After preventing dozens of ultra-Orthodox from boarding a connecting flight from Germany to Hungary last year without reason, the German airline Lufthansa paid 26 of the ultra-Orthodox passengers $17,000 in compensation each and every one of them | The lawsuit came even though the CEO of the airline apologized to the rabbi of Berlin
After preventing dozens of ultra-Orthodox Jews from boarding a connecting flight from Germany to Hungary last year, the German airline Lufthansa faced a class action lawsuit. The lawyers of 26 of the ultra-Orthodox passengers, who arrived from the USA at the airport in Frankfurt on their way to Budapest in May of last year, were not allowed to board the plane, and announced that they would file a lawsuit against Lufthansa. In recent days, the passengers reached a settlement, with the company, and each of the 26 passengers received 17,000 dollars .
Photocopy of the check for 17,000 dollars.
As you may remember, a group of 150 Jews from the USA arrived in Frankfurt last year in order to continue from there to Budapest on their way to the grave of H.R.K. of Crestir, however when they asked to board the onward flight a confrontation developed between them and the staff of the German airline who claimed that on previous flights some of the Jewish passengers refused to wear protective masks , and therefore they are not allowed to board the plane.
During the confrontation, the members of the German company decided to prevent all dozens of ultra-Orthodox Jews from boarding the flight and separated them from the other passengers who were allowed to board the plane. The lawyers from the American Center for Law and Justice, located in Washington, informed in a letter to the CEO of Lufthansa that they decided to file a lawsuit after “the passengers were victims of an unscrupulous anti-Semitic incident.”
The lawsuit came even though the CEO of Lufthansa, Carsten Spohr, apologized to the rabbi of Berlin Yehuda Teichtel for the incident, and the two met for a personal conversation. Lufthansa itself issued a statement of apology after the scandal in which it was stated that “We have zero tolerance for racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination of any kind. We are looking into the incident.”
The story began when the German airline company refused to board a connecting flight from Frankfurt to Budapest last week, about 150 ultra-Orthodox who wanted to come to Hungary to pray in Zion in Krestyre, this as a collective punishment for the fact that a handful of passengers refused to wear masks on the first flight from New York.
Upon landing in Frankfurt, a surprise awaited the Jewish passengers. Armed police officers who physically prevented all Jewish passengers from boarding the connecting flight. At first they didn’t get a clear answer about what the fuss was about, but then a flight attendant arrived and said the unbelievable sentence: “You are all being punished because of the actions of a few individuals. It was the Jews who caused the problems on the flight and therefore all the Jews from JFK are not allowed to continue flying.”
Many passengers had to spend hundreds of dollars more and there were those who spent over 1200 dollars to fly home, some gave up reaching Crestir because they had to return home and paid for a return flight through another airline, some missed connecting flights. Dozens of other passengers who booked trips alone found their way to Kerstir on their own. Most people only planned to be in Crestir for a few hours and planned to visit other cities via a bus trip, but they ended up missing the day, and had to spend an extra day in Europe somewhere they hadn’t planned, along with other expenses. According to conversations conducted by passengers with the ground crew, it became clear that the captain decided not to fly the ultra-Orthodox, even after pleas from the ground attendants.