Did Uber Driver Boot Israeli Diplomat For Speaking Hebrew?
(JTA) — Uber suspended one of its drivers in Chicago pending an investigation into an Israeli diplomat’s claim that the driver threw him out for speaking in Hebrew.
Itay Milner, deputy consul general of Israel to the Midwest, wrote on Facebook Thursday that he was ten minutes into his ride, which he booked with the ride-sharing application of Uber, when the driver shouted at him to get out on Lower Wacker Drive for answering a telephone call in Hebrew, CBS Chicago reported.
“I just had the worst experience of my life. I was just thrown out of an Uber because I was speaking my mother tongue.” He wrote, “Ten minutes into my ride with no prior interaction between me and the driver, the driver started yelling ‘Get out of my car!’ All because I answered the phone in Hebrew. I am not easily intimidated, but I was scared.”
Milner also wrote the driver confirmed that he was kicking Milner out because Milner was speaking Hebrew. “I never thought something like this could happen in America, such awful racism.”
The driver, identified on his Uber profile as Yuva and driving a 2017 white Toyota Camry, has been working with the company for one year and has a rating of 4.89 out of five.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
