Greetings, fellow apology fans! Let’s explore one of the worst corporate apologies in recent memory!

Oh, Lufthansa, do you not remember the saga of United’s terrible apologies in 2017? Do you not recall the public outcry after United forcibly “re-accommodated” a 69-year-old man, Dr. James Dao, during an “overbook situation”? The “situation” (a word used no fewer than 7 times by United’s erstwhile CEO, Oscar Munoz) in which Chicago cops dragging the gentleman, bloodied and screaming, out of the plane? Leaving him with a concussion, a broken nose, and two broken teeth? The situation that United called “an upsetting event for all of us at United”? (Poor United.) The situation in which United blamed Dr. Dao for having “defied” the cops and having “raised his voice”? And claimed that he “continued to resist” despite being “politely asked to de-plane,” implying that his conduct was justification for violence, for being forcefully “de-planed” from the flight for which he had bought a ticket? Remember how United claimed to have apologized personally to Dr. Dao, which his daughter said did not happen? And then remember how PR Week wrote, “the episode and subsequent response will be quoted in textbooks as an example of how not to respond in a crisis”?

Congrats, Lufthansa! You’re now sitting next to United right by the toilets on Flight #666 of WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU Airlines! United, scoot over! Stop hogging the armrest!

The backstory: Over 100 Jews were booted from a connecting flight from Frankfurt to Budapest last week, apparently because on the first leg of the flight, some had refused to wear masks. (No one has yet said how many people refused to wear masks. One passenger said he saw three. None were immediately identifiable as Jews.) Yet for some reason, all the passengers who were prevented from boarding—and furthermore, banned from Lufthansa flights for the next 24 hours—were either dressed in identifiably Hasidic Jewish garb (black hats, beards, visible fringes/tzitzit, etc.) or had Jewish-sounding names.

Most of the Hasidim were headed to a small village in Hungary, to the grave of Rabbi Yeshaya Steiner (aka Reb Shayele), founder of the Kerestirer Hasidic dynasty. There’s an annual pilgrimage to the final resting place of this rabbi, a turn-of-the-century wise man who was considered modest, able to perform miracles, and very good at getting rid of mice.

When one passenger complained to a Lufthansa representative that he’d been wearing his mask the whole time, so why should he be punished, she replied, “It was Jewish people who were the mess, who made the problems.” And though only a few people had disobeyed the mask rule, “everybody has to pay for a couple.” An announcement was also made (by a different Lufthansa employee) in the boarding area, after all the non-Jews had boarded: “Due to an operational reason coming from the flight from New York, all passengers here, we have to cancel you on this flight.” Pause. “You know why it was.” Passengers are heard exclaiming, “We don’t know why!” (There’s video, originally shared by the site Dan’s Deals, that shows the woman representative blaming all the Jews for the sins of a few Jews, as well as footage of the male gate agent announcing that the flight —with only a handful of non-Jewish-appearing people on it — would be leaving without the Jews. Be forewarned, you may find these videos hard to watch. Seeing confused, visibly religious Jews being surrounded by uniformed police officers marked with POLIZEI in big block letters on their backs will be dismaying for some people, given some people’s histories and truncated family trees. Also, do not read the comments unless you love marinating in antisemitism.)

Jewish customers also said they were physically prevented from going to the customer service desk. Some were able to make it to their destination by booking on other airlines, but it seems that most of the travelers missed the Reb Shayele event. The Washington Post reported that one punished passenger managed to get on a Lufthansa flight to Austria, despite the 24-hour ban, by buying his ticket online. (On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a Hasid.) He drove straight from Vienna to the Hungarian village of Kerestir (aka Bodrogkeresztúr). But “when he tried to fly home the next day, he was told that his ticket was invalid because he had not completed the full outbound flight. It cost him $1,100 for a new return seat on Lufthansa.” Charming.

OK, so what’s wrong with Lufthansa’s apology? A short list.

1. It doesn’t start with the apology. “Lufthansa regrets” is about how Lufthansa (an entity, not even a human) feels. An apology should center how the passengers feel.
2. The “circumstances surrounding the decision”? What circumstances, pray tell? Name the offense.
3. “While Lufthansa is still reviewing the facts” carries a hint of “Hey, not all the facts are in! We don’t know what really happened! Maybe this is a he said/she-said/120 Jews said” situation!”
4. Calling all the Jews on the flight “the large group” implies that they were all together. They weren’t. There’s an insinuation, intentional or not, that the Jews are this collective, icky mass. Again, this is historically displeasing.
5. Don’t just “apologize to all the passengers unable to travel on this flight.” Apologize to everyone. Prejudice hurts everyone.
6. “Inconvenience”? Really? They were harassed, insulted, surrounded by German police. Many missed the holy-to-them event for which they were traveling in the first place.
7. How lovely that you have “zero tolerance for racism, anti-Semitism and discrimination.” The proof is in der Pudding. Right now, your philosophy is just words. Your supposed values and your employees’ conduct are quite clearly at odds.
8. A more excusable thing, but: the current spelling of choice is not “anti-Semitism.” It’s “antisemitism.” Why? Because the hyphen, favored by the nineteenth-century right-wing German politician who popularized this term, implies that “anti-Semitism” counters some false prevailing sentiment of “Semitism” — meaning that everybody ELSE is out here thinking Jews are AWESOME (which, no). Rendering the word as “Anti-Semitism” obscures the fact that this particular -ism is specifically about—nay, was originally all about ENCOURAGING—the hatred of JEWS. Not Semites, a noun no one actually uses. (Everyone can feel free to call it “Jew hatred” or “bias against Jews.” Hatred of other Semitic peoples migh be termed, depending on who’s being hated on, “Islamophobia” or “hatred of Arabs.” Be precise about your hate language!) While there are still holdouts who favor using the hyphen in anti-Semitism, that’s not the way the world is going. The New York Times recently changed its style guide from “anti-Semitism” to “antisemitism.”  The AP did too. “Antisemitism” is now the preferred spelling at The Forward and Tablet (both former employers of Snarly), and JTA (the international news organization formerly known as the Jewish Telegraphic Agency; inexplicably Snarly has not worked there). It’s favored by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and the esteemed Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt, who literally wrote the book on antisemitism and who has been actively anti-hyphen campaigning for years. “Antisemitism” is also the preferred spelling in academia. Listen to people who’ve done the work of researching history.
9. MORE IMPORTANTLY, Lufthansa, where is the discussion of how you’ll make things right?
10. THE STATEMENT NEVER SAYS THE WORD “JEW” OR “JEWISH.”

So much no.

Germany has done a stupendous job of grappling with its shameful history, far better than most countries (cough, cough, UnitedStatesofAmerica) have done. SorryWatch believes in redemption and appreciation of the hard work of self-inventory, and…if not forgiveness, the possibility of repair and the re-earning of trust. But antisemitism is a cancer, a sneaky malady plaguing both the right and the left, and it keeps coming back if you’re not vigilant. And we will not appreciate comments on this post saying either “Well, it’s Germany—of course” or “But Israel.”

Please, Lufthansa: do the work. Take a hard look. Discuss procedures. Retrain the staff. Fire the folks who made these terrible decisions. Offer financial settlements to those you hurt. Snarly has a soft spot in her heart for Lufthansa; years ago, she was traveling with an infant, and omg, the bulkhead seats have pull-down bassinets! The flight attendants asked, unsolicited, if she’d like a cup of hot water in which to warm a bottle! There was a new father on the plane, flying home with his just-adopted baby, and the flight crew were so kind to him when he was stressing out!

Lufthansa, we’re rooting for you to make it right.