Jonathan Danilowitz

Jonathan Danilowitz was born on January 13, 1945, in South Africa, and was raised in a traditional Jewish family.[1] He immigrated to Israel in 1971.[1] He called himself a "good Jewish boy" and said that he did not initially recognize his attraction to men; while in South Africa, he kept those feelings from his family.[1]

After settling in Israel, Danilowitz built a career with El Al Israel Airlines, working first as a flight attendant and eventually rising to the position of senior in-flight service manager.[1] He entered into a long-term relationship with a male partner; the two men lived together, jointly purchased an apartment, and maintained a shared household.[1]

Founded in 1975, the Agudah initially functioned more as a support and social group than as a political organization.[2] Danilowitz first encountered the Agudah — the Association for LGBTQ Equality in Israel — that year, after seeing its first advertisement in The Jerusalem Post.[3] He recalled the atmosphere of the era plainly: "Everybody was in the closet. Everybody was afraid of being gay or rather didn't want to be known as gay."[3] He later held leadership roles in the Agudah, serving as its chairman and also chairing its LGBT Task Force.[1][4]

In 1979, Danilowitz organized an Israeli meeting of the World Congress of Gay and Lesbian Jewish Organizations after learning about the international conference while traveling in the United States.[3] The planning proved difficult: two venues canceled their agreements after pressure connected to the Rabbinate's kosher-certification authority, forcing organizers to hold the conference in a wedding hall while presenting themselves as travel agents.[3] The gathering was nonetheless considered a success, and it included what has been described as the first unmasked gay protest in what is now Rabin Square.[3]

Danilowitz founded Tehila, a support group for parents of LGBTQ children, and the Gay Road Runners club.[1]

Danilowitz's legal case against El Al began in 1989, when the airline denied his same-sex partner the second free annual flight ticket provided under El Al's collective bargaining agreement with the Histadrut.[1] Under that agreement, employees received two tickets each year — one for themselves and one for a "spouse" — but El Al interpreted "spouse" to mean an opposite-sex partner.[1] An initial ticket had been granted to Danilowitz's partner as a one-time exception; when a later request was denied, he brought a claim before the Tel Aviv Regional Labor Court.[1]

The Regional Labor Court accepted Danilowitz's claim, relying on the general right to equality in Israeli jurisprudence and the Employment Equal Opportunities Law of 1988, even though that law did not yet expressly mention sexual orientation.[1] El Al appealed. The National Labor Court unanimously rejected the appeal in 1992 and required the airline to provide the disputed ticket for Danilowitz's partner.[1] The Employment Equal Opportunities Law was itself amended in 1992 to include sexual orientation among the prohibited grounds of workplace discrimination.[1]

Because the case raised a constitutional issue, the National Labor Court heard the appeal with a seven-member panel comprising three professional judges and four public representatives from employee and employer sectors.[1] Former National Labor Court president Steve Adler, who sat on the panel, later summarized his view: "People’s private life is their own business, but at the workplace all are equal."[1]

El Al then petitioned Israel's Supreme Court, which rejected the challenge in 1994.[1] The Court held that denying same-sex partners the benefit available to heterosexual employees violated the right to equal opportunity at work.[5] The case is formally cited as HCJ 721/94, El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. v. Danilovitz, reported at 48(5) P.D. 749.[5] In a concurring majority opinion at the Supreme Court, Justice Dalia Dorner argued for a strong principle of equality in private and public relations and discussed changing norms surrounding equal treatment of homosexuals.[6] From the 1989 filing through the 1994 Supreme Court judgment, the dispute moved through three court levels.[1]

The 1994 Supreme Court ruling became an important precedent in Israeli LGBTQ legal history.[7] The ruling dealt with equality under a private employment contract and was later contrasted with the Adir Steiner case, which activists viewed as more far-reaching because it involved public-sector benefits.[7] A retrospective account by former National Labor Court president Steve Adler said the judgments influenced workplace culture and were important for the dignity of all people at work.[1]

Danilowitz continued working for El Al for eight years after the Supreme Court ruling before taking early retirement.[8] He authored the autobiography Flying Colors in 2012.[4] In 2020, the city of Tel Aviv awarded him its Yakir Ha'ir honor in recognition of his decades of struggle for LGBTQ rights.[4]

He spent his final years at the Protea Hills retirement community near Jerusalem.[4] Danilowitz died at the age of 77 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.[4] Reflecting on his legacy in his autobiography, he wrote that he had "played a small role in the way the world views homosexuality."[4]