The Israel WhatsApp Campaign Calendar: November 2026 to December 2027

Short answer: Israel's WhatsApp year runs on the Hebrew calendar. The big selling moments are Black Friday (Friday 27 November 2026, so plan around Shabbat), Hanukkah (first candle on the evening of 4 December 2026), Purim (23 March 2027), Passover (seder on the evening of 21 April 2027), back to school (school normally opens on 1 September) and the High Holidays (Rosh Hashanah from the evening of 1 October 2027). Do not send promotions on Shabbat, Yom Kippur, Holocaust Remembrance Day (4 May 2027), Memorial Day (11 May) or Tisha B'Av (12 August). Every Jewish holiday begins at sundown the evening before the date shown. Plan templates three to four weeks ahead and send offers only to customers who opted in.

How to use this calendar

Hebrew calendar dates below are from Hebcal's Israel calendar; school holidays follow the Ministry of Education timetable as published by mako; Islamic dates are astronomical estimates that depend on the moon sighting. Four rules apply all year:

• The weekend is Friday and Saturday. Sunday is a working day. Friday is a short day that ends before Shabbat, and Saturday evening, after Shabbat ends, is when many families are back on their phones.
• Jewish holidays start the evening before, and holiday eves behave like Fridays. Hebcal lists Passover on 22 April 2027, but the seder is the night of 21 April, and shops close early that afternoon.
• Promotions are marketing templates, at $0.0353 per delivered message to a +972 number. Order, booking and delivery updates are utility, at $0.0053. See our Israel pricing guide.
• Every promotion needs opt-in. Israel's spam law lets each recipient claim up to ₪1,000 per unwanted advertisement. Start marketing messages with "פרסומת:" and include a way to unsubscribe. Details in our Israel marketing rules guide.

The calendar at a glance

Sending windows: Shabbat, holidays and the Israeli week

No Israeli law sets hours for WhatsApp marketing, but customers do, and a promotion that lands on Shabbat is the kind that gets blocked or reported. Use real Shabbat times rather than a fixed hour, because they move by three hours across the year:

Jerusalem lights candles earlier by custom (15:55 on 27 November 2026, against 16:16 in Tel Aviv), so a national campaign should use the earlier time. The "last sensible send" column is our suggestion, leaving about three hours before candle lighting for people to read and act before shops close.

• Sunday to Thursday, 10:00 to 20:00 suits most consumer campaigns.
• Thursday evening is the start of the weekend mood: good for restaurants, events and weekend deliveries.
• Saturday evening, an hour after Shabbat ends, is a natural slot for e-commerce "last chance" messages.
• Arab-sector customers follow a different rhythm: Friday midday is prayer time, and during Ramadan the evening after the fast is when people shop and reply.

In QuickWA you can set a sending window in Settings, and scheduled broadcasts outside it wait until it reopens. It is not on by default, and it is a daily window rather than a Shabbat calendar, so schedule Friday campaigns early yourself.

November–December 2026: Black Friday and Hanukkah

Black Friday has become a fixture of Israeli retail, and in 2026 it falls on a Friday, so most of the day overlaps with the run-up to Shabbat. The practical plan is: an early-access message to opted-in customers on Thursday 26 November in the evening, a short reminder on Friday morning before 13:00, then nothing until Saturday evening after 17:16, when a "last hours" message catches people coming back online.

Hanukkah follows a week later. The first candle is lit on Friday evening 4 December, and the eighth day is Saturday 12 December; schools are off from 6 to 12 December. Two or three well-spaced messages work better than eight nightly ones.

פרסומת: חנוכה שמח מכל הצוות של {{1}}! כל ערב בחנוכה נפתח באתר מבצע חדש, והמבצע של הערב כבר מחכה לכם. לצפייה לחצו על הכפתור. להסרה השיבו STOP

Happy Hanukkah from everyone at {{1}}! Every evening of Hanukkah a new offer opens on our site, and tonight's is already waiting. Tap the button to see it. Reply STOP to unsubscribe.

What a Hanukkah campaign costs

A Shopify store sending three Hanukkah messages to 6,000 opted-in customers sends 18,000 marketing templates: 18,000 × $0.0353 = $635.40, about ₪1,977 at the Bank of Israel rate of ₪3.112 per dollar on 23 October 2026. The order confirmations and courier updates that follow are utility: 4,000 of them cost 4,000 × $0.0053 = $21.20, about ₪66. Customers who reach you from a Click-to-WhatsApp ad open a free entry-point window, so replies to them cost nothing during it.

Christmas and Novy God

Israel's customers are not only Jewish. Christian Arab communities in Nazareth, Haifa and Jaffa celebrate on 25 December, Orthodox churches on 7 January. For Russian-speaking customers, 31 December, Novy God, is the main family holiday of the winter. A store with a Russian-speaking audience should treat late December as its own season:

פרסומת | Реклама: {{1}}, с наступающим Новым годом! До 31 декабря скидка 20% на праздничные наборы в {{2}}. Чтобы заказать, нажмите на кнопку. Чтобы отписаться, ответьте STOP.

We keep the Hebrew word פרסומת even in a Russian message, because that is the word Israel's SMS rule names. Send Russian only to customers who chose it or wrote to you in Russian, never on the strength of a surname.

January–March 2027: Tu BiShvat, Ramadan and Purim

Tu BiShvat falls on Saturday 23 January 2027, so anything you want customers to act on, such as dried-fruit platters or plant deliveries, must go out by Thursday 21 January.

