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It has been that horrific attack of 7 October 2023, which shook world Jewry like no other occurrence following the founding of Israel as a nation.

For Jews it was shocking. For the state of Israel, the situation represented deeply humiliating. The entire Zionist movement had been established on the belief that the Jewish state would ensure against things like this from ever happening again.

Some form of retaliation appeared unavoidable. Yet the chosen course Israel pursued – the obliteration of Gaza, the deaths and injuries of tens of thousands of civilians – was a choice. This particular approach made more difficult the way numerous American Jews understood the attack that triggered it, and it now complicates the community's commemoration of the day. How does one honor and reflect on a horrific event against your people in the midst of an atrocity experienced by another people attributed to their identity?

The Complexity of Grieving

The complexity of mourning lies in the reality that no agreement exists about what any of this means. In fact, for the American Jewish community, the recent twenty-four months have witnessed the collapse of a fifty-year agreement regarding Zionism.

The beginnings of Zionist agreement across American Jewish populations can be traced to writings from 1915 by the lawyer and then future high court jurist Louis D. Brandeis titled “Jewish Issues; Finding Solutions”. Yet the unity became firmly established after the 1967 conflict during 1967. Earlier, American Jewry housed a vulnerable but enduring parallel existence among different factions that had different opinions concerning the requirement of a Jewish state – pro-Israel advocates, non-Zionists and opponents.

Historical Context

This parallel existence persisted through the 1950s and 60s, in remnants of leftist Jewish organizations, within the neutral American Jewish Committee, in the anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism and other organizations. Regarding Chancellor Finkelstein, the head of the Jewish Theological Seminary, pro-Israel ideology was primarily theological instead of governmental, and he forbade singing Hatikvah, Hatikvah, at JTS ordinations in the early 1960s. Additionally, Zionism and pro-Israelism the centerpiece for contemporary Orthodox communities before the six-day war. Alternative Jewish perspectives coexisted.

But after Israel defeated neighboring countries during the 1967 conflict during that period, seizing land including the West Bank, Gaza Strip, the Golan and Jerusalem's eastern sector, US Jewish perspective on the country underwent significant transformation. The military success, along with persistent concerns regarding repeated persecution, produced a developing perspective in the country’s essential significance within Jewish identity, and a source of pride for its strength. Discourse concerning the “miraculous” nature of the victory and the reclaiming of areas assigned the Zionist project a religious, potentially salvific, meaning. During that enthusiastic period, considerable existing hesitation about Zionism disappeared. In that decade, Publication editor Norman Podhoretz famously proclaimed: “We are all Zionists now.”

The Agreement and Its Limits

The pro-Israel agreement excluded strictly Orthodox communities – who generally maintained Israel should only be established through traditional interpretation of the Messiah – yet included Reform Judaism, Conservative Judaism, Modern Orthodox and most secular Jews. The predominant version of the unified position, what became known as left-leaning Zionism, was based on the conviction about the nation as a democratic and liberal – while majority-Jewish – state. Many American Jews saw the control of Palestinian, Syria's and Egyptian lands post-1967 as temporary, believing that a solution was imminent that would ensure Jewish population majority in Israel proper and Middle Eastern approval of Israel.

Two generations of American Jews were raised with Zionism a core part of their religious identity. The state transformed into a central part of Jewish education. Israeli national day became a Jewish holiday. Israeli flags decorated many temples. Youth programs were permeated with national melodies and the study of contemporary Hebrew, with Israeli guests educating American youth Israeli customs. Trips to the nation increased and peaked through Birthright programs by 1999, when a free trip to the nation was offered to Jewish young adults. The nation influenced almost the entirety of the American Jewish experience.

Evolving Situation

Paradoxically, throughout these years following the war, American Jewry developed expertise at religious pluralism. Open-mindedness and dialogue across various Jewish groups increased.

Yet concerning Zionism and Israel – that’s where tolerance found its boundary. Individuals might align with a right-leaning advocate or a liberal advocate, however endorsement of the nation as a Jewish homeland remained unquestioned, and questioning that narrative placed you beyond accepted boundaries – outside the community, as Tablet magazine labeled it in a piece in 2021.

However currently, amid of the devastation within Gaza, starvation, child casualties and outrage regarding the refusal of many fellow Jews who refuse to recognize their involvement, that unity has collapsed. The moderate Zionist position {has lost|no longer