On Wednesday May 4, a group of Orthodox Jews who were praying before a Lufthansa flight were forbidden to board by the German airline, reported Hamodia, a Hebrew-language daily newspaper.
Consisting of about 150 Orthodox Jewish men, the group was traveling from New York to Kerestir, Hungary, to make an annual pilgrimage to commemorate the death of a famous rabbi. The Jewish passengers were supposed to board a connecting flight from Frankfurt, Germany, to Budapest, Hungary, but they were barred from boarding due to a mask dispute. According to Hamodia, German airline Lufthansa denied access to the plane to a larger group of Jewish because just a few of them repeatedly refused to wear a face mask.
In accordance with the German law, all passengers are required to wear medical or FFP2 masks on flights. According to the group, only a couple Jewish members did not comply with this obligation on the first part of the journey from New York to Frankfurt.
The Jewish newspaper Hamodia reported that some Lufthansa agents told the members of the Orthodox Jewish group that they would not be able to board because of “operational reasons.”
During a conversation with Hamodia, passenger Nachman Kahana stated that Lufthansa agents pointed out that he was Jewish and that nobody dressed alike would have been allowed to board the flight.
They explicitly said that nobody who is dressed alike on that plane is going to board the Lufthansa plane to Budapest.
Nachman Kahana, passenger
Several members of the group have accused the German airline of antisemitic discrimination.
They banned us because we are Jews. That’s the only reason.
Nachman Kahana, passenger
Due to the dispute over masks, the group of Orthodox Jewish had to travel to the final destination in Hungary using different airlines and routes. Some of them reached Hungary via Poland, others via Slovakia, and Austria—Hamodia reported.
In an email to Insider, Lufthansa confirmed that a “larger group of passengers” was barred from boarding the connecting flight. In the statement, an airline’s EMEA media spokesperson declared that all of this happened in connection with the previous flight from New York to Frankfurt, where some of the Jewish men had refused to wear masks after being asked to comply with the rule by the crew. The spokesperson added that the German airline is currently investigating the facts.
