A survey taken by the religious-Zionist polling company Miskar finds that it is "very important" to 14% of those who call themselves "formerly religious" that their children observe at least part of the Jewish traditions. Another 45% said that it is "important" to them.
The poll surveyed 250 datlashim, an acronym for "datiim l'she'avar," or formerly religious.
The survey was commissioned by the organizers of a new neighborhood called N'vei Dror, which is being built especially for the datlash populace in the northern Shomron community Mevo Dotan.
Although the respondents identify themselves as datlashim, thus making a clear statement, 73% of them said they "observe tradition" to one extent or another.
Surprisingly, a quarter of the formerly-religious live in religious areas.
A recent advertising campaign for N'vei Dror in weekly Torah sheets distributed in synagogues attempted to be tongue-in-cheek, but was not well-received in the religious-Zionist community. "If you're already on your way to hell, why not live meanwhile in a Paradise?" asked one ad that was addressed to datlashim.
The new community is said to be an attempt to solve the problem of young couples who do not want to live in either a religious or secular environment, but rather want a little of both, with a suburban community setting as is found in many Judea/Samaria towns to boot.
An important poll question dealt with where the datlashim are planning to send their children to school. Only 42% said they would send (or are sending) their children a public-religious nursery, and 40% said they would continue doing so for elementary school. For junior high school and high school age, only 25% said they would choose the public-religious school system for their offspring.