Israel has around 10 million citizens. It’s about 80% Jewish; from its founding days, David Ben-Gurion and his comrades strongly encouraged Arabs who were being told to leave the fledgling Jewish state to stay put and make Israel their home. Most Israelis are not outwardly religious, though many people will keep some aspects of the faith, such as kosher food and/or some level of Sabbath observance.

The religious groups are growing quickly, and one sees more frequently orthodox or ultraorthodox bus drivers, doctors, bank tellers, programmers, and the like. There can be tension between the religious and non-religious, and today, the subject of mandatory army service for ultra-orthodox young men is front and center for the government. It has been said that if all of the Arab countries made peace with Israel, then the locals would go at each other, religious versus non-religious.

A very interesting phenomenon, which is not really a big surprise, concerns Israelis who go to live in the United States. Lots have moved there and love their lives in their adopted homeland. Many of those who moved were not religious when they were in Israel, but being in a much bigger country with a vastly smaller Jewish population, they felt a need to connect with their religion.

Two of our boys spent three months each, one in LA and the other in Las Vegas, working with local rabbis whose congregations are composed of such Americanized Israelis. It is not unusual to see a guy with tattoos (which are forbidden by Jewish law) now praying daily and having a completely kosher home. I have enjoyed our visits to these communities because one feels a little bit of Israel while enjoying the beauty and wonders of the United States.

Some of the recently returned Israeli hostages have made public comments about their time in Hamas captivity. Certain themes have been consistent in their descriptions: beatings, hunger, threats, being moved around between Palestinian families, and psychological abuse. One thread that has been common in several stories has been an attachment to Judaism.

Already during the actual Hamas attack, several people who survived the onslaught said that they regurgitated whatever Jewish things they knew: a chapter of Psalms they remembered by heart, the “Shema prayer” that traditional Jews say twice a day or promises to keep the Sabbath. Some said that they repeated these words over and over until they were safely out of Hamas’ hands.

Similarly, several hostages said they began praying, saying blessings, or doing their best to eat only kosher food. One said she insisted on keeping the Sabbath in captivity, though she had not done so previously. Last week, one returned woman said that she sang a traditional Sabbath song in Arabic so that her captors would not know that she was engaged in a religious act.

Another feature expressed by several of the returned captives revolves around the Koran. The returning Israelis said that their captors, on several occasions, tried to interest them in learning from the Koran, and in all cases, the Israelis refused. One could argue that the brutalized victims could tie everything that they and their loved ones experienced from October 7^th as being a product of the Koran and Islamic teachings: why would they want to join that?

But one could also say that with their existence pushed to the outer limits, they grabbed onto their long-dormant Jewish identity and used it to keep sane. Bill Shatner once told a story on the Tonight Show about Vietnam POWs he met. They said to him that they acted out various episodes of Star Trek to get them through their brutal stay as prisoners. The daughter of one released captive told that her father started to make blessings over food, something that he had never done before his capture. Others made similar observations of their returned loved ones keeping the Sabbath or saying daily prayers.