On March 2 last year, hundreds of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews demonstrated in Jerusalem against the bill for drafting yeshiva (rabbinical college) students to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Exactly two weeks later on the Purim festival, thousands of ultra-Orthodox children donned green uniforms, armed themselves with long plastic rifles and masqueraded as IDF soldiers. This contradiction sums up the ultra-Orthodox public’s convoluted attitude toward the IDF in a nutshell: a mix of both affection and fear.
On April 22, Israel held its annual Memorial Day for fallen soldiers. This day is a very painful one for Israel’s small, extended familial society, a society in which almost everyone has come face-to-face with bereavement and loss in his or her inner circle. For the ultra-Orthodox public, it's also a day of guilt and fear. Guilt because the ultra-Orthodox community is, to a great extent, not part of Israel’s “extended bereavement family,” and fear of what the future will bring. They dread the unavoidable clash within Israeli society surrounding the issue of drafting the ultra-Orthodox into the IDF.
