Your Senator Wants to Hear from You

A delegation of Agudath Israel advocates traveled to Washington, D.C., meeting with more than 20 Senate offices to share their concerns about a bill that would make Daylight Saving Time permanent. The Agudah delegates focused on how the later sunrise would endanger children going to school in the dark and affect the religious practices of the Orthodox community.

The response was overwhelmingly encouraging. Many Senate offices acknowledged the importance of these concerns, indicated that Senators are continuing to study the issue, and emphasized that they want to hear from their constituents before deciding on such a significant change.

Agudah’s constituency is one of several groups expressing their concerns with the measure so there is hope that the bill will not pass in the Senate.

Agudath Israel’s Concerns

Protecting Children’s Safety:

Permanent Daylight Saving Time would delay winter sunrises until after 9:00 a.m. in some parts of the country and after 8:00 a.m. in many cities. As a result, millions of children would travel to school in pre-dawn darkness, increasing the risk of accidents.

Americans experienced this firsthand when permanent DST was implemented in the 1970s. After just one winter of dark mornings and numerous reports of children being injured and even killed while traveling to school, public support for the policy collapsed, and Congress repealed it within a year.

Protecting the Ability to Daven with a Minyan:

For the Orthodox Jewish community, later sunrises mean later times for Shacharis. Under permanent DST, many working individuals would find it extraordinarily difficult—if not impossible—to daven with a minyan or even to put on tefilin and still arrive at work on time. Some shuls would struggle to maintain a daily minyan and schools could also face significant scheduling challenges in places with later sunrises.

In 1971, during an earlier effort to make Daylight Saving Time permanent, Harav Hagaon Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l, wrote a teshuvah to Agudath Israel President Rabbi Moshe Sherer addressing the issue. He explained that the legislation would create severe challenges for proper tefillah and concluded that it was imperative to oppose the measure through every available means of advocacy, describing it as a “gezeirah mamash al hatefillah lirei Hashem Yisborach”—”a real decree on prayer for those who fear G-d.”

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Your Senator Wants to Hear From You:

Now is the time to make your voice heard.

Please ask your senator to consider all of the effects of DST and compare them to the effects of permanent standard time or maintaining the status quo before rushing into this major change.

Click here to take action now.

Warm regards,

Rabbi A.D. Motzen
Rabbi Yossie Charner