Upcoming Fall Religious Holidays

12 September 2023

Dear campus community, 

We are coming up on a Fall season when our colleagues and friends from a variety of cultural communities and faiths will gather to share traditions, celebrations, and connect for deep reflection. The Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (ODEI), has set up an easy to follow Multicultural/Interfaith Calendar that you can add to your google calendar. ODEI encourages the campus community to consult this calendar to note ongoing cultural and religious observations that will continue through the rest of the academic year. If you see an observance or holiday missing from this calendar, please inform ODEI at [email protected]. 

Faculty and students can refer to University Policies S22-2, University Policy, Student Excused Absences [pdf] and S14-7, Accommodation to Students’ Religious Holidays [pdf] for guidance on how to manage these holidays with each other. Employees can refer to the University Personnel page on Vacation and Personal Holidays. The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the MOSAIC Cross Cultural Center post additional information throughout the year on social media. Whether one participates or not in any of these religious observances, we should be respectful of those whose beliefs and practices may differ from our own. 

Please note that coming up immediately, Jewish community members will observe Rosh Hashanah begins sundown on September 15th and ends during sunset on September 17th. Yom Kippur begins before sundown on September 24th and ends after sunset on September 25th. In October, Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret, and Simchat Torah will occur. Across these observances, usual schedules are likely to be impacted throughout the day and into the evening. For more information on these observances, please visit this calendar of major Jewish Religious Observances created by Jewish Silicon Valley. 

While there is a convergence of several of these cultural and religious observances during this time of year, this is also a general reminder to navigate and negotiate with each other with kindness and thoughtfulness as we move through them throughout the year. Please consider these observances when scheduling events. 

Thank you for all that you do in creating a community at SJSU where fellow Spartans have a sense of belonging at SJSU. 

Dawn Lee, Ph.D. 
Interim Chief Diversity Officer 

Vincent Del Casino, Jr., Ph.D. 
Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs 

Patrick K. Day 
Vice President of Student Affairs 

Office of Diversity Equity & Inclusion Social Media 
Facebook: SJSU Office of Diversity 
Instagram: @sjsudiversityoffice
Twitter: @DiversitySJSU 

MOSAIC Social Media 
Facebook: Mosaic Cross Cultural Center 
Instagram: @SJSUmosaic 
Twitter: @SJSUmosaic