Israelis spring forward to usher in daylight savings time

Daylight savings time went into effect across Israel early Friday, turning 2 a.m. instantly into 3 a.m.

The period of extended daylight hours will last until October 6.

In November, the Knesset passed legislation extending daylight savings time until the first Sunday after October 1. Before that, standard time would begin the Saturday night before Yom Kippur, so that the day’s fast, which is pegged to nightfall, would end an hour earlier.

Because the Hebrew calendar is lunar, Yom Kippur can fall between mid-September and mid-October, which used to mean that Israelis returned to standard time as much as a month and a half before most other countries, where daylight savings time ends on November 1.

As a result, the issue of the seasonal time transition became contentious among Israelis, and was caught up in political tensions between religious and secular politicians.

Religious parties generally pushed for the early time change to ease the Yom Kippur fast, and some secular activists protested that the change was unnecessarily inconvenient and expensive. They pointed to a relatively early loss of daylight hours and a resultant rise in electricity bills, as well as car accidents as people who would otherwise drive home from work in daylight were forced to drive in darkness.