El Al Airlines is one of the more interesting airlines I have flown in my life.
I didn't know what to expect but what I did experience was totally unlike any other in the world.
Once we were off the ground, the traffic in the aisles began. The passengers aboard kept making a steady stream up and down to go and pray and then return to their seats. Everywhere on board were men in black suits with big black hats, long beards and one curl hanging down from under the hats on both sides of their faces.
Growing up in the south and then living in Catholic, Lima, Peru, for a good long time in my life, I seldom encountered many people of the Jewish faith. Being admittedly ignorant about the Jewish religion, I had no idea what was happening en route to Tel Aviv when the very pious Hasidic Jews got up and gathered in a group around the back hatch window of El Al to pray in the early morning sunlight.
These gentlemen with their long beards and peyots (curled hair which lines their faces) and their prayer shawls only prayed on the eastern side of the plane as this was the direction of Jerusalem, the most holy city of Judaism. Both men and women of this sect cover their heads in pious reverence to the Lord God.
There were other groups on this flight as well. Headed to Israel for tourism were lots of US Americans with little tour badges plastered to their chests proclaiming that they were on Pilgrimage with one religious organization or another.
If one ever had any doubt about security……with God looking out for all these praying souls on board, what could go wrong? On the other hand..El Al’s security is second to none. Meeting with an El Al representative later, I was also told that their security department also has trained guards on board every few rows (looking like passengers of course) and that to be in the service of El Al, means years of training to spot a terrorist at a glance or a strange body movement. The El Al rep even said that when a suspicious person gets aboard, that security agent is assigned a seat alongside that passenger to assure that nothing untoward happens. Is that why I had a very handsome and very strong looking Israeli sitting next to me?
At meal time it is the orthodox Hasidic Jews who get their meals first. They have special rules about kosher food and what you can eat with what. I had an orthodox mother of 4 sitting next to me who barked orders to the flight attendant and then to her children. Amazingly, the attendant demurely listened and then went to the galley and got whatever the lady wanted, even to the inconvenience of others.
Oh well….it seems that there are a whole different set of rules aboard this flight.
After all this praying and singing (yes the pilgrimage group started to sing a hymn or two) we arrived in Tel Aviv and a huge applause erupted! We were home in the Promised Land.
On the way back to JFK after my 8 days in Israel, I am grilled in the airport by a young female security agent wanting to know everything about me. Why did I come to Israel? What did I do there? Did I know anyone in Israel and even if I go to church and what is the name of the church in what town etc, etc. She goes to the computer and then comes back and tells me that I am free to check in for the flight.
And so it goes on the return El Al flight to New York….the pious Hasidic and orthodox Jewish men praying and the ladies walking up and down…and everywhere babies crying.
I am glad to get back to the USA….but I have learned so much about a different culture that I am happy to thank El Al for introducing me.
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