Israel turns back clock for Yom Kippur, sparking debate

IN TEL AVIV Gil Leibowitz was heading down to the beach on a recent evening to “clear his head,” as he put it, with a walk, a run and a sunset swim - the software engineer’s after-work summer ritual.

It was about 6:30 p.m., in the last hour of light before the sun dropped into the Mediterranean.

On Sunday, Leibowitz’s routine, and those of many Israelis, will be disrupted when Israel abruptly goes off daylight saving time well before summer weather ends, bringing darkness before 6 p.m. even as temperatures linger in the 80s.

“This is going to kill off my fun,” Leibowitz said. “There’s no point in coming here in the dark.”

The earlier plunge into darkness this year is linked to the early onset of the Jewish High Holidays and the approach of the Yom Kippur fast next week. According to a five-year-old law negotiated with the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, Israelis must turn back their clocks one hour on the Sunday before Yom Kippur. That way, the 25-hour fast, from sundown to sundown, ends shortly before 6 p.m. instead of 7 p.m., creating the impression of an earlier end to a trying day.

Setting back the national clock to accommodate the faithful on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar has generated controversy in the past, but this year the argument is raging with greater intensity because of the early date of the shift, weeks ahead of Europe and the United States. Nearly 200,000 Israelis have signed an online petition urging people to resist the change and not turn back their clocks. The debate has drawn battle lines in the ongoing struggle in Israel over the role of religion in public life, highlighting the power of ultra-Orthodox parties in Israel’s governing coalitions.  Read Article

By Joel Greenberg