20,000 Sign Petition Against End of Daylight Saving Time in Israel Before Yom Kippur

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yom-kippur-daylight-savings-timeOver 20,000 people have signed an online petition which calls for the boycott of Standard Time in the next three days, which comes into effect in Israel this year before Yom Kippur. Daylight Saving Time (DST) ends in two weeks on September 12, before Yom Kippur, moving the clock back by an hour.

The petition, currently being sent through the internet, calls on the public to ignore the start of Standard Time and operate according to DST until the beginning of November.

“Schools, businesses, public institutes, families and other bodies – please continue operating as if the clock has not been moved back,” says the petition. According to the petition organizers, DST increases the likelihood of motor-vehicle accidents due to the increase in time spent driving during hours of darkness and costs millions of shekels for the Israeli economy.

The petition protests a 2005 bill which was meant to ease fasting during Yom Kippur. “Even this pathetic excuse is completely warped since the fast lasts 25 hours in any case, and moving the clock only results in warmer hours for those fasting and praying,” the petition claims.

“Disregard the moving of the clock and maybe finally our elected officials will realize they work for us and not the other way around,” declares the petition.

The Manufacturers’ Association provides data every year on the negative effects suffered by the economy as a result of limiting DST. The association, however, declined to comment on its view regarding the petition. “The association does not deal with matters pertaining to religion and state,” a statement by the group said.

{JPost/Matzav.com Israel}


9 COMMENTS

  1. I never understood the need to change the clocks back before Yom Kippur. Any way you slice it the fast is 25 hours. Changing the clocks does is forces davening to start earlier and forces minyanim to rush through their davening in order to get done with Neilah in time for birkas kohanim before shkiah. It also shortens the daylight time during Chol Hamoed Sukkos. Perhaps keeping daylight savings time until November will have a positive effect on Yom Kippur and allow people more one on one time with the Ribono Shel Olam?

  2. It’s so stupid to change the clock before yom kippur. Sure it’s a good feeling to know that the fast is over at 6pm. But since they change the clock only a few days before, everyone’s bodies and their kids are still on the old clock, so they wake up an hour early.
    The fast starts so early that I’m already hungry by the time I go to sleep.

  3. It is a selfish law that creates a lot of problems, the zemanim are an hour earlier so many miss kriyas shema during the sukkos vacation. you have to wake up an hour earlier yom kippur so you’re really fasting the same amount of time.

    Also, it needlessly creates friction with the secular society who complain that it cuts their day short, they come home after work, it’s already dark. The short Fridays are very stressful.

  4. The benefit of switching to standard time before Yom Kippur, is the perceived notion that if the fast ends earlier in the day, people who are traditional may be MORE inclined to fast. (about 70%) of israelis claim they fast on yom kippur.(in some form)

    On the other hand the fast is always 25 hours, regardless when sunset is. And in fact, the added safety of daylight for a longer period of time maybe a valid argument. After all Pikuach Nefesh is Docheh most everything.

    But to the greater issue, if the majority of Israelis want daylight savings for a longer time, a religious minority should not impose darkness on them.

  5. DST in Israel was started way after the rest of the world bought into it, and only after a major controversy within the country.

    I don’t buy the auto accident business, the only way to decrease the accidents is if drivers here will stop driving as though each one is the only car on the road. Israeli driving is notorious for its recklessness and disregard for speed limits, rules of changing lanes, etc. Standard time is not the problem.

    And re:#3, there are many shuls that do not rush Neilah, one can change the order of the davening to make Birkas Kohanim with no problem before shkiah and then they go back. Many shuls in EY do this.

  6. Come’on people, if you’re eating all day on Erev Y”K, than you’re not going to be that hungry after Kol Nidrei & Maariv. The problem is the day when you’re missing breakfast & lunch, so the extra hour is definitely an incentive if you’re not that frum.
    BTW, I just saw in the Hebrew Kikar Hashabbat site that Eli Yishai is trying to move the clock back to summer time right after Y”K. – http://www.kikarhashabat.co.il/%D7%90%D7%9C%D7%99-%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%99-15.html

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