The War Within: Israel%E2%80%99s Ultra-Orthodox Threat to Democracy and the Nation

A mysterious late night phone call to Israeli journalist Elizur sets the stage for this investigative piece, co-authored with fellow journalist Malkin and originally published in Hebrew in 2009, in which the pair examine the growing internal divide Israel faces from their own Ultra-Orthodox (haredi) population. Several key issues lurk beneath this rift between the haredim and other Jews: a lack of military support by the haredim, who are generally exempt from conscription; single track education that focuses exclusively on Talmudic studies and does not prepare men to work outside the yeshiva; financial subsidies from right-wing parties to support their large families because the men do not work; and unequal rights of women. The authors do present some quotidian challenges facing "the haredim, who isolate themselves from the wider world while trying to impose their values on it": smartphones and the Internet are at once considered both tools of commerce and dangerous elements of modern times, offering access to a world outside narrow rabbinical authority and censorship. Though one criticism of the book is that several exposed moments of internal haredi criticism occur under a veil of secrecy, the greater social and political issues remain salient and troubling. (Mar.)