Ramadan is expected to begin around 8 February 2027, with Eid al-Fitr around 9 or 10 March, subject to the moon sighting. For Arab-sector customers, evening is the time to send, after the fast is broken. Write Arabic templates with a native speaker rather than translating your Hebrew copy.

Purim is on Tuesday 23 March 2027, with Shushan Purim in Jerusalem on the 24th and schools closed both days. It is a costume, party and food holiday: costume shops start two to three weeks earlier, and mishloach manot (gift baskets) orders peak in the final week.

April–May 2027: Passover and the national days

Passover is the year's biggest household-shopping season. Schools are off from 13 to 28 April; the seder is on the evening of Wednesday 21 April; the holiday runs to 28 April, and Mimouna is celebrated that night as Passover ends. Kitchenware, cleaning, kosher-for-Passover food and seder catering sell in the two weeks before, and attractions and travel during the intermediate days.

פרסומת: היי {{1}}, ההזמנות לליל הסדר ב{{2}} נפתחו! תפריט כשר לפסח במשלוח, הזמנות עד יום שלישי 20.4. להזמנה לחצו על הכפתור. להסרה השיבו STOP

Hi {{1}}, seder orders at {{2}} are open! A kosher-for-Passover menu with delivery, order by Tuesday 20 April. Tap the button to order. Reply STOP to unsubscribe.

For a clinic or salon, a holiday-hours change sent to a customer about their existing appointment is a utility message:

שלום {{1}}, לתשומת לבך: בחול המועד פסח אנחנו פתוחים בין 9:00 ל-13:00. התור שלך ביום {{2}} בשעה {{3}} נשאר בתוקף.

Then the tone changes. Holocaust Remembrance Day is Tuesday 4 May 2027 and Memorial Day Tuesday 11 May; both begin the evening before and are marked by sirens and closed entertainment venues. Send no promotions from the evening of 3 May to the end of 4 May, or from the evening of 10 May until Memorial Day ends. Independence Day begins on the evening of 11 May, straight after Memorial Day, and is one of the year's big barbecue and retail days on 12 May. Schedule Independence Day messages for the evening of the 11th, not earlier.

June–September 2027: Shavuot, summer and back to school

Shavuot falls on Friday 11 June 2027, beginning on Thursday evening; it is the dairy holiday, so cheesecake, dairy menus and cheese boards sell in the week before. The school year ends on 20 June for secondary schools and 30 June for primary schools and kindergartens, which opens two months of summer camps, attractions and family travel.

Tisha B'Av, a fast day of mourning, falls on Thursday 12 August 2027, beginning the evening before: no promotions. Six days later, Tu B'Av on 18 August is Israel's day of love, a good moment for florists, jewellers and restaurants. Back-to-school shopping runs through the last two weeks of August; the school year normally opens on 1 September, which in 2027 is a Wednesday, but confirm once the Ministry of Education publishes the 2027–28 timetable.

פרסומת: היי {{1}}, חוזרים ללימודים! ב{{2}} יש 15% הנחה על ילקוטים וציוד עד 31.8. לקנייה לחצו על הכפתור. להסרה השיבו STOP

October–December 2027: the High Holidays and Sukkot

The 2027 High Holidays start early in the week's rhythm: Rosh Hashanah 5788 begins on Friday evening 1 October and runs straight into Shabbat, through Sunday 3 October. That means gift baskets, honey and holiday-table orders must be delivered by Thursday 30 September, so your last selling message should go out by Wednesday 29 September. A greeting can follow on Thursday:

פרסומת: שנה טובה ומתוקה מכל הצוות של {{1}}! תודה שהייתם איתנו השנה, ונתראה אחרי החגים.

Wishing you a good and sweet year from everyone at {{1}}! Thank you for being with us this year, and see you after the holidays.

Yom Kippur begins on Sunday evening 10 October and ends on Monday evening 11 October. Send nothing promotional from the Sunday afternoon to after the fast ends; many businesses send nothing at all that day. Sukkot begins on Friday evening 15 October and runs to Shmini Atzeret and Simchat Torah on Saturday 23 October. Then the year comes round again: Black Friday on 26 November 2027 is again a Friday, and Hanukkah begins on Friday evening 24 December.

Planning checklist

1. Submit templates four weeks ahead in every language you use, each language separately.
2. Clean the list before each big date. Remove anyone who has not opened or bought in six months; every 1,000 messages you skip saves $35.30.
3. Schedule around Shabbat using the week's real candle-lighting time, and set QuickWA's sending window as a backstop.
4. Mark the no-send days in your team calendar: Yom Kippur, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Memorial Day and Tisha B'Av.

See the QuickWA Israel page for Hebrew, Arabic and Russian templates, the shared inbox and Shopify order messages, and the Israel setup guide if you are not connected yet.

Sources

• Hebcal, Jewish and Israeli holidays for Israel, 2026 and 2027, and Shabbat times for Tel Aviv and Jerusalem: hebcal.com holidays, hebcal.com Shabbat times (checked 26 Oct 2026)
• School holidays 2026–27 following the Ministry of Education timetable (Hanukkah, Purim, Passover, Shavuot, end of year), mako, updated 16 August 2026: mako.co.il (checked 26 Oct 2026)
• Expected Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha 2027 dates (astronomical estimates): Khaleej Times (checked 26 Oct 2026)
• Meta, WhatsApp pricing (rates from 1 October 2026; free entry-point window): developers.facebook.com (checked 26 Oct 2026)
• Meta, template supported languages (he, ar, ru): developers.facebook.com (checked 26 Oct 2026)
• Bank of Israel, representative exchange rate (USD/ILS 3.112 on 23 October 2026): boi.org.il (checked 26 Oct 2026)