’t wear a baseball cap and pretend I’m not jewish.

Jaques Strapp

This all had me thinking that the best way for Lufthansa to handle this would be for the airline to partner with Dan’s Deals and give all of us a gazillion miles .

realworlddude

From most comment, who can think that u only want money from Lufthansa? Also you just want to ruin one of the biggest airline. Dirty things happens also in the USA. See the Asien passenger ripped from an airplane from United Express.

Shame on you Lufthansa

Germans have a history of being unable to apologize. They try to cover up and shift the blame. Interesting that it is still so ingrained in them! Utterly Disgraceful!
Happy the world is getting to see just a sliver of their true colors.

Juke

Not necessarily. As a whole, the German government and many entities there engaged in extensive and meaningful apologies and restitutions, quite openly.

Which is why Lufthansa’s behavior is baffling.

BTW, the ADL is on it too. (Not that we need their approval…)
https://twitter.com/ADL/status/1524121133276090373

Mendel

Best part of the video, the airport manager- (seems to be of Eastern European origin) is explaining the decision as if she is vindicating the airline. “That type of person caused the disruption, so that type of person can not come on board.” She almost makes it sound logical and justified! With that kind of logic you could systematically commit…oh, wait. Never mind.

!

Scary to see the difference in the comments on Fox News vs. The ones on the Washington post

Mn5kids

Dan, I wholeheartedly agree with all you’ve written. IN ADDITION, it behooves the few people who refused to wear their masks to apologize to their fellow Jews on the plane for creating this Chilul Hashem and instigating Lufthansa to cause their already “bubbling under the surface “ antisemitism to rear its ugly head

!

@dan You did and still are doing an amazing job on this story, But I think putting this story onto the Washington post was a bad calculation, just look at the over 1200 comments it has gotten so far, probably 90% are full of hate towards Jews in general and for this story specifically -which obviously these commenters didn’t read the full story or are just ignoring what they read-for example just look at how differently the comments on Fox News look like …I hope this doesn’t bring to any negative result…

Again thanks for your amazing through well organized reporting.

Esther Perl

Kol haKavod, Dan for taking up this issue for all of us!

!

@dan just 2 points to your reply #1 I’m not so sure it’s 99% that didn’t comment -on this specific article- when in about 5-6 hours there were over 1200 comments -which btw is now up to over 1700- unless you believe that there were over 120,000 ppl that read it within that few hours.. #2 why isn’t fox news considered a big news outlet, and the other big ones that are reporting on it.
Btw I noticed that you didn’t mention about fox all together is that on purpose?

Thanks

Aryeh

Not sure why you feel the need to fight so obsessively for Fox. In this case not only did they do an extremely poor job in the report especially vs. the WaPo, but when I checked the comments I was disgusted to see some openly ugly racist comments too!

Mark

I know this is somewhat off topic, but in forwarding this article to family members who don’t get Dan’s Deals emails, as I typed the word “antisemitism” in my iphone, the auto-complete, which finds almost every word before I complete it, couldn’t find the word “anitsemitism”! I typed the word in its entirety and it still didn’t suggest anything. Hmm – subtle antisemitism?

Mendel

That’s because the official spelling is anti-Semitism.

Gemarakop

Great but not surprising this nation was killing little children en masse less than a hundred years ago we should be happy they didn’t just start shooting.

Ben
Ricky Holder Adler

Even when the fare is significantly lower when searching for flights to various destinations, I will not take a flight on the German flagship airline. I will not accept a stopover in any German speaking country other than Switzerland (not the best either) even when my bank account would be happier if I did. I am the daughter of survivors. How easily we forget history. No “yahrzeit” is worth the terror and humiliation of being confronted with a scene such as this. No “heritage trip” is worth being confronted by even a spark of the evil that a collective can perpetrate on a group which they see as deserving of such humiliation and demonization. Stop flying on Lufthansa. It’s not rocket science.

Ahuva

I feel for your pain and it isnt to our understanding whats the reason other then Hashem is doing this for a purpose of reminding us we shouldn’t feel too comfortable here and to do things to yearn for the geulaThey will get their punishment for their cruelty just like the Egyptians and all others that suppressed the Jewish people.

