Following Emancipation in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when large numbers of Jews were conscripted into European armies, traditionalist segments perceived army service as a calamity. As demonstrated by Prof. Judith Bleich in an essay from the TRADITION Archives, extreme prejudice and antisemitism persisted in the armed forces and the promise of equality remained an illusion. However, she suggests, casting contemporary military service in the Israeli Army in terms that smack of the Czar’s Army and the cantonist system, especially at a time such as this, completely misses the point.