Lufthansa Issues Checks of $21,000 each to Jews who were Banned from Connecting Flight to Budapest

 By Yehudit Garmaise

Lufthansa Airlines has started issuing checks of up to $21,000 to each of the 115 Chassidic Jews who were not allowed to board their connecting flight from Frankfurt, Germany, to Budapest, Hungary, on May 4.

The group of 150 Jews, who had departed from JFK, were traveling to daven at the kever of Reb Shaya of Kerestir on his yahrtzeit.

After a few of the travelers had, allegedly, not worn masks when they were required, two dozen German police carrying submachine guns told the rest of the group that no one would be able to board, DansDeals reported at the time.

Forbes also reported that the Lufthansa pilot refused to fly any Jewish passengers to Budapest.

Lufthansa's payments are part of the settlement the airlines reached after 115 of the Jewish passengers filed a lawsuit based on the discriminatory manner in which they were, unfortunately, treated.

“[Lufthansa employees] explicitly said that nobody who is dressed alike is going to board the Lufthansa plane to Budapest,” passenger Nachman Kahana told forbes.com. “They banned us because we are Jews. That’s the only reason.”

Although Lufthansa at first disputed the claims of the Jewish passengers, a week later, after a video emerged in which a Lufthansa supervisor was recorded speaking about banning those who are, “Jewish from JFK,” the airline issued a formal apology on Twitter.

“Lufthansa regrets the circumstances surrounding the decision to exclude the affected passengers from the flight, for which Lufthansa apologizes,” the German airline tweeted.

The German airline’s vague apology, however, failed to impress DansDeals, the Anti-Defamation League, and 115 of the Jewish passengers, who filed a lawsuit on the basis that a group of 150 was punished for the lapse of a few of the travelers.

In addition to paying out hefty settlement checks, Lufthansa has said it will provide employee training that seeks to reduce anti-Semitic attitudes and that the airlines would hire a senior manager whose job would be to prevent discrimination and anti-Semitism, Hamodia reported.