Quick Answer: Israeli law gives employees 7 consecutive paid days of bereavement leave on the death of a spouse, parent, child, or sibling. The entitlement flows from the General Extension Order on Bereavement Leave, issued under the Collective Agreements Law 5717-1957, and applies to anyone employed in Israel under an Israeli employment contract regardless of nationality or religion. Employees with fewer than 3 months of service have no statutory right to paid bereavement leave, though many employers extend it voluntarily. A 2026 Knesset amendment also entitles eligible employees to use one choice day to observe the annual yahrzeit (death anniversary) of a first-degree relative.

When a close family member dies, most employees in Israel do one of two things: they call HR expecting bereavement leave to be granted without question, or they quietly use sick days because no one told them they have a separate entitlement. Either way, they are operating on guesswork — the gap that most workplace orientation sessions skip entirely.

For foreign nationals, the gap is wider still. Arriving from countries where bereavement leave is discretionary, capped at two or three days, or non-existent, many expats working in Israel assume they have no right to time off at all unless their contract says otherwise. They are wrong. Israeli law treats bereavement leave as a mandatory entitlement. An employer who withholds it, redirects it to the sick leave account, or makes its use conditional on producing documentation beyond what the law requires is violating an extension order that covers virtually every private sector employer in the country.

1. The Legal Basis for Bereavement Leave in Israel

Israeli statute law does not contain a single dedicated bereavement leave statute in the way that the Annual Rest Law 5711-1951 governs vacation or the Sick Pay Law 5736-1976 governs sick leave. Bereavement leave instead operates through the tzav harachava (extension order) mechanism created by Section 25 of the Collective Agreements Law 5717-1957.

Under Section 25, the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs can extend the terms of a collective agreement between representative employers' associations and the Histadrut (General Federation of Labour) to cover all employees in a sector or in the entire economy, whether or not they or their employer is a party to the agreement. The General Extension Order on Bereavement Leave, issued under this mechanism, converts what began as a collectively bargained term into a universal minimum that binds every private sector employer in Israel.

Extension orders have the same legal force as primary legislation in the employment context. An employer cannot contract out of a minimum established by extension order. A clause in an employment contract that provides fewer bereavement days than the extension order, or that treats bereavement days as sick or annual leave, is void to the extent it falls below the minimum.

The result is a two-tier structure. The extension order sets a floor of 7 paid days. A collective agreement or personal contract that gives more — say, additional days for the death of a grandparent — is valid and the employee gets the better entitlement. Anything below the floor is simply replaced by the floor.

In Practice — Establishing Which Rules Apply: A software developer at a Tel Aviv startup asked HR whether her 3-day bereavement provision in her offer letter was correct. The letter predated a company-wide switch to a collective agreement with the Histadrut's high-tech workers' organisation. The General Extension Order on Bereavement Leave in any case gave her 7 days, and the offer letter's 3-day figure was void. HR corrected the record and approved the full 7 days without requiring her to file a formal complaint with the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. The critical practical point: when in doubt about which entitlement applies, the floor set by the extension order always wins unless the contract offers something better.

2. Which Relatives Qualify for Bereavement Leave

The General Extension Order on Bereavement Leave triggers the 7-day entitlement on the death of a first-degree relative. The covered categories are:

  • Spouse or recognised partner — including a common-law spouse (yadua b'tzibbur) where cohabitation has been publicly recognised
  • Parent — biological, adoptive, or step-parent who raised the employee in the household
  • Child — biological or legally adopted; the death of an unborn child at or after 24 weeks of pregnancy has been recognised in some collective agreements
  • Sibling — full brother or sister; half-siblings covered under most collective agreements that expand on the minimum

The death of a grandparent, parent-in-law, or grandchild is not guaranteed under the General Extension Order but is routinely covered by sector-specific collective agreements and by many personal employment contracts. If you work in banking, insurance, the civil service, or a unionised industrial sector, your applicable collective agreement very likely gives you bereavement days for these relatives too. Check the agreement or ask your employer's HR department to show you the relevant clause.

