Eighteen frum girls from New York were forced to spend Shabbos in Europe after they were kicked off flights twice from Amsterdam to New York for unclear reasons. Hamodia reported on the incident after speaking to askanim in New York, relatives of the girls, and other passengers on the plane. The girls were part of a larger group of 56 girls who were on a tour of Jewish sites in Europe with Rebbetzin Shulamis Sternbuch of Israel. When the girls arrived in Amsterdam at the start of their trip on July 20, a KLM/Delta security official at the airport accused the girls of violating mask guidelines on the plane and threatened they would be blacklisted. The girls denied the claims, saying they wore masks at all times, removing them only for eating. The girls contacted askanim in New York who called the airport and found out that no one had been placed on a blacklist. At the end of their two-week tour in Europe, the girls, most of whom live in Monsey, Williamsburg, or Boro Park, boarded a flight on Thursday from Ukraine to New York with a stopover in Amsterdam. A brother of one of the girls told Hamodia that the flight crew on the KLM flight from Ukraine was “harassing the girls the entire time.” “Every few minutes, they were coming over to the girls, saying, ‘Fix your mask,’ even though the masks were on properly the entire time,” he said. “Then, when the girls started eating, the flight attendants said they were not allowed to eat because it was not the official meal time, but they didn’t say a word about the mask.” [The girls brought their own food since kosher meals were not offered on the flight.] After landing in Amsterdam, the girls proceeded to board their connecting flight to New York but 18 members of the group were denied entry to the flight, without being provided an explanation. The girls were the first 18 girls on the group’s list in alphabetical order. The official who had banned the girls’ entry on the plane was the same one who threatened to blacklist them two weeks before at the start of their trip. Meanwhile, the girls’ chaperone, who had already boarded the flight, realized that 18 members of the group were missing. She asked to disembark from the plane but her request was denied. She began banging on the door, not letting up even when the flight crew threatened that she would be arrested, saying that she wouldn’t leave the girls behind. She was eventually let off the plane and the girls on the plane continued to New York. The 18 girls in Amsterdam were told by KLM that they can fly on another flight only if they each paid a 2,000 euro fine. The girls tried booking a flight with Delta but they also said the girls would have to pay 2,000 euros. [Delta is a partner airline with KLM.] The girls then tried to book a flight with another airline but KLM said it would charge 200 euros for the release of each piece of luggage. “It was obviously anti-Semitism,” the brother said. “They targeted 18 Jewish girls, in alphabetical order, and they didn’t even bother giving a reason.” The girls’ relatives in New York […]
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