Ricky Holder Adler

I don’t require a reason. I’m not interested in the retribution doled out by HKB”H. You’re very sweet but you ignored my points and served me with platitudes. I’m interested in my own self preservation right now, in any way I can protect myself and my fellow Jews, which includes the use of simple logic. Avoid places and situations which involve people whose parents and grandparents in the best of all circumstances, stood by while my grandparents and aunts and uncles were murdered. In the worst case scenario they were active participants. As I said, it’s not rocket science.

Yitz

Good work Dan, B U T – this just re-emphasizes how careful we must be in not making a Chilul Ha-shem, at home, at the airport, around the world. If the rule is – wear a mask, then wear it. Don’t be a smart aleck.

Rivka

@dan thanks for your continued coverage of this story. What can we practically do? How can we call out to LA to demand they make things right, organize a boycott of their airline and/or get the green police or government to apologize.
My hearts goes out to the victims of this incident.

ross

I do like the ABCNews Headline: German Airline Apologizes for Excluding Jewish Passengers. Its the Germans and the Jews again, and perhaps underneath it all, when looking at the big picture, the word ‘Apologizes’ really means ‘Feels Justified’. They’re just missing the word ‘Eternally’ at the end.

Michoel

According to the Forward, the U.S. Department of State issued a statement that they are monitoring this situation.

https://forward.com/fast-forward/501964/state-department-monitoring-lufthansa-expulsion-of-hasidic-travellers-in-line-with-its-committment-to-combat-global-antisemitism/

Michoel

The New York Times published this morning on it, but predictably, removed the most incendiary statements by the Lufthansa supervisor.

Norse

Did you all hear that Israeli forces killed a Palestinian American journalist for the Al Jazeera news network in the West Bank?

IDF needs to:
– Immediately come out with a real apology
– Report what actions are being taken against the employees that made these decisions.
– Outline what steps they are taking to rectify the situation for journalists.
– Explain what steps they are taking going forward so that this kind of targeted killing never again happens.

AJ

Actually they didn’t. Palestinian gunfire did. Nice try, Norse Anti-Semite

z

It was the Palestinian gunmen that killed her, watch the video. Where is your apology for lying and defaming?

reb shaya ben reb moishe

While Lufthansa acted illegal and wrong they defiantly have a great point and I probably would’ve acted the same if I was a gentile. There are some Jews that act so cringeworthy on flights as if they own the entire world plus tax. Shame on them and its about time they learn their lesson. Reb Shmuel Kamenetzky davens sitting while on a plane without a minyan do to Chilul Hashem. So shame on those and thanks Lufthansa for bringing out a good point albeit going forward it shall be done in a specific and targeted way, instead of a immoral illegal and horrifying Racal profiling.

chaim shloima rubashkin

+1

Abraham

Not a significant reason to discriminate

Ellie

customer.relations@lufthansa.com 
I am sending lufthansa a link to this post. If enough people do that, that will cause a ddos. How awful!

#NEVER FLY LUFTHANSA

Thanks! Will do!

mark n

It’s amazing how many comments here are in the vein of “once amalek always amalek” and yet happy to fly them and get good deals and good mileage deals.. the hypocrisy of the “outraged” jews is absurd. All the advertisements on this website for silver car rentals bec they have only audi cars. Where was the same outrage ? Where is the outrage against flying austrian, Lufthansa, lot etc… answer no outrage until its convenient to pull the endless victim card. No one in Lufthansa woke up that morning looking to punish or single out jews. Sure the collective reaction bec they can’t tell chassidim apart was blatantly wrong. That doesn’t change the completely ignoring of the act that CAUSED this crazy reaction. Yes if visibly religious jews keep flaunting rules there sadly will always be disproportionate consequences.

shim

Do ever see the same by non-Jews, that they can’t tell them apart and punish the every one that looks the same?

Ricky Holder Adler

I so agree with you.

#NEVER FLY LUFTHANSA

Please open your eyes and realize this had nothing to do with “flaunting the rules”. Both Jews and non Jews on the flight were “flaunting” the same rules. Was the entire “group” of non-jews banned?
This was pure anti-Semitism. Full stop.

kol mevaser

@dan There is interview on kol mevaser with Rav Teichtal from Berlin, He says that he had a meeting with the CEO and he says that they have already fired the lady in the video

Yochai

The lady from the video isn’t the problem. She’s only speaking on behalf of the decision makers, and had the bad luck of being filmed.

realworlddude

Maybe the captain? But he made the decision based on what the flight crew (emotional) was telling him. I am sure that the captains are in power at this moment!

Esther

What did president Biden say when 130 of us citizens were banned from a flight?

