El Al's Blood Libel Against Breslavers

This sounds almost like a modern-day blood libel to me.

Ynetnews resported that El Al informed passengers, via the El Al rabbi (as if anybody would listen to him just because of his clerical position), that on their way to Uman they should not smoke during the flight. That's no big deal, though the talk about safety and all that is just a red herring and a way to scare people into not smoking, as people used to smoke regularly on flights. No airplane blew up or crashed due to passengers smoking.

What really bothered me was the rest of the warning to Uman passengers.

From Ynetnews:

The El Al rabbi this week issued a leaflet with strict instructions to Hasidic pilgrims flying to Ukraine for the High Holidays, following passengers' inappropriate behavior on the airline's planes in recent years – including smoking, refusing to put on their safety belts and destroying equipment.


Some 22,000 Hasidim have embarked on the pilgrimage to Rabbi Nachman's grave in the city of Uman on 120 different flights operated by Israeli and foreign airlines.


El Al's chief purser issued his own memo to the air crews, reminding them to thoroughly examine the credit cards used by the Hasidic pilgrims, not to leave their bags in the luggage compartments and to lock their cellular phones in the cockpit to avoid theft, which is said to be common on these flights.


In his appeal to the Breslov Hasidim, Rabbi Yohanan Hayut, director of El Al's religious services division, notes that the company is glad to have them on its plane and asks them to obey the air crew's safety instructions in order to allow an enjoyable flight for everyone.


The rabbi clarifies that passengers must not change seats during the flight, "protect the plane's property and avoid damaging or destroying it," and that smoking in or near the plane is strictly forbidden.


"Smoking anywhere in the plane, including the lavatory, is extremely dangerous. Anyone who fails to obey this order will be punished accordingly."


Rabbi Hayut provided details on the kosher food served on the plane, and noted that any movie screened during the flight will be a nature film examined by a rabbis' committee, without any sight or voice of a woman.


Special Duty Free for haredim
El Al's chief purser, Nimrod Demajo, noted in his memo that a special Duty Free booklet had been issued for the flights to Uman, with 40 products known to be popular among ultra-Orthodox passengers.


"Please pay attention," Demajo wrote. "El Al flights are known as flights in which many attempts are made to use fake credit cards, so make sure that the money is collected according to procedures."


A senior El Al crewmember told Yedioth Ahronoth on Monday that every single steward tries to avoid serving on flights to Uman, which include male flight attendants only.


"People have no respect for the property and crew. They smoke freely during the flight and walk up and down the plane even when it's forbidden. For many of them it's the first time they fly, and they don't know how to behave on a plane. In some incidents, they even got into real brawls with the crew."


Monday saw flights to Uman, through Odessa or Kiev, delayed by two to 13 hours. A source in one of the airlines explained that many of the passengers get held up at the Duty Free stores, ignoring calls to board the plane and causing delays in departure.

So, the warning to passengers was to not smoke, to not damage property and to put on safety belts when necessary. Then El Al warned their own staff regarding theft of cellular phones and regarding common credit card fraud.

While clearly no kiddush hashem has been made by some of the passengers flying to Uman in the past, the blanket accusation of massive credit card fraud and cellphone theft seems to be a general smear against an entire "tzibbur". The "accusation" against Breslav, and specifically among those who flock to Uman, has been made many times in the past that an unsavory element is commonly attracted to this group, members of the underworld, some who have "repented" and become Breslavers, and others who tag along for the fun and/or mafia related activities.

El Al, or any other company, needs to protect itself from fraud and from passengers causing damage or harming the airline/company in other ways. Slandering an entire tzibbur is not the way.