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Marking two years after that mass murder of October 7, 2023, an event that deeply affected global Jewish populations unlike anything else since the creation of the state of Israel.

Among Jewish people the event proved profoundly disturbing. For the Israeli government, it was a profound disgrace. The whole Zionist project was founded on the belief that the Jewish state would prevent such atrocities repeating.

Military action appeared unavoidable. But the response Israel pursued – the obliteration of the Gaza Strip, the killing and maiming of many thousands non-combatants – represented a decision. This selected path created complexity in how many Jewish Americans understood the October 7th events that triggered it, and presently makes difficult their observance of that date. How can someone honor and reflect on a horrific event against your people in the midst of an atrocity experienced by another people connected to their community?

The Challenge of Mourning

The challenge surrounding remembrance exists because of the circumstance where little unity prevails regarding the significance of these events. Indeed, within US Jewish circles, the recent twenty-four months have experienced the collapse of a decades-long consensus regarding Zionism.

The early development of a Zionist consensus across American Jewish populations extends as far back as writings from 1915 authored by an attorney subsequently appointed Supreme Court judge Louis Brandeis titled “Jewish Issues; Finding Solutions”. However, the agreement really takes hold following the Six-Day War in 1967. Before then, Jewish Americans maintained a delicate yet functioning coexistence across various segments which maintained diverse perspectives about the requirement for a Jewish nation – pro-Israel advocates, non-Zionists and opponents.

Previous Developments

Such cohabitation persisted during the mid-twentieth century, through surviving aspects of Jewish socialism, through the non-aligned American Jewish Committee, among the opposing American Council for Judaism and other organizations. Regarding Chancellor Finkelstein, the chancellor of the theological institution, Zionism was primarily theological than political, and he prohibited singing Hatikvah, the national song, at religious school events in the early 1960s. Nor were Zionism and pro-Israelism the centerpiece within modern Orthodox Judaism prior to the six-day war. Jewish identitarian alternatives existed alongside.

Yet after Israel routed neighboring countries during the 1967 conflict in 1967, occupying territories including Palestinian territories, Gaza, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, the American Jewish connection with the nation underwent significant transformation. The military success, along with enduring anxieties about another genocide, resulted in a developing perspective regarding Israel's critical importance for Jewish communities, and created pride in its resilience. Language about the remarkable quality of the outcome and the “liberation” of territory gave the movement a religious, almost redemptive, meaning. In those heady years, much of the remaining ambivalence regarding Zionism vanished. In that decade, Publication editor Norman Podhoretz declared: “We are all Zionists now.”

The Consensus and Restrictions

The pro-Israel agreement excluded strictly Orthodox communities – who largely believed a Jewish state should only be established via conventional understanding of the Messiah – but united Reform Judaism, Conservative Judaism, contemporary Orthodox and most non-affiliated Jews. The most popular form of the consensus, later termed liberal Zionism, was established on the conviction about the nation as a progressive and democratic – albeit ethnocentric – nation. Countless Jewish Americans viewed the occupation of Arab, Syrian and Egypt's territories following the war as not permanent, believing that an agreement was imminent that would maintain a Jewish majority in Israel proper and regional acceptance of the state.

Several cohorts of Jewish Americans grew up with support for Israel an essential component of their identity as Jews. The nation became an important element within religious instruction. Yom Ha'atzmaut turned into a celebration. National symbols decorated most synagogues. Youth programs became infused with national melodies and education of contemporary Hebrew, with visitors from Israel educating American teenagers national traditions. Travel to Israel grew and reached new heights via educational trips in 1999, offering complimentary travel to the nation was offered to young American Jews. Israel permeated nearly every aspect of Jewish American identity.

Shifting Landscape

Ironically, during this period post-1967, Jewish Americans developed expertise regarding denominational coexistence. Tolerance and discussion among different Jewish movements expanded.

Except when it came to support for Israel – that represented diversity reached its limit. One could identify as a conservative supporter or a leftwing Zionist, however endorsement of the nation as a majority-Jewish country was assumed, and criticizing that narrative placed you outside the consensus – an “Un-Jew”, as Tablet magazine labeled it in a piece in 2021.

However currently, amid of the destruction in Gaza, famine, dead and orphaned children and outrage over the denial by numerous Jewish individuals who refuse to recognize their complicity, that unity has disintegrated. The liberal Zionist “center” {has lost|no longer