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Home » American Airlines » American Airlines Accused Of Kicking Off Orthodox Jewish Passenger For The Actions Of An Unrelated Jew Onboard
American Airlines

American Airlines Accused Of Kicking Off Orthodox Jewish Passenger For The Actions Of An Unrelated Jew Onboard

Matthew Klint Posted onMay 9, 2024May 8, 2024 32 Comments

a plane parked at an airport

A disturbing account suggests that American Airlines punished a Jewish boy for the actions of another observant Jew onboard whom he was not related to and had never previously met. If true, this is a miscarriage of justice that the AA pilot should be held accountable for.

Did American Airlines Kick Off Innocent Orthodox Passenger Just For Looking Jewish?

Let’s first review what happened onboard, as reported by Dan’s Deal, who interviewed the two passengers involved:

  • Yehudah Roffman, 21, noticed that the tail of his Embraer E-175 (registration N123HQ) appeared dented on the aircraft scheduled to operate his flight, AA4447 on May 5, 2024, from Cleveland (CLE) to Washington National (DCA)
  • While boarding, he mentioned it to the flight attendant before taking his seat in 10D.
  • Later during boarding, when the gate agent was on the aircraft, he approached her and asked her
  • He then noticed the pilot was chatting with the gate agent and walked to the front of the aircraft and asked him about it
  • The pilot told him to sit down
  • He pressed the piot, wanting to know if it was inspected
  • The pilot again told him to sit down
  • For a third time, he asked the pilot if he was taking his concerns seriously
  • Again, the pilot told him to sit down
  • The gate agent warned him that federal law required that he listen to crewmember instructions
  • He sat down
  • Five minutes later, the gate agent showed up at Roffman’s seat and told him to take his items and step off the aircraft
  • Meanwhile, 17-year-old Reuvi Scheinerman took his seat in 23A, the last row of the aircraft
  • Like Roffman, he was Orthodox, but did not know Roffman and was not traveling with him
  • After removing Roffman, the gate agent tapped Scheinerman on the shoulder and also told him to gather his things and step off the aircraft
  • Scheinerman asked the gate agent what was going on and was told (along with Roffman), “You know what you did.”
  • The agent further warned that both would be “blacklisted” from American Airlines
  • Scheinerman pushed back, stating, “Is this anti-Semitism? Why was I removed from this flight?”
  • The gate agent indicated the pilot had required it and suddenly changed her tune, saying the young men would not be blacklisted and instead rebooked the following day
  • But instead, Roffman offered to rent a car and drive Scheinerman to his destination in Connecticut
  • Scheinerman (remember, he’s only 17) called his parents and they agreed (they apparently knew Roffman’s family)

American Airlines has thus far not commented on this issue. I held off on writing about this for two days in order to give AA time to respond, but I have heard nothing. That leads me to conclude that there is not a sufficient counternarrative that could cast this situation into a different light.

I think it is reasonable to say that Roffman went overboard in badgering the captain about the “dent” on the tail of the aircraft. Depending upon his tone and the delay in following crewmember instructions to sit down, his removal may have even be justified (though I think the matter could have de-escalated and handled in a far better way that was both educational and showed some compassion for his fears).

But I just cannot see a justification for the removal of Scheinerman for what appears to be nothing more than being an observant Jew. Absent a compelling counternarrative, I believe his story and it is disgusting to think that American Airlines removed him simply for his matching tribal identity.

Did American Airlines not learn from the Lufthansa group punishment issue?


> Read More:

  • Did Lufthansa Really Discriminate Against Jews?
  • Lufthansa Apologizes For Treatment Of Jewish Passengers
  • Lufthansa CEO Apologizes To Prominent Rabbi For Anti-Semitism, Suspends Employees
  • Class Action Lawsuit Is Heating Up As Lufthansa CEO Offers Handwritten Apology Notes To Jewish Passengers Denied Boarding
  • Lufthansa Settles With Jewish Passengers Denied Boarding For $21,000 Each

Don’t Pull The Gaza Analogy Here…

Many fools and bigots have rushed to the defense of American Airlines, arguing that it serves the boy right for the “collective punishment” Israel has inflicted on the civilians of Gaza in its war on Hamas.

