While Israelis are up in arms over daylight savings, some six million American Jews live happily with a four month standard time.
Americans will switch over to standard time only on November 7, and daylight savings will be implemented again on March 13.
The shortened standard time is not restricted to the United States, with Canada and Mexico also lengthening daylight savings until November.
The new law was signed into Congress in 2005 and caught Jewish community leaders off guard, raising concerns over a possible decline in the number of worshipers.
However in reality, community leaders from across the Jewish spectrum said the difference was hardly noticeable.
Reform Rabbi Ami Hirsch, From Manhattan’s upper west side Stephen Wise Synagogue said there was no big difference between daylight savings and standard time, adding that it might have more affect on orthodox worshippers, but must of American Jewry was not orthodox.
Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld from the orthodox Washington synagogue also claimed his congregation had no particular difficulty with the time difference, noting that only a few days a year the worshippers needed to stay attentive and wait a few minutes before putting on phylacteries.
Chabad representative in Washington, Rabbi Levi Shemtov, who is known as an influential figure on Capitol Hill, told Ynet that before the legislation was passed, they managed to reach a compromise and lengthen daylight savings by only one month.
Shemtov noted that daylight savings forced Jews living in the Midwest to pray at 8 am and as a result be late to work.
Nixon tried to address the “energy crisis” of the early-mid ’70s by having no switch to standard time one winter. We stayed on daylight savings time for the whole year.
I still remember walking to school in those mornings in the dark. Creepy!
Your points are well taken.
I hope that you also forward them to “YNET News” because THEY are the source of this story on collive.com (i.e., THEY used the term “Rabbi” for the individuals in question).
Shana Tova Rabbi Shemtov and family.
We need someone who can think, solve problems and get consenses. We do need Levi for president. It could be just the right time!
Its very nice to see that they consult the rabbi for advice…! impressive.
There is an error in the article “Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld from the orthodox Washington synagogue ” is a conservadox organization. by no means does it represent orthodoxy
Because of daylight savings time, many jews don’t put on tefilling before work. Thousands of jews are not yotze mitzvas matzoh on the 1st night of Pesach.
It’s a news article written by Ynet – COL is only reposting it . . .
Hello!
Besides the 7:35 earlies tefillin in winter – we in Michigan also contend with making kiddush in the summer after 10:15 PM.
We hate daylight savings time and would do anything possible to get Michigan out of it. GO ARIZONA and EASERN INDIANA!!!!
He isn’t the one who ends up late for work cause the minyan couldn’t start and people are waiting.
Look at the difference between the three rabbis’ responses and you see – ashreinu ma tov chelkeinu. Rabbi Shemtov looked out for Jews in the Midwest, whereas even the other “Orthodox” rabbi (who was one of those that wrote against the Rubashkin family BTW) cared only for his own congregation.
Just because a movement forms saying it’s connected to Judaism, when it in fact contradicts Judaism’s most sacred tenets, does not mean that we have to refer to their clergy as Rabbis. It also makes no sense to me that a Chabad web site should include the opinion of a person who knowingly misleads Jewish & non-Jewish people. I was saved from Reform Judaism by Lubavitch and talk as one whose grandfather was the Rabbi of Moses Mendelsohn, whose followers, I believe, may have had something to do with the founding of this meaningless, corrupt movement. I also want to… Read more »
i never thought of it that way… that the time change has that impact on davening times!
levi for president!