War After War Turns Young Israelis to Religion
As conflict ravages the region, young people in Israel say “Only God” can protect them—a shift that will have dramatic consequences for the country’s culture and politics.
Student Orel Malik in his local synagogue. The war in Iran is “a continuation of the battle,” he says.
Photographer: Amit Elkayam for Bloomberg BusinessweekIn February last year, Orel Malik marched into the principal’s office at his high school just east of Tel Aviv. His issue wasn’t lousy grades, skipping class or drugs. It was tefillin—the biblical scrolls attached to leather straps that religious men wrap around their head and one of their arms during morning prayer. Malik had set up a table in a hallway with tefillin and was urging fellow students to pray between classes. When principal Israel Vilozny confiscated the tefillin and removed the table, Malik confronted him.
“What are you, God?” Malik protested—while surreptitiously recording the encounter on his phone.