A trio of Orthodox Jewish passengers have sued JetBlue, claiming the carrier engaged in Antisemitism and unlawful discrimination after throwing them off for requesting a seat change.
Antisemitism? Lawsuit Claims Jewish Passengers Were Thrown Off JetBlue Flight For Making Seat Change Request
On December 31, 2023 a trio of Orthodox Jews checked in for their flight, JetBlue flight 2050, from Palm Springs (PSP) to New York (JFK). A husband and wife, Abraham and Miriam Lunger, were traveling along with their friend Brucha Ungar.
Per the complaint, “Due to his religious beliefs, Mr. Lunger is unable to sit next to a woman unless she is a blood relative or his wife.” I’ve written about this before in the context of airline seating. It is called “Shomer negiah.”
Upon arriving at the gate before boarding the flight, Mrs. Lunger asked the JetBlue ticket agent if Mr. Lunger could be seated next to her, or at least not next to another woman, due to his religious modesty beliefs, and the JetBlue ticket agent told Mrs. Lunger that they could try to change their seats on the plane and make arrangements with other passengers.
Let’s stop for a moment. It isn’t clear here if the Lungers simply refused to pay for confirmed “preferred” seating in advance to be seated next to one another, or whether there simply were no seats next to each other when booking. That’s an important unknown we will return to.
Mr. Lunger was assigned seat 18A while Mrs. Lunger had 21B. The couple boarded and took their seats. When a woman approached to take seat 18B, Mr. Lunger stood up and stepped into the aisle (in hopes of finding a volunteer to switch seats with him).
But before he could do so, a flight attendant purportedly “yelled at Mr. Lunger to go back to his seat.” This is at least somewhat understandable considering how blocking the aisle can dramatically slow down boarding.
Mrs. Lunger then explained the reason why her husband was standing. Meanwhile, Mr. Lunger found someone to switch seats with him. But while attempting to complete the seat swap, the flight attendant blocked it, forbidding Mr. Lunger from switching seats.
The complaint insists that at no time did Mr. Lunger raise his voice or become belligerent:
At no time while Mr. Lunger was trying to observe his religious beliefs, did he force, become loud, or use a stern voice to intimidate any other passengers into changing seats with him.
(the complaint does not mention whether Mrs. Lulnger raised her voice…)
The flight attendant asked Mr. Lunger to step to the back of the plane. He complied. The flight attendant then brought one of the pilots back, who told Mr. Lunger that he could not move seats “because it was a violation and it would cause a weight imbalance.” That’s absurd.
Lunger claims the man he was attempting to switch seats with weighed about the same as he did and was only a few rows away on the same side of the aircraft.
From the complaint, it appears that Lunger switched seats anyway, prompting the pilot to come back out of the flight deck. Both Unger and Mrs. Lunger attempted to explain to the pilot the religious conviction prompting the seat shuffling, but the pilot told all three that they would need to exit the aircraft:
“Sorry, you have to get off the plane. The crew members don’t feel safe flying with you. The flight will not leave with you on the plane.”
This prompted outrage from some passengers onboard, like Rachel Sklar:
Why is @JetBlue ejecting orthodox Jewish passengers for asking to change seats? I’ve been sitting here the whole time and it was fine.
— Rachel Sklar (she/her) (@rachelsklar) January 1, 2024
Yes and also why isn’t there protocol for this, a circ*mstance that is not unusual? What *was* unusual here – this was resolved pretty easily (my boyfriend gladly switched seats once he realized what the need was) and everyone was seated & waiting . Then they were kicked off.
— Rachel Sklar (she/her) (@rachelsklar) January 2, 2024
To rub salt in the wound, the complaint claims that the trio were marked as “no shows” and had to pay both a fare difference and same-day change fee to be rebooked the next day.
Now the trio is alleging that JetBlue engaged in Antisemitic behavior by refusing to accommodate their religious needs and removing them from the flight.
Key to the complaint is the allegation that other passengers switched seats without issue:
Even though other passengers, who were not dressed in Orthodox Jewish Attire, had switched seats on the plane, either with Mr. Lunger or someone else, only the Plaintiffs were kicked off the plane.
And on this point, I’d say the entire lawsuit rests…
You can read the complaint here.
Did Other Passengers Change Seats?
This is a dicey issue and there are many Orthodox Jews who reject the teaching that a man cannot sit by a female unless it is a spouse or blood relative. The issue became so acute in Israel that EL AL is now banned from facilitating gender-driven seat assignment changes.
I have shared about my own experience surrounding aHaredi passenger on a flight to New York over a decade ago. I was asked to move to a middle seat so the man could avoid sitting next to a woman.
In that case, I moved, even though it was from an aisle seat to a middle seat (there was a bit more to the story). I’d probably do it again today depending upon flight length and seat assignment.
It’s not because I want to perpetuate treating women as second class. Goodness no. Rather, it’s because my understanding of Shomer negiah is that such behavior is actually done out of respect for women (i.e., you only touch your own spouse or family members, no one else of the opposite sex).
Perhaps intentions should not matter.But as a religious person myself, I try to make reasonable faith-based accommodations to others, including those outside of my faith group. I struggle to view such actions as hostile to women. This is not like refusing to sit next to a gay person or black person out of animus…it is not analogous.
Even so, if your religion requires certain seating arrangements on airlines, it is incumbent upon you to take care of it in advance and even book extra seats if necessary.If the Lungers could have taken care of this issue by booking preferred seats (at additional cost) in advance next to one another and failed to do so, I have much less sympathy for them.
However, asking someone to swap a window seat for another window seat does not strike me as unreasonable.
But the key here is whether other people were allowed to switch seats and the Jews were not, as alleged. If that can be established, there is a case here.
CONCLUSION
A new lawsuit against JetBlue claims a Jewish trio was unlawfully discriminated against after making a seat change request. Whether this lawsuit will “take off” depends upon whether other passengers were treated differently, as the lawsuit alleges without any specificity or example.
Should you switch seats for an observant Jewish passenger? I would. Not all discrimination is equal.
> Read More: EasyJet Settles With Woman Who Was “Forced” To Move Seat To Accommodate Religious Passengers
> Read More: Would You Have Switched Seats?
Note, Mr. Lunger is not pictured in the stock photo above.
