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zmanim dst

Daylight Saving Time

North America

Daylight Saving Time (saving is singular, not plural) is a complex subject with many inconsistencies. Some countries observe DST and some countries don't. In fact within the United States, Arizona does not observe DST, and most of Indiana doesn't (except for a few counties). Kaluach supports some of the more common DST schemes, and allows the selection of DST for both Israel and the diaspora selections.

The North American scheme goes back to 1987 when Canada set into law their daylight saving time. The United States adopted the same scheme the year before.

Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Nation) and Hawaii and the territories of Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa are the only places in the U.S. that do not observe DST but instead stay on "standard time" all year long. Starting in 2006, Indiana will also join the rest of the U.S. and observe DST.

On August 8, 2005, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 was signed into affect by President George W. Bush. This Act changes the dates for Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. beginning in 2007. DST will begin on the second Sunday of March and end the first Sunday of November. Congress retains the right to revert back to the original Daylight Saving Time if, in the opinion of the Secretary of Energy, insufficient energy savings were realized.

In the fall of 2005, Manitoba and Ontario announced that like the United States, they would extend daylight time starting in 2007.

Europe

The European observance of daylight saving time became standardized with the European Union's (EU) 1996 declaration which standardized observance throughout the member countries.

Israel

Until 2005, Israel's method of determining when DST begins and ends was especially creative - daylight saving time in Israel was determined by the makeup of the government coalition. Every year the start and end points were different, based on the whims and political considerations of the current Minister of the Interior. One thing however was law: there must be at least 150 days of daylight saving time annually.

Now hold onto your hats (or kipot), starting in 2005, the government of Israel passed a Daylight Saving Time law. From now on, the last Friday before 2 April is the beginning of Summer Time (שעון קיץ) and the last Sunday before 10 Tishrei is the end of Summer Time.

Kaluach supports DST in Israel from the civil year 1994. It's not worth supporting years before 1994 since it's such a mess.
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