The Rokeach Terminal Value Scale and an attitude questionaire were administered to two similar groups of female Israeli students before and after the Yom Kippur War. The second group also responded to a questionnaire about the effects of the war on the importance attributed to each of the values. The results were as follows: (a) Subjects stated that after the war, fourteen out of the eighteen values in the Rokeach list increased in importance. (b) The war brought about a significant increase in the relative importance (rank) of four values (pleasure, national security, happiness, and mature love) and a significant decrease in rank for equality. (c) No attitude change was found in respect to issues related to the war itself. (d) Values accounted for a smaller per cent of the variance in attitudes after the war than they did before it. In view of these findings it is suggested that a distinction be made between relative and absolute importance within a value system.