Call me a Jewish guy with a shtetl mentality, but all these stories making the news cycle about a man who didn’t fly on the missing Malaysian Airlines flight – MH370 – because it was Shabbat is folkloric, parochial, and crass. Will it feed those who will blame Jews and Israel’s Mossad for the jet’s problems – just as they do for 9-11? Yes. Do I think it is crass to celebrate good fortune while hundreds are mourning? Definitely. Do I think it smacks of some sort of racial, religious, magical superiority? Of course.
The Background: According to news reports, a Jewish agent of a travel site refused to sell a Jewish passenger a ticket for the flight, since it was flying on the Jewish Sabbath. This is according to Daniel Eleff, a friend of the travel agent and CEO of the Cleveland-based travel site Dansdeals.com. PLUG PLUG PLUG…. DANSDEALS.COM… According to the website’s blog, the agent said, “I wish I can give you a day later, but you know I just don’t like flying Jews on Shabbat..,” Later the customer replied, “I reconsidered, you are right and I should be more observant… ”
In my opinion, if it is true, keep it to yourself or remove the “plug” from the story. If you need this story to reinforce your decision to observe certain Sabbath rules, then I have a hamsa and a Chagall print I can sell you.
And what about Mr. Nikolai Brodskii of Irkutsk, Russia, a 43-year-old Russian-Jewish family man who was on the 239 passengers and crew members on the flight? Are we supposed to blame his level of Jewish observance? No, of course not.
I welcome your comments and criticisms
How many (remote?) airports in the Maldives are good enough to land a 777? Seems like the perfect remote spot for landing a plane!
I beg to disagree,
According to you we should not celebrate any accomplishments of Jewish men and women..? in sports, the arts , science etc….why ..? becasue we may look as if we are racist..? superior..? or preach Religious superiority…?
Sir, Judaism IS superior to all other religious…and there is nothing wrong in stating it…becasue it is the truth..!
Yes we are very sorry indeed for all the victims of flight MH370 including Mr. Nikolai Rodski…and we DO NOT know why this happened to him….And I am sure G-D knows..!! And I still pray for his survival…
And there is nothing wrong in publicizing the fact that a person’s life were saved becasue he observed Shabbat , we should all be happy for him and practice the same…Antisemitism have dozens of other reasons to hate us…they do not need this true miracle to serve as another reason…in other words : the damage is nil , the benefits are big..!!…and we should all live to see such miracles..