Scienceרנה רבינוביץ'

Renee Rabinowitz

Renee Rabinowitz was an American-Israeli psychologist and lawyer who won a 2017 discrimination case against El Al after being made to change seats on a flight.

1934 to 2020Discrimination lawsuit against El AlWork as a psychologistBBC 100 Women 2016

Born: 19 May 1934, Belgium
Died: 19 May 2020, Jerusalem
Occupation: psychologist, lawyer
Education: Notre Dame Law School, University of Chicago

Renee Rabinowitz was born in 1934 in Belgium

Rabinowitz was born in 1934 in Antwerp, Belgium, to an Orthodox Jewish family. In 1941 the family fled the Holocaust through France, Spain and Cuba to the United States. She grew up in New York City.

She studied educational psychology at the University of Chicago, earning a master's degree in 1969 and a doctorate in 1974. She also earned a law degree from Notre Dame Law School.

She taught psychology at Indiana University and later worked as legal counsel at Colorado College. She also volunteered at the Israel Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma.

In December 2015 she was made to move seats on an El Al flight from Newark to Tel Aviv after a Haredi man refused to sit beside a woman. The Israel Religious Action Center sued on her behalf. In June 2017 she was awarded 6,500 shekels, and the court ruled that the airline's practice violated Israel's anti-discrimination law.

She had three children from her first marriage, divorced in 1986, and married Rabbi Stanley M. Wagner in 1990. The couple moved to Israel in 2006. She died in Jerusalem on May 19, 2020.