Caz

I would really like to know what started this. Its inconceivable that only one couple refused repeated requests to put on masks and I believe seat belts as well.
It simply is too much work for Lufthansa to have gone through for 2 passengers.
I’m assuming that theres been issues on other flights as well leading to these unacceptable and draconian measures which will cause them.huge problems now.
I’m.interested in the unbiased facts although that’s probably impossible
Sadly, it’s not doing religious Jewish groups any.favours on any airlines either after all this commotion which will continue to be investigated.

Moishe N

Much appreciate the effort you put into exposing this shocking incident!!

Raphael

Of course the media is getting it wrong what else is new, just as Israel is always to blame for defending themselves. The left wing media must be held accountable for this as well as Lufthansa

sammy dammy

While Lufthansa acted illegal and wrong they defiantly have a great point and I probably would’ve acted the same if I was a gentile. There are some Jews that act so cringeworthy on flights as if they own the entire world plus tax. Shame on them and its about time they learn their lesson. Reb Shmuel Kamenetzky davens sitting while on a plane without a minyan do to Chilul Hashem. So shame on those and thanks Lufthansa for bringing out a good point albeit going forward it shall be done in a specific and targeted way, instead of a immoral illegal and horrifying Racal profiling.

sammy dammy

they are right. theres certain type of jews that act like they own the place and its time for them to find their place

GUWonder

That is no good reason to punish large groups of people who just happen to share the same religious faith as some passengers who caused a problem of any sort.

Racist profiling of passengers is a problem, and it’s a sign of the racist profilers’ idiocy and questionable competency. When the racist profiling is done by Lufthansa or at a German airport, when it’s done by El Al or at TLV, or when done by anyone else or anywhere else against people, it’s a problem.

Nathan

It’s unreal how the ADL wouldn’t touch the story until it was in the mainstream media and then they feigned outrage.

Chaim Schwartz

Have we forgotten what Germany did to the entire world including the Jews.
Germany was responsible for the direct and indirect death of 90 million people in WWII.

Why are we flying on German transportation or using their products? Some years sho, most Jews wouldn’t buy anything German. Let’s continue doing that.

Ricky Holder Adler

I’m in complete agreement with you.

m brody

Lesson is don’t support (German) jew hating airlines that their grandparents murdered millions of jews its in their blood the hatred timche es zeicher omuleik don’t support them if all jews would stop using airlines that are openly anti-semitic maybe they would change their approach

A yes from New Jersey

And now on CNN:
German airline apologizes after a large number of Jewish people are denied boarding
https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/11/us/lufthansa-jewish-passengers-denied-boarding/index.html

Avraham

I was on a Lufthansa flight years ago and non of the kosher meals ordered were available. No apology nothing and when I wrote head office no reply. Major issues in their management so I never fly them at all.

Ti Li

Um, maybe it’s time that Jews try and blend in to be on the safe side as they have the ABILITY to do so “Africans” may have more of a problem. Furthermore, according to the Rambam, Jewish law dictates that a man is required to cover his head during prayer. a hat may be substituted for prayer in 2022. Additionally, The Vilna Gaon said one can make a berakhah without a kippah, since wearing a kippah is only a midos chassidus. The chief Rabbi of the United States during the 1850s very RARELY wore a Yarmulka. Orthodox Judaism is creating problems for itself. ANTISEMITISM WILL NEVER GO AWAY. How are you not in the know about that fact in 2022?!? Hitler got Jews to wear Yellow stars, The Pope hundreds of years earlier did the same, and now Jews self incriminate themselves voluntarily?!? SMH.

reb shaya ben reb moishe

i love how you spelled berakhah. no wonder why you dont get the point in being jewish. are you even jewish yourself.

Salman

We are in the days of sefirat ha’omer where jewish people work for unity and achdut.
I am beyond shocked on the hate infested on the comments section of the two articles regarding the Lufthansa incident speared against the Chasidic community.
Two days we had in Daf Ha’yomi the story of Rebbi Akiva which should’ve given a reminder for everyone.
Now Mr. Dan writes that he doesn’t want to be an “arbiter” about comments etc.
Look at YouTube, Twitter etc. they remove comment, videos and close accounts if there is a doubt that it doesn’t go in their line or views, which [their views] keeps on changing every few years or becomes more radical.
Here is a blog owned by a Frum person, shouldn’t at least have a small guideline???!!
How can it be acceptable to bash so openly and straightforward a huge community?