What a bunch of malarkey…

First off, an American teenager is not an arm of the IDF or an ambassador of Prime Minister Netanyahu. Second, there’s quite a difference between trying to prosecute a war in which missiles even to this day continue to be launched toward Israel and the cowards who launch them hide amongst the civilian population. War is ugly. It always is.

Israel is a nation held to standards no other nation is and no nation should be expected to agree to a cease-fire when its neighbor continues to launch attacks and preach for genocide against Israeli Jews. The point of the war is not to target civilians; it is to destroy Hamas.

CONCLUSION

American Airlines must explain its conduct because the picture painted is not a good one. It seems to me that neither Scheinerman or Roffman should have been thrown off the flight, but if Scheinerman was thrown off becuase of his appearance, then this case rises to a whole new level of absurdity.

What are your thoughts on this case?

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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32 Comments

  1. Bhn Reply
    May 9, 2024 at 7:26 am

    Another day, another reason not to fly AA. As if anyone needed more.

  2. Interested Traveller Reply
    May 9, 2024 at 7:57 am

    @matthew, I do not know much about the differentiation of Jewish religiosity.

    With that said, I have seen Jewish folks at the airport before and they seem to dress similarly.

    While it is not an excuse, (the Pilot should have de-escalated the issue and not had either removed for raising a safety concern), it is possible that the Pilot didn’t realize that only one of the two was raising the safety concern and not both?

    I have to be honest, while I would like to think that I would be more careful than the pilot, if I was not paying close attention and folks were wearing similar clothing, I might confuse them.

    Again, it isn’t an excuse, but IME sometimes things are simpler than the seem.

    Antisemitism is always wrong, we need to do a better job as a society to combat hate.

    • Alert Reply
      May 9, 2024 at 8:08 am

      @Interested … Not long ago , Lufthansa had a fiasco with a large number of similarly dressed at FRA .

      I say to remove all pax with dogs , similarly dressed or not .

  3. Dave Edwards Reply
    May 9, 2024 at 8:55 am

    This story needs greater media coverage and AA needs to respond but thinking they just want it to go away. All I can say is can you imagine the screams if this occurred with blacks? If true why isn’t the outrage the same?

    • Sydney Brown Reply
      May 9, 2024 at 11:59 am

      Dave you are completely right. Jews are the only group where people can get away with discriminating against them with very little consequence.

      This should be more out there in the media, AA is just disgusting and I will never give them my hard earned money.

      • Matthew Klint Reply
        May 9, 2024 at 12:22 pm

        Don’t forget East Asians in higher education, who also face unjustifed discrimination.

      • GUWonder Reply
        May 14, 2024 at 8:14 am

        Most acts of racist discrimination against most kinds of ethnic and religious minorities probably go both formally unreported and unpunished. Acts of discriminations against minorities who are perceived Roma, Muslims and “brown” and “black” minorities too go massively underreported and unpunished because too many people don’t dare to make a public issue of people being hit by such bigotry in day to day life and feel like complaining doesn’t change a thing even when it hits and hits repeatedly. And then people wonder why such minorities “trust” in “authorities” is what it is and what such lower levels of trust mean for society as a whole.

        When a person lives with racist discrimination hitting them repeatedly, they almost accept that it’s just part of their life and keep most such repeated incidents to their own family members and some friends (if not even keeping it entirely to themselves). But you know what can follow from bottled up frustration over being subjected to repeated indignities for just being born as is? Outbursts when there is a proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back.

        More people should speak out and complain when racist discrimination hits people and be consistent about opposing racism regardless of which individual or demographic group is hit by it at any time.

  4. James Harper Reply
    May 9, 2024 at 9:54 am

    I increasinly wonder if AA is staffed by mentally defective morons who attract those of like mind to travel with them. Not a day goes by when something like this doesn’t happen.

  5. Maryland Reply
    May 9, 2024 at 10:51 am

    It would help if AA made a statement, because the incident with Roffman is possibly justified. However the 17 year old is a different story. I find it odd that the parents would allow their minor child to travel with Roffman without knowing more.

