Published: 3 April 2025
Last updated: 3 April 2025
There’s a new play on at Beit Lessin Theatre in Tel Aviv called “Datilonim”, a combination of dati (religious) and chilonim (secular). It's a romantic comedy that follows a young secular couple, Dafna and Avichai, navigating the lead up to their wedding when the unimaginable happens: Avichai is propelled by an unrelenting, deep desire to turn religious.
"Would you say this is common?" I turn to my Israeli friend Amit*, while we wait for the split dati and chiloni crowd to take their seats.
"A lot more than you’d think," 25-year-old Amit, who is Jewish, non-binary and raised secular, replies. "I was seriously thinking about this exact trend this morning, I was thinking about how if all else fails, at least we’ll have our Judaism."
Comments1
Roni6 April at 01:47 pm
Thanks for an interesting article! When most of the Jews of the world will live in Israel, the question of the place of Judaism in the private lives of the citizens of Israel will increase. The differences between Israeliness and Judaism will increase, for example in the crisis around the law of conscription into the army or the place of holidays in the public-secular space. The desire of Israelis to be a state like all other states will obscure the reason and purpose of the State of Israel in general – the protection of the Jews and the development of their culture of life. The secular public in Israel is therefore required to grasp its Judaism before extremist religious elements change the primary goal of the state.