Jewish observant of meals tagged wrong as Kosher on Air France flight

(RNS)-Air France has served non-Kosher meals to an eight-Jewish Jewish family who requested Kosher before flight, causes alarm in religious Jewish circles.

Divora Marinelli, her husband, mother and five children visited Mauritius on a “root” trip in February, and last week were in a 12-hour flight from Mauritius to Paris, when the incident took place. Like others that require special tables in flight, the observant Jews foresee Kosher tables, especially for long -distance flights. To be considered kosher, the tables must be prepared in a strictly kosher kitchen, with strictly Kosher ingredients and specially packaged and labeled “KSML” or “Kosher”.

Despite the fact that he pre -ordered Kosher tables a few months before, according to Marinelli, when the Chicago family checked their flight, they were told that the Kosher food had not been available. In the absence of Kosher food, the family informed the representatives of the airline during the check-in, they could only eat raw fruits and vegetables and whatever would be non-kosher, Marinelli RNS said in an interview.

Once in the air, however, a flight attendant handed them tables with the letters “KSML”, written by hand on the box.

Marinelli said until she realized that the tables could not be kosher, based on the fact that the food was cooked and how she was packaged, some of her children, whose ages ranging from 3 to 16, had already begun to eat.

“I was not standing next to them all and not all meals were handed at the same time,” she said. “When I saw what was happening, I announced the children, but it was too late. One of my sons was suspicious and asked the flight attendant if the meal was Kosher and was assured. “

When Marinelli announced the chief’s flight attendant, she said, “He took full responsibility.”

“It took three hours to write the report. He took pictures of the report, ”she added.

And when Marinelli told her he believed that a flight attendant had KSML hand-written on the non-Kosher tables, she said, “He did not challenge this.”

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When the family landed in Paris, “Air France sent an E -mail apologizing because it had no kosher tables” and offered each family member of 30 euros for their inconvenience.

Marinelli stretched out soon DansdealsA blog of kilometers and points and popular resource for Jewish Orthodox travelers, to share their experience. After Dansdeals posted about incident Monday (Feb 24), Air France replied on X saying He was “aware of this clients’ experience regarding the non-observance of their Kosher table in a flight from Mauritius to CDG in Paris.” The airline has assigned the lack of Kosher foods to make a “lack of supply”.

“Customers were informed when they arrived at the airport that their special tables will not be available and that vegetarian trays will be provided as a substitute,” said the airline on Tuesday (February 25). “Once on board, these trays were served, marked by the local KSML catering, simply, so that they can be identified by the crew to facilitate the service. Air France regrets this confusing identification and emphasizes that the crew never intended to mislead customers about the quality of the tray offered and that the customers were well aware of the vegetarian mass served. “

Marinelli challenges the reasoning of the airline, because the cooked vegetarian food is not kosher if it is prepared in a non-kosher kitchen, something that catering and flight attendants should know. As such, it should not have been labeled this way, she said.

“This is a total lie,” Marinelli said. “When I heard there are no kosher meals, they asked what we can eat. I told them we couldn’t eat anything cooked. The only thing we can eat is raw fruits and vegetables. We were eight people. Everyone will check this. “

If the catering wrote “Kosher” on the tables, “it could have been just because the airline told them to write it,” Marinelli said. “In addition, flight attendants are very aware of what Kosher tables look like. It was obvious that these meals were not Kosher. “

Air France did not respond to a comment request.

The reaction in the Orthodox community to the incident was fast, the Chabad-Lubavitch movement calling it “a shocking violation of trust.”

Following the shout generated by Dansdeals Post -which received 200,000 views, 2,000 likes and almost 400 reposts on the X -Air France service assistance office, and apologized Marinellis and asked them to contact the airline “for additional assistance”, according to the blog.

It is not the first time that it was found that an airline misled Jewish travelers about Kosher food, Dansdeals said. In 2018, Wow Air, an Icelandic budgetary airline, falsely claimed that his flight tables were Kosher, despite the lack of Kosher certification.

“For Kosher travelers, this serves as an accentuated reminder to check if the air meals are from the factory with an adequate Kosher certification,” the Dansdeals Post is shown.

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Mark Feldman, the director of the Diesenhaus travel agency in Jerusalem, said he is not “unusual” that an airline does not have Kosher tables ordered by his passengers.

“It happens, but usually the airline apologizes to customers,” he said.

If the statement that a flight attendant has transmitted a non-kosher table, because Kosher is true, “is limited to a serious breach,” Feldman said. France’s small vouchers in the family “do not approach the problem”.

In the section of comments following the post on the Dansdeals blog, some Orthodox Jews wondered if the incident was aroused by anti -Semitism, considering recent attacks on the Jews in France.

“The KSML tables are wrapped in plastic and foil, with the strict instructions that only the passenger can undo,” wrote a respondent. “Unless the companion was not at the job for only 20 minutes, this was deliberate. There is absolutely no excuse for this, starting with the airline. The passenger ordered months before. “

Others said it was probably an honest mistake by the flight attendant.

“Nothing about this story sounds like anti -Semitism,” another reader wrote. “If there is something, it sounds like incompetence and unprofessional behavior. We need to be serious about what we call anti -Semitism, which is ramp. There is no need to design anti -Semitic intention on idiotic behavior. “

Marinelli said RNS: “To say something is anti -Semitic is a big statement and I never said that.

“I didn’t feel it about the flight crew’s behavior,” she said. “But due to their lack of responsibility, the airline seems to have no concern for the Kosher Jewish consumer.”