All-year daylight saving time threatens Jews’ morning prayer

By MICHELE CHABIN
Religion News Service

American Jews say they were blindsided by the U.S. Senate’s lightning-fast passage of a bill to make daylight saving time year-round and intend to fight it. The Sunshine Protection Act passed the Senate on March 15. Jewish advocates say it will make it nearly impossible for Jews to pray communally in the morning and still get to work or school on time during the winter months. According to Jewish law, morning prayers must take place after the sun rises. Daylight saving time, which currently begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November, would extend darkness on late-winter mornings.