    • GUWonder Reply
      May 9, 2024 at 6:01 pm

      It is indicated in the main copy of this blog article that the family of the 17-year old knew the family of the 21 year old and that is why the parents were comfortable with allowing this alternate way for the 17-year-old to get to school.

      • Maryland Reply
        May 9, 2024 at 9:09 pm

        Yes but why when your child was removed from a flight would you trust the instigator?

        • GUWonder Reply
          May 10, 2024 at 7:45 am

          The 21-year old “instigator” had a safety concern and asked to have it addressed. The instigator of this unnecessary drama was the airline with its employees’ incapacity to provide comforting guidance to the safety-minded 21-year-old and then for no good reason bundling the 17-year-old as another passenger to be denied transport on this flight. Shame on the airline.

  6. james Reply
    May 9, 2024 at 10:52 am

    ISRAEL ACCUSED OF KILLING GAZAN WOMEN AND CHILDREN FOR THE ACTIONS OF UNRELATED HAMA TERRORISTS

    fixed it for you.

    • ber Reply
      May 9, 2024 at 5:27 pm

      Correct, they just happened to vote in Hamas, still support them and rejoiced (and took part of ) on Oct 7th. Still not enough of a reason for so any deaths, thats why Hamas should stop using them as Human Shields!!!!

      • Jim Lovejoy Reply
        May 9, 2024 at 11:03 pm

        Gazan children voted in Hamas? You’ll have to provide documentation for that.

    • Uri Reply
      May 10, 2024 at 2:15 am

      Innocent people killed during war. Sadly, this isn’t the first time, or the last time.

      You’re imagining war as a fair trial to each involved individual, where no action is taken until guilt is proven. No, that’s not how it works. Wish it could be so.

  7. Arthur Reply
    May 9, 2024 at 11:19 am

    If a pilot is going to throw someone off a plan, or have a FA do it, he should take at least a few seconds to check they are throwing off the right person, similar clothing or not. This is on the pilot, and AA owes compensation.

  8. Kaneesha Johnson Washington Reply
    May 9, 2024 at 11:38 am

    KA-CHING $$$$$$$$$$

  9. Sexy_kitten7 Reply
    May 9, 2024 at 12:23 pm

    Thousands upon thousand of europeans (such as your wife) disagree with you. Meow! https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjewg9enx27o

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      May 9, 2024 at 12:58 pm

      Pretty pathetic, isn’t it?

    • GUWonder Reply
      May 9, 2024 at 5:30 pm

      The Israeli contestant won enough votes this evening to advance to the final and actually got super loud cheers during the evening performance for the final semi-final round. That was different than the afternoon cheap seats rehearsal where there was a little booing and a minor flag disturbance. Otherwise rather uneventful event given what normally goes on during Swedish holidays in the area and all else that was going on miles away from the arena.

      I happened to be around just for kicks because I wanted to see the Danish and Norwegian police operating beside the Swedish ones in Sweden, since it would be sort of like “made for TV (or movie) moment. It’s not often I get to see Danish police vehicles blocking off Swedish roads, but when I thought a Danish police van was going to delay me I had a slight urge to go up to them and ask if they knew what a certain old school Swedish phrase critical of Danes meant. Things between the Danes and Swedes weren’t always peaceful in these parts — especially since it was Danish territory before the Swedes invaded and occupied it — but now they even invite Danish forces to come patrol with them when they felt a need for additional security assistance.

    • GUWonder Reply
      May 10, 2024 at 1:57 pm

      There is a concerted effort underway that suggest Israel has a very high chance of getting first place in the Eurovision Song Contest and thereby make things even more interestingly complex for the European Broadcast(ers) Union since then Israel would have first dibs on hosting ESC next year.

      Right-wing Europeans frustrated with immigration levels and what they think those immigration levels mean are sort of teaming up and guiding efforts to vote Israel up over the others. A view into that came with the “leak” from the Italian broadcaster’s tally of the votes.

      The Israeli act is pretty good, but not my first choice. The move from where she is staying to the arena is sort of insane, as it’s been on the level of security provided to US Secretary of States when visiting Stockholm but with even more static security deployment across the city than usual on top of the escort and route protection stuff. But this is in Malmo — a pretty small place with it having a population on the level of Buffalo, NY, but without as much population with the suburban sprawl outside of the city proper as is seen with Buffalo.

