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Two years have passed since that horrific attack of October 7, 2023, which shook world Jewry more than any event following the founding of the state of Israel.

Within Jewish communities it was profoundly disturbing. For Israel as a nation, the situation represented a significant embarrassment. The whole Zionist endeavor was founded on the assumption which held that the nation would prevent such atrocities repeating.

Military action seemed necessary. But the response that Israel implemented – the comprehensive devastation of the Gaza Strip, the deaths and injuries of many thousands non-combatants – represented a decision. This particular approach created complexity in how many American Jews understood the attack that set it in motion, and it now complicates the community's observance of that date. How does one mourn and commemorate a horrific event targeting their community during a catastrophe experienced by other individuals connected to their community?

The Complexity of Remembrance

The challenge surrounding remembrance exists because of the fact that little unity prevails as to the implications of these developments. Actually, for the American Jewish community, the recent twenty-four months have seen the breakdown of a half-century-old agreement on Zionism itself.

The beginnings of Zionist agreement across American Jewish populations extends as far back as an early twentieth-century publication authored by an attorney and then future supreme court justice Justice Brandeis titled “The Jewish Question; Addressing the Challenge”. Yet the unity became firmly established subsequent to the six-day war in 1967. Previously, Jewish Americans contained a delicate yet functioning parallel existence among different factions that had diverse perspectives regarding the necessity for Israel – Zionists, non-Zionists and anti-Zionists.

Background Information

This parallel existence persisted throughout the 1950s and 60s, in remnants of Jewish socialism, in the non-Zionist American Jewish Committee, among the opposing American Council for Judaism and comparable entities. For Louis Finkelstein, the head of the theological institution, Zionism had greater religious significance than political, and he prohibited the singing of Israel's anthem, the Israeli national anthem, at religious school events in those years. Furthermore, Zionist ideology the main element for contemporary Orthodox communities until after the 1967 conflict. Different Jewish identity models remained present.

Yet after Israel routed adjacent nations during the 1967 conflict during that period, taking control of areas including the West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights and Jerusalem's eastern sector, US Jewish connection with Israel evolved considerably. The military success, along with enduring anxieties of a “second Holocaust”, produced a growing belief in the country’s critical importance to the Jewish people, and a source of pride for its strength. Language regarding the extraordinary aspect of the victory and the reclaiming of territory assigned the Zionist project a spiritual, potentially salvific, importance. In those heady years, much of existing hesitation regarding Zionism dissipated. In that decade, Publication editor Norman Podhoretz stated: “Zionism unites us all.”

The Unity and Restrictions

The Zionist consensus left out the ultra-Orthodox – who typically thought a Jewish state should only be established via conventional understanding of redemption – but united Reform Judaism, Conservative, Modern Orthodox and most non-affiliated Jews. The most popular form of the unified position, identified as left-leaning Zionism, was based on a belief in Israel as a progressive and democratic – albeit ethnocentric – nation. Numerous US Jews considered the control of Arab, Syrian and Egyptian lands following the war as not permanent, thinking that a solution was imminent that would maintain a Jewish majority within Israel's original borders and Middle Eastern approval of the state.

Two generations of American Jews grew up with pro-Israel ideology a fundamental aspect of their religious identity. The state transformed into a key component of Jewish education. Israel’s Independence Day evolved into a religious observance. National symbols were displayed in religious institutions. Youth programs became infused with Hebrew music and education of modern Hebrew, with visitors from Israel and teaching US young people national traditions. Trips to the nation increased and achieved record numbers with Birthright Israel in 1999, offering complimentary travel to Israel was offered to Jewish young adults. Israel permeated virtually all areas of the American Jewish experience.

Evolving Situation

Paradoxically, throughout these years post-1967, American Jewry grew skilled regarding denominational coexistence. Tolerance and communication between Jewish denominations increased.

Yet concerning Zionism and Israel – that’s where tolerance found its boundary. Individuals might align with a rightwing Zionist or a leftwing Zionist, yet backing Israel as a Jewish state was assumed, and criticizing that perspective positioned you beyond accepted boundaries – an “Un-Jew”, as a Jewish periodical described it in a piece in 2021.

However currently, amid of the devastation of Gaza, famine, young victims and anger about the rejection by numerous Jewish individuals who refuse to recognize their complicity, that agreement has disintegrated. The liberal Zionist “center” {has lost|no longer