🔗 Share this article

Two years have passed since the horrific attack of October 7, 2023, an event that deeply affected global Jewish populations like no other occurrence following the founding of Israel as a nation.

Among Jewish people the event proved profoundly disturbing. For the state of Israel, it was deeply humiliating. The whole Zionist movement was founded on the belief that the nation could stop such atrocities from ever happening again.

Military action was inevitable. However, the particular response Israel pursued – the obliteration of Gaza, the deaths and injuries of many thousands of civilians – represented a decision. This particular approach created complexity in how many American Jews processed the October 7th events that set it in motion, and presently makes difficult the community's observance of the anniversary. How does one honor and reflect on an atrocity affecting their nation while simultaneously a catastrophe done to another people connected to their community?

The Complexity of Grieving

The challenge surrounding remembrance stems from the reality that little unity prevails regarding the implications of these developments. Indeed, within US Jewish circles, the recent twenty-four months have experienced the disintegration of a fifty-year agreement on Zionism itself.

The beginnings of a Zionist consensus across American Jewish populations extends as far back as a 1915 essay written by a legal scholar and then future Supreme Court judge Justice Brandeis named “The Jewish Problem; How to Solve it”. Yet the unity really takes hold following the 1967 conflict during 1967. Earlier, US Jewish communities maintained a vulnerable but enduring coexistence between groups holding different opinions about the need for Israel – pro-Israel advocates, neutral parties and anti-Zionists.

Previous Developments

That coexistence persisted through the 1950s and 60s, through surviving aspects of leftist Jewish organizations, through the non-aligned US Jewish group, in the anti-Zionist religious group and similar institutions. In the view of Louis Finkelstein, the leader at JTS, Zionism was more spiritual rather than political, and he forbade singing Hatikvah, the national song, during seminary ceremonies in those years. Nor were Zionist ideology the central focus for contemporary Orthodox communities prior to that war. Jewish identitarian alternatives remained present.

However following Israel routed adjacent nations in the six-day war that year, seizing land comprising Palestinian territories, Gaza Strip, the Golan and East Jerusalem, the American Jewish connection with the nation underwent significant transformation. The military success, combined with longstanding fears about another genocide, led to an increasing conviction in the country’s critical importance for Jewish communities, and a source of pride in its resilience. Rhetoric regarding the extraordinary quality of the outcome and the “liberation” of land gave the movement a religious, even messianic, importance. During that enthusiastic period, a significant portion of previous uncertainty toward Israel disappeared. In the early 1970s, Writer Podhoretz stated: “We are all Zionists now.”

The Unity and Restrictions

The pro-Israel agreement left out strictly Orthodox communities – who typically thought a nation should only be ushered in by a traditional rendering of redemption – yet included Reform, Conservative Judaism, contemporary Orthodox and the majority of secular Jews. The common interpretation of the unified position, later termed liberal Zionism, was based on a belief regarding Israel as a progressive and liberal – while majority-Jewish – country. Countless Jewish Americans viewed the occupation of local, Syrian and Egypt's territories post-1967 as provisional, assuming that a solution was imminent that would guarantee a Jewish majority within Israel's original borders and neighbor recognition of the nation.

Several cohorts of American Jews grew up with support for Israel an essential component of their religious identity. Israel became a key component in Jewish learning. Israeli national day turned into a celebration. Blue and white banners were displayed in most synagogues. Seasonal activities were permeated with national melodies and the study of the language, with visitors from Israel and teaching American teenagers Israeli culture. Trips to the nation increased and peaked with Birthright Israel by 1999, offering complimentary travel to the nation was offered to young American Jews. The state affected almost the entirety of US Jewish life.

Changing Dynamics

Ironically, in these decades post-1967, American Jewry developed expertise regarding denominational coexistence. Acceptance and dialogue between Jewish denominations expanded.

However regarding the Israeli situation – there existed diversity reached its limit. One could identify as a right-leaning advocate or a liberal advocate, however endorsement of the nation as a Jewish homeland was a given, and questioning that perspective placed you outside mainstream views – an “Un-Jew”, as Tablet magazine termed it in writing in 2021.

However currently, amid of the devastation within Gaza, food shortages, child casualties and frustration regarding the refusal by numerous Jewish individuals who avoid admitting their responsibility, that unity has disintegrated. The centrist pro-Israel view {has lost|no longer