Last month I attended a research conference in Spain. I was the only guy there in a kipah. As the conference was ending I wanted to print out my boarding pass for my trip back to the US. The bank of computers to be used by the conference participants was being shut down. I found the speakers’ ready room, which still had one computer that was still turned on. I asked if I could use if for a few minutes to print out my boarding pass and the technician said it was ok, even though he was clearly in a hurry to get out of the building before he was kicked out.
He asked where I was going and I told him “Newark”. He complained that he was unable to print out his boarding pass. I asked him why, and he said, “security”. It turned out that the technician was a secular Jew from Israel and his airline required that the boarding pass only be issued at the airport. He was a model of good midot and helped me print out mine, though! I think he realized that there was another Jew he could help, and he went out of his way to do so even though it cost him time.
I was proud to be a Jew that day. So was he. My brother Jew.