For the many historian commenters I would like to add a theory about why modern people view the Haredi community in such a fashion:
As Western cultures advanced with equal rights and all other stuff, being courteous, polite, nice and whatever you call it, became very popular and the more that person wanted to blend in the society the more well mannered and civil they tried to be.
The Haredi people never tried becoming more Americanized and the stayed with their traditions and everything else.
So from where stems all those hateful reactions and comments about Chassidim not obeying law or covid political guidelines?
Not because they are working hard on their middot.

Anyway every of the hateful commenters should try thinking to themselves, aside from not obeying the regulations, do they love their fellow Chasidic brothers more their friendly non-jewish neighbors?

With a bracha Hashem should help all the Jewish people should unite ASAP

me
Jerry

The simple lesson we learn here is simple: Stop going back to Hungary as if it belongs to you and you still live there! Hashem moved us out of blood-soaked Europe, why are we constantly running back at every opportunity? Europe is over. Done. Give it up and stop trying to chill there! The Klausenberger Rebbe zya was also of this opinion.

Another point I should mention: While everyone is busy with the blatant racial discrimination and antisemitic bias of Lufthansa, has anybody asked themselves— especially those who couldn’t fly that day — why is this happening to me? What is the message here?

Let’s not forget that this occurred while they were en route to pray at the grave of R Yeshaya Steiner of Kerestur. Is there really a need to travel to Hungary to visit his gravesite? Hashem is clearly sending a message here… I think a good Litvak would agree…

J. Adams

Thank you, Dan

Yonah Greene

We love you Dan as an Israeli soldier who just flew with lufthansa to see my family who I hadn’t seen in over a year and a half this blatant and scary display of anti-semitism makes my blood boil. Fortunately as god would have it I wasn’t traveling when this happened I travelled 3 weeks prior. Because had I been there when that gaurd shouted “who called me a Nazi??” and advanced menacingly I would have pushed my way through that crowd and shouted at him probably a whole lot louder about what I thought of the situation. I can control myself for most things but blatant public anti-semitism isn’t one of them.

Alan Kaplan
Thomas - Ohio

So I’m not Jewish, forgive me for the intrusion if I’m irritating you all. My grandfathers landed on Utah & Juno beaches and fought the Nazis, so I hope you know I’m your friend.

What actually happened on the flight from New York that set the flight crew off? How could 2-4 people forgetting their masks get the Lufthansa staff so out of sorts? I’ve flown all over the world for 30 years on American, Delta, British & Lufthansa with groups of all faiths, even Muslims joyfully praying in the aisles at sunrise and I’ve never seen such an outcome.

Gersh

Thomas,
I’m glad you asked.
That’s the issue.
Clearly the Lufthansa staff involved were annoyed by the behaviors of a few people even if they are not prohibited behaviors. It must be more than just mask noncompliance since there were other seemingly non-Jews doing that. But it is apparent that at least some of the staff harbor some not so hidden prejudice towards Jews and since there were large numbers of “visible” Jews on the flight, they went off the deep end and punished many for the infractions of a few . Of course given the history of Jews and Germans during the Holocaust, the behavior is especially chilling.
“Selecting” Jews for punishment evokes strong trauma for many of us and we suspect that it’s not just an issue of a few mask mandate violations going on here. The language caught on the videos seems to confirm that.

Thomas - Ohio

Absolutely awful. Sounds like a few Germans (maybe more?) took on the prejudices of their grandparents. I’m really sorry that that happened for all your friends here. The flight crew made up a grouping of passengers based on their creed & appearance where there was none. Perhaps they were looking for a leader to step in and enforce the mask mandate, but they surely went about it the wrong way and then in their anger made it worse for themselves and everyone. Hatred is such a taxing emotion, I grew up on the West Coast and we were taught to love everyone. I was on a flight to Daharan in Saudi once and the Sun came up and almost all of the passengers got out prayer rugs and started to pray. My seat mate was elderly so I helped him with his and I knelt in the aisle with everyone else and quietly said an “Our Father” to myself. I was the only westerner on the plane, but I made a friend that day.

rob

“and we suspect that it’s not just an issue of a few mask mandate violations going on here. The language caught on the videos seems to confirm that.”

What language on the video confirms anything other than a few people not complying with masks? Based on the many firsthand accounts + photos + videos that Dan has posted, it appears that nothing more happened than a small number of people….. jewish and non-jewish…. were not following mask rules.

