Israeli prayers of resistance and resilience: the politics of faith after October 7 th

Prayer is a direct channel to the divine, to the unknown, which also reveals cultural and social perceptions both of the individual and their environment. During crises, prayer marks a breaking point, an expression of crisis. Prayer is an action of restoring one's faith. Following the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war on October 7, 2023, Neve Schechter, a center for contemporary Jewish culture and art in Tel Aviv, initiated "Radio Awe"—an online library of prayers spanning various religions, beliefs, cultures, and languages, streaming via internet radio. Through an ethnographic fieldwork that included participating in prayer writing workshops, conducting interviews with the authors, and analyzing the content, I clarify how these prayers express, affirm, and also challenge both the reality of the war and the dominant public responses to it. I argue that this project created a liminal, multidimensional, and heterotopic space; on the one hand, the prayers reflect trends of ethno-national solidarity and unity, speak in an empowering, optimistic tone, and promote a message of security and mental and physical health. On the other hand, some of the prayers also challenge hegemonic national values and liturgy, voicing radical and incisive criticism: against the government, and against the bloodshed of the conflict, and even against the Divine. Thus, I conclude that writing a prayer is revealed not only as a religious-spiritual practice that sheds light on spiritual connections and faith-based motivations that still manage to exist even in times of crisis, but also as a political act of resistance against manifestations of violence, incitement, and a sense of loss of direction and faith.