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Two years have passed since that deadly assault of 7 October 2023, an event that shook Jewish communities worldwide unlike anything else following the creation of the Jewish state.

Among Jewish people it was profoundly disturbing. For Israel as a nation, the situation represented a profound disgrace. The entire Zionist movement had been established on the assumption that the Jewish state would prevent things like this from ever happening again.

Some form of retaliation was inevitable. Yet the chosen course that Israel implemented – the comprehensive devastation of the Gaza Strip, the casualties of many thousands of civilians – was a choice. This selected path complicated the way numerous Jewish Americans understood the attack that precipitated the response, and presently makes difficult the community's commemoration of that date. In what way can people mourn and commemorate a horrific event against your people during devastation experienced by another people in your name?

The Difficulty of Remembrance

The difficulty of mourning lies in the reality that there is no consensus about the implications of these developments. Actually, among Jewish Americans, the last two years have witnessed the collapse of a decades-long unity regarding Zionism.

The early development of Zionist agreement among American Jewry extends as far back as writings from 1915 by the lawyer subsequently appointed Supreme Court judge Louis D. Brandeis called “The Jewish Question; How to Solve it”. However, the agreement really takes hold following the 1967 conflict that year. Previously, Jewish Americans housed a fragile but stable coexistence between groups that had diverse perspectives about the necessity for a Jewish nation – Zionists, non-Zionists and anti-Zionists.

Previous Developments

That coexistence continued during the post-war decades, within remaining elements of Jewish socialism, within the neutral US Jewish group, in the anti-Zionist Jewish organization and similar institutions. In the view of Louis Finkelstein, the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, pro-Israel ideology had greater religious significance instead of governmental, and he forbade performance of Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem, during seminary ceremonies in those years. Nor were Zionist ideology the centerpiece for contemporary Orthodox communities prior to that war. Different Jewish identity models existed alongside.

However following Israel defeated its neighbors during the 1967 conflict during that period, occupying territories comprising Palestinian territories, Gaza, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, the American Jewish connection with the nation changed dramatically. The triumphant outcome, coupled with enduring anxieties of a “second Holocaust”, produced a developing perspective about the nation's critical importance for Jewish communities, and created pride for its strength. Discourse about the “miraculous” nature of the victory and the reclaiming of land gave the movement a theological, potentially salvific, importance. In that triumphant era, considerable the remaining ambivalence regarding Zionism disappeared. In the early 1970s, Writer Podhoretz famously proclaimed: “Zionism unites us all.”

The Unity and Its Boundaries

The pro-Israel agreement did not include the ultra-Orthodox – who typically thought a nation should only emerge through traditional interpretation of redemption – however joined Reform, Conservative Judaism, contemporary Orthodox and most non-affiliated Jews. The common interpretation of the unified position, what became known as liberal Zionism, was established on a belief regarding Israel as a liberal and democratic – while majority-Jewish – nation. Numerous US Jews considered the occupation of local, Syria's and Egyptian lands post-1967 as not permanent, thinking that a solution was imminent that would maintain Jewish population majority within Israel's original borders and Middle Eastern approval of the state.

Multiple generations of US Jews grew up with support for Israel a fundamental aspect of their Jewish identity. Israel became a key component within religious instruction. Yom Ha'atzmaut became a Jewish holiday. Israeli flags were displayed in many temples. Youth programs became infused with Israeli songs and the study of modern Hebrew, with visitors from Israel instructing American teenagers Israeli customs. Travel to Israel expanded and reached new heights via educational trips in 1999, when a free trip to the country was offered to US Jewish youth. The state affected nearly every aspect of US Jewish life.

Changing Dynamics

Interestingly, in these decades after 1967, Jewish Americans developed expertise in religious diversity. Acceptance and dialogue among different Jewish movements expanded.

Except when it came to Zionism and Israel – there existed tolerance found its boundary. You could be a conservative supporter or a progressive supporter, but support for Israel as a Jewish state was assumed, and criticizing that position positioned you outside the consensus – an “Un-Jew”, as one publication described it in a piece that year.

But now, during of the devastation in Gaza, food shortages, young victims and frustration regarding the refusal within Jewish communities who decline to acknowledge their involvement, that unity has broken down. The liberal Zionist “center” {has lost|no longer