Having an extra hour of sunlight to enjoy summer evening barbecues or heading out after work to play catch with your kids or a walk on the beach is one of the joys of daylight savings time.
DST was first implemented in the U.S. in 1918, during WWI and more recently in 2022, a bipartisan bill was introduced to make it permanent. Farmers have never liked DST as it affects their farming schedules, such as cow’s readiness to be milked. But now we can add Orthodox Jewish opposition to making it year round. For example, in 2022, Agudath Israel of America circulated on Capitol Hill a legislative memo that pointed out the unique and disruptive challenges permanent DST would present to the Orthodox Jewish community; for example having to pray in synagogues at much later times because of later sunrises and then the challenge of getting to their places of work on time.
While the Senate unanimously passed the bill, it stalled in the House of Representatives. This past January, the bill was reintroduced in the Senate and the House. That means we might still see it brought for a vote and it will remind us that while extra daylight in the summer is great, we may find ourselves needing to explain yet again why year round DST with 9 am sunrise is not good for the Jews.