Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Men Cause Flight Delay By Refusing To Sit Next To Women

[ginger_maya]

One person's requirement for religious accommodation can seem all-too-much like discrimination to another.

An El Al flight from New York to Tel Aviv last week encountered delays when several ultra-orthodox Jewish men refused to take their seats next to women over religious objections.

Ultra-orthodox Judaism forbids physical contact between men and

Comments

[chaya]

Why not call ahead and explain your situation to the airline - who I have to imagine has heard of this issue before and wants to avoid bad PR and lawsuits - instead of taking the 50/50 risk of sitting next to someone of the opposite sex?

(Is anyone else doing the math problem in their heads of how to solve this issue while moving the fewest number of people?)

[liliaeth]

I'd imagine that that'd be the best solution, and the easiest thing for everyone. I mean, if you know up ahead you have some religious restrictions then wouldn't you want to make sure you can keep up with them by making your own preparations.

[chaya]

I'm trying to figure out a reason that wouldn't be the norm for ultra-orthodox Jews. In many situations, 'outing' yourself as a minority or someone who needs special accommodations can backfire, but in this specific instance they're identifiable on sight anyway (hello, very specific outfit and styling), and they're not one of the religious minorities that gets the 'terrorist' label when they're standing within 100 yards of a plane.

[lied_ohne_worte]

Also, with an Israeli airline I can't imagine that should be much of a problem.

[lovis]

But, but, but... COOTIES!!!

*eyeroll*

[rhysande]

If a person's religious beliefs are that extreme they should arrange private transportation for themselves. They can charter a plane instead of infringing on the rights of others on a commercial flight.

[fegli]

Or just pay the 10$ fee or whatever for seat selection to make sure they have a row to themselves, or request special conditions well beforehand. Like it's not the responsibility of the rest of the world to make sure YOURE comfortable.

Yet fundies always seem to think it is...

[rhysande]

Money was apparently not the problem if the men were offering compensation to get women to change their seats, but I doubt that booking a block of seats in advance would have solved the problem. The men stood in the aisles throughout most of the 11 hour trip, which meant the women were blocked from access to the bathrooms. I'm sure it caused problems for the female flight personnel, too. The men should have arranged a group tour and either bought out all the seats in the plane and made special arrangements to suit their needs or chartered their own plane if their religious beliefs are that strict. I'm sure they could have coordinated amongst several synagogues to put together a large group for something as special as travel to the Holy Land to celebrate the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Fundamentalists ... I had my fill of them IRL today. Can't. deal. with more.

[fegli]

the jist I was getting was that physical contact with women like rubbing elbows was the problem, so if they were all sat next to each other rubbing elbows together it should have been fine, no? I don't think it's the presence of women that they're fussed about...

[ebay313]

This is what I was thinking. I have never flown so I am basing this off tv shows and movies, but typically aren't rows only a few seats before an aisle break? Seems it should have been possible to arrange with the airline that they all have seats next to each other instead of being seated next to other passengers who might be women.

[bananainpyjamas]

I respect that they don't want to sit next to women but the burden is on THEM to make sure that doesn't happen. So work it out ahead of time or be willing to move yourself.

The sex-segregated sections sounds like a good solution. NGL, I might pay extra to sit in a section of the plane that only has female passengers (assuming I couldn't get good seats like the exit row or something). No creeps plus much lower likelihood that the person next to me decides their legs and elbows are entitled to my space.