If passengers did anything more than what is alleged in Dan’s original post, nobody from LH or the German authorities have disputed it.

And then LH obviously went of the anti-semitic deep end in response to a few people who didn’t follow mask rules

rob

@Thomas – thank you to your grandfathers for putting their lives on the lines to save the lives of my grandparents. I wouldn’t be here today if not for people like them.

What happened on the flight was a few people weren’t complying with masks. As can be seen in photos from Dan’s original post, it was both jews and non-jews.

LH’s response to that was to ban anyone from connecting flights who was identifiably Jewish. Even if that passenger was fully compliant and had no connection to anyone who was non-compliant.

So if you had one Jew who booked a ticket through a travel agency as part of a group and he wasn’t mask compliant, and another complete stranger used miles to buy a ticket and was fully compliant…. the latter would get banned from connecting flights for no reason other than he dressed in a similar manner. Whereas if he did everything the exact same but was clean shaven and wearing a t-shirt, he wouldn’t have had any issues.

Then LH doubled down on the bad with their terrible apology where they CONTINUE to refer to all the orthodox Jews on that flight as a “group” even though most of them were traveling on their own.

YGX

Great job, Dan.

Bob

Has United apologized to the passenger who used United miles to earn his yellow star? Has anyone asked them to comment about their alliance with the Third Reich’s preferred airline?

SM

Just got this back after filing a complaint online (I wasn’t a passenger and didn’t represent as such) –

“In relation to your complaint, we want to extend our most sincere apologies for what happened at Frankfurt Airport, and we want to inform you that this does not reflect the Lufthansa service and it was an isolated event. Thanks to your comments, our HDQ has already been contacted and the pertinent measures will be taken for what happened.”

Eliraps

Have effected passengers been refunded?

GUWonder

They should be more than just refunded the cost of the tickets. Merely refunding the cost of tickets to passengers wrongfully denied transport is not my idea of sufficient material acknowledgment of the airline’s wrongdoing.

Eugene

It looks like at least one German site picked up on the story and Dan’s points about the apology being sorely lacking: https://www.welt.de/debatte/kommentare/article238698287/Antisemitismus-Skandal-Diese-Entschuldigung-der-Lufthansa-reicht-nicht-aus.html
Google will translate it to English

rob

“Lufthansa’s CEO has apologized to the Rabbi of Berlin”

So a bunch of New Yorkers who were flying to Frankfurt, mostly to connect onwards to Budapest were subject to horrific treatment, and the only person who gets a specific public apology beyond a nebulous “large group”….. is a Rabbi from none of those cities who has no connection whatsoever to the flight?

This damage control looks like every time a US company ostensibly run afoul of something race related, they need to pander/send in a donation to Al Sharpton to remedy the situation

(Note: This is not a comparison of the Rabbi of Berlin who is likely a terrific mentsch to the excrement Al Sharpton C”V. It’s a comparison of how LH and US corporations try to do damage control)

james

Some Jews who are identifiable because of how they are dressed do not comply with mask mandates. Airline makes the stupid decision to consider all who are dressed that way as part of a group and ban all who are dressed the same way.

If a baseball team was on a flight wearing the same uniform and a couple of guys on the team didn’t comply with a mask mandate, they’d all be kicked off the flight, even if they were booked on separate reservations.

That’s all that happened here, what’s egregious is the extrapolating to racism and discrimination.

When you assign ‘racial discrimination’ to something so obviously not, you water down, and insult victims of, actual racial discrimination.

Chanie Handler

Frankly I don’t understand why any Jew would ever fly Lufthansa. Even though World war 2 happened almost 80 years ago, do you really think the hatred died with the NAZI party? It is passed from father to son like a treasured heirloom. There are so many other carriers flying, you don’t have to give your money to people who hate us just because we are who we are.

Flyerco

Sadly, they won’t be able to sue. International travel is governed by Warsaw/Montreal Convention. It doesn’t allow lawsuits by passengers except for accidents. SCOTUS has even ruled on this exact thing.

Only US DOT can take action against LH.

Nava

Thank you for all your extraordinary work on this important story!

msf

When will we ever learn to stay out of Germany and off any flight operated by Germany. We still haven’t learned. I have never stepped foot in Germany and never will. Murdered us, tortured us and tried to obliterate all of us. Why any Jew would ever step foot on a German flight or into Germany boggles the mind.

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