Rabbinical Alliance Opposed to Year Round Daylight Savings Time

The Rabbinical Alliance of America today urged Governor Nelson Rockefeller to use his influence to defeat a proposed bill submitted by State Senator Roy M. Goodman, a Republican of Manhattan, which would establish year-round Daylight Savings Time in New York State, on the grounds that it would cause exceeding hardship to Orthodox Jews. At the same time the Alliance urged Sen. Goodman to withdraw his bill. According to Rabbi Abraham Gross, president of the Alliance, Jews cannot commence their morning prayers and don their phylacteries, teffillin, prior to about one hour before sunrise. Should Daylight Savings Time be in effect during the winter months, it would place the vast majority of workers in a position of not being able to perform these sacred commandments and fulfill their cherished religious obligations, warned Rabbi Gross. The Alliance called on its member rabbis in the New York State area to use all their influences and those of their member congregants to defeat this bill.