Iran War Strands Atlantans for Passover

After the U.S./Israel war on Iran was launched Feb. 28, dozens of Atlantans who had long scheduled to fly to Israel for Passover, to see family or to attend weddings – or all of the above – were suddenly left with homes that they hadn’t prepared for Passover as well as nowhere to celebrate the seders.

To say that it was chaotic for airline passengers during those first weeks of the war – now stretching into months — as airlines stumbled their way forward, is an understatement.

First, Delta Air Lines canceled its nonstop flights between Atlanta and Tel Aviv, set to restart on April 15, after previously operating the route from 2006 to 2011. Soon after that cancelation, the Atlanta-based airline canceled all its flights from other destinations to Tel Aviv until Sept. 5. Atlantans who thought ahead when making their plans to go to Israel during Passover and made their reservations on usually dependable Israeli airlines El Al fared no better.

Wendy Kalman and her husband, Marius Braun, were originally booked on Delta for a flight to Amsterdam on March 12 where they were to connect with an El Al flight to Tel Aviv. The flights weren’t canceled immediately. “Our return was supposed to be leaving March 29 on an El Al flight through” Paris and then Delta back to Atlanta, she said. All canceled.

Now they are booked on a Delta flight leaving Atlanta April 22 for a connecting flight in Paris for Tel Aviv, but it’s anybody’s guess whether those flights will fly. Although Kalman wasn’t planning on being in Israel for Passover, she is clearly frustrated. She missed her granddaughter’s second birthday. “I need to go. We have suitcases full of little girl clothes and ‘Dr. Seuss’ books,” she lamented.

Similarly, whenever David and Eve Adler plan a visit to their son, Jonathan, and his family in Israel, their suitcases are full of gifts for their grandchildren. Not unusually, they planned to celebrate Passover there this year. They had made El Al reservations believing that the Israeli airline would fly even if U.S. airlines didn’t.

Instead, when their flights were canceled, they had to scramble to kashrut their house. Fortunately, thanks to friends, they immediately had invitations for the first seder, plus Friday night and Saturday meals.

Some Atlantans who didn’t get to join family members in Israel for Passover had other family members living in Atlanta with whom they were able to enjoy seders. Former teachers Elie and Tzipi Livnat, who usually spend about half the year in Israel around Passover and the fall High Holidays, instead this year experienced the chaos of getting flights canceled at the last minute.

The Livnats had reservations to fly March 19 to Tel Aviv on Israeli airline Arkia from New York to Tel Aviv. Three days before their scheduled departure, they were canceled. They received an email from Arkia that was “very ambiguous” and required them to fill out a form that included asking them when they would like to rebook. They chose a date, and that flight was changed, too.

“After my flight was canceled, I went to the Arkia website and checked the next flight availability. They had open seats available, however with a hefty $4,000 more than our original flight cost. I was wondering if this was not another trick of them to increase revenue,” he added.

“There was no one to talk to, no way to call them. We could only send an email or WhatsApp message. Their response was 52 hours later, explaining that they were short of employees because so many were drafted into the Israel Defense Forces for the war,” Elie Livnat related.

In early April, Livnat said the couple was hoping to get to Israel soon and stay until after Shavuot, which starts May 21. “Hopefully, the war will end” by then, he added.

With a son and grandchildren in Israel, Alice Wertheim said she usually goes there twice a year – the last time in December. She and her husband, Brian, were supposed to leave on Delta March 26 to spend Passover in Modi’in, between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, with her family there.

Stuck in Atlanta, one of her nieces invited Alice and Brian to their house for seder. “We spent it with my entire sister’s family. It was very lovely,” said Alice. But now she’s wondering if her Israeli son and family will be able to fly to Atlanta in August as planned.

There are no assurances.

Jodi Wittenberg, owner of kosher grocery store Spicy Peach, said Passover was “super chill for me this year.” Her husband, Josh, however, was “crazy disappointed.” Their story is a bit unique. He made Aliyah in September 2024, so they travel back and forth to see each other.

She was supposed to join him in late March. She had bought an El Al ticket months ago. “I always fly El Al, so I don’t get derailed.” This year, her reservation kept getting canceled and rescheduled and then canceled again. She “packed and unpacked.” She worried about making connecting flights because of the partial U.S. government shutdown that resulted in long security lines.

Finally, she told her husband, “Sorry, I’m not coming.” She ordered catered food for Passover and neighbors helped. She had a “low key” seder at a friend’s mountain house in Hiawassee, Ga.

Of course, the passenger frustration hasn’t been just one way. Livnat said there are a number of people in his Toco Hills neighborhood who had been in Israel when the war started and haven’t been able to get back to Atlanta. “We have neighbors stuck in Israel for three weeks, some with hotel expenses,” he said.

Many Atlantans, however, have family to stay with while they’re in Israel. Myrna Rubel is one Atlantan who left for Israel on Feb. 13 for a two-and-a-half-week trip that’s turned into a two-and-a-half-month odyssey, according to Gene, her husband of nearly 62 years.

Myrna, he said, is making the best of the situation, staying with their daughter, Laurie, in Ramat Aviv, near Tel Aviv University where she is a professor, and seeing her grandchildren there.

Rubel said his wife had an El Al ticket to return home on April 16, but she had tickets on Israeli airlines more than once since her first scheduled return flight, on March 3, was canceled. And, indeed, that reservation was canceled as well. At press time, Rubel reported that his wife was investigating other options to finally find a way home.

“It seems like 17 years” since she left, her husband said. “This is the first time we’ve been apart on Passover for 62 years.” He had a seder with his son in Atlanta, “except a seat next to me was empty. When we opened the door for Elijah, we hoped Myrna would walk in!”