If you ask the average Jew what year it is, she would probably say, "2015" rather than "5775". Most Jews think of time in terms of the Gregorian rather than Jewish calendar. Is this a problem? It might seem so. The first commandment Israel received as a nation was to sanctify the new month (Exodus 12:2), to mark time according to the lunar cycle. Rabbi Moshe Sofer (1762 -1839), banned the use of Gregorian dates because the year is supposed to mark the birth of Jesus and the names of the months derive from pagan gods. However, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who was Israel's Sephardi Chief Rabbi, permitted the use of secular dates as the link to Christianity was tenuous.
Modern Zionism embraced Hebrew dating as an expression of a return to Jewish roots. Today in Israel, it is legal to date cheques according to the Hebrew calendar and every newspaper bears both the Hebrew and secular date.