In the Books of the Maccabees, martyrdom appears as an ultimate testimony of fidelity to the Law and to the religious identity of Israel in the face of persecution. Emblematic figures such as the mother and her seven sons described in 2 Maccabees, as well as Eleazar, embody a model of death freely accepted in the name of God, in which the religious dimension and the collective identity of the people of Israel are closely intertwined. In the contemporary era, the memory of Israeli soldiers who have fallen in the defense of the State of Israel is sometimes interpreted through symbolic categories that implicitly or explicitly evoke the tradition of martyrdom. Although situated within a profoundly different context, certain public and religious narratives tend to place the soldiers' death within a broader history of collective survival and of the defense of the existence of the Jewish people. Through a comparative analysis of ancient sources and contemporary discourses, this contribution aims to show how the category of martyrdom can function as a device of memory and identity construction, capable of connecting ancient religious traditions with modern forms of national narrative.