Lufthansa bars dozens of Jews from flight due to actions of a few

Photo by Alan Angelats on Unsplash

As a white American reform Jew, I have the privilege of not experiencing discrimination on a regular basis. When I walk down the street, no one can tell I’m Jewish just by looking at me.

But growing up Jewish has given me a unique perspective into discrimination. Luckily my family lived in the States during World War II and did not have to escape the Holocaust, but that easily could have been different. As a kid I learned more about the Holocaust than the average (non-Jewish) American student. One of the things I learned is the razor’s edge upon which many live – how easily discrimination can happen to those who are considered “other.”

Which is exactly what happened with Lufthansa. Dozens of Jewish passengers were on a flight from New York to Frankfurt, with the intention of traveling on to Budapest. Many were on the flight for the same reason – to visit the tomb of Rabbi Yeshaya Steiner in Hungary. But some were on the flight for other reasons. They were identifiably Jewish, either because they were wearing Orthodox garb, or because of their names.

Some of the passengers had allegedly refused to wear face masks (which is still a requirement on Lufthansa), and irritated the flight crew by praying in the plane’s aisles. Instead of identifying those specific people, Lufthansa barred all Jews from that flight from boarding the next. Its reasoning was given in a stunning, though sadly not surprising, admission by a Lufthansa rep:

Rep: “It was one, everybody has to pay for a couple.”

 ….

Rep: “It was Jewish people who were the mess, who made the problems.”

Jewish customer: “So Jewish people on the plane made a problem so all Jews are banned from Lufthansa for the day?”

 Rep: “Just for this flight.”

 This is clearly antisemitism. But it’s more than that. The Lufthansa rep implied that the airline’s response would have been the same if it had involved some other identifiable group of people – “It would have been if you were African, or if you were Polander.” So if a few dark-skinned passengers had refused to wear masks, all would have been barred from the connecting flight? That makes Lufthansa’s actions worse, not better.

Lufthansa has apologized and promised to investigate the incident. But after-the-fact apologies aren’t enough to combat discrimination. As history and current events have shown, again and again, we all need to do better. To be better.