''Shaking. I'm very scared. I was afraid to go back to kindergarten, but was there a choice?' • A stormy monologue from a kindergarten teacher in Bnei Brak who contracted the coronavirus

July 21, 2020   

The death on Friday of kindergarten teacher Shalva Zelfreind, a resident of the Ganei Hadar neighborhood in Petah Tikva, after contracting the coronavirus, sparked anxiety among many kindergarten teachers. Don't be a sucker: You may be entitled to a lot of money from National Insurance. Shalva, as her daughter Giti Segal told Haredim 10, was afraid to go back to work, but "when they returned to routine, she didn't have many choices and she also went back to work. She was very worried and scared, but after three weeks when they returned to routine - she also went back. She realized that she didn't have many choices, because she wouldn't be receiving a salary.". His secret: Earn a prestigious degree without preparatory school and without prerequisites • Want one too? It wasn't just Shalva who was worried. Many kindergarten teachers who go to work every morning are anxious about what awaits them. A. G., a kindergarten teacher in a kindergarten in Bnei Brak, contracted the virus. In a conversation with Haredim 10, she talks about the fear that grips the kindergarten teachers and assistants who work in the kindergartens of the City of Torah and Hasidism, and doesn't understand why, in order to save the farm, she must now lie sick in bed with Corona. Here is her monologue. 

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""Where did I catch the virus? 99 percent that I caught it in kindergarten. None of my relatives are sick, I'm the first - and I didn't go anywhere, except to kindergarten. On Thursday I came back from kindergarten very tired, I didn't think it was corona, I thought I came tired from kindergarten, working hard in the summer. I'm an assistant in the municipality's kindergarten. The Histadrut forced us to repay the days of debt from the May period, after all, we were on vacation. They said: We'll help the economy, we'll get under the stretcher and repay the debt we have now. But why now, during the corona period? At the height of the epidemic in Bnei Brak, which is the epicenter of the outbreak, do we have to repay days of debt? Can't we wait a little for the corona to end? You don't repay debts at the height of the epidemic. It's true that it's the Histadrut's debt, but the municipality has the option to close educational institutions, it's a municipal authority. If there are outbreaks, it must close the institution and not seize us by force so that the summer camp can end, so that they can finally receive the budgets. In the complex where I work, it's a complex of Several kindergartens. Every few days another kindergarten closes, because there is an infection there. The disease is all over the city, and children who are carriers and don't know they are sick, they are contagious. The staff can also come in sick, we don't have the same conditions as the doctors in hospitals, the chances of getting infected are 99%, especially now. So why do we need to keep the kindergartens closed, to repay a debt of days? It's impossible to close, when every few days another kindergarten and another kindergarten and another kindergarten closes? I understand studying Torah, but if it's not studying Torah and it's maintaining the economy - then what? Maintaining the economy at the expense of people's health? Behind me is a large family, I put nearly 60 people in quarantine, I'm not talking about the members of the household who started to develop symptoms from me. What are they waiting for? Then they call it 'taking over the city.' How do you take over? I want to understand, what is control? Turning to hotels is control?!

