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Friday, March 29, 2024

El Al Pressured to Protect Female Passengers

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“One person’s religious rights do not trump another person’s civil rights.” ~ El Al Airlines

Does religious mandate condone female harassment? On a recent El Al flight departing from New York this seemed to be the case.

Elana Sztokman was unfortunate enough to be seated next to an ultra-Orthodox Haredi man who was unhappy with his seating assignment. He refused to sit next to a woman, he and other Haredim were standing in the isles, shuffling around, trying to switch the assigned seats. This not only embarrassed many of the female passengers but also delayed the flight for over 20 minutes.

Elana posted on her blog JewFem as well as in her interview on The Mottle Wolfe Radio Show that “Anybody that has traveled on El Al flights has experienced this.”

Elana, an Orthodox feminist Jew, found the entire incident upsetting. “We know Rav Moshe Feinstein traveled on the train and sat next to women.”

Sharon Shapiro, a blogger herself, read Elana’s post and found it disturbing. She initiated an online petition on change.org pressuring El Al to “stop the bullying, intimidation, and discrimination against women on your flights. One person’s religious rights do not trump another person’s civil rights.”

She urged the airline to either “reserve a few rows of separate sex seating on every flight, where for a fee, those passengers who need such seating can pre-book their seats” or “El Al can refer such requests to independent private travel agencies who buy block seating for such purposes.”

Sharon’s blog has received over 3,200 hits. El Al had no comment on the event.

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