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Bereaved families in Israel will no longer have to seek an employer’s permission to attend the annual memorial anniversary of a close relative after the Knesset approved a change to the country’s annual leave law.
The amendment allows employees to use one of their existing statutory “choice days” to observe the yahrzeit of a first-degree relative, with employers no longer able to refuse requests when the legal conditions are met.
Campaigners say it marks long-overdue recognition that grief extends far beyond the funeral and shiva.
The campaign was led by Hamaniot – an organisation supporting children who have lost a parent, and widowed parents raising children – alongside MKs Michal Waldiger and Naor Shiri.
For Sarah, a supermarket cashier from Rehovot whose husband was killed in a workplace accident, the change comes too late.
“I begged my manager to let me take the day off,” she recalled. “I explained that this wasn’t a vacation day. My children needed me because they were reliving the day they lost their father.”
When her request was refused, Sarah stayed home with her three children and says she was later dismissed. “My employer told me I wasn’t committed enough to my job.”
Yahav Shorer, a spokeswoman for Hamaniot, said: “For many bereaved families, the annual memorial is not simply another day away from work. It is a day that brings families together, revives painful memories and often makes ordinary functioning impossible.”
Hamaniot founder and chief executive Hadar Kass said the reform acknowledged that “civilian bereavement is part of Israeli society”, adding that “bereavement does not end after seven days of mourning” and families should not have to justify needing time together on the anniversary of a loved one’s death.
Hamaniot provides emotional support groups, legal rights advocacy, welfare guidance and community services to around 52,000 bereaved children and young adults under 21, as well as approximately 18,000 widowed parents.
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