Three Orthodox Jewish passengers were asked to leave a JetBlue plane just before takeoff on New Year’s Eve, the Forward reported. 

The incident occurred after an elderly male in the group, who had been assigned a seat next to a woman, asked another passenger to switch seats with him for “religious purposes.” The other passenger, Ron Passaro, said he had been happy to oblige, and he knew of no complaints from other passengers. 

A security official then asked the group to leave the plane, saying the captain and crew had made the decision because “changing seats is a violation” and “you have to sit in your assigned seats.”

Passaro’s girlfriend, Rachel Sklar, who witnessed the incident, posted about it on X, formerly Twitter, where she asked, “Why is @JetBlue ejecting orthodox Jewish passengers for asking to change seats? I’ve been sitting here the whole time and it was fine.” 

In comments to the Forward, Sklar said, “They said obviously this is clearly antisemitism, and I was like, ‘It sure seems like it to me.’ The whole thing was really upsetting. It seemed very unnecessary and kind of bewildering.”

Rabbi Matisyahu Salomon, longtime rabbinic figure at the renowned yeshiva of Lakewood, Beth Medrash Gevoha, died yesterday at age 86, VIN News reported. 

Salomon was a much beloved figure by the thousands of students he had counseled throughout his three decades as mashgiach, or spiritual counselor, at the Lakewood yehiva.

Lakewood police told the news outlet Patch that tens of thousands were expected to attend Salomon's funeral on Wednesday morning.

Synagogue leaders discovered tunnels underneath the women’s section of the Chabad headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, according to several Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic news outlets.

The synagogue called in an engineer to inspect the building for any structural harm, and the women’s section on Kingston Avenue has been closed off, according to Chabadinfo.com. 

As rumors circulate about who could have dug the tunnels, community leaders told chabadinfo.com that they pose no danger to the building.

New York State Senator Bill Weber and a member of his staff were “honored guests” this week at the wedding of Monsey resident Meira Cohen, the Haredi news outlet Rockland Daily reported. 

Weber and the bride had worked together to bring home New Yorkers stuck in Israel after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.