In time for the approaching holiday of Rosh Hashanah and the beginning of the Jewish year, North America’s third-largest supermarket chain is distributing 500,000 copies of a Jewish art calendar edited by Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Chaim Lazaroff.

Safeway is offering the calendar for free in its family of stores, including Vons, Pavilions, Dominick’s, Genuardi’s, Carrs, Randalls, Tom Thumb and Pak ’N Save, and community center and synagogues in key markets.

Lazaroff, who directs Chabad of the Uptown in Houston, Texas, helped insure the calendar was a bit more user-friendly this year, with information on major holidays and Shabbat candle-lighting times being provided by the Chabad.org Web site. Blurbs throughout the calendar refer users back to the Web site for more information and in-depth articles.

Each month features the artwork of Houston resident Deborah Rolnick Raichman. …