Posted on 01/22/2010 9:02:52 AM PST by Chet 99
PHILADELPHIA - A Jewish teenager trying to pray on a New York-to- Kentucky flight caused a scare Thursday when he pulled out a set of small boxes containing holy scrolls, leading the captain to divert the flight to Philadelphia, where the commuter plane was greeted by police, bomb-sniffing dogs and federal agents.
The 17-year-old on US Airways Express Flight 3079 was using tefillin, a set of small boxes containing biblical passages that are attached to leather straps, Philadelphia police Lt. Frank Vanore said.
When used in prayer, one box is strapped to the arm while the other box is placed on the head.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktla.com ...
At least he didn’t have a pit bull.
Regards,
Sounds like the airlines need some jewish cultural training. I am so glad my job does not have me flying around and have pretty much sworn it off for personal trips.
This is pretty sad.
At least the young man wasn’t trying to light a twisted candle.
my neighbors growing up were jewish. we were pretty close and are still in contact to this day. even so, this was a new one on me. i had to hit wikipedia for it. my understanding is that the orthodox jewish boys use the tefillin.
after reading up on it, it looks like you would wrap your hands/arms with black leather straps and wrap another leather strap to your head, which would also have a cube shaped box. i’m guessing the person would be uttering something while wearing them (and not just sitting their with a box on your head)
while i don’t care what your religious beliefs are, i do find any physical adornments to be a bit odd.
i can only imagine the typical manhattanite on the flight freaking out over this.
Next, some woman with a rosary gets tasered.
and monks, I'll bet they're up to something, especially those silent types, oh, and those ones that album, yeah those!
You would think that the airlines would train their cabin crews to understand what these cultural things are about.
This is not an uncommon sight at terminals, especially Kennedy and Newark. You’d think the crew would know.
Can’t one member of the air cabin staff ask a kid like this what’s up before diverting the flight? Where is the common sense?
I’ve flown on planes coming out of JKF and LaGuardia with Jews putting on phylacteries and praying and no one gives a second thought about it, or glances at them.
This is a very odd story.
Are Jews more dangerous than pit bulls now?
Musta been a Banker’s son....Obama was gonna shoot the plane down then thought better of it and just diverted it to a Jewish airport.
I thought they were called phylacteries.
“you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.” Deuteronomy 6:8
Everyone should be able to instantly tell the difference between someone loadly praying in Hebrew versus Arabic, all while having black boxes strapped to different parts of their body.
The air crew acted appropriately.
Kid should be permanently placed on the no fly list along with his parents.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.