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Marking two years after the mass murder of 7 October 2023, which deeply affected global Jewish populations more than any event following the founding of Israel as a nation.

Within Jewish communities the event proved shocking. For the Israeli government, the situation represented a significant embarrassment. The whole Zionist project had been established on the belief which held that the nation would prevent things like this repeating.

Military action was inevitable. However, the particular response undertaken by Israel – the obliteration of the Gaza Strip, the killing and maiming of many thousands non-combatants – was a choice. This particular approach created complexity in the way numerous American Jews grappled with the initial assault that set it in motion, and currently challenges the community's remembrance of the anniversary. In what way can people honor and reflect on a horrific event against your people in the midst of devastation being inflicted upon a different population connected to their community?

The Challenge of Mourning

The challenge in grieving lies in the reality that little unity prevails regarding what any of this means. Indeed, for the American Jewish community, this two-year period have seen the breakdown of a fifty-year consensus on Zionism itself.

The early development of pro-Israel unity among American Jewry dates back to writings from 1915 authored by an attorney subsequently appointed high court jurist Louis D. Brandeis called “Jewish Issues; Finding Solutions”. However, the agreement really takes hold subsequent to the Six-Day War that year. Earlier, American Jewry contained a vulnerable but enduring coexistence among different factions that had a range of views about the necessity for a Jewish nation – Zionists, neutral parties and anti-Zionists.

Background Information

Such cohabitation continued during the post-war decades, in remnants of leftist Jewish organizations, within the neutral American Jewish Committee, among the opposing religious group and comparable entities. Regarding Chancellor Finkelstein, the leader at JTS, Zionism had greater religious significance instead of governmental, and he forbade performance of Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem, at religious school events during that period. Furthermore, Zionist ideology the centerpiece for contemporary Orthodox communities prior to the six-day war. Different Jewish identity models remained present.

But after Israel overcame neighboring countries in the six-day war that year, occupying territories such as Palestinian territories, Gaza Strip, the Golan and Jerusalem's eastern sector, US Jewish perspective on the nation evolved considerably. The military success, combined with persistent concerns regarding repeated persecution, produced a developing perspective about the nation's vital role to the Jewish people, and a source of pride regarding its endurance. Discourse concerning the remarkable quality of the outcome and the reclaiming of land gave the Zionist project a theological, almost redemptive, significance. During that enthusiastic period, much of the remaining ambivalence toward Israel dissipated. In the early 1970s, Writer the commentator declared: “We are all Zionists now.”

The Agreement and Its Boundaries

The pro-Israel agreement did not include the ultra-Orthodox – who generally maintained a nation should only emerge via conventional understanding of the Messiah – yet included Reform Judaism, Conservative, Modern Orthodox and the majority of unaffiliated individuals. The predominant version of the unified position, later termed left-leaning Zionism, was founded on the conviction about the nation as a liberal and free – though Jewish-centered – nation. Many American Jews saw the occupation of local, Syria's and Egypt's territories after 1967 as provisional, believing that a resolution was imminent that would ensure a Jewish majority within Israel's original borders and neighbor recognition of the state.

Multiple generations of American Jews grew up with Zionism a fundamental aspect of their religious identity. The nation became a key component of Jewish education. Yom Ha'atzmaut turned into a celebration. Blue and white banners decorated many temples. Summer camps became infused with Hebrew music and education of contemporary Hebrew, with Israelis visiting and teaching American teenagers Israeli customs. Trips to the nation expanded and reached new heights with Birthright Israel during that year, offering complimentary travel to Israel became available to US Jewish youth. The nation influenced almost the entirety of US Jewish life.

Changing Dynamics

Interestingly, in these decades after 1967, Jewish Americans developed expertise in religious diversity. Tolerance and discussion between Jewish denominations expanded.

However regarding Zionism and Israel – that represented pluralism found its boundary. Individuals might align with a conservative supporter or a liberal advocate, yet backing Israel as a Jewish homeland was a given, and questioning that position categorized you beyond accepted boundaries – an “Un-Jew”, as Tablet magazine described it in a piece that year.

But now, amid of the ruin of Gaza, famine, dead and orphaned children and frustration regarding the refusal of many fellow Jews who decline to acknowledge their responsibility, that consensus has broken down. The liberal Zionist “center” {has lost|no longer