What time is it? Israel springs ahead

April 2, 2011 - 8:13 PM by David

On Thursday night, Israel joined the US and Europe in implementing Daylight Savings Time. We turned clocks forward in a move that will last for 185 days and will end October 2, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

The move to Daylight savings Time in Israel has long been accompanied by disputes between religious factions in the Knesset, hoping to shorten it in order to make it easier on the religious population to get up for prayers during the high holidays – secular parties, aiming to extend until November like in the US.

61 MKs have signed a petition to set a fixed date in the Gregorian calendar that would mark the end of Daylight savings Time instead of the annual push and pull dispute. But next year, chances are nothing will have changed and the clocks will go back to Winter Time before Yom Kippur.

In my household, whenever the clocks change, we have our own solution to the struggle between the hours – we keep both times.

Changing old-fashioned wall clocks is no problem, but microwaves, ovens, DVDs, car clocks and other devices sporting clocks can prove to be a challenge to technology-challenged families. So, I change what I can, and too lazy or inept to follow the instructions in the user manual, I leave some devices on the old time.

For instance, on our VCR (yes, we still have one), I know that the correct time is easily gotten by adding an hour and an addition al 12 minutes gained from previous ill-advised attempts at changing the clock.

And in the car, it’s a matter of doing the opposite – subtracting an hour minus five minutes for wear and tear.

So whether it’s Daylight Savings Time or Winter Time, in our household, the time is always right.

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