🔗 Share this article

Two years have passed since that horrific attack of 7 October 2023, an event that profoundly impacted world Jewry like no other occurrence following the founding of the Jewish state.

Within Jewish communities it was deeply traumatic. For the state of Israel, the situation represented a significant embarrassment. The entire Zionist project was founded on the presumption that the nation would prevent similar tragedies occurring in the future.

Military action appeared unavoidable. Yet the chosen course Israel pursued – the obliteration of Gaza, the casualties of many thousands ordinary people – was a choice. This selected path complicated how many Jewish Americans understood the initial assault that precipitated the response, and presently makes difficult their observance of the anniversary. How does one honor and reflect on an atrocity against your people during an atrocity experienced by a different population attributed to their identity?

The Challenge of Mourning

The difficulty in grieving exists because of the circumstance where there is no consensus regarding what any of this means. Actually, within US Jewish circles, the recent twenty-four months have seen the disintegration of a fifty-year consensus on Zionism itself.

The beginnings of Zionist agreement among American Jewry extends as far back as a 1915 essay written by a legal scholar subsequently appointed supreme court justice Louis D. Brandeis named “The Jewish Question; Addressing the Challenge”. However, the agreement became firmly established subsequent to the 1967 conflict that year. Earlier, US Jewish communities maintained a fragile but stable parallel existence among different factions which maintained diverse perspectives regarding the requirement of a Jewish state – pro-Israel advocates, neutral parties and anti-Zionists.

Previous Developments

That coexistence persisted throughout the mid-twentieth century, in remnants of socialist Jewish movements, in the non-Zionist US Jewish group, among the opposing religious group and other organizations. Regarding Chancellor Finkelstein, the head at JTS, Zionism was primarily theological rather than political, and he prohibited performance of the Israeli national anthem, the national song, at religious school events in the early 1960s. Additionally, Zionism and pro-Israelism the centerpiece of Modern Orthodoxy prior to the 1967 conflict. Jewish identitarian alternatives coexisted.

However following Israel overcame neighboring countries in the six-day war in 1967, seizing land comprising the West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights and Jerusalem's eastern sector, the American Jewish relationship to the country underwent significant transformation. The military success, coupled with persistent concerns regarding repeated persecution, led to an increasing conviction in the country’s critical importance for Jewish communities, and generated admiration regarding its endurance. Language about the “miraculous” nature of the victory and the reclaiming of land gave the movement a theological, almost redemptive, importance. During that enthusiastic period, much of the remaining ambivalence toward Israel vanished. During the seventies, Commentary magazine editor Podhoretz famously proclaimed: “Zionism unites us all.”

The Unity and Restrictions

The pro-Israel agreement did not include the ultra-Orthodox – who generally maintained Israel should only be established via conventional understanding of the messiah – but united Reform, Conservative, contemporary Orthodox and most unaffiliated individuals. The common interpretation of the consensus, later termed liberal Zionism, was established on the idea regarding Israel as a democratic and free – though Jewish-centered – state. Countless Jewish Americans viewed the control of local, Syrian and Egypt's territories post-1967 as not permanent, assuming that a resolution was forthcoming that would maintain Jewish population majority within Israel's original borders and Middle Eastern approval of the state.

Multiple generations of Jewish Americans were raised with support for Israel a fundamental aspect of their religious identity. The state transformed into a key component within religious instruction. Yom Ha'atzmaut evolved into a religious observance. Israeli flags decorated most synagogues. Youth programs integrated with Israeli songs and education of modern Hebrew, with visitors from Israel instructing American youth Israeli customs. Travel to Israel expanded and reached new heights with Birthright Israel by 1999, offering complimentary travel to the nation was provided to US Jewish youth. The state affected virtually all areas of US Jewish life.

Evolving Situation

Paradoxically, throughout these years post-1967, US Jewish communities grew skilled in religious diversity. Acceptance and communication among different Jewish movements expanded.

Except when it came to the Israeli situation – that’s where tolerance ended. One could identify as a rightwing Zionist or a leftwing Zionist, however endorsement of the nation as a Jewish state remained unquestioned, and questioning that position placed you beyond accepted boundaries – an “Un-Jew”, as one publication labeled it in an essay recently.

However currently, during of the destruction of Gaza, famine, young victims and anger about the rejection within Jewish communities who decline to acknowledge their involvement, that consensus has collapsed. The centrist pro-Israel view {has lost|no longer