Lufthansa apologizes after report all visibly Jewish passengers barred from flight
Also: Jewish passengers accuse Lufthansa of discrimination for flight ban (Washington Post)
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Source: JTA and Times of Israel
Lufthansa apologizes after report all visibly Jewish passengers barred from flight
Airline says incident not consistent with its policies or values; videos shows airline supervisor saying all Jews barred from flight because a few hadn’t worn masks
By JTA and TOI STAFF
10 May 2022, 9:09 pm
Lufthansa issued on Tuesday an apology after Orthodox Jews complained that all visibly Jewish passengers were thrown off the flight because one group didn’t follow the German carrier’s masking rules.
In a video from the incident, a Lufthansa supervisor could be heard saying “everyone has to pay for a couple” and that “it’s Jews coming from JFK. Jewish people who were the mess, who made the problems.”
In a statement Tuesday, Lufthansa said that only the “non-compliant guests” should have been prevented from boarding and not the entire group. “Lufthansa regrets the circumstances surrounding the decision to exclude passengers from flight LH 1334 on May 4. Lufthansa sincerely apologizes,” it said.
“What transpired is not consistent with Lufthansa’s policies or values. We have no tolerance for racism, antisemitism and discrimination of any type,” the statement said.
However, some officials did not accept the airliner’s apology as enough.
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Read more: https://www.timesofisrael.com/lufthansa-apologizes-after-report-all-visibly-jewish-passengers-barred-from-flight/
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Source: Washington Post
Jewish passengers accuse Lufthansa of discrimination for flight ban
The airline says it is reviewing an incident in Frankfurt, Germany, in which workers appeared to single out Jewish travelers based on appearance and names
By Karen Schwartz
Today at 6:40 p.m. EDT
Several Jewish travelers say the airline Lufthansa discriminated against them when it blocked more than 100 people from boarding a connecting flight in Frankfurt, Germany, last week, prompting a member of the German parliament to call for an investigation. About 30 people were allowed to board the flight while a group of excluded passengers, including many who wore the black hats of ultra-Orthodox Jews or had Jewish-sounding names, were forced to alter their travel arrangements.
Video taken at the airport shows a Lufthansa worker telling a passenger all Jewish customers arriving on a flight from New York were banned from their flight to Budapest because individuals identified as Jewish had refused to comply with the airline’s mask mandates and other rules on the first leg of the journey. Most of the Jewish passengers who booked the flights were heading to a small village for an annual memorial commemorating a rabbi who died 97 years ago.
“If the allegations turn out to be true, there must be consequences,” Marlene Schoenberger, a member of the German Green Party, told The Washington Post in an email Monday. Schoenberger is tasked with combating antisemitism.
“Excluding Jews from a flight because they were recognizable as Jewish is a scandal. I expect German companies in particular to be aware of anti-Semitism,” she said in a tweet sharing a report from German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/05/10/jewish-passengers-lufthansa-flight-alleged-discrimination/
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