  10. Shush Reply
    May 9, 2024 at 1:14 pm

    Thank you Matthew for covering this story and not letting this get political!

  11. Marissa Reply
    May 9, 2024 at 3:16 pm

    And what about the “dent” that started it all?

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      May 9, 2024 at 3:23 pm

      Probably not a dent at all but part of E-175 design.

  12. GUWonder Reply
    May 9, 2024 at 4:43 pm

    It’s a disgrace to target and deny transport to a ticketed passenger for no reason other than that the airline perceived a passenger to be affiliated with an alleged “problem” passenger on the basis of presumed ethnic or religious affiliation of the passengers denied transport by the airline. Fortunately, the trial lawyers of the country haven’t yet been subjected to the kind of tort reform advocated for by the corporate apologist lobbyists and the hypocritical “no regulation is good regulation” crowd. Hopefully, AMR is made to pay and a settlement involves anti-discrimination training so this doesn’t happen again on the basis of perceived religious or ethnic identity to any ethnic and religious demographic groups.

    The Niemoller poem comes to mind. More people should have been stepping up when perceived Muslims and “brown” travelers were being discriminated against at airports and on planes following 9/11 in 2001 and ever since, but it’s never too late to get on the social justice bandwagon and be “one for all and all for one” so as to try to prevent anyone from being subjected to racist and tribalist prejudices while traveling.

  13. AndyS Reply
    May 9, 2024 at 8:40 pm

    The world has had enough of them.

    • GUWonder Reply
      May 10, 2024 at 7:53 am

      Did you work this flight out of CLE? I wouldn’t be surprised if you would engage in such illegal discrimination against passengers if you happened to be in a position to do just that for the CLE-DCA flight.

  14. Gammyjill Reply
    May 9, 2024 at 9:07 pm

    What I’ve never understood is why, when a passenger is taken off the plane for “bad behavior”, he’s allowed to fly the “next day”. Do the airlines think the bad behavior, the stinkiness, or the drunkenness of the passenger is going to change in 24 hours?

  15. Fred Reply
    May 9, 2024 at 9:29 pm

    The AA pilot should be demoted and or fired. This behavior should not be tolerated. He put at last oe young man in danger.

  16. DoesntRlyMatter Reply
    May 10, 2024 at 11:47 am

    Palestinian here – this is, in fact, pure anti-semitism.

    “You know what you did” gives it all away.

    Btw there are many Orthodox Jews who are anti-Zionist (not the point here as there is no ideology test to fly) so lumping them in with those who are is also anti-Semitic.

    On another note Anti-Semitism applies to all Semites – which Palestinians are also (something the ADL doesn’t want you to know).

    Those first should not have been removed – a simple explanation would be sufficient.

    The second shouldn’t have been bothered to begin with – it disgusts me and is a reminder that this country is really just an exercise in white supremacy with every minority a simple pawn to be played.

  17. N1120A Reply
    May 12, 2024 at 5:25 am

    Here’s a news flash – both the gate agent and the writer of this blog are wrong.

    The gate agent (and likely the captain) absolutely engaged in an obvious act of Jewish antisemitism by forcing the 17 year old off because of the behavior of the 21 year old. The 21 year oldest behavior was clearly obnoxious and probably did cross a line justifying removal. The 17 year old was minding his own business. Even assuming he’d been chatting with the 21 year old, since they apparently knew each other, he had nothing to do with the 21 year old’s behavior and should have been allowed to fly home. He was almost certainly kicked off because of his religious adherence and appearance and that was bigoted and wrong.

    Meanwhile, that 2 paragraph rant justifying Israel’s genocidal behavior in Gaza and engaging in absurd cover, claiming that Israel is held to standards no other country is, is just an absurdity. Israel is held to LOWER standards than any other country and has been allowed to engage in obvious ethnic cleansing for months. The infirm, sick, children, aid workers and others they have intentionally targeted are not Hamas scumbag terrorists. Get a grip.

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