Source: The Washington Post
During its six decades of existence, Israel has maintained a shaky alliance with its ultra-Orthodox Jewish minority that allowed most religious men to avoid military service, attend separate schools and get paid by the state to study the Bible instead of entering the work force.
But this system is coming under new scrutiny, pressured by a series of Supreme Court rulings, an ambitious education minister and the hugely unpopular cost of sustaining a fast-growing ultra-Orthodox population that has few skills for the 21st century and now accounts for one in four Jewish first graders - and growing.
The vitriolic debate has created the first serious threat to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition. His ultra-Orthodox partners are threatening to topple the government if subsidies to their constituents are cut.
The dispute goes far beyond money, touching on the character of the Jewish state in a modern world and the ultra-Orthodox community's place in it.