Thousands of Breslov Chassidim who have already purchased airline tickets to Uman for Rosh Hashanah were left out in the cold following the closure of travel agency Europanim. The closure resulted in the money paid for the tickets being completely lost by the customers. The travel agent who had been supposedly arranging the flights with various airlines, disappeared with all of the money that was supposed to pay for tickets that never existed.
Europanim, provides travel service to various destinations in Europe, one of which is Uman. The travel agency announced a series of subsidized flights to Uman ahead of the Rosh Hashanah holiday and pilgrimage. The travel agency announced today that the agent they dealt with as a middle-man between their agency and the airlines had disappeared with all of their money and hence, the travel agency would be ceasing its operations.
According to Kikar Shabbat news service, sme 2,000 travelers purchased their tickets through the travel agency and currently are now left without a ticket or their money refunded.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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13 Responses
I don’t understand this, if it (like most plane travel arrangements) was purchased on a credit card, aren’t you protected?
Hope they have contacted the police and even the government in Israel. This is a serious offense. A thousand people. Everyone affected should report what happened.
I feel bad for anyone defrauded by caveat emptor….due your own due dilligence and don’t rely upon travel agents who cannot show they deal directly with the airlines and have adequate bonds/insurance to cover non-performance by their contractors. Separately, maybe this is a siman that these 2000 families were meant to be together for yom tov.
Hate to say it, but when I read of ” subsidized flights to Uman”, I think that this was probably a deal that was too good to be true, and that it should have been obvious to the customers. In addition, anyone who paid with a cc should be eligible for a refund from their cc company, and if this company only accepted payment by cash, then that should have been another red flag.
Oy vey, sorry for their loss.
Maybe they could try Rosh Hashanah in Yerushalayim?
perhaps a sign from Above about the propriety of leaving eretz yisroel for rosh ha-shanah.
Let them stay home, Rosh Hashana will be holier in Eretz Yisroel. It should be a Kapara.
Oy vay. What a bummer! Hope all works out!
I am sure 95 percent of those who were scammed will still find a way to get to Uman for YT!
Move the whole Uman to Jerusalem!!!
Yaapchick
Azoy…lets move the “whole Uman” and its 84,000 (2017 est) anti-semitim from the central Ukraine to downtown yerushalayim (as if we don’t have enough of our own already). Would be better to simply move the bones for R’ Nachman to a kever on har hazeitim and leave the locals to find some new source of income to replace the yidden who come each year to pour millions of NIS into the local economy
Just curious why they didn’t book it online.
Woops! I forgot that internet is assur.
They should understand that not having Internet comes with a price.
Now they dont need to do kaporos this year’s. See? its all bashert.
First of all, as far as I know, Israeli credit card companies DO NOT go to bat for their customers so it would not help to open a dispute case.
…and second of all, it is much more menshlich to stay with your family on Yom Tov……spend the ticket money on yom tov gifts for the wife and kids.
last year i bought a charter ticket from NY to Israel for yomim tovim from a reputable bklyn travel agency. 3 days before yom kippur the private carrier charter company disappeared. I learned then that charter groups are inherently risky. they dont go under the booking protections of the common airlines. they refunded me the value to go towards a last minute flight. the brooklyn travel agency lost hundreds of thousands of $$. if they ever recovered it, IDK. i recall that they had another charter for uman that also flopped at the same time