Israeli Personal Assistant

Israeli Personal Assistant is a judgment layer for Israeli daily life and work. It gives your AI agent the context it needs to behave like a local: the right work week, natural Hebrew phrasing, awareness of Jewish holidays, and knowledge of recurring business obligations.

This skill does not integrate with live APIs, calendars, or email services. For live integrations, pair it with:

• shabbat-aware-scheduler (calendar API with Shabbat/holiday awareness)
• gws-hebrew-email-automation (automated email sending via Google Workspace)

What this skill provides: context, conventions, templates, and judgment. Think of it as the cultural and operational knowledge layer that makes your AI assistant feel Israeli rather than generic.

Do NOT use this skill for:

• Connecting to calendar APIs or creating live calendar events (use shabbat-aware-scheduler)
• Sending emails automatically (use gws-hebrew-email-automation)
• Calculating VAT, income tax, or payroll (use accounting category skills)
• Legal document drafting (use legal-tech category skills)

Primary audience: Freelancers, small business owners, and knowledge workers. No technical background required.

Work Week

The Israeli work week runs Sunday (יום ראשון) through Thursday (יום חמישי).

Friday scheduling rule: Never schedule meetings, calls, or deliveries on Friday afternoon. The cutoff is generally 13:00 for most businesses. Erev Chag (the eve of a Jewish holiday) follows the same short-day rule.

Jewish Holiday Impact on Business

Chol HaMoed note: Businesses technically operate during Chol HaMoed (intermediate days of Sukkot and Pesach), but many employees are on vacation. Expect 30-50% slower response times and limited availability.

August: Israeli summer vacation season. Many families travel. Expect slower response rates throughout the month, especially during the last two weeks.

Key Business Obligation Dates

Always verify current deadlines with the relevant authority (רשות המיסים, המוסד לביטוח לאומי), as dates can shift around holidays.

Use this structure when asking for a morning brief. Ask your AI: "Give me a morning brief for [date]."

Brief Structure

1. Hebrew date (e.g., י״ח בניסן תשפ״ו) alongside the Gregorian date
2. Day of week with any scheduling notes (short day? Erev Chag?)
3. Open tasks you have provided
4. Upcoming deadlines in the next 7 days
5. Holiday or Chag alerts this week and next
6. Business obligation reminders (VAT window, Bituach Leumi, etc.)

Example Morning Brief (English)

Example Morning Brief (Hebrew)

Israeli Communication Norms

Anti-Patterns to Avoid

Over-formal corporate Hebrew (sounds translated from English):

• Instead of: "הנני מתכבד להודיעך כי..."
• Use: "רציתי לעדכן אותך ש..."

Passive voice in WhatsApp messages:

• Instead of: "ההודעה נשלחה על ידי..."
• Use: "שלחתי לך..."

Overly long openings:

• Instead of: "תחילה, אני מקווה שאתה בריא ושהכל טוב..."
• Use: "היי [שם]," (and get to the point)

Archaic phrases:

• Avoid: "הנני", "כבודו", "לכבוד מר/גב'"
• These are fine for official government letters but jarring in any other context

American politeness patterns that sound odd in Hebrew:

• Avoid: "כיצד אוכל לסייע לך היום?" (call-center Hebrew)
• Use: "במה אפשר לעזור?" or just state the matter directly

Use these formats consistently in all drafted content:

Date format is critical. 03/04/2026 means April 3rd in Israel, not March 4th. Always use DD/MM/YYYY.

Invoice Payment Reminder Cadence

Day 1 (due date passed) - Friendly:

Day 14 - Reminder:

Day 30 - Firm:

See references/hebrew-communication-templates.md for the full template library.

Rules for Scheduling

1. Shabbat cutoff: Nothing after 13:00 on Friday (earlier for religious businesses or in cities like Bnei Brak, Jerusalem)
2. Erev Chag: Same rule as Erev Shabbat
3. Motzei Shabbat: Saturday night. Some people work Motzei Shabbat; others don't. Confirm before scheduling
4. Chol HaMoed: Business operates but expect partial availability. Good for internal meetings, not client-facing work
5. August: Israel's vacation month. Give extra lead time for any request during August
6. National memorial days (Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZikaron): Culturally sensitive. Entertainment and leisure events are inappropriate

Scheduling Checklist

Before confirming any meeting or deadline, ask:

• Is this day a Jewish holiday or Erev Chag?
• Is this on a Friday (half-day)?
• Is this during Chol HaMoed (reduced availability)?
• Is the other party observant (affects Shabbat timing)?

1. Work week start day

Agents default to Monday as the first workday. The Israeli work week starts Sunday. A "beginning of the week meeting" or "early this week" should be Sunday, not Monday. When drafting scheduling messages, always use יום ראשון for the start of the week.

2. Date format confusion

Agents trained on English content default to MM/DD/YYYY. Israel uses DD/MM/YYYY. Writing "03/04/2026" means April 3rd in Israel, not March 4th. When in doubt, write dates as "3 באפריל 2026" (spelled out) to avoid any ambiguity.

3. Hebrew formality levels

Agents tend to produce overly formal Hebrew that sounds like a translation from English corporate speak. Israeli business communication is direct and less formal than American English. "הנני מתכבד להודיעך" is archaic and sounds strange in any modern context outside official legal documents. Use "רציתי לעדכן אותך" instead. When in doubt, write shorter and more direct.

4. Friday is a half-day

Agents don't know that Friday is a shortened workday in Israel. Scheduling a "Friday afternoon meeting at 15:00" is like scheduling a Sunday meeting in the US. Use this skill to apply the Friday 13:00 cutoff rule before suggesting any Friday time slot.

5. Holiday awareness affects planning across multiple weeks

Agents lack context about how Jewish holidays affect business for the days around them, not just the holiday itself. Pesach, Sukkot, and the High Holiday season in Tishrei effectively compress the business calendar significantly. A deadline that falls in the week after Pesach may need to be set two weeks earlier than it appears on a calendar, because the week of Chol HaMoed will have minimal productivity.

The Hebrew sounds stiff or translated Ask your agent: "Rewrite this in more natural Israeli Hebrew, like you'd send a WhatsApp to a colleague." The agent should use shorter sentences, direct phrasing, and avoid passive constructions.

The agent scheduled something on Shabbat or Friday afternoon Remind the agent of the Israeli work week rules: Sunday-Thursday full days, Friday until 13:00, Saturday no business. If using a calendar integration, pair with shabbat-aware-scheduler.

The morning brief doesn't include Hebrew dates Ask explicitly: "Include the Hebrew date (e.g., י״ח בניסן תשפ״ו) alongside the Gregorian date." You can also use the scripts/morning-brief.py script which fetches Hebrew dates from HebCal automatically.

Holiday dates are wrong or missing Jewish holiday dates shift every year based on the Hebrew calendar. Ask your agent to fetch the current year's dates from HebCal (https://www.hebcal.com) or use the scripts/morning-brief.py script which calls the HebCal API.

• HebCal Hebrew calendar API: https://www.hebcal.com/home/195/jewish-calendar-rest-api
• Israel Tax Authority (רשות המיסים): https://www.gov.il/he/departments/israel_tax_authority
• National Insurance Institute (ביטוח לאומי): https://www.btl.gov.il
• references/hebrew-communication-templates.md - Full Hebrew message template library
• references/israeli-business-calendar.md - Key dates and seasonal patterns