A New York rabbi and his wife said they were kicked off a JetBlue flight by “anti-Semitic” staff after a heated argument about swapping seats because of their religious beliefs.
Abraham Lunger and his wife, Miriam Lunger, were barred from a flight from Palm Springs to New York City on New Year’s Eve after the rabbi informed the flight crew that as an Orthodox Jew he was not allowed to sit next to a woman “unless she was a blood relative or his wife,” according to the motion filed in February.
During the incident, a male passenger offered to mediate the dispute and sit next to the rabbi.
But instead of allowing the change, a confrontation broke out between the Lungers and the flight crew, court documents say.
The pilot allegedly said that changing to another seat would be a violation that would result in a “weight imbalance” on the plane and asked Lunger to exit the plane, the indictment says.
Lunger’s wife and Brucha Ungar, who was traveling with the couple, were also asked to leave the plane, the lawsuit says.
JetBlue recently filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan.
“JetBlue’s policy is clear: passengers are not permitted to occupy a seat other than the one assigned to them. Plaintiffs violated JetBlue’s contract policy and were therefore removed from the aircraft. No other facts matter: Plaintiffs cannot maintain their claims – whether for discrimination or otherwise,” the court documents state.
Civil rights attorney Ron Kuby, who is involved in the litigation, said it was a case of bad luck and not anti-Semitism.
“There is no constitutional right not to sit next to a woman because of your religious beliefs… We have all landed on seats on airplanes that we don’t like. That’s not anti-Semitism. That’s life… the airline industry,” Kuby said.
Lunger’s attorney, Evan Brustein, opposed JetBlue’s motion to dismiss, telling the Washington Post, “JetBlue’s flight attendant and pilot kicked plaintiffs off the plane not because of seat assignments or weight imbalances, but because of anti-Semitism and discrimination. It also appears that instead of addressing the racism and hatred of its employees, JetBlue doubled down on the hatred to excuse this behavior.”
Famed attorney Alan Dershowitz, known for his work in constitutional law, was asked to comment on the controversy. He said, “There may be no legal right to force passengers to change seats to accommodate religious needs. But there is certainly a legal right not to be removed from an airplane if a passenger was willing to do so and the captain gave a trumped-up reason for refusing to accommodate his needs.”
JetBlue representatives did not respond to messages.
