JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Shas chairman Aryeh Deri announced Thursday a new initiative aimed at strengthening Jewish identity in Israel, pledging to provide free tefillin and prayer shawls to boys reaching bar mitzvah age and ensure that schools accommodate students wishing to pray during the school day.

The program, called “Tefillin for Every Child,” would provide every boy turning 13 with a complimentary bar mitzvah kit containing a pair of tefillin and a tallit distributed through the education system. Deri said Shas would seek to implement the initiative as part of the next government, presenting it as a response to what he described as growing efforts to undermine Israel’s Jewish character.

“Recently, we have been hearing disturbing statements threatening the Jewish identity of the State of Israel,” Deri declared. “They want to turn it into a country like all other nations. That will never happen.”

Deri specifically criticized statements attributed to Democrats Party chairman Yair Golan and a Tel Aviv municipal council member, accusing them of promoting an agenda that would weaken the presence of Judaism in Israeli public life. “These are deeply disturbing and shocking statements,” Deri said. “Therefore, the Shas movement is committing to passing a new program in the next government: ‘Tefillin for Every Child.’”

He emphasized the historical and religious significance of tefillin, which observant Jewish men traditionally wear during weekday morning prayers. “Tefillin have been a symbol of the Jewish people throughout the generations,” Deri said, adding that the initiative would express the nation’s enduring connection to its religious heritage.

Beyond distributing religious items, Shas intends to introduce measures requiring schools to designate suitable prayer spaces for students who wish to put on tefillin and pray during school hours. According to the party, the requirement would ensure that students interested in observing Jewish religious practices have appropriate facilities available to them.

The proposal comes amid continuing political and cultural disagreements over the role of religion in Israel’s public institutions, particularly within the state education system.
While religious schools already incorporate prayer and religious observance into their daily schedules, secular public schools generally do not require students to participate in religious activities. The proposed measures could therefore raise questions about how schools would accommodate voluntary religious observance while respecting the preferences of students from different backgrounds.

The initiative would also carry financial implications. Tefillin are traditionally handmade from leather and contain handwritten parchment scrolls bearing passages from the Torah. Kosher sets cost thousands of shekels, depending on their quality and craftsmanship. Providing them nationwide would therefore require substantial government funding, although Deri did not announce an estimated budget, eligibility criteria, or details about how the program would be administered.