Orthodox Jew Wrapped Inside Plastic Bag While On Plane.
April, 2013: NY Daily News: A Jewish man is covered in a plastic bag for the whole of his journey because his religion forbids him to fly over cemeteries. It was believed the man is a Kohein, a religious descendant of the priests of ancient Israel, who are banned from flying over cemeteries. Many wrap themselves in plastic bags as a compromise measure. Beneath his plastic wrapping, the man is dressed entirely in black, and appears to be wearing a Jewish skullcap or "kippah.'
As a controversial solution - not entirely allowed by those in the Jewish Orthodox - the plastic bag creates a kind of barrier between the Kohein and the surrounding tumah, or impurity. Rabbi Jeffrey W. Goldwasser, of Temple Beit Ha Yam in Israel, explained: "In Orthodox and Conservative communities, Kohanim are expected to abstain from coming in contact with the dead, which includes a prohibition on visiting cemeteries except for the funerals of close relatives". …More