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| Daniel Amram (YWN) |
It is with the images of what I witnessed that day in mind that I have get a bit apprehensive when I see large families waiting to board a flight we are both about to take. A fear that usually ends up being unwarranted.
So when the following story appeared recently in the Jewish media, I have to admit that at first I viewed this story with a jaundiced eye. The description by a secular Israeli reporter fit what I have personally experienced. From JTA:
An Israeli reporter (Neria Kraus) is claiming that she was the victim of discrimination by haredi Orthodox men on a recent United Airlines flight to Newark — and that the Israeli flight attendant had sided with the men over her.
“I was told the flight might touch down in Egypt and it would be my fault,” Kraus wrote as she posted a video of her arguing with passengers and crew. “What a humiliating event for me as a woman.” Kraus refused to move and the flight departed on time.
My initial gut reaction was to believe her. The excessive piety of a fellow passenger has once again caused a Chilul HaShem. But upon further investigation and reflection, there are elements of her story that do not ring true. Like the reaction of the flight crew to her accusations. Which indicated to them that it was she who was the provocateur, not the passenger she accused of humiliating her.
There is a another version of what happened that seems a lot more credible. From the Jewish Press:
...Neria Kraus said yesterday that Haredim wanted her to change seats on the flight because she is a woman. She photographed this person who has a family and is a very well-known person in Brooklyn.
“Her tweet reached over a million views, including his friends who were stunned and contacted me throughout the day, ‘There’s no way, this man (Daniel Amram) hosts mixed families on Saturdays at his place,’ ‘He travels lots of times and sits next to women, there’s no way he’ll have a problem with it,’
“So, we made sure to reach him, although he didn’t want to bring it out at all, but after much persuasion, ladies and gentlemen, here he is, telling a completely different story: It turns out that his son was with a friend, and they asked nicely if it was possible for her to move one chair over so that the friend could sit next to his son. In response, she started shouting, which made the flight attendant come to warn her that if there’s a mess here, they will cancel the flight.
(A video of his explanation can be viewed here.)
Daniel is hardly the prototype Charedi Jew whose excessive piety might move him to make a request like that.
One might be tempted to explain or excuse her accusations as a misunderstanding on her part. One that is based on biases she had because of stories like the one I witnessed. Although preconceived notions about motives are no excuse, it would at least be somewhat understandable for her to jump to an erroneous conclusion. And then apologize when she realized her mistake.
It is hard for me to believe that is this case here. It seems much more like Kraus is a Charedi hater using an innocent request by a fellow passenger to her advantage - as means to bash Charedim some more. I am not buying her act. No matter how much she keeps insisting that her version of events is the true version.
But even if her version was the correct one, and a Charedi Jew asked her to move based on his excessive piety - her reaction was way beyond the pale. She might have had a right to be upset. But to react the ways she did, one might have thought she had just been sexually molested! And of course that is not what happened. Even someone upset at being asked to move, should not be offended when asked to do so if the seat she is being switched to is similar to the one she’s giving up. She could have simply said no - and that would have been the end of it.
The Neria Kraus's of the world really disgust me. She is a provocateur whose apparent goal is to make Charedim look worse than the Taliban. She had to know that the fellow she accused of humiliating her that way did nothing of the sort.
I know that there is currently unprecedented divisions among Israelis along political and religious lines. The differences have never been so stark. I suppose it must have been very tempting for an activist reporter like Kraus to take advantage of a situation believing she could twist the facts into a false narrative that would support her anti religious views. But she was badly mistaken. The United Airlines flight staff did not buy her act either.
Kraus has nonetheless doubled down on her version of events. For which she ought to be fired and barred from ever working as a journalist again!