ARTICLE Covid-19, identity, and piety online: ultra-Orthodox discussions in WhatsApp and Telegram groups under social distancing regulations Nakhi Mishol-Shauli and Oren Golan Department of Leadership and Policy in Education, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel ABSTRACT The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted relationships between reli- gious communities and the state. Churches, religious authorities, and believers have been obligated to modify key activities (prayer, ceremonies) and weigh their religious identity against state prohi- bitions. Accordingly, we ask how members of a reclusive religious community negotiated and performed their identity under a prolonged emergency. We analyse intra-communal discourse concerning the state’s social distancing regulations during Covid- 19 outbreaks and lockdowns that occurred in closed groups in messaging apps. Specifically, this research case-studies Jewish ultra-Orthodox communities in Israel (Haredim). Extensive analysis of over 2,000 WhatsApp and Telegram posts in 35 ultra-Orthodox groups over a two-year period indicates that participants constantly sought to affirm their primary, dominant, communal identity. While efforts to integrate adherence to state prohibitions into this primary identity were evident, these efforts were well accepted only when justifying them via affirmation of the communal identity – super- seding medical, political, and practical concerns. The findings advance understanding of minority groups’ attitudes towards state directives and illuminate contemporary pathways of identity dynamics in online social networks. The findings may also be applicable in a broader sense to the study of discourse dynamics in echo chambers and filter bubbles. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 28 June 2022 Accepted 22 December 2023 KEYWORDS WhatsApp; Covid-19; Judaism; identity theory; digital religion; state regulations Introduction The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the relationship between minority communities and their surrounding societies. While interfaces between the state and religious enclaves (as well as other reclusive groups) are historically turbulent and strained, pandemic- related interventions have fomented further distrust and deepened social cleavages, particularly as they threatened the fabric of their members’ identity. Members of religious and ethnic minorities tend to deem communal belonging as their ‘primary identity’, the identity whose (perceived) characteristics take precedence (consciously or unconsciously) CONTACT Nakhi Mishol-Shauli nakhish@gmail.com Department of Leadership and Policy in Education, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel RELIGION, STATE & SOCIETY 2024, VOL. 52, NO. 1, 65–84 https://doi.org/10.1080/09637494.2023.2300205 © 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group