Same-sex couples registered as domestic partners with the Population and Immigration Authority are treated as spouses for bereavement purposes. Courts have consistently held that the extension order's reference to spouse must be read in a way that does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation under the Equal Opportunities in Employment Law 5748-1988.

3. How the 7 Days Actually Run

The 7-day period is consecutive calendar days. It begins on the day the employee first ceases work because of the bereavement, which is typically the day of the death or the day of the funeral, whichever falls first for the employee. Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays fall inside the period and do not extend it. An employee who begins bereavement leave on a Thursday is back at work the following Thursday.

This matters particularly for observant Jewish employees, where the cultural mourning period (the shiva) runs for 7 days after the burial and the statutory entitlement was designed around the same period. The convergence means the legal right and the religious practice align in most cases, though the legal period begins on the day the employee first stops working rather than strictly on the day of burial.

For non-Jewish employees — including foreign nationals observing Christian, Muslim, or other mourning customs that do not follow a 7-day structure — the statutory period is still 7 consecutive days. The law does not require an employee to sit shiva. It simply grants 7 paid days off following a bereavement.

The 3-month threshold deserves attention. An employee who has been with the employer for less than 3 continuous months at the time the bereavement occurs is not entitled to the statutory paid leave under the extension order. The employer may voluntarily pay, and most do for compassionate reasons, but they are not legally obliged to. An employee who crosses the 3-month threshold one day before the bereavement has full entitlement. One day before that, they have none, unless the employment contract says otherwise.

In Practice — The 3-Month Threshold: A marketing coordinator was hired by a Jerusalem-based export company on 1 June 2026. Her father died on 29 August 2026 — exactly 89 days into her employment, one day short of 3 months (calculated as 3 calendar months from the start date, i.e. 1 September). Her employer's legal adviser confirmed she was not entitled to the 7 paid statutory days. The employer paid 3 days voluntarily as a discretionary gesture and documented it as a non-binding compassionate grant in her personnel file to prevent any future argument that it set a precedent or converted into a contractual right. Had she been hired on 30 May 2026, the threshold would have been met and the 7 days would have been mandatory. The lesson for employees nearing the 3-month mark: the threshold date is exact, not approximate.

4. Pay During Bereavement Leave

Bereavement leave must be paid at the employee's regular daily wage. The calculation follows the same base used for annual leave pay: the monthly salary divided by 25 working days gives the daily rate, and the employer multiplies that by 7. Variable elements such as overtime, travel allowance, and meal allowances are excluded from the daily base in the same way they are excluded from annual leave calculations.

An employee on a monthly salary of NIS 20,000 has a daily wage of NIS 800 (20,000 ÷ 25). Seven days of bereavement pay comes to NIS 5,600. On NIS 30,000 per month the figure is NIS 8,400. These amounts are modest, which is why the prohibition on replacing bereavement leave with sick or annual leave matters.

The Wage Protection Law 5718-1958 specifically prohibits making any deduction from an employee's wages except those explicitly authorised by law. Using bereavement leave against the annual leave balance is a deduction in everything but name: it reduces the pool of paid days off the employee has in the year. The Regional Labor Court has consistently held this to be a violation, and the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs enforcement unit has issued administrative penalty notices to employers who do this routinely.

Pension and study fund contributions continue during bereavement leave. Because the employment relationship is not suspended, the employer must continue making the contributions required by the extension order for comprehensive pension insurance and, if applicable, the Keren Hishtalmut (study fund) for the duration of the bereavement period. Our guide on mandatory pension contributions in Israel explains how the monthly contribution cycle works.

In Practice — Sick Leave Used Instead of Bereavement Leave: A logistics manager at an Ashdod freight company returned from his mother's funeral to find that his employer had recorded his 7 absent days as sick days in the payroll system. The employer explained that bereavement leave was "not a category in the system" and that sick leave was "the same thing." The employee filed a complaint with the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs wage enforcement unit, which operates a dedicated inspectorate under the Wage Protection Law 5718-1958. An inspector visited within 3 weeks and confirmed that the 7 sick days had been incorrectly consumed. The employer was ordered to restore the sick leave balance to 7 days and was assessed a NIS 5,200 administrative fine for a first violation of the wage-protection provisions. The complaint took under a month to resolve and required no court proceeding. Employees should notify their employer in writing at the outset that the absence is a bereavement day entitlement under the extension order, not a sick day request.

