The House has passed legislation that could make daylight saving time permanent.
For the Orthodox Jewish community, this is far more than a minor issue. During the winter, sunrise in New York could be pushed past 8:00 a.m., making it difficult for many people to daven Shacharis before work. Yeshiva students could also be traveling to school in complete darkness, raising legitimate concerns about safety and disrupting the daily schedule that many families rely on.
Orthodox organizations have voiced these concerns, and that advocacy is important. But it is fair to ask: why wasn’t the broader community mobilized before the House vote?
Why wasn’t there a widespread campaign encouraging people to call and email their members of Congress? Why weren’t buses organized to bring rabbanim, parents, yeshiva students, and working community members to Washington to meet with lawmakers?
Imagine hundreds of constituents respectfully visiting congressional offices and explaining, firsthand, how permanent daylight saving time would affect their families, their work schedules, their schools, and their ability to daven.
Private meetings and organizational advocacy are valuable, but elected officials also need to hear directly from the people whose daily lives will be impacted.
The legislation must still pass the Senate before it can become law, so there is still time for meaningful public engagement. Regardless of the outcome, this should serve as a lesson for the future: when legislation directly affects our community, the community itself should be informed, organized, and actively involved before the vote—not only after it.
Shmulie Hartstein
Wesley Hills
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You know how many times this came up for vote and was voted down. Sounds like you live in a box. Go back living in your box. If you have a concern you can reach out to your local elected officials.
1) how many people does this effect nationwide?
2) yeshivas didn’t stop learning for the rally after 10/7 why would they stop for this?
3) not every Frum person works for themselves in real estate and can take off from their job to lobby in albany and Washington?osr jobs give a limited PTO which we need to use for yom Tov etc
4) there’s plenty of advocacy out there, seems like you just don’t like them…
Sruly; We are less than a microcosm of the population in the US. We can’t assume that we will be able to dictate policy for the entire country. A probably better option would be to lobby NYS not to join in which is what the law is doing. They will be leaving it up to each State. Anyways, with more and more people working remotely, his is not as big as an issue as it used to be. A more important cause to fight for is the traffic congestion in and around your and my neighborhood.
Ephraim, I don’t know what everyone else is doing, but my husband davens at 6:30am so he can be at work at 8am. He works 10 hour days in physical labor and this time change would affect him extremely. This is not just about the Yidden. When they tried this in the past many kids got hit by cars while walking to school in the dark.
This issue is more important than our traffic that affects just us, whereas this affects Yidden, workers, and kids all around the country.
Lets think of other Yidden for once – our brethren in the Upper Midwest unable to daaven Shachris with a minyan. This alone shows everyone that Trump cares nothing for Yidden. I don’t know about you, but I need Tefilas Hatzibur of every yid.
With all due respect to the Agudah and everyone else that is concerned about this legislation, there seem to be a general omission to see the clear advantage to the Orthodox community that is attached with permanent DST: It also means that Kabolas Shaboss Kodesh will NEVER be before 5pm – even at the earliest time of the Winter! This is a huge benefit for the many Yidden that work for large corporations, and while they are accommodated – in most places by law – in terms of leaving early on Fridays, are still impacted by being held responsible in their absence, passed over for promotion, excluded from decision making etc etc etc because they cannot even be on call. With DST, while they will still need to leave early, they’ll be able to be on call or potentially available remotely, almost until the end of the business day – that has a far greater impact than starting time in the mornings – agav, shachariss can be easily addressed with more minyonim and should shuls near the workplaces, which would also increase Limud haTorah (because once more people get in the habit of attending the shul near their workplace, they’ll also “pop in” there for a Mincha and shiur during lunch – while many already do that, it is likely to increase exponentially if the masses start being heimish at business districts/downtowns Shuls).