NEW YORK (VINnews) — During a security check which took place last week at Berlin’s Brandenburg airport, Berlin Chief Yehuda Teichtal was asked to remove his kippah, a request to which he vehemently refused for religious reasons, according to a Ynet report.
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Security personnel tried to explain to the rabbi that it was a standard procedure and that everyone passing through security gates adheres to the instructions. Rabbi Teichtal clarified to them that, as far as he was aware, there was no such directive and he firmly declined.
Upon returning to Berlin last weekend, Rabbi Teichtal held an urgent meeting with the President of the Federal Police of Germany (Präsident Bundespolizei Deutschland) Dr. Dieter Romann. The police chief was shocked to hear about Rabbi Teichtal’s experience and explicitly told him that there is no such directive.
“The police chief issued a directive to all federal officers in the country to cease this procedure, which was never official,” Rabbi Teichtal says, “Moreover, the president of the police confirmed this officially and also approved its publication.”
Rabbi Teichtal took off again Monday morning, and this time he wasn’t asked to remove his kippah during the security check. “You can keep your kippah on,” he was told during the inspection.
Rabbi Teichtal concluded, ‘While there’s no doubt that safety guidelines need to be followed, the directive to remove the kippah – a Jewish symbol that never leaves our heads – was never approved and holds no validity, as the president of the police himself said.”
In 2018, a Jewish person wearing a kippah was assaulted by a Syrian refugee. In response, 2,500 Berliners including politicians donned kippas of all colors and joined with Jews on a “kippah march.” Rabbi Teichtal participated in the march, wearing his black kippah with pride as he has done since arriving in 1996. Removing or hiding the signature Jewish look, as some in the community have suggested, is anathema to him. “To hide and cover our Jewish identity is not the solution,” Teichtal insists. “We must continue to walk and live as proud Jews while simultaneously doing everything possible to combat anti-semitism.”
There are early achronim that wrote teshuvos about not having to wear a kippa in the street.
The minhag was not to, in Germany, Venice, and much of what we call Italy.
I am not sure about other places in Europe
Where’s the story?
Officers asked him to remove his yarmulke, the police chief agreed with the Rabbi & notified his officers to not do so in the future. The next time he flew they didn’t ask him to remove his yarmulke.
What I am missing?
Have trouble understanding what the problem is with taking off kippah in this case
Since when are you not allowed to remove a head covering? Why do some people trick officials into believing that this an important religious stance when as far as I know, it is not.
What’s about here in the US. Is there such a directive. People are being asked all the time to show the kippah.
German frum Jews wore a head coveting when davening and eating while walking working etc no
A dozen years ago I was ordered to remove my kippah by the security people at Charles DeGaulle Airport in Paris. I complied because I didn’t want to spend any time in a French jail.
I was in O’Hara Airport when I saw a frum woman being asked to remove a shaitel, she was pulled into a private room for a search. I don’t know who she was, nor did I see the end of it.
I do have a problem with it since I believe she was humiliated in public.
His grandfather, Rabbi Teichtel, זצל, author of אם הבנים שמחה, would not be seen in Germany…….he felt and wrote we erred pre- Hitler ,ys, we should have joined the Tzionim!
The kippa never leaves our heads?
Does the rabbi shower and swim with it on?
What’s the problem with taking it off momentarily at a security inspection? I do it without complaint.
Such to-dos trivialize real anti-Jewish behaviour and are damaging to us all.
Poor judgment on the Rabbi’s part.
These guys are confused and mal-located. Do they not realize that no Jews belong in the home country of the Nazis with or without yarmulkas.
It is not a question if one is allowed or not.Rabbi Wallis could have saved his life in the camps,by eating Chazir but as a Rabbi he definitly did the right thing,beside the facts what could have been hidden behind a yarmukle it is stam Rishess.