Delta Air Lines has been accused of antisemitism and discrimination by a Jewish flight attendant who was served a ham sandwich during a meal break by the Atlanta-based carrier, despite the fact that he had asked to stop to buy vegetarian food that would meet his religious requirements.
Sasi Sheva from Encino, California, has also accused Delta of refusing to give him time off to commemorate Yom Kippur, which is the holiest day of the year in Judaism, despite multiple requests to find an accommodation for his religious needs.
In a 21-page complaint recently filed in a New York district court, Sheva and his attorney set out why they believe Delta Air Lines has been “intentionally discriminating and retaliating against ethically Jewish, Hebrew and Israeli employees based on their race and ancestry.”
Sheva, who has worked as a flight attendant for Delta for the past two and a half years from its New York JFK base, says the pattern of discrimination started in July 2022 when his schedule was suddenly changed in the middle of a trip.
Due to the last-minute change, Delta arranged for Sheva to be picked up from his hotel and taken directly to the airplane, but managers allegedly refused his multiple requests to buy vegetarian food from an airport concession that would meet his dietary requirements.
Even as he walked through the airport concourse to the gate, his managers allegedly refused to let him buy a vegetarian snack and instead made him rely on the food that Delta provides to flight attendants onboard the aircraft.
Despite the fact that Delta knows that Sheva is Jewish, the food loaded onboard the airplane for him to eat was a ham sandwich.
Several months later, Sheva tried to get a religious accommodation from Delta to allow him to take Yom Kippur off, as the holy day is marked by fasting and near day-long synagogue attendance.
Despite going through a formal accommodation process and explaining his religious needs to several managers, Sheva alleges that Delta arbitrarily rejected his bid to get Yom Kippur off as it would mess with the airline’s seniority system.
Sheva’s time at Delta has been marked by accidents, the first when a hotel van he was traveling in for work was involved in an accident and the second when his suitcase got entangled in a seatbelt, causing him to trip and fall in the aisle.
After both accidents, Sheva had to take time off work for medical treatment, but following the second incident, it’s alleged that Delta subjected him to harassing behavior and tried to ‘belittle’ the extent of his injuries.
He also claims that supervisors have been targeting and retaliating against him for raising work-related concerns, including confronting him after he had finished a 12-hour workday and removing him from a standby trip without authorization.
The lawsuit claims that Delta is dealing with ‘multiple’ complaints of mistreatment of Jewish and Israeli staffers and that the carrier has already had to deal with similar lawsuits from disgruntled employees who have alleged discrimination at the hands of the airline.
Delta’s attorneys are yet to respond to the lawsuit which alleges discrimination and retaliation.
In July, Delta found itself in the middle of another antisemitism row after a flight attendant was spotted wearing a Palestine flag pin on their uniform. Despite not breaking any rules at the time of the incident, Delta quickly adjusted its uniform and grooming policy to ban crew members from wearing Palestine flag pins.
The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA), which wants to represent Delta’s non-unionized flight attendants, slammed Delta’s decision to cave to public pressure on the issue.
“Instead of standing up against harassment, Delta made a shocking decision to bow to the demands of those who target Flight Attendants by changing policy: prohibiting all flag pins except for the USA flag,” the union blasted
“This change not only violates Delta’s commitment to inclusivity, but also creates a chilling effect on any worker or passenger deemed “not American enough” by a hateful few”.
This is stupid!!! This dude pulled the race card.
It’s not about race/religion. I’m not Jewish, but i also had a similar request to my airline, and they refused. Sure we have options to bid for certain flights or request certain days off. But that doesn’t mean the airline HAS to do everything we request.
I remember I had to attend a wedding, and it was a super special wedding that I had to be a part of, but my airline refused that day off for me. Sure it sucks, but this is the rule. It’s not guaranteed that our crew get whatever we request and wish for. And I understand this!
The fact that this dude had sued Delta due to his religious beliefs is insane!!!!!
For gawd’s sake! My lady friend is Jewish. She loves a pork bar-b-que sandwich. I’m willing to bet that Delta didn’t intentionally serve a ham sandwich to this guy. “OK…that guy is Jewish. We’ll fix him!” Gimme a break. As far as religious holidays, Delta offers PPT to all employees. The employees can bid for time off, use vacation days or PPT. Yom Kippur is a KNOWN date on the calendar…just like Christmas. Now, if the employee has squandered the vacation and PPT, then the only thing left is the bid. If the seniority of the bidder doesn’t push the holiday bid to the top of the bid list…well.. We don’t know all of the details but I’m willing to bet that this suit goes no where but he has intentionally put him on “the radar” as a thin skinned whiner.
The guy wasn’t even at the 6 month mark. He’s on reserve. He flies when he’s told. There’s a plane full of passengers waiting at the gate for him to show up. Delta is not going to make them wait another 20 minutes while this guy orders lunch. And catering couldn’t have known this guy was going to be the one called up at the last minute to fly. And finally, any flight attendant worth their salt knows to ALWAYS have food and snacks for situations like this.