SHAMEFUL: Brooklyn Couple Booted from American Airlines Flight Over Tefillin

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to a lawsuit, an elderly Brooklyn couple was kicked off an American Airlines flight for refusing to drop a bag holding their tallis and tefillin on the floor.

Roberto and Elana Birman were returning home from Miami in August aboard Flight 322, they said.

Roberto, 76, and Elana, 71, boarded the plane with only a briefcase, a handbag, and his tallis bag — a small, 8.5-inch-by-8.5-inch clear plastic carrier. They sat across from one another in aisle seats.

Prior to takeoff, a flight attendant began searching overhead bins, removed the tallis bag from one, and said, “Who is this?”

When Roberto claimed it, she allegedly tossed the bag on his lap and instructed him that it needed to go under his seat, according to the pair.

“It’s a religious object; it cannot go beneath the seat,” Roberto remarked, taking off his baseball cap to display his yarmulka and explaining that as an Orthodox Jew, he is not permitted to place the tashmishei kedusha on the floor.

“It makes no difference,” the attendant is said to have sniffed.

Roberto reminded the flight attendant that the bag was not permitted to be placed on the floor, but she remained unmoved.

“She was yelling at me and waving her hand,” he explained.

The couple, who have been married for 52 years and have four children, immigrated to the United States from Argentina in 1985.

Elana Birman compared the flight attendant’s request to that of a Christian “throwing a cross on the floor” where it could be stepped on.

“No one spoke a word. Nobody stood up for us. “It was humiliating,” she stated.

They were eventually contacted by a ground staff member who pushed them to accompany him off the plane.

The couple has filed a lawsuit against American Airlines for monetary damages. Read more at Mebere.com.

{Matzav.com}

19 COMMENTS

    • Don’t boycot! It doesn’t help! Rather lets get together of what evidence is needed for a lawsuit. Once there will be enough evidence there should be a class action lawsuit. A lawsuit with aa not having any trustworthiness will get heads rolling. The shareholders will never agree to lost money by a class action lawsuit.

  1. No one spoke a word. Nobody stood up for us. “It was humiliating,” she stated

    Yup. The sheeple are more concerned if your disposable mask is exactly on the face where it should be. Mask up mask up mask up. Biden/Fauci have dehumanized the American citizens. Divide and conquer. Pit one citizen against another. Become a snitcher or (as DeBlasio refers) ambassadors on your neighbors. Mask up mask up mask up. Don’t enter a Shul. Don’t enter a Yeshiva. Mask up. Get your 13th booster. Mask up. Stay 30 feet away from me. Mask up. You’re a rodef. You’re a rotziach. Mask up. Hi, how are you doing today? Mask up.

  2. The couple is 100% wrong. I fly all the time. Tallis and tefillin should be double and triple bagged when travelling specifically so that you can put it on the floor or take it in the bathroom. This is the Gemara in Brachos.

    The flight attendant did not target them because they are Jews. She found a small item in the overhead that could easily fit under the seat. Passengers are always instructed to put small items under the seat to leave more room for bigger items overhead that cannot go under the seat.

    Let’s keep crying wolf and wonder why the world doesn’t take us seriously when there is real anti-semitism.

    • Certain people will always try to find a way to excuse the wrong. Cover up for the anti semite, and even claim unashamedly that their actions are the correct ones.

      Still doesnt answer how they take the leisure and make a big deal over one “little package”.Every unbiased sane person would agree is out of order, and question the motive. Sorry but even if the court agrees with this logic and awards the plaintiffs, I dont believe you would agree as was wrong.

    • Ok so you want to tell me; someone that should be more familiar with Gemara than a goyish flight attendant that the Tallis tefillin should be double and triple bagged so you can put it on the floor. That she knew this gemara and therefor based it on that???? Are you nuts? This flight attendant doesn’t know gemara and neither does she know anything. BUt she had an elderly couple telling her that it is a religious thing and that shouldve been enough. She didn’t ask them to put it on the floor knowing that they had an option had they double wrapped it or whatever..

    • To Orech Din – You are a disgusting person. Maybe you were the flight attendant who did this to them! have pity on your fellow Jews. will you now go and justify Nazi Germany to us as well? I happen to know these people and they are the nicest people i know. pure sweetness. You have to come on your high horse from the comfort of your living room giving mussar to this poor couple who were shamed. Dont give me any Gemara in Brachos either. its people like you who give unlearned people the impression that this is what Torah is. How about some rachmanus for another Jews plight. Thats Torah – and a gemara in Brachos btw

    • I am very good at playing devils advocate, but if the story is the way this couple says it happened then the airline s in the wrong. They wouldn’t treat a cross or quran in a disrespectful way. And there should be no reason to have to triple wrap your tefilan Although when I fly I put my tallis into my carry on

    • Orech Din: יישר כחך for your comments.

      Disregard the small minds who don’t understand the importance of your words. In addition to their bearing on the case under discussion, they are also important to share in case others ever have the same or similar situation in the future.

      החכם עיניו בראשו

  3. Thank you Orech Din. You said it perfectly. I don’t think most people understand the bags don’t become Kadosh because they’re holding an object. They are being used to create an isolated space so the item can be brought into a bathroom. If you’re sitting on the floor there’s nothing wrong with putting the bag on the floor next to you, or under your seat.

  4. While the intentions of the passengers may have been good, Torah Jews are supposed to be guided by halacha.

    Did a poseik say that this was necessary? Since the tefillin were already double or triple covered, they would not have been directly on the ground, even if the bag was placed under the seat.

    P.S. We are still in golus.

  5. Since this seems to fit the recent pattern of American Airlines attitude toward Jews, I say THANK YOU to the couple for suing! They’ve been showing very negative attitude towards Jews. Hit ’em hard. As a paying consumer you should be allowed to put your Tallis and Teffilin wherever you want! You’re the consumer.

  6. This story would have been even more fascinating if this particular flight had crashed after this Frum couple was illegally kicked off the flight.

  7. Very crowd bestowed. His care of tefillin is commendable but more drive seems bed strapped game. How can he own his crowd if he has no beard? His credit is only his emotion and yet American Airlines should have been beckoning better credit.

    Rash gesture all in all. Glad to head we can easily ask for instruction for carrying tefillin on air flight.

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