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| 10,000 march across Brooklyn Bridge protesting spikes in antisemitism (ABC) |
A Jewish family was allegedly verbally abused by a crew member on an American Airlines flight from New York to London last Monday.
The Stamford Hill volunteer Jewish security force Shomrim tweeted on Tuesday that after the Jewish family boarded flight AA142 at John F. Kennedy International Airport, “whilst stowing their bags they were subjected to racial abuse from a Female crew member who shouted ‘You F**** Jews think you control the plane.’”
While this obviously antisemitic attack was not as violent as
those that have occurred recently in Jersey City and Monsey, it is nevertheless an
indication of the uptick in antisemitism that is rearing its ugly head. Especially
in the New York / New Jersey area where
a lot of Orthodox Jews reside. An uptick that generated a march across the Brooklyn Bridge by 10,000 people protesting antisemitic violence.
Back the the incident on American Airlines. Surely this family did nothing to elicit that disgusting
antisemitic remark on the part of a flight attendant. I hope.
The reason I say ‘I hope’ is because I am reminded of an
unfortunate incident I witnessed a few years ago. It was on a flight where - as passengers were boarding - a
Chasidic family acted almost exactly the way this fight attendant described in her epithet. They acted
like they owned the plane and treated the flight attendants like their personal
servants.
I have mentioned this story before. It is embedded onto my
brain for a couple of reasons. One of which is the embarrassment I felt at the way this rather large Chasidic family behaved. It was in my view a terrible Chilul HaShem! I wanted to crawl under my seat after watching them ‘abuse’ that flight attendant with all of their demands while other passengers were trying to get to their seats.
I also remember the gracious way the flight
attendant reacted to my feeble attempt as a KIpa wearing Jew to apologize for their behavior. She said she was
used to it and that she realized that not all Jewish people act this way.
Obviously not all flight attendants will react as graciously as
did the one I experienced. If this is what happened here, I might
understand the frustration that elicited her disgusting remarks even as I condemn them as antisemitic. If it didn’t
happen here, and this family did nothing that would indicate that they ‘controlled
the plane’, then I have to wonder why the sudden outburst? ...at the mere sight of an identifiably Jewish
family?
To be clear, there is little doubt in my mind that this
flight attendant harbors some antisemitic attitudes. But flight attendants are
trained to be polite to passengers under the most trying of conditions. Unless they
are physically abused. That the flight Attendant
reacted this way means that she either must have somehow been treated badly by
this family, or has had bad experiences along these lines in the past and just
let it all out here.
That being said - I don’t know the particular circumstance here. Whatever
it was, it did not justify those comments and at the very least this
individual ought to be fired.
But that does not diminish the kind of behavior I witnessed
that falls exactly in line with her accusation. Which unfortunately probably means that - at the very least she
had probably experienced it before if not this particular time. Which is a Chilul HaShem. Plain and simple.
Those who might accuse me of ‘blaming the victim’ - well I
guess it depends on who you think the victim is in cases like these. When a Chilul Hashem takes place the ‘victim’ - is us.
