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Marking two years after that mass murder of 7 October 2023, which deeply affected Jewish communities worldwide more than any event since the creation of the state of Israel.

Among Jewish people the event proved deeply traumatic. For the Israeli government, the situation represented deeply humiliating. The whole Zionist endeavor was founded on the belief that the Jewish state would prevent similar tragedies from ever happening again.

A response seemed necessary. However, the particular response that Israel implemented – the widespread destruction of the Gaza Strip, the killing and maiming of numerous non-combatants – constituted a specific policy. And this choice made more difficult how many American Jews understood the attack that set it in motion, and presently makes difficult the community's observance of that date. How does one honor and reflect on a tragedy affecting their nation in the midst of a catastrophe being inflicted upon another people in your name?

The Complexity of Mourning

The difficulty in grieving exists because of the fact that no agreement exists as to the implications of these developments. Indeed, for the American Jewish community, this two-year period have witnessed the disintegration of a fifty-year unity on Zionism itself.

The early development of pro-Israel unity within US Jewish communities extends as far back as writings from 1915 authored by an attorney who would later become Supreme Court judge Louis Brandeis called “Jewish Issues; How to Solve it”. However, the agreement became firmly established following the Six-Day War during 1967. Earlier, Jewish Americans contained a delicate yet functioning coexistence between groups holding different opinions about the need for Israel – pro-Israel advocates, neutral parties and anti-Zionists.

Historical Context

This parallel existence continued throughout the post-war decades, in remnants of Jewish socialism, through the non-aligned American Jewish Committee, in the anti-Zionist religious group and other organizations. In the view of Louis Finkelstein, the chancellor at JTS, the Zionist movement had greater religious significance than political, and he did not permit performance of Hatikvah, the national song, at JTS ordinations in those years. Furthermore, Zionist ideology the central focus for contemporary Orthodox communities prior to the 1967 conflict. Jewish identitarian alternatives existed alongside.

But after Israel defeated adjacent nations in the six-day war during that period, seizing land such as the West Bank, Gaza Strip, the Golan and Jerusalem's eastern sector, US Jewish connection with the country changed dramatically. The military success, combined with enduring anxieties regarding repeated persecution, resulted in a developing perspective regarding Israel's critical importance to the Jewish people, and created pride for its strength. Language concerning the remarkable aspect of the outcome and the reclaiming of land gave the Zionist project a theological, almost redemptive, meaning. In those heady years, considerable previous uncertainty toward Israel disappeared. In that decade, Commentary magazine editor Podhoretz famously proclaimed: “Everyone supports Zionism today.”

The Unity and Restrictions

The unified position excluded strictly Orthodox communities – who largely believed a nation should only be ushered in through traditional interpretation of redemption – yet included Reform Judaism, Conservative Judaism, Modern Orthodox and the majority of secular Jews. The predominant version of the consensus, what became known as left-leaning Zionism, was based on a belief regarding Israel as a liberal and liberal – though Jewish-centered – nation. Many American Jews saw the control of local, Syria's and Egyptian lands following the war as temporary, assuming that a resolution was forthcoming that would ensure Jewish population majority in Israel proper and regional acceptance of Israel.

Multiple generations of American Jews grew up with pro-Israel ideology a core part of their Jewish identity. The nation became a central part within religious instruction. Israeli national day turned into a celebration. Blue and white banners were displayed in religious institutions. Youth programs became infused with Hebrew music and education of modern Hebrew, with visitors from Israel instructing American teenagers national traditions. Travel to Israel expanded and peaked through Birthright programs by 1999, providing no-cost visits to the nation was provided to young American Jews. The nation influenced almost the entirety of the American Jewish experience.

Shifting Landscape

Interestingly, in these decades post-1967, Jewish Americans grew skilled regarding denominational coexistence. Tolerance and dialogue across various Jewish groups expanded.

Yet concerning the Israeli situation – that represented tolerance ended. One could identify as a rightwing Zionist or a leftwing Zionist, however endorsement of the nation as a majority-Jewish country remained unquestioned, and challenging that narrative categorized you outside the consensus – outside the community, as one publication labeled it in an essay recently.

Yet presently, under the weight of the ruin within Gaza, famine, dead and orphaned children and outrage about the rejection by numerous Jewish individuals who decline to acknowledge their complicity, that unity has collapsed. The centrist pro-Israel view {has lost|no longer