Tel Aviv – – Rabbi Sholom Ber Sorotzkin, a prominent ultra-Orthodox leader who was aboard the ill-fated El Al flight 002 from New York to Tel Aviv earlier this month, has declared a boycott against the airline until an apology for the actions of the flight crew and the company is forthcoming.
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Sorotzkin has been in direct contact with El Al CEO Gonen Usishkin regarding the events on the flight, and has demanded an apology for misleading religious passengers by telling them their flight would arrive in Israel before Shabbat began and for accusing specifically haredi passengers of being violent.
Speaking at Ben-Gurion Airport on Sunday evening, Sorotzkin said that he and 180 people, who had agreed to tear up their El Al frequent flier cards, would be boycotting the airline until it apologizes for what transpired on the flight.
Sorotzkin heads the Ateret Shlomo network of more than 40 institutions of religious education, which has some 6,000 students and is close with the head of the Ashkenazi, non-hassidic haredi world, Rabbi Haim Kanievsky, and other senior ultra-Orthodox rabbinic leaders.
He has considerable influence and the announcement of his boycott could lead to a broader boycott of El Al by the haredi community.
“One hundred and eighty people have said that until this apology comes, and until they abide by the holiness of Shabbat, unfortunately we will be forced to halt our traveling with the El Al Airline,” said Sorotzkin at Ben-Gurion Airport.
“This is not a message of demonstration or protest, but a message of love and unity… We came to express our pain over the divisions that have been made and the disputes that have been caused, it seems, by people to whom we are the most loyal, and travel with all the time,” said the rabbi. “Despite all the disparagement and the inaccurate things that were said to us, we have simply requested one thing. Tell the truth. That there wasn’t any violence.”
They are allowed to boycott whoever they like.
Lol. What it took the Satmar Rebbe Zatzal a min took them a a halfa century to find out.
“message of love and unity” Lochaim whatever he was drinking.
“He and 180 people” 10 x chai. This guy thinks he ajleh sishi or maftir.
Can’t wait to see how it pans out
This should have been done a long time ago; El Al is going to have to stop taking the Chareidi’s business for granted; there are other options, as other airlines fly to Israel from NYC, with better service, and more comfortable seats, not to mention flight attendants, with nicer attitudes!
This rabbi is a typical rabal rouser just like toxic Trumf. Who cares if he boycots el al? He’s just being a bully like Trumf is to the media. El Al should ban these so called Rabbis that try to give them a bad name.
Chillul Hashem
Will do it with a שינו, dont you worry my friend.
This is a matter of principle. There’s been too much unfair bashing of Chareidis for a while now, and ElAl seems to be simply jumping on the bandwagon, expecting to easily get away with their lies and exaggerations of what actually occurred. No reason to grin and bear it. Enough’s enough. Time to push back.
All Elal needs to do is reduce fares a little bit and “Ois boycott”
Rebbe Serotzkin looks like he is giving a Mussar schmooze to El Al. Please allow him his 10 minutes of fame. Hope it works out well, at least rest of us won’t have to put up with these fanatics on flights
and a lot of people prefer not to get the verbal abuse that goes with flying ELAL, not to mention its dismal on time departure record, each his/her own, you may prefer ElAl for its security, other prefer Delta or United for its far superior service and on time performance
El Al gives two matmid cards to each passenger, and he only tore up one of them. El Al will eventually issue an apology for the way their pilot(s) acted, but thats still not reason for him to call a boycoot after flying El Al weekly for almost a decade and a half, being upgraded to business class, each time on yenems shekel, by purchasing a higher class ticket at a higher fare hundreds of times, when he could have used that donated money for the yeshiva network. A prominent fundraiser from Yeshiva Ohr Samayach purposely never upgraded or bought a ticket for business class, as he felt its mamon hekdish!
Other airlines have direct flights, with the same prices as El Al.
let them fly Delta. better yet don’t take a 12 hour flight on Thursday when Shabbos is early.
So is this the sort of “disloyalty to the State (airline)” the government wants to suppress?
To #18 - Hashomer is a psycho; if Martians from outer space invaded, he would blame that on Trump, also!
This heilige litvak has great “ear muffs”