SAN DIEGO—A new, free, on line, Jewish community calendar to serve residents of San Diego County has been introduced on San Diego Jewish World, according to editor Donald H. Harrison.

“We think this calendar will serve several functions,” Harrison said.  “First, it will give readers an opportunity to browse any day of the year for events they might be interested in attending.  Second, it will provide a place for ongoing publicity for the great range of synagogues and organizations within the San Diego County Jewish community, as well as for secular organizations — such as theatres and art galleries—that are programming Jewish content.   Third, because we intend to leave the calendar on line permanently, it can serve as a resource for local historians.”

The calendar can be accessed from the top of San Diego Jewish World’s home page, just below the masthead.   Starting with September 1, 2009 and ending with September 30, 2010, the front page of the calendar lists the secular date, the corresponding Hebrew date, lists Jewish holidays,  Erev Shabbat candle lighting and Havdalah times in San Diego, and provides the Torah and Haftarah readings for each Shabbat and Jewish holiday.  It also lists other religious information, such as the days of the counting of the Omer. 

The main calendar page has links to pages for individual days of the year where events of each particular day are listed in

Go to the top of right column

alphabetical order.  Here is an example for Friday, September 11, 2009. Note that, for the convenience of the readers, there are links from the individual items to the web pages of the organizations.

“Unlike other calendars, which typically are restricted to a brief listing, our calendar will incorporate stories that we have carried in advance of the events, so that readers who may have missed the original announcements can peruse the information in full,” Harrison said.

Having been just created, the free interactive calendar currently is in skeleton form. The editor invites publicity chairs for all Jewish organizations in San Diego County—as well as national and international Jewish organizations that have significant San Diego membership—to send their organizations’ publicity releases to him at editor@sandiegojewishworld.com.  Please include with the release a contact name and phone number in case any of the information needs to be re-checked.

"Coupled with our online community directory, which appears every day on the home page, San Diego Jewish World's community calendar provides accessible, fingertip access to up-to-date information that no other organization provides," Harrison said.

Questions about the new calendar may be addressed to Harrison via his email or by phoning San Diego Jewish World at (619) 265-0808.