Pilot career for a jew?

Hi,my name is alex…I’d love flying,but I have a bunch of concerns about it,I’m gonna explain why.

it’ll surprise you,but im a jewish guy.a religious one.that’s sure I can’t be at school,or at work later i can’t take flights from Friday afternoon til Sunday morning.plus our holidayschedule is different,that means to me other days,that my religion forbids me to fly on,but i could take flights on xmas,thanksgiving etcetc,when other pilots don’t want to,so i guess it’d come to a balance.so that’s about schedule.

As far as outdress.the only difference is my kippah/yarmulka/skullcap however it is similar to you,a small black cap on the top of my head…also my beard I dont know are there pilots out with beard,or I should have to shave it?

So that’s about this subject…first question would I ever get in any trouble because of these things?or is it even posibble for me ?(were talking about training and building a carreer in the us,)

my plan is to start the training in Chicago,it’s not fixed yet exactly when.probably in the fall…if you have a schedule about enrollment dates that’d be helpful to decide.,or there are no fixed dates for that? ?

About student loans for a permanent resident,what’d you say?

Also I heard that the airlines prefer to hire pilots with college degrees…is there any restriction what type of degrees are accepted? (Onlinedegree?in years?the subject?)

Waiting for good news,
Alex

Alex,

Not sure why you think it would surprise us? There are many Jewish pilots (myself included). There are also Christian, Muslim, Buddhist and pretty much any religion you can think of airline pilots flying. What there aren’t however, are Orthodox Jewish pilots flying for the airlines. With the exception of El Al, if you want to fly for any airline you will have to fly Fri nights and Saturdays (just as Christians fly on Sundays, Christmas and Easter) and there are no Regional airlines that allow beards (I do think you might be able to get away with a kippah but I’ve honestly never seen one on a pilot?). So as to your questions.

Question #1 is no, you would not get in trouble because it’s not going to happen.

Thinking that makes everything else moot? You could of course contact El Al in Israel but I’ve heard that’s a very tough gig. As for training with ATP you’d need to train on those days as well and they also have a policy on beards. I’m sure that’s not what you wanted to hear but better to find out now.

Adam