Oh for Crying Out Loud
There are two stupid things that I want to point out about this incident of an Orthodox Jew that was removed from an airplane before it took off because he went to the back of the plane to say his prayers and wouldn’t stop when he was asked to even though his traveling companions told the attendants that it would only be 2 more minutes.
1) He should have just said his prayers in his seat or in the terminal before he boarded the plane. For what reason did he have to go to the back of the plane to say his prayers? That was a stupid move on his part.
However,
2) I’m pretty positive that it took longer to get security and remove him than it would have taken to just let him finish his prayers and sit down. So that was a stupid move on the flight attendants’ part.
Honestly. Just all around stupid.
Comment by OldOldLady Of The Hills
April 19, 2008 @ 2:07 am
There may be a very good reason why he wwent to the back of the plane and also that he was saying his prayers ON the plane in the first place. I don’t know what these are but I am more than willing to give this man the benefit of the doubt considering that there are a lot of things we don’t actually know about why and how Orthodoz Jews say their prayers when traveling, for instance.
That it probably would have been easier to just let him finish considering the time it took to get security makes sense to me.
It occurs to me that how he needed to pray may have something to do with Passover…Again, I don’t know that but I do know there are some very strict rules that Orthodox Jews must adhere to…!
It will be interesting to see if there is any follow up on this story.
Comment by Karin
April 19, 2008 @ 7:18 am
It did occur to me that there might be a specific reason, but it wasn’t mentioned in the story, nor did his friends do the same thing (although they might not have been Orthodox Jews). However, in the world in which we live, we have to make smart choices when we are on airplanes where everyone is a little jumpier than usual. I just think he made a poor decision under the circumstances. You would think if it was a necessity to pray in the back of the plane, we’d have heard of something like this happening before. But, by the same token, I think the flight attendants WAY overreacted to this. And I think he probably has the grounds for a discrimination lawsuit. But he could have saved himself a lot of grief by handling it differently in the first place - like maybe telling them first what he was going to do for instance. I guess I’m just saying there were poor choices made all around in this situation. You’re right, though, it will be interesting to see what comes of it all!
Comment by Melany
April 19, 2008 @ 10:16 am
This is really just stupid. Maybe he was just late for his flight and didn’t have time to do his prayers. gosh. Just let him be. Goodness.