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hebcal for Unix source code moved to Github

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We’re pleased to announce that hebcal for Unix is now hosted on Github. You can find the new repository at https://github.com/hebcal/hebcal

Hebcal for Unix has been around for 20+ years. Danny Sadinoff wrote 98% of the code, and Michael has been fixing bugs and adding features here and there.

SourceForge had been providing hosting for the GPL code for 14+ years. We even converted from CVS to Mercurial about 3 years ago. However, with the recent changes to SourceForge code hosting, Hebcal got stuck in some sort of limbo-land. Lots of 500 Internal Server Errors.

So… we’ve decided to join the cool kids and make the transition from hg to git. And while making that transition we’ve also moved to GitHub, which is where all of the open source developers are hanging out these days.

Over the coming month we’ll be cleaning up the code and the hebcal.com website, removing references to the old sourceforge.net URL.

And then we’ll get back to fixing bugs and adding new features.

Yom HaShoah errata: begins on Sun, 7 April 2013 at sundown

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We’ve fixed an error with the observance of Yom HaShoah occurring adjacent to Shabbat. This year Yom HaShoah begins on Sunday, 7 April 2013 at sundown.

Previously Hebcal always used the date of the 27th of Nisan.

When the actual date of Yom Hashoah falls on a Friday, the state of Israel observes Yom Hashoah on the preceding Thursday. When it falls on a Sunday, Yom Hashoah is observed on the following Monday.

Joomla JEvents Jewish holidays

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Follow these instructions to add a Hebcal Jewish holiday calendar 5-year feed to Joomla CMS via the JEvents extension. These instructions are courtesy of Yaniv Feldman from Fancy Design LLC. Thanks!

CONFIGURING

  • Under Components choose JEvents
  • From the JEvents control panel choose “Manage Categories”
  • Click the “New” (+plus icon) from the top toolbar to create a new category
  • Name your category, something like “Shabbat Times” (without quotes)
  • Set your own parameters (optional) – recommended: set “Check for overlapping events?” to “No” because Shabbat times shouldn’t be effected by other events.
  • Click “Save and Close” from the top toolbar.
  • From the JEvents control panel choose “Manage Calendars”
  • Click the “New” (+plus icon) from the top toolbar to create a new calendar
  • Choose a category under which you need this calendar created – ideally the one you’ve just create.
  • From the “From file” tab (bottom) choose the file you created on the preparation section of this document.
  • Wait patiently for the entire calendar to upload – this stage ends when you’re back in the JEvents control panel with a message under the JEvents logo which reads: “1457 iCal events processed ICS_FILE_IMPORTED” (The number may vary, depending on the amount of records added)

PREPARATIONS

  • To create a Shabbat Times calendar, which is based on your preferences, visit this URL:https://www.hebcal.com/hebcal
  • After tweaking the settings to your need, click on “Create Calendar”.
  • From the top, click on “Download…”
  • From the popup window choose “Google Calendar” and then “Download”
  • Save the file where you can find it – you may rename it, but keep the file extension “.ics”

PRESENTING

  • To create a module for presentation, choose “Extensions > Module Manager” from the top menu
  • Click the “New” (+plus icon) from the top toolbar to create a new module
  • Choose “Latest JEvents” from the list of Module Types.
  • Name your module – I named it “Shabbat Times” (without quotes)
  • Select a position, if you need it anywhere on your website (AcyMailing doesn’t need any position so for that purpose, leave it blank)
  • From the “Basic Options”, under “Select Categories” choose “Shabbat Times” or whatever you named the JEvents category..
  • Leave all other settings “as is”. Recommended – Control the number of events shown under “Display Mode” – I choose option #0 (current/following week events) for the sake of the weekly newsletter.
  • Click Save & Close.

 

Chanukah and Thanksgiving in 2013

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We enjoyed reading Jonathan Mizrahi’s Hanukkah and Thanksgiving: A once in eternity overlap:

Next year features an anomaly for American Jews – The first day of Hanukkah coincides with Thanksgiving, on 11/28/2013 (meaning the first night of Hanukkah is actually the night before Thanksgiving). I was curious how often this happens. It turns out that it has never happened before…and it will never happen again.
(Correction: it happened once before, in 1888: see Addendum.)
Tip of the hat to Adam Trachtenberg for passing along the article.