A two-day Holiday marks the beginning of the Jewish year by celebration and soul searching regarding actions during the previous year. Customs include family holiday meals and giving gifts. Honey and sweet foods are eaten to symbolize a sweet year to come, and foods consisting of many small parts, such as pomegranates, are served to symbolize abundance.

and attend Synagogue, while all public transportation and all traffic comes to a halt, including shutdown of airports and harbors. Radio stations and TV networks stop broadcasting. All shops, restaurants, and places of business are closed. Only emergency services are kept running. Kids take advantage of the empty streets to ride bikes.

No acknowledgement is expected, however you can wish your colleagues an easy fast – Tzum kal

The Sukka is a temporary structure with open slats under the sky, as a commemoration of the story of living in huts in the desert after the exodus from Egypt. Israelis enjoy family and friends socializing in the sukkot, which are typically gaily decorated.

The week culminates with Simchat Torah, celebrating the completion and renewal of the yearly cycle of reading the Bible by singing and dancing in the synagogue.

An 8-day festival commemorating the victory of a small band of Jewish tribesmen (The Cheshmonaim) over the mighty ancient Greek army, enabling the liberation and purification of the Jewish Temple and resumption of the Jewish way of life, which the Greeks tried to destroy by forbidding certain key Jewish practices. Customs include lighting an 8-branched candelabra each night, eating fried foods to recall the miracle of only a single day’s amount of pure oil keeping the sacred lamp burning in the renewed Temple during the eight days it took to produce more oil, and children playing with tops. (In Yiddish dreidels).

with costumed children seen in the streets and costume parties for young and old alike. Traditionally, the story of how Jewish Queen Esther successfully pleaded her people’s cause before her husband the king and got the people’s enemies, who were planning to exterminate all the Jews in the Persian empire, vanquished and punished, is read out loud and reenacted. Other customs include eating triangular pastries, filled with poppy seeds that symbolize the ears of the Purim story’s villain Haman, and sending small gifts of foods to neighbors, friends and the poor. The mood of this holiday is gay, sometimes overflowing to raucousness, and some cities hold public parades.

under the leadership of the Prophet Moses. To begin the holiday, a ceremonial meal is held with family and friends at which the story is read from a special booklet called Hagaddah while eating traditional foods that symbolize aspects of slavery such as Haroset (chah-roh-seht) a mixture of ground nuts, fruits and wine that resembles the mortar the Israelites used for building the pyramids. During the entire week, leavened food, especially bread, is traditionally not eaten; instead special crackers (matzah) are eaten to remember ‘the bread of poverty’ the ancient Israelites escaping from Egypt ate because they didn’t have time to let their dough rise for real bread. Religious people clean their homes thoroughly in preparation, to ensure that there will not be even one small bit of leavening. Food services and caterers sometimes stop service during the Passover week, rather than going through the complicated process of becoming leaven free. During this week employees are usually asked not to bring bread or flour products to work. The same restrictions apply in hotels.

An additional day of celebration called Mimouna, whose roots are among North African Jews, begins the evening after the last day of the Passover period when homes are open for mutual visits, and it has been incorporated into large public events in public parks.

Happy Holiday / Chag / Pesach Shamech is an appropriate greeting

Marked by memorial services, and talks by survivors to educate young people and keep alive awareness of the tragedy. Television and radio reflect the somber mood of the day in their choice of music and programs. Places of entertainment, restaurants, etc. are closed. Many towns and community centers hold their own ceremonies, usually on the eve before the day.

No acknowledgement is expected.

Many people leave work to attend memorial ceremonies for fallen soldiers at cemeteries and public institutions.   The sad atmosphere of Memorial Day, reinforced by special television programs and quiet music on the radio, abruptly changes to celebration when Independence Day begins.

Commemoration day. No acknowledgement is expected