🔗 Share this article

Two years have passed since the horrific attack of 7 October 2023, an event that shook global Jewish populations more than any event following the founding of the state of Israel.

Within Jewish communities it was deeply traumatic. For the state of Israel, it was a significant embarrassment. The whole Zionist endeavor rested on the belief that Israel would prevent similar tragedies occurring in the future.

Military action seemed necessary. Yet the chosen course undertaken by Israel – the widespread destruction of the Gaza Strip, the deaths and injuries of tens of thousands of civilians – was a choice. And this choice made more difficult the perspective of many US Jewish community members processed the attack that precipitated the response, and currently challenges their commemoration of the day. In what way can people grieve and remember an atrocity affecting their nation in the midst of a catastrophe done to a different population attributed to their identity?

The Complexity of Grieving

The challenge of mourning exists because of the reality that little unity prevails as to the implications of these developments. Indeed, among Jewish Americans, this two-year period have seen the disintegration of a half-century-old agreement about the Zionist movement.

The beginnings of Zionist agreement among American Jewry can be traced to an early twentieth-century publication authored by an attorney subsequently appointed high court jurist Louis Brandeis named “The Jewish Problem; Addressing the Challenge”. Yet the unity became firmly established subsequent to the six-day war that year. Previously, American Jewry contained a vulnerable but enduring coexistence across various segments holding different opinions about the necessity of a Jewish state – Zionists, non-Zionists and anti-Zionists.

Historical Context

This parallel existence endured through the post-war decades, within remaining elements of Jewish socialism, in the non-Zionist Jewish communal organization, in the anti-Zionist Jewish organization and comparable entities. For Louis Finkelstein, the leader at JTS, pro-Israel ideology was primarily theological than political, and he forbade the singing of Israel's anthem, Hatikvah, during seminary ceremonies in the early 1960s. Furthermore, Zionism and pro-Israelism the centerpiece within modern Orthodox Judaism prior to the 1967 conflict. Jewish identitarian alternatives remained present.

But after Israel overcame its neighbors in the six-day war that year, seizing land such as the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan and East Jerusalem, US Jewish perspective on Israel evolved considerably. The triumphant outcome, coupled with persistent concerns about another genocide, resulted in an increasing conviction about the nation's vital role for Jewish communities, and generated admiration for its strength. Rhetoric regarding the extraordinary nature of the success and the reclaiming of land provided Zionism a spiritual, potentially salvific, importance. In that triumphant era, considerable previous uncertainty regarding Zionism vanished. During the seventies, Writer Norman Podhoretz famously proclaimed: “Zionism unites us all.”

The Unity and Restrictions

The pro-Israel agreement left out Haredi Jews – who generally maintained a nation should only emerge by a traditional rendering of the Messiah – however joined Reform, Conservative, contemporary Orthodox and nearly all secular Jews. The predominant version of this agreement, what became known as left-leaning Zionism, was based on the idea in Israel as a democratic and free – albeit ethnocentric – state. Countless Jewish Americans considered the control of local, Syria's and Egyptian lands following the war as not permanent, believing that an agreement would soon emerge that would guarantee Jewish demographic dominance in pre-1967 Israel and Middle Eastern approval of the nation.

Multiple generations of American Jews were raised with pro-Israel ideology an essential component of their religious identity. Israel became a central part in Jewish learning. Yom Ha'atzmaut evolved into a religious observance. Israeli flags adorned religious institutions. Seasonal activities became infused with Hebrew music and the study of contemporary Hebrew, with Israelis visiting educating US young people national traditions. Trips to the nation grew and reached new heights with Birthright Israel by 1999, providing no-cost visits to the country was provided to US Jewish youth. Israel permeated nearly every aspect of US Jewish life.

Changing Dynamics

Paradoxically, during this period following the war, US Jewish communities grew skilled in religious diversity. Tolerance and discussion among different Jewish movements grew.

Yet concerning the Israeli situation – there existed diversity ended. Individuals might align with a conservative supporter or a liberal advocate, but support for Israel as a majority-Jewish country was assumed, and challenging that narrative categorized you beyond accepted boundaries – outside the community, as one publication described it in a piece in 2021.

Yet presently, amid of the devastation in Gaza, food shortages, child casualties and anger about the rejection within Jewish communities who avoid admitting their responsibility, that agreement has collapsed. The centrist pro-Israel view {has lost|no longer