5. Employer Obligations: What the Law Requires

Once an employee notifies the employer that a covered relative has died, the leave runs — no approval, no advance application. Holding an employee at their desk until a replacement is found is unlawful.

Pay for all 7 days must appear in the same payslip cycle. No deduction from annual leave, sick leave, or any other balance is allowed. Pension and study fund contribution cycles continue without interruption, the same as if the employee had been at their desk the whole time.

On documentation: the employer can ask for a death certificate after the employee returns, but cannot require it before granting the leave or before paying. An employee sitting shiva cannot be expected to courier paperwork on day two of mourning.

Bereavement absence cannot be counted against an attendance record, cited as a factor in a dismissal decision, or listed as a negative in any disciplinary review. Protected employees — pregnant, on reserve military duty — keep their protected status through the bereavement period.

Collective agreements in some sectors add to these obligations. Banking, insurance, and some industrial sectors provide additional days, allow grandparent bereavement to be treated on the same footing as parent bereavement, and require the employer to send a condolence letter within a defined period. Check the applicable sectoral agreement for what applies to your workplace.

6. The 2026 Yahrzeit Amendment

Starting in 2026, the Knesset amended the framework covering yamim levhira (choice days) — the discretionary personal days employees receive in addition to their statutory annual and sick leave — to create a guaranteed right to observe the yahrzeit (annual death anniversary) of a first-degree relative.

Under the amendment, an employee with at least 3 months of service can designate one choice day per calendar year as a yahrzeit day for a first-degree relative. The categories are the same as for bereavement leave: spouse, parent, child, sibling. The employee names the date, gives reasonable advance notice, and the employer must approve it. There is no operational-need exception — when the conditions are met, the employer's answer has to be yes.

The day comes from the employee's existing choice day pool, not as an extra day on top of annual leave. Employers who do not already provide choice days in their employment terms are unaffected unless and until they introduce them. An employee who lost two first-degree relatives in different years gets one yahrzeit designation per calendar year, not one per relative.

Non-Jewish employees are fully covered. The amendment applies regardless of religion or nationality. An employee of any background observing the anniversary of a parent's death has the same right as a Jewish employee marking a yahrzeit.

In Practice — Invoking the Yahrzeit Choice Day: A product manager at a Haifa maritime tech company lost her father in March 2025. In 2026, she notified her employer in writing two weeks before the March anniversary that she was designating that date as her yahrzeit choice day under the 2026 amendment. Her employment contract provided for 3 choice days per year. The employer initially responded that the date fell mid-sprint and asked her to choose a different day. She referred to the amendment's mandatory language and the employer's HR department confirmed the request was lawful and approved it. The day was recorded as a paid choice day in the payroll system and did not reduce her annual leave or sick leave balance. The advance notice she gave — 14 days — was more than sufficient; industry practice suggests 7–10 working days as a reasonable minimum in the absence of a contractual notice period.

7. Foreign Nationals and Expats: How the Rules Apply

Every provision discussed in this guide applies in full to foreign nationals employed in Israel under an Israeli employment contract, including B/1 visa holders, permanent residents, and new immigrants who have not yet obtained Israeli citizenship.

The extension order mechanism does not make any distinction based on nationality, religion, or visa status. An employer who tells a B/1 permit holder that bereavement leave is "only for Israeli workers" is both legally wrong and potentially exposing themselves to an equal-opportunity complaint under the Equal Opportunities in Employment Law 5748-1988.

A few situations come up regularly for foreign employees that don't arise for Israeli nationals.

When the relative dies abroad

The most common situation for a foreign national is that the deceased relative is in another country. Israeli law does not require the bereavement to involve a relative who was resident in Israel. The 7-day entitlement runs from the moment the employee first stops work because of the bereavement, regardless of where the relative died. The employee does not have to attend a funeral in Israel or observe the shiva in Israel to be entitled to the paid leave.