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I am a small worker in the system, when they force her to go to work - she works. The Labor Federation decided that we need to go to work, and Yoav Galant said that we must return to work in educational institutions. But with what? With what protection? With what responsibility? The mayors need to go speak for us and be our mouthpiece - and say: We don't have enough protection for her, the city is incubating. Should vacation days be reinstated now, with 160 sick people a day? We need to go to work with small children. We are not young people, I am over 50 - why do I need to go look for symptoms of illness in small children? I called, they told me: There are no sick days, whoever wants to call to say they are sick - there are no sick days. What are these instructions? As soon as I called to say that I am sick with Corona, no one forced me to go to work, they immediately closed the kindergarten. Why come to close the kindergarten? Why come to be sick? As soon as I got sick, they closed it immediately, they don't delay. A girl came to the kindergarten vomiting, I called the parents. After all, they sign in the morning for a child who has no symptoms. I ask the girl in the kindergarten: 'Is this the first time you've thrown up'? The girl answers: 'No, even at night in bed.' 'And what did Mom say?', I ask her. 'To take me to the doctor in the evening.' So why did she come? Poor girl, what should I ask, she's not to blame. I called the parents to come and get her, they're mad at me - what am I messing with my brain, why am I asking the girl questions. Is it pleasant? To put us in a position where we're like police investigators?! The time is very stressful, the parents are tense, I understand that all households need a livelihood, but health comes first. The representatives in the municipality should be responsible for our health. If they don't protect the employees - who will work for them? If they don't close the system, the system will close them. In the first two weeks, they advertised this kindergarten in the municipality and it closed, and suddenly they stopped advertising, I don't know why. I'm not getting into politics, it really doesn't interest me. What concerns me is that they protect the homes, the children, the workers - and not turn to motels. I don't need a motel, I want to be healthy. We're not interested in Gantz bringing budgets so that there are motels, that's not interesting to us.

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The government needs to understand: You can't open the kindergartens - and the workers get infected and sick. Workers at risk, over 50, my husband over 60, what do they think it's the flu?! Nothing happens to the young people - and what about the adults who are responsible for them? Nothing happens to the children, that's fine - but we get infected. The kindergarten teacher who doesn't know she's sick and has no symptoms in the meantime infects me and another and another. That's how it is. Government employees were allowed to work from home, they made partitions, they were given a cleaner who would even clean the phones. How can we be careful in kindergarten?! It's simply impossible. I want to save the economy, I'm in it too, but I don't wish for anyone to lie in bed and get sick with Corona to save the economy... So another one will get sick and go to a motel, and there are only 70 on ventilators. It's a shame that our country treats Corona patients and people and health this way. It's sad where we've come to, sad. People walk around the streets as if everything is normal, they want to close the sea - they shout. They want to close more places - they shout. I don't wish them to be sick, but when they are sick they simply won't shout.

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Am I afraid? I'm shaking with fear. I'm very afraid, I was afraid to go back to kindergarten, but I had no choice. There's no sick leave, there's nothing. Are you healthy? Go to work, if you get sick with Corona - stay home. Risk is not a risk, responsibility is not a responsibility - ask us? No. Maybe I want to go on unpaid leave? Maybe I'd rather have those days deducted from our pay? Ask. No one asked anything, they sit there and decide for us. We workers receive orders and go out into the field. Just like Minister Galant says order, period. This is how the Israeli government works. The authority needs a little logic, instead of rejoicing over receiving a budget for hotels. We wouldn't end up in hotels if they worked with logic. Every kindergarten teacher is sick, she has a very large family. This is how a chain of infection is created. This is how they want to start September 1st? This is real suicide, we need open miracles. There is no protection, no capsules. There was a day and a half of capsules, then they canceled the capsules. We are about to start a year. Anyone ready to shield? To make partitions?

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What is the solution? Let them find a solution. There is no solution that they won't open. I want to understand one thing: Will Galant come to work in my place? They are not allowed to keep us working. Until someone is found sick in the kindergarten, they say, we will close the kindergarten. Until someone is found dead - then they will bury him. What is this joke? I am not a government. There are areas in the country that are not infected, do what you want with them. I don't decide. But infected areas, neighborhoods that are incubators, houses blown up, corona patients walking around in houses and on the streets? What do we have to go to work in such a situation. What did you think, that there would be visible miracles?! Who will live and who will die? We are over 50. If I were in a protected hospital, I would be less afraid. Look how protected they are. Who are we protected from? Do the children wear masks in the kindergarten? No. They only talk all day about percentages 2% 4%. Who cares about percentages?! When a sick person is interested in percentages? Not interested in percentages at all. I am sick! I got sick from work and it will continue to happen to others. What are you waiting for? The Bnei Brak municipality gave the Haredim 10"We are following the Ministry of Education's guidelines. Out of 700 kindergartens, only 5 percent have closed.".