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It has been that deadly assault of 7 October 2023, which profoundly impacted world Jewry more than any event since the founding of the Jewish state.

Among Jewish people the event proved shocking. For the state of Israel, it was deeply humiliating. The entire Zionist project rested on the presumption that Israel would prevent such atrocities from ever happening again.

A response appeared unavoidable. But the response that Israel implemented – the obliteration of Gaza, the killing and maiming of numerous non-combatants – represented a decision. This particular approach made more difficult how many Jewish Americans grappled with the initial assault that set it in motion, and presently makes difficult the community's commemoration of the anniversary. How can someone grieve and remember an atrocity against your people while simultaneously a catastrophe being inflicted upon a different population in your name?

The Difficulty of Grieving

The challenge surrounding remembrance lies in the circumstance where no agreement exists about what any of this means. In fact, for the American Jewish community, this two-year period have experienced the disintegration of a decades-long unity regarding Zionism.

The beginnings of pro-Israel unity across American Jewish populations extends as far back as an early twentieth-century publication written by a legal scholar and then future Supreme Court judge Louis D. Brandeis called “The Jewish Question; Finding Solutions”. But the consensus became firmly established subsequent to the Six-Day War during 1967. Before then, American Jewry maintained a delicate yet functioning parallel existence between groups that had different opinions regarding the necessity for Israel – pro-Israel advocates, non-Zionists and anti-Zionists.

Background Information

Such cohabitation endured through the 1950s and 60s, within remaining elements of socialist Jewish movements, in the non-Zionist US Jewish group, within the critical religious group and other organizations. For Louis Finkelstein, the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, pro-Israel ideology had greater religious significance instead of governmental, and he prohibited performance of the Israeli national anthem, the national song, during seminary ceremonies during that period. Nor were Zionist ideology the centerpiece of Modern Orthodoxy prior to the 1967 conflict. Different Jewish identity models coexisted.

However following Israel defeated its neighbors in that war that year, taking control of areas comprising the West Bank, Gaza Strip, the Golan and Jerusalem's eastern sector, US Jewish relationship to the nation underwent significant transformation. The triumphant outcome, along with longstanding fears about another genocide, resulted in a developing perspective in the country’s vital role for Jewish communities, and generated admiration for its strength. Language about the “miraculous” nature of the outcome and the freeing of territory provided the movement a spiritual, potentially salvific, significance. In those heady years, a significant portion of the remaining ambivalence toward Israel disappeared. During the seventies, Publication editor Norman Podhoretz stated: “Zionism unites us all.”

The Consensus and Its Limits

The pro-Israel agreement excluded Haredi Jews – who typically thought Israel should only be ushered in by a traditional rendering of the messiah – but united Reform, Conservative, contemporary Orthodox and nearly all secular Jews. The most popular form of this agreement, later termed left-leaning Zionism, was founded on the idea in Israel as a democratic and liberal – albeit ethnocentric – nation. Many American Jews considered the control of Palestinian, Syrian and Egyptian lands following the war as not permanent, assuming that a resolution would soon emerge that would guarantee Jewish demographic dominance in Israel proper and regional acceptance of the state.

Two generations of Jewish Americans were raised with support for Israel an essential component of their identity as Jews. The nation became an important element in Jewish learning. Israel’s Independence Day became a Jewish holiday. National symbols decorated most synagogues. Youth programs were permeated with Hebrew music and the study of modern Hebrew, with visitors from Israel instructing American teenagers national traditions. Trips to the nation grew and reached new heights through Birthright programs by 1999, offering complimentary travel to the nation was provided to US Jewish youth. The state affected almost the entirety of the American Jewish experience.

Evolving Situation

Interestingly, during this period following the war, American Jewry developed expertise regarding denominational coexistence. Tolerance and dialogue among different Jewish movements grew.

However regarding Zionism and Israel – there existed tolerance reached its limit. One could identify as a conservative supporter or a progressive supporter, however endorsement of the nation as a Jewish homeland remained unquestioned, and questioning that position placed you outside the consensus – outside the community, as one publication termed it in an essay that year.

But now, amid of the devastation in Gaza, famine, young victims and outrage over the denial within Jewish communities who decline to acknowledge their complicity, that unity has disintegrated. The liberal Zionist “center” {has lost|no longer