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Marking two years after the deadly assault of October 7, 2023, an event that shook world Jewry unlike anything else following the creation of the Jewish state.

Within Jewish communities it was deeply traumatic. For Israel as a nation, it was deeply humiliating. The entire Zionist movement rested on the assumption that Israel would ensure against things like this repeating.

Military action was inevitable. But the response Israel pursued – the obliteration of the Gaza Strip, the casualties of tens of thousands ordinary people – was a choice. This particular approach created complexity in the perspective of many US Jewish community members understood the attack that precipitated the response, and presently makes difficult their observance of the anniversary. How does one honor and reflect on a horrific event affecting their nation during an atrocity experienced by another people in your name?

The Difficulty of Mourning

The challenge of mourning lies in the fact that there is no consensus about the implications of these developments. In fact, within US Jewish circles, this two-year period have witnessed the disintegration of a fifty-year unity about the Zionist movement.

The beginnings of a Zionist consensus among American Jewry can be traced to an early twentieth-century publication authored by an attorney who would later become supreme court justice Louis Brandeis called “The Jewish Question; Addressing the Challenge”. Yet the unity truly solidified after the 1967 conflict in 1967. Previously, US Jewish communities contained a vulnerable but enduring cohabitation between groups which maintained a range of views concerning the necessity for a Jewish nation – Zionists, neutral parties and opponents.

Previous Developments

That coexistence persisted throughout the post-war decades, through surviving aspects of leftist Jewish organizations, through the non-aligned Jewish communal organization, in the anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism and similar institutions. In the view of Louis Finkelstein, the leader of the theological institution, pro-Israel ideology was primarily theological than political, and he did not permit singing Israel's anthem, the Israeli national anthem, at religious school events in the early 1960s. Furthermore, support for Israel the centerpiece for contemporary Orthodox communities before the six-day war. Alternative Jewish perspectives remained present.

But after Israel routed neighboring countries in that war that year, occupying territories comprising Palestinian territories, Gaza, Golan Heights and Jerusalem's eastern sector, the American Jewish perspective on the nation underwent significant transformation. The triumphant outcome, coupled with enduring anxieties of a “second Holocaust”, produced an increasing conviction in the country’s essential significance within Jewish identity, and a source of pride for its strength. Rhetoric regarding the extraordinary aspect of the success and the reclaiming of areas assigned the movement a spiritual, potentially salvific, significance. In those heady years, considerable existing hesitation toward Israel disappeared. During the seventies, Writer Norman Podhoretz declared: “Zionism unites us all.”

The Agreement and Restrictions

The pro-Israel agreement excluded strictly Orthodox communities – who largely believed Israel should only be established by a traditional rendering of the messiah – but united Reform, Conservative, contemporary Orthodox and most unaffiliated individuals. The predominant version of the unified position, what became known as left-leaning Zionism, was established on a belief about the nation as a progressive and democratic – though Jewish-centered – nation. Numerous US Jews considered the administration of local, Syrian and Egyptian lands post-1967 as not permanent, believing that a resolution was forthcoming that would guarantee a Jewish majority in Israel proper and regional acceptance of the nation.

Multiple generations of Jewish Americans grew up with pro-Israel ideology a fundamental aspect of their identity as Jews. The state transformed into a key component of Jewish education. Israel’s Independence Day evolved into a religious observance. Israeli flags decorated religious institutions. Seasonal activities became infused with Hebrew music and education of contemporary Hebrew, with Israelis visiting instructing American youth national traditions. Travel to Israel expanded and reached new heights through Birthright programs in 1999, offering complimentary travel to the country was provided to Jewish young adults. Israel permeated virtually all areas of Jewish American identity.

Changing Dynamics

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

Except when it came to the Israeli situation – there existed diversity found its boundary. Individuals might align with a rightwing Zionist or a leftwing Zionist, but support for Israel as a majority-Jewish country was assumed, and challenging that position placed you outside mainstream views – a non-conformist, as Tablet magazine labeled it in a piece in 2021.

But now, during of the ruin of Gaza, food shortages, child casualties and frustration about the rejection of many fellow Jews who avoid admitting their complicity, that consensus has disintegrated. The liberal Zionist “center” {has lost|no longer