Convert date with timezone

Since you already have the correct TimeZone ID, which in this case is BRT you could ignore the part that has GMT-0300 , because GMT in format can be problematic unless it is fixed. So I propose 2 solutions.

1) Removing GMT-0300

public static void main(String[] args) throws ParseException {
    String text = stripGMT("Tue Apr 01 2014 13:43:13 GMT-0300 (BRT)");
    String format = "EEE MMM dd yyyy HH:mm:ss  (zzz)";
    DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat(format);
    System.out.println(dateFormat.parse(text));
}

private static String stripGMT(String text) {
    return text.replaceAll("GMT-\d{4}", "");
}

2) Keeping GMT as a fixed argument

public static void main(String[] args) throws ParseException {
    String text = "Tue Apr 01 2014 13:43:13 GMT-0300 (BRT)";
    String format = "EEE MMM dd yyyy HH:mm:ss 'GMT'Z (zzz)";
    DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat(format);
    System.out.println(dateFormat.parse(text));
}

Set a String date pattern that Javascript must pass. After that, leave it to Java. A slightly more alternative way (if only) to do this would be to use the setTimeZone() method of DateFormat as follows:

DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm");
df.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT"));
String strData = "30/05/2014 21:45";

try {
    Date data = df.parse(strData);
    System.out.println(data);
}
catch (ParseException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}

The output would be:

Fri May 30 18:45:00 BRT 2014

But you may wonder, what Timezones are available for use in the setTimeZone() method. You can list all TimeZones as follows:

for (String tz : TimeZone.getAvailableIDs()) {
    System.out.println(tz);
}

I will not post the output here, because it is a bit extensive. But I'm sure the timezone you're looking for will be on the list.

EDIT: Complementing the answer regarding Javascript. You can format object Date, using various methods like getMonth() , getDate() , getMinutes() ... This way you format the date as you want to send it to Java. See the full reference of the Date object in Javascript.

As in English OS

  

The best way to convert is by using the time in milliseconds, UTC. Object Javascript Date and
  java.util.Date support conversion using milliseconds.