If the employee needs to travel abroad for the funeral, the travel days count within the 7 bereavement days. The employer does not have to pay for flights or add extra days to cover travel time. An employee whose relative died abroad and whose funeral is on day 4 of the 7-day period uses days 1 through 7 as bereavement leave and the travel simply falls within that window.

If the employee needs more time — for example, to handle estate matters abroad — additional days can be taken as annual leave, unpaid leave by agreement, or remote work where the role permits. The 7-day entitlement does not expand to cover extra administrative requirements following a foreign bereavement.

Documentation and the employment contract

Many foreign employees whose relatives die abroad face a request from HR for a death certificate. Israeli law does not require the employee to produce a death certificate as a precondition to receiving bereavement leave; the employer can request documentary evidence after the employee returns. A foreign death certificate will need to be apostilled for many official purposes, but the employer cannot hold up the leave or the pay pending receipt of a document that may take weeks to obtain from a foreign registry.

Foreign employment contracts that were drafted outside Israel and then used by a foreign employer to employ someone working in Israel must comply with Israeli minimum standards. If the contract was made under English or American law and contains only a 3-day bereavement provision, the Israeli extension order overrides it for the period of work performed in Israel.

In Practice — B/1 Expert Whose Parent Dies in the US: An American software architect employed in Tel Aviv on a B/1 Expert visa at NIS 35,000 per month received news of his father's death on a Monday morning. He notified his employer immediately. His daily wage base for bereavement purposes was NIS 35,000 ÷ 25 = NIS 1,400. The 7-day paid entitlement amounted to NIS 9,800. He flew to New York on Monday afternoon, attended the funeral on Wednesday, and returned to Israel on Sunday, resuming work on Monday. All 7 calendar days (Monday through Sunday) were covered as paid bereavement leave. His employer asked for the US death certificate upon return; he submitted a copy from the funeral home, and the employer acknowledged it as sufficient documentation without requiring an apostille for internal HR purposes. His B/1 permit status was unaffected. Bereavement leave counts as paid work absence and does not break the continuity of an Israeli work permit or trigger any PIBA (Population and Immigration Authority) notification requirement.

8. Disputes, Enforcement, and How to Claim

When an employer refuses to grant bereavement leave, treats it as sick or annual leave, or fails to pay for the period, the employee has two parallel enforcement channels.

Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs

The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs maintains a wage enforcement inspectorate that handles complaints about failure to pay wages and failure to observe extension order entitlements. A complaint can be filed online through the Ministry's portal or in person at any regional labour office. The inspectorate assigns an inspector who contacts the employer, reviews payroll records, and can issue administrative penalty notices and payment orders under the Wage Protection Law 5718-1958 without the need for a court hearing. This route is faster than litigation and costs the employee nothing.

Regional Labor Court

An employee can also file a claim directly at the Regional Labor Court (*Beit Mishpat Ezori L'Avodah*) covering their workplace. Court proceedings for bereavement leave disputes are typically short — the facts are not usually in dispute, and the legal question of whether the extension order applies is normally clear. Claimants often succeed within two to six months through the court's mediation stream, which is mandatory in employment disputes before a full hearing is scheduled.

Claims have a statute of limitations of 7 years under the Prescription Law 5718-1958 for the underlying wage claim. However, the delayed payment penalty under the Wage Protection Law must be claimed within 1 year of the date the payment fell due, or within 60 days of receiving a late payment. Do not let the penalty window close while waiting to see whether the employer corrects the record voluntarily.

An employee who takes legal action to enforce bereavement leave rights is protected from retaliation under the Wage Protection Law and under the Equal Opportunities in Employment Law 5748-1988. Dismissing an employee within 60 days of a complaint about bereavement leave raises a presumption of unlawful retaliation that reverses the burden of proof onto the employer.

For related entitlements that overlap with bereavement, see our guides on sick leave in Israel, annual leave in Israel, and employment law in Israel for foreign nationals.