AS EMANCIPATION and increasing religious freedom gradually pushed The majority of modern Jews away from strict observance of Jewish law, a small group of Jews, referred to as Haredim or ultra-Orthodox, worked to shore up religious commitment by creating an insular community and protecting it from the perceived threats of contemporary culture. Grounded in the ultra-conservative ideology of the circle of the Hatam Sofer, a leading nineteenth-century Hungarian rabbi, Haredi Judaism has spread from central Europe to eastern Europe, the United States, Israel, and other countries across the world. The various groups and sub-groups of Haredi Jews maintain slightly different practices and levels of acculturation, but all are characterized by a fear of outside culture and a desire to maintain strict observance of halakhah, Jewish law. As a protective strategy, Haredim adopt a deep religious conservatism, preserve distinctive dress and social norms, and work to isolate group members from outsiders. Haredim try to construct an enclave culture in which a Jew can be socialized into the practices and values of the community. Two of the most important institutions involved in this socialization are the family and the school. Hence Haredi Jewry has put great emphasis on the religious significance of the family and on the network of Haredi schools, which have been created in every Haredi community. The religious atmosphere in these institutions, and the relationship between them and families, are matters of great concern for Haredi Jews.

For many years there was significant tension between Haredi educational institutions and families. The years following the Holocaust were a time of deep crisis for the Jewish people, and in particular for that segment of devout east European Orthodoxy that had centred on the yeshivas, the advanced talmudic academies. The survivors desperately sought to reconstruct what had been lost. Leading rabbis and their followers wanted to establish Haredi yeshivas where young men would be involved singlemindedly in full-time Torah study well into adulthood. However, many parents, even Orthodox ones, did not view this as an ideal for their own children. They had provided their sons with an Orthodox education, but hoped and expected them to move into socially and economically advantageous professions. A future studying in a yeshiva seemed a dead end.