Jewish Delta Flight Attendant Sues Over Ham Sandwich, Yom Kippur

A Delta flight attendant has filed a lawsuit against the airline, alleging antisemitism (thanks to Justin for flagging this). This is an interesting case, because I can’t help but think that maybe this person just has unrealistic expectations about their employment.

Flight attendant accuses Delta of antisemitism

Sasi Sheva is a 44-year-old Israeli from Encino, California, who has worked as a flight attendant at Delta since 2022. He’s now accusing the airline of religious discrimination, claiming the airline “has engaged in a pattern of intentionally discriminating and retaliating against ethnically Jewish, Hebrew and/or Israeli employees based upon their race and ancestry.”

So, what are the flight attendant’s issues with the airline? It started in July 2022, shortly after Sheva’s employment at the airline started, when his schedule was changed at the last minute. Flight attendants need to have flexible scheduled, and it’s not unusual to have trips switched due to operational requirements. Sheva was driven in a van straight to the airport, to avoid any additional delay.

Sheva didn’t have the chance to eat, and the airline ignored his “numerous requests for a ‘safety break’ to obtain a meal.” Sheva is both kosher and vegetarian, so requested that he be able to “stop for a few minutes in the concourse so that he could purchase a vegetarian snack.”

Then despite Sheva’s employee profile “clearly stating he is Hebrew-speaking, Jewish and vegetarian, he was provided with a ham sandwich,” according to the lawsuit.

Next up, in October 2022, Sheva requested to be able to take off Yom Kippur, but that was “refused in bad faith and with no justification.” The airline refused the religious accommodation, noting that Delta uses a seniority system for flight attendant bidding.

My take on this Delta lawsuit

Even though I’m not particularly religious myself, I respect that people have the right to their sincerely held religious beliefs. That being said, it sure seems to me like these complaints are at odds with the expectations that exist of flight attendants. Let’s unpack these two situations.

Any frequent traveler has been in a situation where a flight is delayed, because you’re short one crew member (I had a very long delay due to this recently, which I still need to write about). Clearly that’s why the flight attendant had his trip changed, was reassigned to another flight, and was brought to the airport ASAP.

Odds are that there were 150-300 people all waiting on Sheva to get to the plane in order to get going. If Sheva had taken 10 minutes to get something to eat (which seems optimistic, given lines at airports), just do the math on how many more collective hours of peoples’ time that would have wasted).

If you’re a frequent traveler, whether you’re a flight attendant or passenger, you should always carry snacks with you, because travel can be unpredictable. That’s even more the case when you have special dietary needs (or in the case of Sheva, two separate sets of dietary requirements).

Presumably the flight had already been catered before Sheva was called to work it, so it’s not like the airline catered a ham sandwich to spite him.

Then there’s the issue of taking Yom Kippur off. For flight attendants, seniority is the single most important factor that determines the schedule one gets. When you get into the airline business, you better be ready to work nights, weekends, holidays, etc.

Short of a serious medical issue for someone in the family, it’s unreasonable to expect that an airline will otherwise accommodate days off based on one’s individual needs. It would be like a Christian asking for Christmas off, since it’s their most important holiday.

For example, for Jewish people who strictly observe Shabbat, it would be unreasonable to expect that the airline would guarantee you that time off every week… at least in my opinion (unless you’re working for EL AL).

Keep in mind that flight attendants are allowed to trade trips, so one workaround for situations like this would be to find a colleague who is willing to pick up a trip for you, in exchange for you picking up one of their trips. But this really has to be done between individuals, rather than expecting accommodation from management.

Look, I don’t want to rag on this Delta flight attendant, and I can appreciate where he’s coming from, wanting to have something decent to eat, and wanting his most important holiday off. But I also feel like maybe being a flight attendant isn’t the right line of work for him, because it requires being willing to work any time, and being extremely flexible.

I mean, both of these incidents started within moments of him taking the job, so maybe he didn’t fully realize what he was getting himself into?

Bottom line

A junior flight attendant is suing Delta, accusing the company of a pattern of intentional discrimination. The complaints mainly center around the airline being unwilling to accommodate this person’s dietary and religious needs.

While I understand how the circumstances here might not be ideal, I think this person’s expectations of the airline are unreasonable. One of the most important traits for flight attendants is flexibility, given that the industry operates 24/7, and is all about maintaining a smooth operation.

What’s your take on this situation (please be respectful and stick to the core of the topic)?