The YWN editor ends with a plea for his community to be aware that people are watching them and begs them to stop. Unfortunately (and I’d be willing to bet that he knows this) he is wasting his breath. These people don’t care – as was made painfully clear when he tried to give Mussar to one of them.
There are two reasons which I believe explains their behavior and their over-all attitude. They seem to feel that as members of the Chosen people – and being the most religious among them, they are free to behave in any way they wish. But it’s more than that. There exists among them no concern about what the world around them thinks about their behavior. They seem to place little to no value on their fellow man… seeing the Goy as the ever hating anti-semite.
That is an attitude developed by their parents and grandparents in a Europe where Antisemitism ran supreme culminating in the Holocaust. An attitude their fathers brought with them when they crossed over to these shores. An attitude their leaders promote. Many of them feel that even if they were to be on their best behavior, ‘the Goyim’ would hate us anyway, so why bother behaving? If the trash can is out of reach, just throw your wrappers into the river. If you can sneak onto public transportation for free, why spend a nickel?
As if to underscore this sense of superiority and attitude of the New York Times had a front page article about Charedim (mostly Chasidim) who ask their seats be switched if they find themselves seated next to a woman. This phenomenon is increasing as the Chasidim increase their numbers exponentially. This too is based on their sense or religiosity and superiority, taking the laws of interaction with women to extremes. Thus being ‘Frum’ at someone else’s expense. They disrupt the airline schedule and inconvenience other passengers by asking them to give up seats they pre-arranged. Often refusing to sit down until the flight attendant finds a passenger willing to change seats with them.
Here too they care little how it affects others. It’s one thing to feel so devoted to God that they seek to avoid sitting next to a woman for fear they might inadvertently touch them. But when they do it at some else’s expense it ceases to be a religious stringency and has the potential of becoming a Chlul HaShem. And what that is all it is. A stringency. Rav Moshe Feinstein, whom most Charedim consider the Posek HaDor of the 20th century sees no problem with a man sitting next to a woman on public transportation. Chasidim want to be more Machmir?! That’s fine. But not at the expense of others.
But they have their Chumros and everybody else be damned. They are going to hold the plane hostage until they get their way.
I recall another experience when a large group of apparently wealthy Chasidim boarded a flight to Israel and started treating the flight attendants like their personal servants – making ‘requests’ of them as if they owned them. I could not believe my eyes. Wearing my Kipa I was extremely conscious of of my identity as a Jew and embarrassed. After suffering through this shocking display of bad behavior I later apologized to one of the flight attendants – and said that I hope that it didn’t reflect badly on all religious Jews. It was with a sense of relief that she said it didn’t. That was immediately followed with the not so surprising comment that she was used to this kind of treatment from Chasidim.