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It has been the mass murder of the events of October 7th, an event that profoundly impacted world Jewry more than any event since the creation of the Jewish state.

Among Jewish people it was shocking. For Israel as a nation, the situation represented a significant embarrassment. The entire Zionist project rested on the presumption that the nation would prevent similar tragedies occurring in the future.

Some form of retaliation appeared unavoidable. However, the particular response Israel pursued – the widespread destruction of Gaza, the deaths and injuries of numerous of civilians – was a choice. This particular approach made more difficult the way numerous Jewish Americans understood the October 7th events that triggered it, and presently makes difficult their observance of that date. In what way can people mourn and commemorate an atrocity affecting their nation during a catastrophe done to other individuals in your name?

The Difficulty of Grieving

The complexity surrounding remembrance lies in the fact that there is no consensus about what any of this means. Actually, among Jewish Americans, the recent twenty-four months have experienced the collapse of a decades-long agreement regarding Zionism.

The beginnings of pro-Israel unity within US Jewish communities can be traced to writings from 1915 authored by an attorney who would later become supreme court justice Louis Brandeis named “The Jewish Question; Finding Solutions”. But the consensus really takes hold following the six-day war during 1967. Earlier, US Jewish communities maintained a vulnerable but enduring coexistence between groups holding a range of views concerning the necessity for a Jewish nation – Zionists, neutral parties and opponents.

Historical Context

That coexistence endured through the post-war decades, through surviving aspects of Jewish socialism, through the non-aligned Jewish communal organization, in the anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism and similar institutions. Regarding Chancellor Finkelstein, the chancellor of the theological institution, pro-Israel ideology was primarily theological instead of governmental, and he did not permit singing Hatikvah, Hatikvah, at religious school events in the early 1960s. Nor were support for Israel the main element of Modern Orthodoxy until after that war. Different Jewish identity models coexisted.

However following Israel routed adjacent nations in the six-day war during that period, seizing land including the West Bank, Gaza Strip, the Golan and East Jerusalem, the American Jewish relationship to the country underwent significant transformation. The military success, combined with persistent concerns regarding repeated persecution, produced a growing belief in the country’s vital role for Jewish communities, and a source of pride regarding its endurance. Rhetoric regarding the extraordinary aspect of the success and the “liberation” of territory provided the Zionist project a religious, potentially salvific, significance. In those heady years, a significant portion of the remaining ambivalence toward Israel disappeared. During the seventies, Writer Norman Podhoretz famously proclaimed: “We are all Zionists now.”

The Unity and Its Boundaries

The unified position excluded the ultra-Orthodox – who typically thought Israel should only be ushered in by a traditional rendering of the messiah – however joined Reform Judaism, Conservative, Modern Orthodox and nearly all unaffiliated individuals. The most popular form of this agreement, later termed left-leaning Zionism, was based on the conviction about the nation as a liberal and free – albeit ethnocentric – country. Numerous US Jews considered the control of local, Syria's and Egypt's territories following the war as provisional, thinking that an agreement would soon emerge that would maintain a Jewish majority in pre-1967 Israel and regional acceptance of Israel.

Two generations of US Jews were raised with Zionism a fundamental aspect of their religious identity. The nation became a central part of Jewish education. Yom Ha'atzmaut evolved into a religious observance. Blue and white banners adorned religious institutions. Youth programs were permeated with national melodies and education of modern Hebrew, with Israelis visiting instructing American teenagers national traditions. Trips to the nation grew and achieved record numbers with Birthright Israel in 1999, offering complimentary travel to Israel was provided to Jewish young adults. The nation influenced almost the entirety of the American Jewish experience.

Shifting Landscape

Interestingly, in these decades after 1967, US Jewish communities grew skilled in religious diversity. Tolerance and communication between Jewish denominations expanded.

Except when it came to support for Israel – there existed pluralism found its boundary. Individuals might align with a conservative supporter or a progressive supporter, however endorsement of the nation as a Jewish homeland remained unquestioned, and challenging that position categorized you outside mainstream views – outside the community, as one publication termed it in a piece recently.

Yet presently, during of the ruin of Gaza, food shortages, dead and orphaned children and frustration about the rejection of many fellow Jews who avoid admitting their complicity, that unity has broken down. The liberal Zionist “center” {has lost|no longer