Among those stranded was Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks who was in the USA to lecture and receive an award for excellence at Princeton University.

After delivering Princeton Theological Seminary’s Kuyper Lecture last Thursday on Covenant and Hope in Civil Society and receiving an award for excellence, Lord Sacks was due to fly back to the UK on Sunday in time for London’s communal Yom Ha’atzmaut celebrations.

Also unable to fly in for the London celebrations were Israeli performer Achinoam Nini and her band, as well as five other singers. The Zionist Federation provided substitute entertainment.

London Jewish Forum chief executive and Paris American Joint Distribution Committee consultant Alexander Goldberg was leading Sussex University’s annual visit to Auschwitz on Monday – but the group’s connecting flight from Paris to Krakow never took off.

Alexander said: “I decided to spend the day working in our Joint offices at the Champs Elysee which is not so bad – good weather and good kosher food.

“My colleagues at the Joint were not so lucky and were stranded at a seminar in Warsaw. They took three days on the road from Warsaw to Vienna and then from Vienna to Paris.

“Some of my activities for next week have been curtailed due to people coming from abroad to seminars in Paris and working groups in London.

“The good side is that I met with some colleagues from Israel who were stranded in Paris.

“Unfortunately for the sociology students, the Auschwitz visit will have to be postponed.”

The flight ban came into force last Thursday, which coincided with Rosh Chodesh Iyar when yeshivot and seminaries began their new term.

A spokesman for Manchester’s Beis Soroh Schneirer Seminary said: “Quite a lot of our girls are missing for the new term which began on Monday.

“All the American and Australian girls are stuck. Many of the European girls from Switzerland and Belgium have come by road.

“I just spoke to one girl from Switzerland who is making a 16-hour journey.”

A spokesman for Manchester’s Sha’arei Torah Yeshiva said: “Our term began on Wednesday so most of our students were already here.

“Those coming later from as far afield in Europe as Switzerland and Amsterdam came by taxi and by train.

“But one Australian student is stuck in Hong Kong and another in South Africa.”

However, many students hoping to fly to yeshivot overseas, including Israel, last Thursday have had their flights delayed.

Shimon Smith, of Prestwich, has an even a bigger problem. He can’t even dream of booking a ticket to the USA to study in his Lakewood yeshiva until his student visa arrives from America by Fedex, which only relies on air transport.

He said: “It’s annoying because I really want to go but there’s nothing I can do about it.”

Manchester-born Rabbi Daniel Wax, now of Gateshead, has been stuck for a week in Helsinki.

Rabbi Wax, who combines studies at Gateshead kollel with preparation for a PhD in mathematics at Newcastle University, was in the Finnish capital with his university supervisor for a symposium.

They were due to fly back to Newcastle last Thursday, but their plane failed to take off.

His father Tony Wax, of Broughton Park, said: “He is very fortunate that he was taken in by a Chabad family and given fantastic accommodation.

“He will probably have to spend between next Sunday and Wednesday travelling by train and boat via Stockholm, Copenhagen and Amsterdam.

“I will go to Gateshead for the weekend to support his wife and six children whom he left behind.”

Scientist Dr Mark Rosenberg, of Crumpsall, was due to fly on Tuesday to New York for a series of meetings followed by research on cystic fibrosis at the University of North Carolina. He has now had to postpone his trip until June.

He said: “It was really hard to reschedule my trip. I could only have got an earlier booking if I had gone business class for around £3,500.”

Also delayed were guests from abroad who had prolonged their Pesach vacations with Manchester relatives.

Chaim and Toby Saunders, of Silver Spring, Maryland, USA, were due to fly back to Virginia, via Heathrow, last Thursday after spending Pesach with their daughter Rachel Greenberg and family, of Prestwich, followed by a trip to Scotland.

Chaim told the Jewish Telegraph: “We were ready to go with our bags packed last Thursday morning when our son-in-law Chaim phoned to tell us about the volcano.

“We couldn’t believe it when we checked on computer and found that all the Manchester and Heathrow flights had been cancelled.

“I then spent three hours on the phone with the airline trying to rebook the flight.

“There was a mix-up because they thought our travel agent had rebooked it, which was not true.

“Eventually we were re-booked for a Monday flight, which again was cancelled.

“I then had great difficulty in maintaining telephone contact with the USA long enough to rebook our tickets and we are now due to leave on Sunday.”

After managing to renew his medication prescriptions through the NHS, Chaim is taking advantage of his extended holiday to visit a place he had always wanted to see – Cardiff.

But wife Toby, who is a nurse, is missing work and Chaim is worried about his bills mounting at home.

Helen and Arie Arieli were due to return to Antwerp on Monday after spending Pesach with their daughter Zehava Smith and her family, of Prestwich.

Helen said: “I made a mistake on my original booking and booked for three weeks instead of two. Now we have the uncertainty of not knowing when we can return home.

“Although we are lucky to be staying with my daughter and son-in-law, when you go on a vacation and the time is over you are programmed to go back home.

“I have appointments I will have to cancel and don’t know what bills I have to pay. Also, my husband’s medication is running out and Belgian medicines are not always available in England.

“We tried to see if we could return by ship, but all the websites are crashing and you have to just turn up. At our age we just can’t do that.”

Fortunately, the Arielis were eventually able to return home on Wednesday.

The flight ban also stopped Kings Meat shechita in Ireland this week as the operation relies on shochetim flying in. But proprietor Motti Gershon said: “Missing one week is not so terrible because I am ahead and well-stocked.”