Rosh Hashanah: workplace accommodations for ERGs services for ERGs.
Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year — the start of the High Holidays. Offer floating holiday flexibility, and don't schedule major meetings or launches on observed days.
Floating holidays
More than a calendar moment.
Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year and opens the High Holidays — the most sacred ten days in the Jewish calendar, ending with Yom Kippur. Pew Research Center's Jewish Americans in 2020 study found this stretch is the most observed period in Jewish life across denominational lines: even Jews who are otherwise unaffiliated often take time off, attend services, or gather with family. For Jewish ERG members, the floor of a thoughtful September is not having to spend US PTO on it.
A brief greeting from leadership goes further than people expect. The Hebrew greeting is “Shanah Tovah” — a good year — and naming it specifically (rather than a generic “happy holidays” in mid-September) signals that the company actually knows which holiday it is.
The Rosh Hashanah pitfalls.
What sinks Rosh Hashanah programming isn't usually a missing speaker — it's a misread of the moment. The three misses worth naming out loud.
Skipping the easy wins.
A leadership “Shanah Tovah,” a Slack post from the Jewish ERG, a note on the company calendar — small acknowledgments most orgs don't bother with. Silence on Rosh Hashanah is what Jewish ERG members notice, not a missed grand gesture.
Programming about Jewish people without them.
Don't let a non-Jewish DEI lead or an outside vendor frame what Rosh Hashanah means at your company. Center Jewish ERG members on what to share, how to share it, and who speaks.
Forgetting Yom Kippur is 10 days later.
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are a pair. Block both on the company calendar.
Curated for Rosh Hashanah.
Speakers, facilitators, and vendors filtered for Rosh Hashanah programming. Pulled live from ERGs.io — every profile is one click away from a full bio, rate, and inquiry form inside the platform.
Other observances in the calendar.
Every observance gets its own planning page — speakers, vendors, programming ideas, and a timeline.
Stop scrambling. Start planning the month that lands.
ERGs.io pulls every speaker, vendor, and programming format into one workspace — so planning Rosh Hashanah takes one afternoon, not one month of late nights. Free to start.