Israelis, orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews – known as Haredim – were flying on an El Al flight from New York to Tel Aviv to celebrate Rosh Hashanah.

The haredi men, distinguishable by their black suits and in many cases wide-brimmed black hats, stood in the aisles rather than sit down, delaying the departure because they did not want to sit next to women.

According to the passengers the flight was delayed for 11 hours. Although the Haredi men had tickets with seat numbers that they purchased in advance, they were asking passengers to trade seats with them, and even offered to pay money, because they cannot sit next to a woman.

However, Haredim agreed to sit in their seats after a 11-hour delay and the plane finally took off

“El Al does everything it can to give its passengers the best possible service year-round,” an airline spokesman said.