German airline apologizes for excluding Jewish passengers

BERLIN –

Lufthansa, the German airline, apologized after refusing to allow Orthodox Jewish passengers onto its flight. Some of these passengers had refused to wear masks.

Lufthansa released a statement Tuesday night. said that it “regrets the circumstances surrounding the decision to exclude the affected passengers from the flight, for which Lufthansa sincerely apologizes.”

The airline saidIt was reviewing what happened in the incident of May 4, which involved passengers from New York arriving in Frankfurt for a flight towards Budapest.

According to German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeiner Zeitung, some passengers refused to wear masks. Lufthansa personnel then allegedly prevented all Jews-identified passengers from boarding their connecting flight.

Local German media reported that staff expelled passengers who could be identified as Jews by their skull caps or sidelocks.

“We regret that the large group was denied boarding rather than limiting it to the non-compliant guests,” the airline said.

“We have zero tolerance for racism, antisemitism and discrimination of any type,” it added.

The incident was strongly condemned by the antisemitism commission of Hesse, the state where Frankfurt is situated.

Uwe Becker saidIt was believed that an entire group of people were responsible for something that only affected individual travelers.

“This is discriminatory and not a trivial matter, and all the more reason why the company’s top management should also feel personally responsible for apologizing for this incident and taking a clear and unequivocal stand,” Becker told German news agency dpa.

Becker saidHe would be delighted to speak with Lufthansa about the matter.

“Something like this must not be repeated,” he added.

Rabbi Yehuda Tetztal, a Berlin Rabbi and Head of the Chabad Community, is saidGerman companies need to be sensitive about possible anti-Semitism due to the country’s Nazi past.

Teichtal was happy to hear that Carsten Spohr (chief executive of Lufthansa) called him to apologize for the incident.