Thread by @DansDeals

Lufthansa Accused Of Antisemitism, Again!

Last year, the @USDOT released part of their 653 page report on a story we broke back in 2022. They found @lufthansa discriminated on the basis of religion and engaged in unfair business practices.

I spoke with multiple passengers today, who allege they, too, were unfairly targeted by Lufthansa in Prague.

In the end, Lufthansa allegedly went around the boarding area targeting only visibly Jewish passengers, while ignoring all other passengers present.

If you want Lufthansa to stop with this despicable behavior, like, comment, and share this tweet.

Full story below:

First of all. We receive reports on a near-daily basis from poorly treated passengers around the world. While we can’t investigate most of them, and we decline to write about many others after investigating, some make the cut for egregious behavior. This is one of those cases.

As in the 2022 incident, these passengers made a pilgrimage to visit the grave of Rabbi Yeshaya Steiner of Kerestir, known as Reb Shayala Kerestirer, on the 3 Iyar yahrtzeit (date of his passing) in 1925.

They then spent Shabbos in Israel before scrambling to rebook their Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt that was cancelled after a Houthi missile hit the grounds of Ben Gurion Airport.

5 visibly Hasidic Jews flew from Tel Aviv on Bluebird flight 462, which arrived in Prague at 12:36pm today. They were all booked separately.

Meyer Tauber and a friend went to an airport lounge, while others milled about the airport or waited at the gate.

When Mayer got to the gate shortly before boarding, he heard them page him and Herman Deutsch to come to the podium. They asked them if they were ok sitting in an exit row, to which they answered in the affirmative. The gate agent then told them they were going to have to check in their carry-on bags. Mayer asked why that would be, and the agent said it was oversized. When Mayer asked to put his bag in the sizer, he was able to fit it in, but the agent said you aren’t allowed to fit it in, it has to be able to be dropped in without touching it.

@meyertauber and a friend went to an airport lounge, while others milled about the airport or waited at the gate.. When Mayer said he was entitled to a personal item and carry-on, he was able to retrieve his Tefillin from his bag before it was checked.

Herman didn’t fare as well. The agent refused to allow him to touch the bag to retrieve his tefillin, and if he didn’t hand over the bag immediately, there would be an added fee. The agent was unwilling to explain what the added fee was for, but Herman complied.

The gate agent then systematically walked around the gate area and called the other 3 Hasidic Jews to go to the podium. Their bags were subject to a drop test, where the bag would only be allowed to pass through if it dropped right into the sizer, without the men being allowed to fit the bag into the sizer.

2 bags didn’t pass the absurd test, and the men with those bags were not allowed to touch their bags to remove their Tefillin, under threat of being removed from the flight.

In all, 4 bags were forced to be checked in.

The employees tried to stop them from taking pictures:

The men explained that they had a separate connecting flight on United from Frankfurt to Newark, but were told that the bags would be checked through to Newark.

Aron Grosz was sitting at the gate by himself when he saw the other Hasidic Jews brought over to the podium. He was wondering what was happening when a female gate agent came for him as well and said he had to go to the podium.

Even before the wheel went into the sizer, he was told it would have to be gate checked, despite it being able to fit by just moving the wheel. He was not allowed to touch his bag after that, even to remove his Tefillin. He has flown with his bag on flights on many airlines without issue and never experienced such rudeness or high tension, but didn’t want to be removed from the flight so he let them take his bag.

Still, he didn’t like what was going on at all. The men all acted respectfully, but were being treated like criminals.

He took out his phone to take pictures of the bags and gate agents, which triggered a gate agent to page for a supervisor. The supervisor demanded that he open his phone and delete any pictures.

When he asked the supervisor why they were being targeted when many people in the boarding area had even larger carry-on bags, the supervisor said if you ask that again, you won’t be boarding this flight.

Aron was shocked that the gate agent didn’t make an effort to hide the fact that they were targeting only the visibly Jewish passengers on the flight. They could have easily called up a few other passengers with even larger carry-ons to the podium, but they didn’t.

On the flight, the men noted many bags that were significantly larger than their carry-ons, had made it onto the flight without issue.

The men had a tight connection in Frankfurt before they boarded United flight 75 to Newark without issue, where they noted the gate agents and flight attendants were much more friendly than on Lufthansa. They didn’t have time to file a complaint in Frankfurt.

Unfortunately, their carry-on bags that were promised to be tagged to Newark never made it, and they left the airport without their bags.

Meyer is a world traveler and is still shocked at the incident. He was part of a group in 2022 that met with Tal Muscal, Lufthansa’s head of Corporate Communications in the Americas, who promised Lufthansa would provide sensitivity training for their employees.

Meyer’s carry-on bag, in Tel Aviv:

Mayer isn’t interested in money. He wants to see Lufthansa investigate and provide an official apology for the profiling. And he wants to know what will change with employee training and how it will differ from the response to the 2022 incident.

He said he has also heard from other visibly Hasidic Jews who have been targeted by Lufthansa gate agents in Prague.

He plans on filing a DOT complaint and hopes to receive an apology from Lufthansa and what they will do so that others aren’t targeted in the future.

DansDeals reached out to Lufthansa earlier today for comment, but we haven’t yet received a response.