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Tefillin Prompts Panic on Plane, Again

Phylactery: It comes in peace

by
Marc Tracy
March 14, 2011
A tefillin-wrapping.(Israeltripsandother/Flickr)
A tefillin-wrapping.(Israeltripsandother/Flickr)

Yesterday, on an Alaska Airlines flight from Mexico City to Los Angeles, three Jewish men wrapping themselves with tefillin prompted the pilots to lock down the cabin and alert authorities at LAX, who met the men for questioning afterward. Turns out plain wood leather boxes connected with wrapping are innocuous prayer paraphernalia, and not a way for Orthodox Jews to bomb an Alaska Airlines flight as payback for inflicting Sarah Palin on the world in an extremely indirect manner.

Folks will remember this all happened last year in Philadelphia, too.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.