{"id":27338,"date":"2016-02-27T13:47:13","date_gmt":"2016-02-27T18:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=27338"},"modified":"2016-02-27T13:47:13","modified_gmt":"2016-02-27T18:47:13","slug":"el-als-god-problemglobal-war-against-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=27338","title":{"rendered":"El Al’s god problem+global war against women"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lawsuit claims that an airline discriminated against Renee Rabinowitz by moving her seat after an ultra-Orthodox man said he did not want to sit next to a woman.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Source: She Was Asked to Switch Seats. Now She\u2019s Charging El Al With Sexism. – The New York Times<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Here’s how the Times story begins:<\/p>\n

JERUSALEM \u2014 RENEE RABINOWITZ is a sharp-witted retired lawyer with a Ph.D. in educational psychology, who escaped the Nazis in Europe as a child. Now she is about to become a test case in the battle over religion and gender in Israel<\/a>\u2019s public spaces \u2014 and the skies above \u2014 as the plaintiff in a lawsuit accusing El Al, the national airline, of discrimination.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ms. Rabinowitz was comfortably settled into her aisle seat in the business-class section on El Al Flight 028 from Newark to Tel Aviv in December when, as she put it, \u201cthis rather distinguished-looking man in Hasidic or Haredi garb, I\u2019d guess around 50 or so, shows up.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The man was assigned the window seat in her row. But, like many ultra-Orthodox male passengers, he did not want to sit next to a woman, seeing even inadvertent contact with the opposite sex as verboten under the strictest interpretation of Jewish law. Soon, Ms. Rabinowitz said, a flight attendant offered her a \u201cbetter\u201d seat, up front, closer to first class.<\/em><\/p>\n

Reluctantly, Ms. Rabinowitz, an impeccably groomed 81-year-old grandmother who walks with a cane because of bad knees, agreed.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cDespite all my accomplishments \u2014 and my age is also an accomplishment \u2014 I felt minimized,\u201d she recalled in a recent interview in her elegantly appointed apartment in a fashionable neighborhood of Jerusalem.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cFor me this is not personal,\u201d Ms. Rabinowitz added. \u201cIt is intellectual, ideological and legal. I think to myself, here I am, an older woman, educated, I\u2019ve been around the world, and some guy can decide that I shouldn\u2019t sit next to him. Why?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Fundamentalist men. Doesn’t matter what name brand religion they adhere to. They are psychotic misogynists.<\/p>\n

Or am I being too harsh?<\/p>\n

Nah. And rah, Renee Rabinowitz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A lawsuit claims that an airline discriminated against Renee Rabinowitz by moving her seat after an ultra-Orthodox man said he did not want to sit next to a woman. Source: She Was Asked to Switch Seats. Now She\u2019s Charging El … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[632],"tags":[723,672,442],"class_list":["post-27338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-god-problem","tag-the-global-war-against-women-2","tag-the-god-problem-2","tag-womens-rights"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t