Religion as a response to life's suffering
Religion is presented in two lights in this novel. First there is the dark aspect of religion, the tribal warfare and racism that arises from religious differences. That must not be ignored, because it is the central dilemma of Michael's life. Second, there is the good, helpful aspect of religion, like when Michael realizes that he could change his situation through good, steady religious thought.
In the end, he settles on a religious idea that is clumsy, but it serves as a symbol for his usage of religion: He decides to summon the Golem from Kabbalah folklore to do his bidding. That's a far stretch from average daily Judaism, but we can see that he is exploring religion as a tool to cause justice and peace. Compare that to the violent terrorism of the Irish Catholic gangs, and the theme becomes perfectly obvious.
The power of mysticism and imagination
The value of religious mysticism is that it combines the safety and comfort of commonly held religious beliefs, and it reinvigorates new religious thoughts. The Jewish Kabbalah is one of the central images in the novel, without a doubt. The Kabbalah is essentially a document of Jewish mysticism that verges on actual magic. Jews who treasure the Kabbalah sometimes even believe that through devout religion, they can gain magical powers. The value of this for Michael is that it illuminates his imagination and it makes him work to find solutions to problems instead of settling on trite religious answers like his mother has sometimes done.
The true evil of violence
The novel is plain in its treatment of terrorism and violence. First of all, the protagonist is young enough to be considered an innocent witness, and his opinion is that the Irish gang's consistent harassment and oppression of Jews is racist and evil. But when he goes to find justice, there is none for him to find. His mom gives a hyper-religious answer about the afterlife, but he sees right through it.
This is the novelist challenging the reader to consider the merit of violence and terrorism, from the point of view of a mistreated Jew in New York. If the reader has a soul, they should quickly realize that young Michael is correct in his judgment against the Irish, but a wise reader will also note that Michael might also be on a path to violence, because the novel ends with him wishing to use Jewish magic to slay the terrorists. He still has much anger to sort through before he becomes non-violent.
