NEW YORK (VINnews) — A frum couple was allegedly thrown off an American Airlines flight and humiliated by the flight crew. Their offense — refusing to place a pair of tefillin on the floor.
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According to a lawsuit, the incident took place in August, when Menchem (aka Roberto) and Elana Birman were flying home from Miami on American Airlines. Menachem’s zekel was relatively small, and held his tefillin, tallis, and a siddur.
Before takeoff, a stewardess checked the overhead compartments, pulled out the tefillin bag, and asked whom it belonged to. Menachem told her that it was his, and she allegedly threw it on his lap and demanded that he place it under his seat.
He replied, “It’s a religious item, it cannot go under the seat.” He then removed a baseball cap, showing his yarmulka, and explained that it’s prohibited to place tefillin on the floor.
The flight attendant did not care, and allegedly screamed and pointed at Menachem.
“I couldn’t believe this was happening to me in America,” he said. “We use these items every single day to pray.”
Sadly, none of the other passengers came to their defense. “Nobody said a word. Nobody defended us. It was embarrassing,” Mrs. Birman said.
The couple said that the pilot came over but he did not speak to them. They were then escorted off the flight, and as soon as they were ushered out, one crew member allegedly said, “Close the gate!”
“What are we, criminals?” Elana remembers thinking. She said her husband “was devastated.”
Making matters worse, they were forced off the plane without Menachem’s diabetes medicines, which were still in their luggage.
The Birmans, who have been married 52 years and have four kids, have filed a lawsuit against American Airlines.
I hope they win loads of $. They deserve it. They did absolutely nothing against regulations, there’s no law or rule against placing bags in the overhead compartment and I can’t believe there was no room in that compartment. And if there wasn’t they could’ve put it in the next compartment. There was no excuse for the airline employees’ rudeness.
Married 52 years?!?
means they’re senior citizens as well
Disgusting
Nor certain I understand what happened. I always put my Talis bag, containing my tefillin as well, in a carry-on case that fits in the overhead. No reason for it even to be seen. That said:
A – If it already was in the overhead, why was it removed?
B – If it was removed why could he not hold it in his lap?
C – If he could not hold it in his lap, why was not another overhead opened to find a place for it? After all, a tallis bag is quite small and there should not have been any problem finding another overhead that could have accommodated it.
D – I don’t blame the gentleman for not doing this, but if it was me I would have refused to leave and would have stated that until the police were called and came to arrest me for having a religious article with me in my personal possession I would not be going anywhere. Then would have let the chips fall where they may. We may still be in Galus, but we are also US citizens who enjoy all the protections of the 1st (and all the other) amendments, and if we don’t stand up for those protections we are sure to lose them.
Anti semitism is rampant unfortunately. They have the utmost nerve to start up
with senior citizens..It’s disgusting.
I hope they make a lot of money!! Get AA where it hurts them the most
Kees Bsoch Kees? Put your tefillin bag in a grocery bag. Good to go. Theoretically you could bring tefillin wrapped in this fashion even in to the bathroom if necessary I think. Maybe I am wrong but I don’t think so. My tefillin in my carry on bag are always wrapped in a plastic bag not meant to hold them thus allowing them to be taken anywhere while wrapped thusly. While I don’t doubt they were treated rudely I everyone sued an airline fir rude employees fogey about it. Btw is saw this happen recently on a full flight. The flight attendant took out my small backpack from the overhead and told me to put it under my seat. To make room for bigger bags. Since my tefillin and Tallis were wrapped per above it was no problem.
What took so long for people to hear about this. Something like this would have caused Aguda , OU etc to raise holy gehenim about this? Maybe there was something, i just don’t remember it.
If its emes, I hope they OWN UnAmerican Airlines once it’s over!
I’m so sick of what the airlines have done to flying. They’ve taken the fun and enjoyment our of it. The airline personele fly off at the handle for every stupid thing. They are the judge, jury, and executioner of every issue, more often than not caused by them!
Might it not be wise for our communal organizations to reach out to management of American Airlines and explain how terrible this incident appears to their frum clientele. All people of faith should be outraged at such behavior.
Yet Biden and garlin are busy with airline rights. They are want to empower these stewards even more. The route cause of these issues are the stewards vs the passengers. We the people need to stand up and fight this. Yes this includes crazy mask mandates for 3 year old autistic kids
Good for them
I used to fly quite a bit. I have never heard a flight attendant scream at anyone. I have never seen a flight attendant throw anything into someone’s lap.
Good. Hope they win.
One more airline not to fly – Sprint and now American.
Make our choice easier when traveling.
I don’t want to say good for them but unfortunately you have to think before flying with American what might happen, you’re not born today and you know what’s going on with the airline, it’s not the first time.
Disgusting
Was a competent posek (high-level rabbinic authority, halachic decisor) consulted about this case? Orthodox Jews should conduct themselves according to דעת תורה, not knee-jerk shrill activists and lawyers.
I think the man may well have been allowed to put the bag under his seat. The tefillin were already covered doubly (if not triply), according to a photo seen in the NY Post.
American Airlines rules are very clear as regards cabin baggage. One small case in the overhead bins and one small personal item below the seat in front. You should always keep your tefillin in the small case if you do not want to store them under the seat. If that means you need to pay for check-in baggage for what other things you have in your carry on case then so be it. Who says that avoiding bizayon of tefillin (like any other mitzva) should not cost you money.to fulfil?
It is a chillul hashem to continue this case. It gives off the impression that fum Jews are cheap.
Really – Just pulled ONLY the tiffilin out of the bag in the overhead compartment and told them they have to place it on the floor.
Maybe just maybe they did not pay fur a carry-on as they were too cheap to do so, and the free small personal item bag must be put in the seat pocket in front or under the seat. But if it has tiffilin in it, there should be an exemption to the rule and it may go into the overhead bin. I am trying to find a tiffiln exemption on American Airline website – so far no success
What anti-Semites all these airlines are.!!!
I’m not a posek but if the refilling were in their own case inside the tallis case you could probably put it under the seat. Not excusing the airline’s despicable behavior though.
Strange. Why was the Tefillin pulled from the overhead bin to begin with?
Sounds like two tenths of the story is missing.
This story would have been even more fascinating if this particular flight had crashed after this Frum couple was illegally kicked off the flight.
The reason items are placed in 2 bags is because it allows you to treat it as a regular item (I.e. bringing it into the bathroom). That’s for Tefillin, a Tallis has no inherent Kedusha and placing a bagged Tallis under the seat is a non-issue. There are always Jews that want to scream “Antisemitism” and sue for some easy gelt.
He could of placed it on his lap
Probably didn’t fit in the overhead compartment.
You don’t need to make a fuss about everything