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Two years have passed since that deadly assault of October 7, 2023, which shook world Jewry like no other occurrence following the creation of the state of Israel.

Among Jewish people the event proved profoundly disturbing. For the state of Israel, the situation represented a profound disgrace. The whole Zionist movement was founded on the belief which held that Israel could stop things like this from ever happening again.

Military action seemed necessary. But the response undertaken by Israel – the comprehensive devastation of the Gaza Strip, the deaths and injuries of many thousands ordinary people – was a choice. And this choice complicated how many US Jewish community members processed the initial assault that triggered it, and currently challenges their commemoration of the anniversary. In what way can people honor and reflect on a horrific event targeting their community in the midst of a catastrophe being inflicted upon another people connected to their community?

The Complexity of Grieving

The complexity surrounding remembrance lies in the reality that little unity prevails about the implications of these developments. In fact, for the American Jewish community, this two-year period have experienced the collapse of a half-century-old consensus about the Zionist movement.

The early development of pro-Israel unity within US Jewish communities can be traced to an early twentieth-century publication by the lawyer subsequently appointed Supreme Court judge Justice Brandeis named “Jewish Issues; Finding Solutions”. But the consensus really takes hold subsequent to the Six-Day War during 1967. Earlier, Jewish Americans housed a delicate yet functioning coexistence between groups which maintained diverse perspectives about the need of a Jewish state – pro-Israel advocates, neutral parties and opponents.

Previous Developments

That coexistence continued during the post-war decades, through surviving aspects of socialist Jewish movements, through the non-aligned Jewish communal organization, within the critical religious group and comparable entities. For Louis Finkelstein, the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Zionist movement was primarily theological instead of governmental, and he forbade singing Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem, at JTS ordinations in the early 1960s. Furthermore, support for Israel the centerpiece within modern Orthodox Judaism prior to the 1967 conflict. Jewish identitarian alternatives existed alongside.

But after Israel routed neighboring countries in that war during that period, seizing land including the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and Jerusalem's eastern sector, US Jewish relationship to the country evolved considerably. The military success, coupled with enduring anxieties of a “second Holocaust”, produced an increasing conviction regarding Israel's vital role to the Jewish people, and a source of pride for its strength. Discourse regarding the “miraculous” aspect of the outcome and the freeing of areas provided Zionism a spiritual, almost redemptive, meaning. In those heady years, much of existing hesitation about Zionism disappeared. In that decade, Writer Podhoretz declared: “Zionism unites us all.”

The Agreement and Its Limits

The Zionist consensus excluded strictly Orthodox communities – who generally maintained Israel should only be established by a traditional rendering of the Messiah – but united Reform, Conservative, contemporary Orthodox and the majority of non-affiliated Jews. The predominant version of the unified position, what became known as left-leaning Zionism, was founded on the idea about the nation as a progressive and democratic – albeit ethnocentric – nation. Many American Jews saw the administration of Arab, Syrian and Egyptian lands post-1967 as provisional, believing that a solution was forthcoming that would guarantee Jewish population majority in pre-1967 Israel and neighbor recognition of the nation.

Several cohorts of US Jews were thus brought up with support for Israel a core part of their religious identity. Israel became an important element of Jewish education. Yom Ha'atzmaut became a Jewish holiday. National symbols were displayed in many temples. Seasonal activities were permeated with Israeli songs and the study of the language, with Israelis visiting instructing US young people Israeli customs. Trips to the nation grew and achieved record numbers through Birthright programs in 1999, providing no-cost visits to the nation was offered to US Jewish youth. Israel permeated almost the entirety of US Jewish life.

Shifting Landscape

Paradoxically, throughout these years post-1967, Jewish Americans developed expertise in religious diversity. Acceptance and communication across various Jewish groups expanded.

However regarding the Israeli situation – that represented tolerance reached its limit. You could be a rightwing Zionist or a progressive supporter, but support for Israel as a Jewish homeland remained unquestioned, and challenging that perspective categorized you beyond accepted boundaries – outside the community, as one publication described it in writing recently.

Yet presently, amid of the devastation of Gaza, starvation, dead and orphaned children and outrage about the rejection within Jewish communities who refuse to recognize their responsibility, that consensus has broken down. The moderate Zionist position {has lost|no longer