Every holiday season it’s the same thing… Non-Hareidi El Al passengers complaining about the behavior of Hareidi El Al passengers. And most don’t hear it, but there are just as many Hareidi complaints (some quite legitimate) about El Al and the non-Hareidi passengers.
A couple of years ago it got so bad that one Hareidi millionaire said he was going to set up his own Hareidi airline. That idea obviously never got off the ground, though he wasn’t really far off.
The solution to the problem is simple. Not only is it simple, but El Al can even increase their profits from it.
Just like there are now “Kosher phones” and “Kosher internet”, El Al needs to set up two new Kosher flight packages. The Mehadrin Class and the Mehadrin Min HaMehadrin Line.
The concept is simple.
Some El Al flights on the New York-Israel line (and perhaps others) will offer a Mehadrin Class section just behind Business Class. This section is exclusively for Hareidi men. No movies will be shown there, and the stewards will all be male. There will even be shiurim and Daf Yomi.
Passengers in the Hareidi section will be required to sign a declaration that they are Hareidi and will only stay in that section. They will not be allowed into the back of the plane to pray. If they go to pray in the back of the plane, they won’t be allowed to buy seats in the Hareidi section again.
For those who want Mehadrin Min HaMehadrin, El Al will set up regular charter lines, where the whole plane is Mehadrin.
At this point its just a marketing issue.
Mehadrin Class will cost an extra $200 per seat, while Mehadrin Min HaMehadrin flights will cost $400 more.
Its easy to implement too. El Al only needs to block off the seats or the flights, and limit who can sell those blocks to specific, authorized travel agents within the Hareidi community.
I can guarantee you that Hareidi travel agencies will be climbing over one another to get themselves authorized, with whatever restrictions El Al places on them. El Al could even reduce their fees, and they’ed still demand to be authorized.
How will El Al convince Hareidim to use it, besides the obvious advantage that its Mehadrin?
El Al will run a marketing campaign.
El Al will get Haskomos (approbations) from leading Hareidi rabbis requiring that Hareidim fly Mehadrin.
El Al (or the Askanim) will put up Pashkevils that say, “If You’re Not Flying Mehadrin, You’re not Flying”.
It only a matter of time before the Shadchanim start to ask them to ask prospective parents where the father sits on El Al flights.
Schools would quickly require that fathers sign a document that they fly Mehadrin if they want their kids accepted into the local Beis Yaacov.
Community pressure will simply force Hareidim to only fly Mehadrin, and everyone wins. They can even throw away their Personal Mechitzas (TM).
The result is that non-Hareidi passengers won’t feel abused on their flights to Israel, Hareidi passengers will be able to fly in the kosher environment they want to fly in, with no women, no movies, and the knowledge that they aren’t hurting their child’s marriage or school prospects, and El Al will pick up a few extra bucks and finally deal with this problem once and for all.
Of course, there is a fly in the ointment.
Once it’s implemented, I guarantee you some leftwinger will petition the High Court that Mehadrin sections and Mehadrin flights are illegal or discriminatory, or how disgusting it is that non-Hareidim sit in the back of the plane, and demand an end to it… once again ruining it for everyone else, as leftists tend to do.
Clarification: While I write with humor, the proposed solution is not meant as satire.