ANT KATZ

Arnold Garber is a close associate of KosherWorld, and he has been producing a most unusual Hebrew calendar for several years. The most unusual aspect of the all-kosher supermarket’s calendar, and what makes it stand apart from the thousands of Hebrew calendars designed every year, is that Arnold does his best to add every possible bit of information the user could require.

Not only that, but every year Arnold comes up with even more ideas to make the corporate calendar more user-friendly in a clear and simple graphic form.

So what’s new this year?

For the upcoming 5776 year, Arnold has not only added innovations to his wall calendar, but has also designed a pocket-sized version so that people can always have it with them.

“The pocket version, as the name implies, fits nicely in a wallet and in a ladies purse,” says Arnold. “The most striking feature is the colour scheme, which doesn’t just colour the days differently, but in the case of Shabbat for example, it colours the bottom part on a Friday and the top two thirds on a Saturday.” An additional bonus of the pocket edition is that it has a Tefilat Haderech (travellers’ prayer), always useful in one’s pocket. The pocket edition is given away free to shoppers.

Naturally, like other Hebrew calendar, it has all the Shabbat starting and ending candle-lighting times. But Arnold’s includes a colour scheme that indicates all the fast days and whether it is a 24-hour fast, or just a daylight fast.

Another feature of the calendar is that it indicates special times of the year for observant Jews, such as: The Three Weeks; The Nine Days; etc.

The calendar includes nice touches – for example, after Yom Kippur, it reminds users to build a succah.

Multiple-day chagim

During the days when there are two or three consecutive Shabbos/Yomtov days, it reminds users to light a yahrtzeit candle. The appropriate parsha of the week is also indicated and national public holidays are shown – but in a different colour to Jewish holidays.

KosherWorld, which is a major advertiser in the Jewish Report, gives away the pocket calendar for free and have a small service charge for the wall-calendar version. The customers can also request to have a copy of each monthly page sent to their phones via WhatsApp. KosherWorld also donated thousands of rands’ worth of calendars which were included in the goodie-bags handed out at the annual Jewish Report Absa Jewish Achievers gala banquet last month.

The wall edition has the same colour schemes and information as the pocket one, but in addition each month indicates the time-differences between South Africa and Israel, the US (New York, Los Angeles), London, central Europe, and Sydney Australia. The wall edition also has the information in Hebrew, in addition to English.

The most striking feature of the wall edition is that it has all the Zmanim (times of sunrise/sunset) for each and every day. This is something that is critically important to those who daven daily and need to do so at the right time.

While most local publishers of  Hebrew calendars are advertisers and associates of the South African Jewish Report, we can confidently say that this is the most informative calendar around.

This is further evidenced by the number of walls in Jewish homes and offices where one can find this unique calendar hanging. “Its popularity is its best reference,” says Arnold.  And, as anyone who knows him can attest, he is a famously shy and unassuming person and not one prone to bragging.

A page from the calendar