My wife’s family is from the Toronto area and I live in New Jersey. My wife and I fly Newark-Toronto round trips very frequently. I’ve noticed that there are almost always a large number of Orthodox Jews on these flights. Certainly a much larger percentage than I see on any other flight. I never thought much about it until my flight back from Toronto yesterday. One Jewish gentleman was walking with me and we were having some small talk. Our flight was to depart at 1:25PM. He informed me that we were probably going to be on one of those small regional jets that only seats 30 or so people. I asked him how he knew this and he said that he flew in at 9:30AM on that same plane. So I asked him why he would fly in just for a couple of hours. Since it’s an international flight, he still had to be back at the airport by 11:30AM. That gave him less than 2 hours to do what he had to do. He said that he just had to meet somebody. Fair enough, although I couldn’t figure out any situation in which someone would have to fly out of the country and then fly right back. Maybe his case was an isolated example. But now I’m curious. Why are there so many Jews that fly between these 2 cities? I know that many Jews live in the New York area so that probably explains half the story.
Just guessing: diamond couriers?
Highly unlikely since most seem to be entire families, kids and all. Something that occurred to me is that the flight is probably the shortest and highest frequency international flight from the New York area. If a New York resident had to leave the country in the quickest and cheapest manner, this would be the way to do it. In fact my Australian friend took the exact flight in order to get an immigration stamp on his passport. Perhaps they must leave the country from time to time for religious reasons? Just guessing. I hope a Jewish person wanders across this thread and appeases my curiosity.
Well, about half of Canada’s Jews live in the Greater Toronto area. Also, were the people you’re talking about Modern Orthodox? Hasid? I’m pretty sure that the Satmar have big communities both in Toronto and Newark, but I’m not sure. Somebody more familiar with Newark or Toronto might be able to give you better information.
I must confess that I don’t know the differences. They are always well-dressed. Black suits and black overcoats seem to be the norm for the men. The teenagers are usually studying vigorously. The boys wear the dangling strings (please forgive my ignorance about the proper terms for these). I live in a predominantly Jewish area so I should know better. But I don’t think that they’re hasidic because the men and boys don’t keep the long sideburns.
just a guess–but are any of these passengers connecting to international flights–i.e. to Israel.? There are lots of El Al flights that stop in Toronto on their way to Israel.