Rails: How to parse date-time string into a specific time zone

Try this:

zone = "Central Time (US & Canada)"  

ActiveSupport::TimeZone[zone].parse("2013-04-03 17:47:00")

Use String#in_time_zone (Rails 4+)

I personally prefer using String#in_time_zone:

>> '22.09.1986 10:30'.in_time_zone('Central Time (US & Canada)')
# => Mon, 22 Sep 1986 10:30:00 CDT -05:00

This parses the date and time in the String into the time zone provided.