Secular coercion: expelled from her job for saying Tehillim

Yasmine Edri, a cleaning woman at 'Aeronautics', on behalf of the contractor 'Team 3', never imagined that recitation of Tehillim will cost her job.

Edri, 25, grew up in a religious traditional home. On Monday, Holocaust Day, she made her way from her home in Ashdod to her place of work in Yavne. That morning, at 10, a siren was sounded for a whole minute throughout the country.

"At first, I did not hear the siren," says Yasmine to B'Chadrei Charedim. "I was walking through the offices. After a few seconds when I heard the siren - I was on my way to the other room to take my Tehillim so I could recite a few chapters for the souls of the dead."

On her way to the other office manager turned to her and asked, "Why are you not standing?"

Edri replied while walking into the room that "I am reciting Tehillim and I am not committed to standing during the siren."

Immediately after 10 minutes, she got a call from the contractor of the company 'Team 3', where she was told to finish the day's work. "They told me that I would be transferred to another place since the company does not want to use me anymore," she says.

The day after she was assigned to another job, "I do not understand how a man can force me his opinion. In my opinion reciting Tehillim is much more significant and valuable standing and lingering for a whole minute."

Although she is not orthodox she says, "Our country harasses the Haredi sector for every whim, and when someone tries to force his opinion on an employee even though she did nothing wrong, he gets the full backing and support."

'Aeronautics' Company response was not delivered so far; the marketing department slammed the phone when hearing the question.

From Team 3, said in response to B'Chadrei Charedim: "Due to customer demand which the company provides cleaning services for, we transferred the worker to an alternative job at the same location and on the same terms of employment. The worker was not fired from her job and continues to work in the company."

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!