The flying ambassadors come to Long Island: El Al partners with StandWithUs

As part of their series “Legends of Air & Space,” the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, Long Island last Thursday presented El Al crew members to discuss their flight experiences and as ambassadors for Israel.

Over 160 men, women and children filled the steep seats of the Imax theater room at the museum to observe, listen and question a panel of El Al personnel seated at a table at the base of the auditorium on the narrow stage area below. Each member of the panel introduced him or herself and described their experiences. The conversation and feeling in the air was almost family like, comfortable and friendly, and the stories they told in the dimly lit theater were punctuated by laughter and sighs from the audience in response to the ambassadors’ anecdotes.

The pilot, Captain Tal, admitted he was nervous talking in front of the audience, pointing out that he usually talks to people who are seated behind him and who can’t see him. He said that he was born in Israel in 1961 and was the son, along with his identical twin, of a refugee from Europe and a concentration camp survivor. He was a helicopter pilot in Israel’s air force, became an accountant but returned to flying to El Al as a pilot in 1994, currently flying the 777. He’s married and has three children. “We like to fly,” he said of pilots, “and especially land.” He said that one of the best parts of the job is that he doesn’t take work home. “After the flight I have a free mind and I don’t think about it much.” He recounted one hair-raising trip when visibility at JFK was very bad “220 knots—category 3 approach.” They were rerouted to Newark but kept in a holding pattern until they only had 25 minutes of fuel left. “A few minutes short of an emergency—the kind of day when you prefer not to be a pilot.”

Flight attendant Chai, age 30, always wanted to be a flight attendant, he said, and studied tourism management and French. He lived in Great Neck from age two to 12. “America is great,” he said, “but I would never leave Israel.” He likes meeting famous people, including actor Ashton Kutcher and the princess of Thailand; he usually works in first class. When he is working he said that he thinks “I’m serving someone 30,000 feet in the air!” He pointed out that an El Al flight is not a typical flight. “People stand and walk around, people mingle, it’s warm like family, they help each other out—it’s like Israel.”

Shani said she is an Orthodox Jew, one of eight siblings, was born in Australia and now lives with her parents in Ra’anana. She said that being a flight attendant is the “best job” and “I love, love, love it! We speak and connect with people. I get emotional, working on El Al with the flag on the plane.” She stressed that they are doing “shlichut (public relations) all the time.”

Orna, 51, retired from her job with the army and raised a family before she joined El Al. She told of an incident when a Chassidic man requested a seat change that led to a young Israeli woman sitting next to a young man, an American medical student. As a result of the flight-long conversation, the two ended up “a couple,” recounted Orna. The pilot and crew of the flight sent a surprise congratulations video to them at their wedding.

Dani Klain, 40, a head steward, born in Israel of parents from the former Soviet Union, has a particularly antic sense of humor and regaled the audience with his humorous outlook on flying and passenger’s stories. On his third flight, a passenger came to him looking very upset and worried. “I just had my hair done before the flight,” she said, “and my seat is next to the window. Will that mess up my hair?” He said “no” and fled, not quite grasping what he called the lack of knowledge of aeronautics of the passenger. More recently, another passenger complained of noise on the flight. When he couldn’t detect any untoward noise, the passenger pointed out the sounds of the plane’s engines. He told the audience that if they turned off the engines for the complainant, the screams of the passengers would be terrible.

“Blue and White El Al Ambassadors” is a joint, free program of StandWithUs (SWU), The Jewish Agency for Israel and Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to train pilots and flight personnel as good-will ambassadors who educate about Israel during their lay-overs. El Al Airlines CEO Eliezer Shkedy initiated the program in 2011 to create a people to people initiative. “SWU is training the volunteer pilots and flight attendants,” said Avi Posnick, Regional Coordinator, New York Chapter, StandWithUs, East Coast. “The aim is to use El Al personnel, who are widely respected and trusted, to offer an authentic and comprehensive view of Israel and present its valuable contributions to the world.” Fifty volunteer pilots and flight personnel are currently in the program. They travel the world and spend time speaking about Israel to high schools, colleges, synagogues, churches, the media and Jewish community centers on their layovers. They speak to students and adults, Jews and non-Jews. This trip brought them to Westchester, Greenwich, Connecticut and Long Island. Previous trips were to New Jersey, New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto, and the United Kingdom. The reaction, said Posnick, has been “incredibly positive. They are personable and authentic. This is an incredible way to educate about and celebrate Israel.”

For more information contact avip@standwithus.com or 212 351 3440.