There is apparently such a thing as too Jewish.
WaPo (“Ultra-Orthodox Jews delay El Al flight, refusing to sit near women“):
El Al passengers heading to Israel to celebrate the Jewish new year were delayed leaving New York on the eve of Rosh Hashanah when ultra-Orthodox passengers refused to sit near women.
Because their beliefs require men and women to be segregated, the ultra-Orthodox men, recognizable by their black hats and curly tendrils over the ears, attempted to trade their pre-assigned seats with other passengers, offering money in some cases, the Israeli news Web site ynetnews.com reported.
The pilot pleaded for them to sit down and the flight finally took off. But after takeoff, chaos erupted.
“I ended up sitting next to a … man who jumped out of his seat the moment we had finished taking off and proceeded to stand in the aisle,” a woman passenger identified only as Galit told Ynet. The man had asked her to move from the seat beside her husband to accommodate his religious beliefs, but she refused.
“People stood in the aisles and refused to go forward,” said Amit Ben-Natan, a passenger who was on board the plane.
“I went to the bathroom and it was a mission impossible, the noise was endless,” Galit said of the men crowding the aisle and praying loudly.
[…]
Airlines have also had to deal with ultra-Orthodox men of priestly descent called “kohanim” sealing themselves in plastic bags used to transport dead bodies to avoid ritual impurity when flying over a cemetery. According to Haredi Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, sealing oneself in a plastic bag is the solution to this problem.
El Al initially allowed the practice before banning it in 2001 due to safety considerations. But in 2002, an El Al flight had to return to Ben Gurion airport after an ultra-Orthodox passenger insisted on wearing a plastic bag. And last year, another ultra-Orthodox traveler drew attention after a photo of the man shrouding himself in plastic on an airplane was posted on Reddit and circulated online.
In-flight movies are also a problem for the Haredim. In 2008, ultra-Orthodox passengers caused a disturbance on an El Al flight to Kiev when, according to Haaretz, witnesses said the men began shouting and trying to stop the movie screens from unfolding because they objected to a film. “It was a pretty frightening sight,” one passenger said.
Andrew Exum alerted me to the story with the quip, “”I demand both my 20th C. transportation technology as well as my 4th C. social norms!” That’s about right.
People are free to believe what they want to believe and these folks at least have the virtue of being non-violent, which distinguishes from other fanatics. But they don’t have the right to figuratively hijack airliners with their superstitions. If they can’t co-exist in modern society, they really don’t belong on public transportation.
