Renee Rabinowitz Wins Case Over Ultra-Orthodox Demand That She Be Moved On El Al

Renee Rabinowitz was asked to switch seats on an El Al flight from Newark to Tel Aviv in 2015 because a strictly Orthodox male passenger did not want to sit next to her. CreditUriel Sinai for The New York Times

Women's rights in Israel have seen a steady erosion in recent decades, although there is no high-pitched debate around a liberal abortion policy in the country. In fact, about 97% of women who seek state financing for abortion are approved. Israel approves abortions as late as 40 weeks of pregnancy.

The most obvious erosion of women's rights in Israel centers around issues of religion and gender in public spaces. Now 83-year-old Renee Rabinowitz has won a critical court ruling, suing the strictly Orthodox male passenger who demanded that she be moved from her El Al aisle business-class seat when he boarded Flight 028 bound for Tel Aviv from Newark in December 2015. Strictly Orthodox Jewish men believe they are contaminated and tempted in the close proximity of women who are not their wives. 

Ms. Rabinowitz, who lived through traumatic days of the Nazis in Europe, moved reluctantly. But she landed in Israel determined to take action. This week a Jerusalem court ruled that gender segregation and the movement of passengers to accommodate gender discrimination was illegal on El Al. 

“This is a common story; it happens to many,” Anat Hoffman, the director of Israel Religious Action Center who represented Ms. Rabinowitz, said of the pressure on women to change seats. Ms. Hoffman called the verdict “a breath of fresh air” and compared Ms. Rabinowitz to the Israeli actress who starred in the movie “Wonder Woman.” “Like Gal Gadot, Renee has superpowers,” she said.

As Modern Orthodox Jews, Jared Kushner & Ivanka Trump Share Deep Connection To Israel & Chabad

Even though Israel has seen a decline in women's rights that correlates with the rise of the ultra-Orthodox right-wing, Melanie and Ivanka Trump didn't live up to the worst fears of Israel's right wingers by choosing to avoid the women's prayer section of the Western Wall and praying with the men.  

Israel's Supreme Court ruled earlier in 2017 that women should be allowed to read from the Torah at the men-only, primary section of the wall. It also ruled that a separate egalitarian prayer area known as Robinson’s Arch did not represent access to the Western Wall.

Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz joined US President Donald Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who put prayer notes into one of the crevices in the wall, while Melania and Ivanka Trump did the same in the women’s section with the rabbi’s wife, Yael Rabinowitz and Dvora Berkin, director of public relations for the Western Wall.

“The Western Wall today is the spiritual center of the Jewish people and the heart of Judaism,” said Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi of the Western Wall and holy sites in Israel.

It was Rabbi Rabinowitz who ruled in 2010 that women visiting the holy site should not use a Torah in the designated female area of the wall.

“This visit showed respect for the Jewish people and for tradition,” said the rabbi. “Jews don’t need international approval to recognize the connection of the Jewish people to Jerusalem, but we also cannot hide from what happens around the world where people try to deny the Jewish connection to the wall, the Temple Mount and Jerusalem.”

Ivanka Trump & Judaism

Ivanka Trump converted to Judaism ahead of her 2009 marriage to Jared Kushner, a devout Orthodox Jew. The couple visited Israel in 2010. Trump has spoken little about her faith but told Vogue in February 2015: 

We're pretty observant, more than some, less than others. I just feel like it's such an intimate thing for us, It's been such a great life decision for me. I am very modern, but I'm also a very traditional person, and I think that's an interesting juxtaposition in how I was raised as well. I really find that with Judaism, it creates an amazing blueprint for family connectivity.

The Trump-Kushner family have said they practice Modern Orthodox Judaism and Jared Kushner graduated from The Frisch School, the prestigious New Jersey yeshiva. In Washington the family has joined the Chabad synagogue attached to Washington's Kalorama neighborhood.

Rabbi Levi Shemtov, heads the small membership synagogue, which is a seven-minute walk from their home. Throughout the years, many Jewish politicians have attended TheSHUL, including former senator Joe Lieberman and current Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, several Jewish ambassadors posted in Washington, and Israeli Cabinet ministers from the Orthodox parties. If Trump and Kushner attend the synagogue on a regular basis, it is likely to gain a lot of public attention, writes The Forward.

In a separate article The Forward poses the very question that captured my attention, writing "It might seem odd for a Modern Orthodox Jewish family to join a Chabad synagogue.  The relationship of Jared and Ivanka to the Chabad movement, also known as Lubavitch and Chabad-Lubavitch, was explored in one of the two Zembla videos exploring Donald Trump's relationship with the Russians. Chabad is the largest Hasidic movement in the world. 

This evening, Thursday May 25, all US media confirms that Jared Kushner is under scrutiny by the FBI for his involvement with the Trump campaign and the Trump White House. Trump's lawyer, Democrat and Hillary Clinton supporter, Jamie Gorelick, has said that Jared Kushner will be fully cooperative with investigators. 

Related: The Media Goes Deeper and Deeper Into Ivanka Trump: Zembla Looks At Jared, Ivanka & Lev Leviev.  (Zembla videos embedded). AOC Redtracker Daily

Dem Lawyer Jamie Gorelick Navigates Ethics Waters For Ivanka Trump & Jared Kushner  AOC In-Depth

“I would say Ivanka is definitely the CEO of our household,” says her husband, Jared Kushner. Trump, in an Erdem embroidered tweed dress, with their son, Joseph. De Beers diamond earrings.Photographed by Norman Jean Roy, Vogue, March 2015

Is There A Map of Biblical Israel? No, writes Rachel Havrelock

The always-assured Israeli prime minister Netanyahu, along with the strident voices of Republican candidates for the 2012 presidential election ,make it sound as if the Old Testament or the Torah leaves no doubt as to the location of Biblical Israel.

The Hebrew Bible (known to Christians as the Old Testament and to Jews as the Torah or Tanakh) actually contains five different 'maps',  lists of boundaries that define the Promised Land. None of them resemble the modern-day Biblical Israel, says Rachel Havrelock, author of 'River Jordan: The Mythology of a Dividing Line'.

Citing Joshua chapter 15, verse 63, Havrelock writes that it’s very possible that a regional federation of the tribes of Israel overlapped and coexisted with locals — the very vision of disputed Israeli lands held by more secular Israelis.

Right-wing religious groups, whether Israeli or Palestinian, aspire to rule all of “Biblical Israel” or “Historic Palestine.” In truth, these maps result from British colonialism and not from religious tradition. Religious ideas about this land are, in fact, more fluid, more flexible, and more accepting of the different peoples who live within its uncertain borders.