NY Congressman Ritchie Torres wrote a letter to the German Consul-General in New York requesting an investigation in the detainment of 16 Chassidim at the Frankfurt Airport on March 8, including a group of five from New York en route to Vienna.

Torres noted the fact that the Chassidim were not informed of why they were detained and requested an answer to why they were held for hours without charges.

“The allegations are deeply disbursing and call for an investigation into the actions taken by German officials,” Torres wrote in the letter to German Consul General David Gill.

“It is also disturbing that it was not until the U.S. Embassy in Germany was notified about this incident that these Americans were provided a reason for why their passports were taken and why they were being held. An American passport is one of the most internationally accepted passports, which calls into question why these Americans’ passports were viewed as suspicious.”

“I look forward to an expeditious response into these reports from your office,” Torres concluded.

“We begged for a cup of water,” one of the detained men told Americans Against Anti-Semitism. “So they brought us out a few cups of water. Literally holding the cup of water so it doesn’t spill on the way out, you know the way you feed your dog basically. There was no communication, which was almost the worst part to me.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)