The NYT. Here we go again.
I posted this as I have seen this exact thing happen before on a international flight and was asked to move.
Huh? It actually is a problem. I had some friends from a Baptist church who made a trip to the Holy Land on El Al. On the way back, an Orthodox man found he had been seated next to a woman, who was one of the members of the group, and he pitched a fit, completely humiliating her and demanding that she move.
Fortunately, El AL is experienced with handling these loons, and the flight attendant told the man that he was the one who would have to move. She found him a seat somewhere next to a male. But there have been other flights where it has gotten so bad that the plane can’t take off and the Orthodox man in question has to be removed from the flight. They’re a very difficult group for Israelis themselves to handle.
Once on a flight from Newark to Las Vegas I was placed next to a bipolar (she told me so) black woman who weighed 350 lbs. She encroached 1/3 into my seat and wouldn’t stop talking to me the entire flight, eventually asking me out for a date in Vegas. I politely said “I’m busy”. Silly me, I could have invoked religious belief to get me out of that situation, but I’m not an Orthodox Jew.