Memories are made of this. Magic Moments. Oh Happy Days. Those song titles conjure up days of old for many immigrants from Western countries to Israel. Late night on Saturday. Lie in on Sunday morning. The papers over bagels and cream cheese. Drive in the country.
Sundays.
Ask an immigrant and perhaps they will tell you the thing they miss most about their home country is the good-old Sunday. If it is not number one on their list, it will certainly feature pretty high.
Now there is a real possibility that Israel will turn Yom Rishon (literally the first day of the week) into a real Sunday.
Originally, Israel was very much a six-day-a-week place, with work lasting until minutes before the Sabbath on a Friday evening and recommencing early on a Sunday morning. However, there have been two developments in recent years that have changed that reality.
First, Israelis began reducing their working hours on Fridays, with nearly all offices closing, although shops and entertainment facilities remained open.
In the last few years, many shops and restaurants have taken the previously unthought-of step of opening on Saturdays, or as the religious call it, “the Holy Sabbath.”
The introduction of the highly secular Shinui party into the new Sharon-led coalition led many traditional Jews to fear there would be even more Sabbath desecration. Yet an initial coalition agreement between Ariel Sharon’s Likud, Shinui and the National Religious Party could be good news for the Sabbath observant.
The new government intends seriously considering making Sunday a second ‘day off.’ Israel would have a real weekend like any other Western country. Shops and recreation areas would be open on Sundays for weekend shopping, but would close on Saturdays. Soccer matches would be played on Sundays rather than Friday evenings and Saturdays.
Opponents say this would be an economic disaster, citing a variety of reasons, but principally the fact that Israel would in reality be operating a four-and-a-half-day working week, because businesses would be expected to open on a Friday, but only for half a day. The NRP counters this argument by saying the extra hours could be tacked onto the rest of the week Monday through Thursday – perhaps extending the official working day from eight to eight-and-a-half hours.
The change would be welcomed by thousands of Western immigrants, but Israel is notoriously slow when it comes to change.