War and the human spirit: Israeli students reconsider faith amid conflict

According to the study, roughly one in four university students became more religious, while one in three described themselves as more spiritual.

By Pesach Benson, TPS

War doesn’t just reshape cities and communities — it can also transform the inner lives of those who live through it.

A new study from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem shows that the ongoing Israel–Gaza conflict is prompting significant shifts in religion and spirituality among young Israelis, revealing how trauma can drive some toward faith while pushing others away.

Researchers Yaakov Greenwald, Prof. Mario Mikulincer, and Prof. Ariel Knafo-Noam surveyed more than 1,200 Jewish-Israeli university students between 2023 and 2025.

About half reported changes in their religious or spiritual beliefs, with increases more common than decreases. The findings were published in the peer-reviewed International Journal for the Psychology of Religion.

According to the study, roughly one in four university students became more religious, while one in three described themselves as more spiritual.

“Periods of protracted stress don’t just strengthen faith for everyone,” Greenwald said. “For some, they bring people closer to religion, but for others, they reinforce secular values or spark spiritual searching outside of organized religion.”

The study highlights the influence of cultural background. Students from more religious communities were far likelier to deepen their faith, while secular students often gravitated toward spirituality rather than formal religion.

Some even reported decreased religiosity, showing that conflict does not produce uniform responses.

Direct exposure to war—including injuries, loss of loved ones, or living under rocket fire—was linked to stronger religious or spiritual engagement.

According to the researchers, “The more directly individuals are touched by war, the more likely they are to re-examine and reshape their belief systems.”

Using Terror Management Theory, the study suggests that constant reminders of mortality—through rocket attacks, media coverage, and military service—can drive people to seek meaning through cultural or spiritual values, though the direction depends on their personal and community context.

Terror Management Theory (TMT) is a psychological framework developed in the 1980s, based on the idea that conscious knowledge of death creates existential anxiety, which people manage by clinging to cultural beliefs, values, and worldviews that give life meaning and offer a sense of symbolic or literal immortality.

Unlike earlier studies conducted long after conflicts ended, this research captured changes in real time, offering a rare glimpse into how beliefs evolve during the first months of war, the authors said.